Using Joomla to create membership sites that provide you with a recurring monthly income is one of the best ways to get started making money on the internet.

What is Joomla, you might ask, because a lot of people may have never heard of Joomla.

Joomla is an award-winning Content Management System (CMS) that will help you build websites and other powerful online applications, and of course membership sites, which is what we are primarily interested in here.

Best of all, and especially for your pocketbook, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everybody. You can download it for free and install and use it for free. Can’t beat that!

Joomla is used all over the world to power everything from simple, personal web sites & home pages to complex corporate web applications, and, of course, membership sites.

The possibilities are limitless.

Here are just a few of the many ways people use Joomla:

* Corporate websites or portals
* Online commerce
* Small business websites
* Non-profit and organizational websites
* Government applications
* Corporate intranets and extranets
* School and church websites
* Personal or family homepages
* Community-based portals
* Magazines and newspapers
* Membership Sites
* And there are many, many more…

I personally know that some of the “big guns” in the membership site business use Joomla to manage their sites.

Joomla can be used to easily manage every aspect of your website, from adding content and images to updating a product catalog or taking online reservations.

The basic Joomla package is designed to be easy to install, even for non-programmers and beginner internet marketers. Most people have no trouble getting the software up and running, and there is plenty of support available for newbies.

There are numerous forums available, and forum members can usually answer most near any questions you might have.

To give you a real jump-start on getting Joomla installed and configured on your web site as quickly and as easily as possible, a video tutorial on how to install & configure Joomla content management system can be a real time saver.

Once Joomla is installed and running, it is very simple for even non-technical users to add or edit content, update images, and to manage the critical data that makes your membership site go.

Anybody with basic word processing skills can easily learn to manage a Joomla site. It is the ideal solution for managing a successful membership site.

If you want to get your Joomla based membership site up and running as quickly and as easily as possible, then you may be interested in a video tutorial series that shows you exactly how to build a membership site using Joomla.

Using a simple, browser-based interface you will be able to easily add new press releases or news items, add member content and downloads, product images, and create an unlimited amount of sections or content pages on your site.

Out of the box, Joomla does a great job of managing the content needed to make your website something special. But for many people, the true power of Joomla lies in the application framework that makes it possible for thousands of developers around the world to create powerful add-ons and extensions.

Here are just some examples of the hundreds of available extensions:

* Dynamic form builders
* Business or organizational directories
* Document management
* image and multimedia galleries
* E-commerce and shopping cart engines
* Forums and chat software
* Calendars
* Blogging software
* Directory services
* Email newsletters
* Data collection and reporting tools
* Banner advertising systems
* Subscription services
* and many, many more…

Learn more about Joomla features at: http://www.joomla.org/

Take a look at some of the really professional looking templates available at:
RocketTheme Template Club

So what’s the catch to using Joomla?

There is no catch. Joomla! is free, open, and available to all under the GPL license.

Membership sites are one of the fastest and easiest ways to create a recurring monthly pay check. If you have a passion for a subject, a hobby, or an expertise in almost any field, then there is probably a demand for a membership site.

Give it a go, you may be surprised at the results.

Lewis Poteet

I created a basic Joomla site to start with, and it didn’t take long to figure out what a powerful and versatile application that Joomla is.

I decided to have a go at creating a membership site using Joomla as the content management system. I found that there are a lot of components available for Joomla that can handle almost any task you can imagine.

I used a component called AEC to handle customer subscriptions and monthly payments. A component called Fireboard handled the member forum. A component called Docman and another called Remository handled all of the content distribution and downloads for members. A component called Community Builder handled the member community functions and profiles, etc.

After building the membership site, I stumbled across a component called VirtueMart, which allows a person to use Joomla along with VirtueMart to build a complete and professional internet storefront.

I installed Joomla along with one of the great templates available at Rocket Theme Template Club. This gave me a great looking site right from the get go.

Next I installed the Virtuemart component and was very pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get started setting up my storefront. The VirtueMart component has a very good help file right in the administration area, and also has a very good forum you can access to ask questions and receive answers.

In no time at all, I had some of my products setup and ready to display, I had my payment module configured to handle customer orders and payments, and I was ready to launch my site.

The Rocket Theme template I used had the Fireboard forum component already installed, so I had a customer forum setup and ready to go.

