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1) Keep the membership affordable so that members don't really "feel the bite." If a membership costs only $20, members who don't get the opportunity to visit for months will probably remain. We all get busy at times, and go off into our own little corners of cyberspace. If that same membership was say $47 or $97, then members are much more likely to question the wisdom of those payments each month.

Look at your operating expenses and your income goals, and base your membership fees largely upon that but don't drive members off needlessly.

2) Allow members to promote their products and services to each other. Since members of your community are likely to need the goods offered by other members, why not allow them to make this fact public.

In my membership sites, I actually set up a section on the forum just for members to advertise. I've seen other sites turn this into a profit center by charging members to run a special offer.

One danger of this is that every now and then you will get members selling worthless products. However, the communities often police themselves, and a "snake in the grass" is usually quickly pointed out. This may be where a moderator, or you as the site owner, may need to step in. You may even need a ban certain members. If you need to do that to protect the community, then don't hesitate to do it.

3) A big key to a successful community is reliable software, where all of the features work properly, and keeps the site secure. If members have trouble accessing certain features, or the site is frequently down, they'll quickly go off into other corners of cyberspace - canceling their membership shortly thereafter.

4) If your membership site is large or resource intensive, you'll likely need a dedicated server. If you're on a shared server, and your site is continuously using so many server resources, your host is likely to notice and ask you to leave. Even if your host doesn't, you're likely to slow your site and other sites to a crawl or cause repeated server crashes. Your members will be discouraged by this and not stick around.

5) The moderators, and you as the site owner, DO need to visit the site frequently. This is especially true if you, or one of the stronger personality moderators, is largely why certain members joined. You are THE part of the community that they want to learn from, so you may have to make more frequent visits. That is actually a balancing act. You need to structure your membership site so that it's not so dependent upon you that you can do little else.

6) A final tip I'll offer is that you should periodically give your members free bonuses that weren't previously announced. You can also encourage other members to do this. Those valuable freebies can often keep members hanging around much longer. Many of these free gifts may also be just what they need to accomplish some special project.

All of the tips I've given you on operating a successful membership site come from personal experience. I've not only operated numerous membership sites, I've been a moderator on many huge membership sites too. I've seen behind-the-scenes what it takes to keep membership sites thriving.