[Extreme John]

Well thats a ton of questions, but some great answers in only 2 posts. Jim certainly knows his stuff, and GG is no brick in the wind either.

GG hits on a great point, the biggest question you need to ask yourself before moving forward is, how good is your content base, meaning how much of it do you have? Reason I say that is because if you have the right ammount and mix of content, raising your price of membership would be a good step, and testing during this step is important, because I can safely say that if im in a partnership program that pays me 50% of lets say $16, and the site retains at a level of 70% due to the great content mix and updates, than I have the chance to make a ton of money, however if that membership is $29.95 and im making 50% but the retention is 30% with 2 chargebacks or refunds in a weekly period, than I dont benefit to make a ton of cash and probably wouldnt stick around a long time with the program. So content Mix in my opinion is where it begins, from there you can decide pricing, payout, what type of tools you will offer affiliates, etc.