5 best practices for pricing your memberships 💸

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Knowing how to price your work when you've been creating it for free can be a challenge. Here are the 5 main tips we mention every time we talk to creators.

Stacks, in ascending height, of coins, topped with seedlings that are also growing in height.

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📋 (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) Still thinking about membership? Here's our PDF list of 10 questions you should ask your followers to gauge their interest. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

1. Aim to attract annual members. 📆

Annual memberships have the advantage of guaranteeing you an income for at least a year. You can either:

Offer only annual memberships OR
Set the prices of the monthly plans 20% higher than the annual plans.

People cancel their memberships most in the first 3 months, so it is advisable to secure a year-long commitment.

2. Begin with one plan, gauge audience uptake, and then add more plans. 👩‍🔬👨‍🔬

Note: once you have your first paying member, you cannot change the price of a plan.

3. After you’ve successfully launched one plan, aim for 3 plans. ✅

Members are more likely to gravitate to the most moderate option out of 3: this is called middle option bias.

Our experience shows that having three plans increases conversion probability by 50%.

**4. Set the annual price for the middle tier very close to the monthly price for the lowest tier. 💶**

This way people will feel that for a similar price, they get something extra for their money—and it attracts annual members (see #1).

5. Consider allowing guest access on your highest tiered plan.

Guest access (Öffnet in neuem Fenster) lets members give memberships to friends and family. A great referral mechanism, and no extra work from you. 👯

💡Find out more about what benefits to offer here. (Öffnet in neuem Fenster)

Case study: BRICKS Magazine 🧱

Bricks magazine offers the biggest discount on annual membership on their middle tier plan (20%), incentivising members to choose this option.

The only additional benefit they offer on their highest tier is granting guest access.

Here’s how to set prices when not offering extra benefits 📊

It's possible to set up memberships that are based purely on support for you as a creator. In this case, create different tiers that describe your needs as a creator.

For instance, “By buying plan A, you help us pay for X"; "By purchasing plan B, you help us cover all the expenses for Y".