Choosing the proper subscription price will regulate how profitable your website is.Obtain the price too low and your costs.....marketing specifically.......will eat into your margin. You could also put people off if the price point provides perception of low value.Get the price too much......particularly in comparison to alternative sources of information.... and you may put prospects off.Before providing you some guidelines it is very important to remember:There is nothing to avoid you from changing the purchase price to test the marketplace.Many subscription site owners pluck a subscription fee out of the air when they launch their site. Often it's predicated on only a hunch. They never test whether it is too high or too low to maximise their profit. It is difficult to change the price for a print publication, however, not for an online website.Test! Test! Test!There are no hard and fast rules about how much you should charge for access to your website, but here are 20 ideas to help you work out an ideal price for the subscription:The monthly subscription could be anything from �1/$2 around �1,000/ $1,800. The most common subscription charges fall in the range �4.99/$4.95 - �19.99/$19.95.An internet site with just 1,000 members charging $9.99 a month will create about $120,000. If ecommerce is run from home, even after costs it could generate a net income of over $100,000 for the average person publisher.It is strongly recommended that publishers provide a choice of payment plans with discounts for members ready to commit for longer periods of time, for example:9.97 /month, or24.97 /quarter, or87.00 /yearIn the event that you offer three pricing points, you tend to get most subscribers going for the middle one. It's a psychological thingYou will probably have seen on charity collection forms either three donations. They do that because they know that most people will choose the middle one, which is usually set at a level greater than people would normally give:"Please tick the donation you wish to make:5.0025.0050.00Other"If you offer a monthly price point, ensure that it is higher than 1/12th of the annual. You intend to encourage people to subscribe for for as long a period as possible, whilst not putting off people who want to test the water before fully committing themselves. E.g. Monthly 19.97, Annual 149Offering just an annual subscription will help reduce your conversion rate as you are increasing the perceived risk for prospects signing up. That is still the case even though you offer a 100% money back guaranteeRemember that many payment providers won't permit you to charge an annual subscription because if the web site closes down they are responsible for refunding members the outstanding balance for the remainder of the 12 months. Consult with your payment provider before signing up. Also make sure that they can take automatic monthly payments if you are offering a monthly subscription. That is called 'Recurring Payments'Generally speaking, sites targeted at consumers charge significantly less than those targeted at businesses Consumer sites typically 30-120 per year Business sites typically 120 - 700 per yearDo you know the competitive sources of information for the potential audience? Just how much do they charge? If Manchester United charges �100 a year for membership of the state fan club, a competing online independent fan club should probably charge forget about.The more exclusive this content, the more you can charge. A very successful share trader, Vince Stanzione, charges �100 /$180 a month for a newsletter reporting what trades he is about to make or has just made. Jay Abraham charges $300 a month for access to his website that provides his personal advice on growing a business (www.abrahaminsider.com)Study magazines in your sector. How much do they charge? What's their circulation? How do you want to compete? There is no rule about charging much more or significantly less than them, but you have to be sure that your value proposition is more compelling when trying to attract new members. Do remember being an online site you offer huge advantages over print. These benefits have a value that one could charge for.People love a deal! Set your price a little higher than you intend to charge and then discount it back. It has two benefits:People perceive the value of the content reaches the higher priceProspects feel they are getting a bargainYou can find psychological barriers in pricing. It is best to charge $4.95 per month than $5.00, or $9.97 is preferable to $10. There are also opportunities to push pricing up towards these barriers. For instance if you charge $385 per year, you can probably getaway with lifting the purchase price to $397 without the impact on subscribe rates. Just don't break the $400 level as this is actually the next psychological barrier and can cause a fall in subscriptions.Don't give discounts to loyal members! If  Investing In Lombok, Indonesia  returns year after year they perceive that the price they pay is equal to the worthiness they receive. By all means reward their loyalty with bonus information, such as a free ebook or a research report, but don't decrease the price. This can be a very common mistake.Offer promotional charges for twelve months, but don't drop the general price. If you believe that you are passing up on a large market group because they are more price sensitive, offer them a promotional code/discount on the standard price. Don't drop the price for all subscribers. An example is if you decide you would like to attract students who are usually very price sensitive.DON'T ever consider, even for an instant, charging a one-time fee for lifetime's access. This was common in the first years of the web, but I haven't seen a single site which has survived with this particular strategyTest, test and test again! One of the greatest benefits of the web is you can easily change pricing, offer discounts or promote free incentives with minimum effort and cost. For example send out two different price offers to two similar sets of prospects. Gauge the response rate and margin to determine which offer is most profitable. Then create a new offer and try it against the best of the first offer...... and so on. This is referred to as "AB Testing"You can also consider offering trials, but make sure to get the customers credit card details before the trial starts and get them to agree that after the trial is over you'll automatically bill them if you don't receive written instruction never to.I hope that you find this advice useful. It's been put together from the experience of helping a large number of online publishers choose the subscription fees for his or her membership websites. Please take time to research and choose the right price. It is just about the most important decisions you'll make in determining how successful your organization will be.Miles Galliford is the co-founder in SubHub - www.subhub.com . The business is really a world leader in helping individuals, small publishers and organisations to create paid memberhip websites. For large amount of FREE information and resources visit www.subhub.com .