Since my products are all digital, Camtasia how-to-do-it videos to be exact, the VirtueMart component handles the download chores with no effort on my part.

I’m still adding more products each day, and learning how to use all of the features that VirtueMart offers. I added a plugin called Xmap that automatically creates a sitemap to submit to Google, and it updates each time you add another product.

All in all, I’m really pleased and impressed with the Joomla/VirtueMart combination, and for anyone wanting to create a product storefront, I would recommend you give it a try.

If you are new to Joomla, take a look at my storefront at http://www.CheapMembershipSite.com/Mall/ and check out my video on installing and configuring Joomla. It can save you a lot of trial-and-error heartache if you are just getting started with Joomla.

Cheers,
Lewis Poteet

How-To-Do-It Videos at CheapMembershipSite.com/Mall

Learn How To Create Your Own Membership Site Using One Of The Best Free Content Management Systems Ever Created!

Fact: Membership sites are money machines.

Make sure you don’t pay a fortune for the software. We’ll show you how to do it for free!

Joomla – the totally free way to create your own membership site and recurring monthly income.

Over 150 Minutes Of Video Shows You How To Do It.

You can learn the method that will change the way you think about doing business on the Internet forever.

You can learn how to create an ongoing and substantial income starting today.

If you think this is an  over-blown claim then you need to read on.

The Money Making Secret Is Right Here And Right Now!

Sure  – we’ve all heard those words many times over. Every time someone releases the latest and greatest widget the claims start flowing.

The truth of the matter is that most of these products are not based on good solid business practices most of the time. Usually it is just a one-time deal that lots of people are promoting and making it look more successful than it really is.

ARE YOU READY TO HEAR THE SECRET?

Well, sorry – there isn’t really a secret.

It is simply a method that is well known by Internet millionaires  and savvy marketers. The answer is - Recurring income.

Just imagine this – you make ten sales today for $47.00. Congratulations, you made $470.00. Now imagine that you have a membership site with recurring monthly membership fees, and you make those same ten sales. Now you’ve made $470 today, plus, and this is a big plus, you make $47 per month per member for as long as your customers remain members. Assume they stay members for only four months. You just made $1810 over four months from a one time effort.

Meanwhile you continue to make a few daily sales and your recurring income grows by leaps and bounds. You are now well on your way to creating a substantial and reliable monthly income, with money pouring into your bank account month after month.

Even more importantly, you’re building a real business, a business that you can sell later on for a lot of money if you want to (but why would you want to?).

There are a few obstacles to overcome though…..

How will you keep track of your customer activity? You have customers joining almost every day and some of them un-subscribe every now and then. Keeping track of this could be a job that would drive you crazy.

And – collecting payments can be a problem. You need a variety of ways for your customers to pay for their membership. Without that you limit your chances for success.

The answer appears to be simple – get some software to do it all for you. The only big problem is that software that runs membership sites can cost hundreds or even thousands of dollars. That is a big  hurdle to jump if you only have an idea and you are unsure how successful it will be.

Relax – we have the answer for you!

How would you like to learn how to set your membership site up absolutely free?

You heard me right, I said free, and free doesn’t mean  a lack of features. Just take a look at what you can do with this free software.

• Integrated subscription handling using a variety of payment processors:

• Up to four membership levels. You have the flexibility to offer several different levels of membership to your members thus increasing your potential profits

• Integrated document management for your multiple levels of membership. Document and file handling is a simple task, and your subscribers can only access the files they are entitled to receive.

• Create your own member forum to allow your subscribers to discuss items of interest with each other.

• Integrated user community that allows your subscribers to connect with each other privately.

• Integrated newsletter. You can create your own newsletter for your members and your prospects without having to purchase an auto responder.

• Trial memberships. Set up trial memberships so your members can “have a look” before they buy.

• Integrated coupons. Create coupons to offer special pricing to your potential customers.

And…..the best news is that you get all of this functionality for absolutely no charge.

This eight part video series takes you through the whole process, step-by-step.

It takes you from knowing nothing about putting together a membership site to being an expert at it.

Once you know how, why stop at one site? Set up as many as you want and watch your earnings explode.

The question is, how soon do you want to get your membership site going and start creating your recurring income?

How does right now sound?

