How to Start a Subscription Business?

Who doesn’t love personalized experiences? What about getting personalized experiences every month?

That’s exactly what has led to the immense acceptance and growth of the subscription business- the excitement of getting exclusive content and a unique experience and revenue generation avenue for content creators.

If you are looking for how to start an subscription business, read on to find out how to launch your business in a subscription business model.

How does a subscription platform work?

Subscription websites in the creator economy space host the content of creators, and allow them to build a community using a subscription business model. The purpose of launching a subscription business is to offer customers ongoing value while creating a stable and predictable revenue source for the business owner.

Here is how a subscription platform works:

Exclusive content creation

The business owner creates content that offers ongoing value to fans. You can sell content that suits the interests and preferences of your community. 

Subscription tiers

Subscription businesses provide different subscription tiers with different features, access levels and advantages. For example, creators offer basic and different types of premium plans with different functionalities.

Billing cycle

Subscription payments can be on weekly, monthly, quarterly or even annual plans.

Pricing

Each subscription price is determined by factors like the services offered, features, and the value fans receive. 

Starting a Subscription Business

Launching a subscription business is a lucrative business idea, even with the availability of platforms like OnlyFans and Patreon. The demand for subscription platforms in the creator economy is strong and still growing. 

It helps to attract more clients, bring sustainable income, create strong relationships, and nurture a community.

Subscription websites cater to the needs of beginner-level creators and popular influencers to monetize their fans through subscriptions, pay-per-view content, DMs, live streams, crowdfunding, commissions, and more. 

Here is how you can start an subscription business:

Decide if the subscription business is the best fit

When starting a business for creators based on the subscription model, you must learn whether this business model suits you or not. Test your business idea of starting business idea by gauging the market demand. Identify and study your target audience and learn what type of services appeal to them. 

Create your subscription model

Start by identifying the business model for your subscription business. Decide whether you are offering a subscription marketplace where your platform makes money through commissions, or you are offering your services for a price. 

When calculating the prices, you must consider the profit margin to sustain your subscription business. You can begin with a freemium model that offers limited free access to some of your services. You can also provide a higher level of services to premium-paid customers.

Select the development approach

When building a subscription business, how will you develop your subscription platform? Are you going to build it from scratch, or are you going to choose the easiest way? Yes, there is a quick, efficient and affordable way to build and launch your subscription business. 

It is by using an OnlyFans clone script like Fanso to launch your subscription-based community platform customized according to your unique business needs and preferences. Fanso allows you to build both platforms in your own branding. 

Decide the features of your subscription platform

Starting a subscription platform involves a lot of work, and one of the most important part is to choose the features you want your platform to have. The more unique your platform is, the better it will be to compete with other established players in the industry.

Here are some of the features your subscription must have.

Profile creation 

Allow creators to build a profile where they showcase their content to their fans. They must be able to add profile descriptions to show their niche to their subscribers. They must be able to add links to their websites (if any) and their social media handles.

Flexible payment processing

Implement flexible payment gateways so that your users can make payments in a flexible and secure manner. If your target audience is spread across the world, it is a must to offer multicurrency choices to make payment easier for your customers.

Membership tiers

Most subscription platform allows creators to offer membership tiers to their audience, which helps them to cater to customers with different needs. 

Community creation and nurturing

Offer features that help creators to build and nurture their fan community. Creators must be able to fans, respond to replies, and send messages. Features like group chat and fan group tools are excellent additions as well.

Analytics

Your subscription platform must have built-in performance tracking features to track performance metrics.

Payment history tracking

Subscription platforms must allow fans to support creators. It must be easier for them to track their subscription, billing, and payment transaction history when required.

Cost to build a subscription platform

The average cost of creating and launching a subscription platform will be around $15,000 to $50,000 or even go beyond that. Yes, you heard me right. Building an subscription platform from scratch isn’t an easy task. You can do it, but you need to spend a lot of time and money and wait for months to get it launched. 

However, choosing readymade OnlyFans clone scripts to build your subscription platform will help you build and launch your subscription platform quickly and affordably. It will cost less than $ 2,000 to build your website, including the software price, hosting charges etc. 

Being a white-label solution that comes with pre-installed features and tools of subscription platforms like OnlyFans, you can easily add your customized features, branding, and other unique functionalities to make it one of a kind. 

Conclusion

Subscriptions platform that caters to all niches has been an excellent addition to the creator economy. That is the primary reason why platforms like OnlyFans are mushrooming every year, even if OnlyFans is doing great. Entrepreneurs today have more advanced technology at their fingertips to build and run their subscription businesses to tailor their services to different fan types and audiences.