[Sigia-l] General access versus members-only sites

[Anthony Hempell]

Hi - 

I'm working on the beginning stages of a project for a large
service-provider company. In our pitch and creative process we came up
with idea of having a dedicated site that was for members only - not
just a "members" section or a username/password like on Amazon, but a
separate URL that would marketed specifically to members.  There would
still be the existing URL for a general-purpose web site that would be
aimed at new/potential members and the general public.

Although I haven't started the design process yet, I'm already having
some concerns about how to divide up the content of the two sites. 

Specifically:

- how to manage content that would be of use to both sites; 

- strategies and tactics for making the general / member site concept
clear to users who may be confused which is which;  

- any evidence that this is or isn't a good idea, specifically with the
additional time involved to create and manage two sites instead of one.

Offhand I can't think of another example of this high-level architecture
(other than banking sites, which often have a dedicated URL for their
online banking applications... not an exact parallel, but a similar
idea) and was wondering if others had either seen this setup in action
or have had experience in designing two complimentary sites like this.

Thanks
Anthony