This eight video series is available for purchase at $7.95 which gives unlimited access to view the videos for a period of 10 days.

How To Make Extra Money On The Internet.

Now that the Internet has become so popular, there are many ways a person can go about making extra money without leaving the comforts of home.

When it comes to money making opportunities on the Internet, or anywhere else for that matter, you have to watch out. There are some legitimate opportunities for making extra money, but there are also a ton of scams out there that you need to avoid. Many of these scams offer huge profits for little or no work. Many times people will ask you for money in order to make money. You have to read the fine print and use common sense. If it seems to good to be true, it probably is.

If you have a computer with email and Internet access, you probably have seen hundreds of advertisements on “How to make millions of dollars with no investment and no work, while sitting at home in your underwear!”

Well, let me tell you, it ain’t gonna happen. I tried it and it didn’t make me even 1 penny. I tried it in my underwear, I tried it in my pajamas, I even tried it with all of my clothes on, and it just flat out did not work.

I tried buying ebooks (which I never got around to reading), I subscribed to every newsletter of every guru, I spent thousands on software, seminars, training programs, etc., etc., etc.

Still did not make a penny!

I studied everything I could get my hands on about affiliate marketing, PPC advertising (Google adwords), Clickbank, and on and on and on. I paid a ton of money to Google trying to sell other peoples products, and I found that with all of the competition for keywords, and so many people trying to sell the exact same products, that I was spending around a dollar to make fifty cents. I’m no math whiz, but that doesn’t sound very good for the bottom line to me.

I tried buying ebooks and selling them on my web site, and found that I couldn’t give them away because ten thousand other people bought the exact same ebooks and they were trying to sell them also.

I tried creating hundreds of mini-sites and putting Adsense ads on them. Made enough money to buy a few cups of coffee (McDonalds, not Starbucks).

So what is the answer to making money on the Internet?

Many people have turned to eBay. They can sell used or new items there, and many make a living doing so. In order for this to work for you, you have to be serious about it, and you have to put a lot of work into it. If you wish to go this route, do some research before you begin. There are many sources for advice online that will help you be more successful when selling on eBay.

If you are a freelance writer, the Internet is a great place for making extra money. You can find many websites and businesses that are looking for writers, but again, watch out for the scams. It may take you a while to break into content writing for online sites, but once you get rolling, you will find you can make some decent money if you set your mind to it.

Other people go about making extra money by having their own websites. They have these sites set up to sell any number of goods or services, known as affiliate marketing, or they rely on web content to earn money through Googles Adsense program. These sites tend to come and go, but if you do your research and invest a little time and money, this can be a great way to go about making extra money online.

As far as affiliate marketing goes, the big guns are Clickbank, Commission Junction, and Linkshare. There are hundreds of others that offer products that you can sell and earn affiliate commissions.

Membership Sites

Right now, one of the hottest and most profitable ways to make money on the Internet is membership sites. There are thousands of membership sites, on almost any topic you can imagine, that charge their members anywhere from $5 per month up to $1000′s of dollars per month. This is recurring monthly income, so once you get one going and get a decent numbers of members subscribed, it can create a very nice income, month after month after month.

You may be thinking “wait a minute, I don’t know the first thing about creating and running a membership site!”.

Well, neither did I, but I found out that it’s not that hard with a little bit of the proper training. It’s also not expensive at all to create a professional looking, easy to manage membership site, if you know the right steps to take.

I found two systems that work very well, they are not difficult to learn and use, and not expensive at all to get started.

One way is to use a WordPress blog, which is completely free to install, and a plugin, which you can purchase for around $50 or so, to manage Paypal payment and members. You can find some excellent training videos on how to create a membership site using WordPress.

The second way is to use Joomla, which is one of the premier content management systems, and it also is free to install. You can find step-by-step videos on how to use Joomla content management system to build a membership site.

Remember that no matter what you choose to do, there are scammers out there waiting for you to fall for their sales pitch. Never give money to someone when you aren’t clear about what you are getting in return. You won’t make 2,000 dollars a day typing from home, and you can’t expect to earn 10,000 dollars a month from a program that doesn’t clearly state how you are going to make that money.

Good luck in whichever route you take, and remember, if you do not try, you will not succeed.

Lewis Poteet