Increasing Your Membership Rates
How to raise membership prices without losing the members worth keeping.
By James Schramko · Updated September 2026
At some stage you will want to increase your membership rates. Inflation moves the market. Your experience improves and you get better results for clients. You want a smaller, higher priced membership. Whatever the reason, communicate it well or you will have problems.
Why rates drift
The trouble starts with what you promised early members.
My first membership launched in 2007, the XSP Cheat Sheet members area, a one-time fee with lifetime access. SuperFastResults, the recurring membership, followed in 2009, with grandfathered rates for some members. Lifetime access means the support obligation runs a long time. I have had members from that 2007 group ask for material as long as fourteen years later, which is unreasonable, but the promise was mine to keep. My team built a page support could point people to instead of chasing me directly.
Grandfathered rates cause a slower, worse problem. Leave members on a low rate too long while the offer improves around them and they build entitlement. They get used to the old price and cannot bridge the gap to the new one. It took me seven to eight years for that lesson to fully land.
If you have not made lifetime or grandfathered promises yet, you are in a much easier position than I was. Set the rate, communicate it, move on.
If you have made lifetime promises
Some of my clients have committed lifetime memberships to their own members, and the promise still has to be honoured years later. If that is you, honour it. A lifetime deal does not get quietly walked back because it becomes inconvenient.
You can offer an optional paid upgrade for new material added after the lifetime date. Existing content stays covered under the original promise. New modules, new coaching, new tools can carry their own price if a member wants them. That is an upsell, not a breach.
You cannot send a notice that overrides a written lifetime promise. If it is in writing, it is a contract, not a suggestion. A notice does not get to unmake it, no matter how the business has changed since.
If you have grandfathered members already
Move them to the new rate at their next renewal, with clear notice ahead of it. Or hold them at their current rate for a stated period, publish the end date, and stick to it. Either way, the member hears it from you in writing before the change lands, not after.
I do not grandfather new rates going forward any more. Every new rate applies to everyone who joins after it takes effect, with no exceptions carried forward.
The method now
Decide the new rate. Benchmark what you see in the market, or work backwards from the margin you actually need.
A few pricing notes worth knowing:
- Avoid ending in 4. Plenty of buyers are superstitious about it.
- $999 to $1,500 is a repricing decision, not a rounding. Decide the number on value delivered, then say it plainly. $2,999 becomes $3,000 for the same reason.
Once the rate is set, tell existing members in plain language, in advance. State the new rate, the date it applies, and what does not change for them.
Keep existing members on their current rate until their renewal, or until a stated date you have committed to in writing. Pricing moves at a defined trigger you decide in advance, not a marketing calendar. Legacy members move to the new rate on a date they have already been told, not a surprise sprung on them later.
Check what you promised legacy members before you move them. A written lifetime rate is a contract, and a notice does not override it.
No discount for acting fast. No countdown clock. The rate is the rate, and the notice period is the only lead time in the message.
Expect a small number of members to leave over the change, and say so plainly if you're asked why the price moved. Let them go without chasing them. Losing a few underpriced members is the cost of pricing the business correctly for the members who stay.
Tell the story
Do not just send a rate change as a bare fact. Use a story to carry it: why the price is moving, what has actually changed in the business, and what the member gets for it.
Costs and inflation are a fair reason. Say so plainly instead of dressing it up. Give real notice before the new rate applies, and put the call to action in the P.S., not the headline.
Sample notice
Subject: [Membership name] price change from [DATE]
Hi [First Name],
[Membership name] is moving from $[old rate] to $[new rate] from [DATE].
Your rate stays as it is until [your renewal date, or a fixed date]. After that, the new rate applies.
What you get is not changing. [One line on what members receive.]
Questions, reply here or contact [support email].
Regards,
[Your name]
What I did in 2017, and what I would change
In 2017 I ran a three-email launch sequence for a price move on my membership, from $999 a year to $1999 a year. The subject lines read "Price Change News (Expires [DATE])" and "Today is the last day... for 50% off." The emails told people they could lock in the old rate if they joined before the deadline, and that joining now would "save 50%."
It worked in the narrow sense that a deadline creates a spike. People already sitting on the fence joined before the cutoff.
It also taught prospects that my prices move if they wait long enough under pressure. It put a "50% off" figure in front of people that had nothing to do with what the membership was actually worth annually. A manufactured deadline pushes someone to act quickly. It tells them nothing true about the business or the offer. People who join under that kind of push tend to behave differently later than people who join because the price and the offer already made sense on their own.
I would not run that sequence now. The 2017 sequence sold new members before a rise. The notice above does a different job: it tells existing members what changes and when. Do not confuse the two. Fewer people move on pressure. More people move because the offer is priced right, and that is a better trade.