Membership Site Advice

9 replies
Some of you may have seen my other threads on this topic. I have a pretty big email list of anxiety sufferers that I've been giving advice to for quite awhile now mainly just as a support system since I suffered from anxiety an stress for years myself and up until recently I've been way to busy with my offline business ventures to try to monetize this list at all.


First I was going to offer products for sale and build a blog to attract more people and promote more products however I have decided to go the membership route instead since I have a lot of value to offer on the subject and have a couple close friends that are doctors and can contribute greatly to my content.


My question is what's the best way to structure the members area? meaning what's the best structure to get my content to them in a way that will keep them engaged and keep the monthly fee coming? Do I put all the information in front of them at once? do I get it to them slowly? do I set it up like a course? Just looking for some feedback on the best ways to deliver the content and make the membership worth the investment for the subscriber.


Those who know me on here know my business is all offline and I don't know much about this type of stuff so sorry for the newbie questions.
#advice #membership #site
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Y
    Thinking from my own experience I personally don't like being drip-fed content. Any membership sites I've signed up to I've often left fairly quickly as I don't want to wait another day/week/month for the information I need. When I sign up for a membership site I'm ready to devour information and want it all laid out in front of me right up front.

    On the membership sites I've been a part of for the longest (assuming a monthly fee is paid) they've had all of their content available from the very start, and they've had a LOT of content. Usually enough that I can't get through it all and apply or implement what I've learnt straight away. Plus there's often been a members only forum or some kind of ongoing members only content being made available.

    So without knowing anything additional to your own subscriber base or setup, that's what I would do:
    • Monthly fee and have all information up front
    • Each month update with new content or have a members only forum/community
    • OR... reduce the monthly price and don't have as much (or any) ongoing updated content (you may not hold onto customers for as long though)

    It doesn't sound to me like you have the right niche to require a formal course structure, but again I don't know exactly how you've been engaging with your mailing list members so I could be wrong.

    Oh, I almost forgot one thing... it sounds like you're quite contactable and engaging with your mailing list members, something that is extremely beneficial with a membership site (this is my favourite part of having memberships for digital products). The more you engage with your paying customers to more they'll be inclined to stick with you!

    All the best!
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    • Profile picture of the author SalesGod
      excellent advice man thanks.
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      • Profile picture of the author zenmack
        Originally Posted by SalesGod View Post

        excellent advice man thanks.
        I've owned a membership site since 2007 or 08. It's 5 bucks a month. When I have my content so they can get it all at once I do get people who download everything and then bounce out for a while. Hell I even had some try to get their 5 bucks back also.

        Membership sites are for people to whine and complain or talk and help each other.

        My site of course is a forum. If you go wordpress then use buddy press to give them a place to chat with each other.

        I know have it set to that they can't get all of what I use as content which are podcast shows around dating all at once. I packaged my past shows from the beginning of the site when my teaching of the game was raw and most powerful into one sales unit.

        Still the value of a forum base is members can talk to each other which since your niche touches mine as these males these days suffer from social anxiety and approach anxiety and I don't know every kinda anxiety you can think of. Hell shoe anxiety for all I know.

        So in short give them a home to go to for answers.
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    • Profile picture of the author LouisMcknight
      Originally Posted by Mark Y View Post

      Thinking from my own experience I personally don't like being drip-fed content. Any membership sites I've signed up to I've often left fairly quickly as I don't want to wait another day/week/month for the information I need. When I sign up for a membership site I'm ready to devour information and want it all laid out in front of me right up front.

      On the membership sites I've been a part of for the longest (assuming a monthly fee is paid) they've had all of their content available from the very start, and they've had a LOT of content. Usually enough that I can't get through it all and apply or implement what I've learnt straight away. Plus there's often been a members only forum or some kind of ongoing members only content being made available.

      So without knowing anything additional to your own subscriber base or setup, that's what I would do:
      • Monthly fee and have all information up front
      • Each month update with new content or have a members only forum/community
      • OR... reduce the monthly price and don't have as much (or any) ongoing updated content (you may not hold onto customers for as long though)

      It doesn't sound to me like you have the right niche to require a formal course structure, but again I don't know exactly how you've been engaging with your mailing list members so I could be wrong.

      Oh, I almost forgot one thing... it sounds like you're quite contactable and engaging with your mailing list members, something that is extremely beneficial with a membership site (this is my favourite part of having memberships for digital products). The more you engage with your paying customers to more they'll be inclined to stick with you!

      All the best!
      I would not offer a reduced price. Just offer one set price some where around $27 dollars or so then in six months when you have more content increase the price to $97 for new members and just keep it the same for the members that are all ready there.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Addams
    Do 2 things, SG:
    1. Authority.
    2. Membership.
    If you put together a membership site alone, not only will you be undoing the great work you've done thus far, you'll be overlooking the massive leverage you have for a far stronger, far more stable long-term business.

    I work in big numbers, just like yourself, and yet I always think of my audience as amounting to two people: Joe and Jane.

    Thus far, with you having suffered from anxiety yourself, you've been good enough to truly take care of that list, to, in effect, give Joe and Jane the help they need, and likely appreciate a great deal.

    What happens next? You tell them, "Hey, Joe; hey, Jane? If you have fifty bucks a month, you can get even better help from me."

    Think about how that sounds. This is how it sounds: "Well, it may have taken me a couple of years, but you finally trust me enough to spend some dough. All that help I gave you? That's what it was about. Earning your trust. Parting you from your money. The money is in the list, sure. But the fortune is in the follow-up. Glad you liked the follow-ups. Now, come on, time for SG to get his fortune."

    But what if you did things different? What if you gave them more help. And what if you did it without charging them a cent?

    Leverage the list to grow an authority site and use that authority site to grow your membership site.

    I'm not against the membership model; I run them myself. But I am against missing a perfectly good opportunity for owning a better business.

    The better business being:
    • Authority site with professional content, utilizing all types of media, and including user-submitted content, likewise across all types of media: articles, images, videos, you name it.
    • Pump that content to your list and, using what you know about viral marketing, use that big list of yours to SEED the content to instigate viral reactions.
    • Monetize the authority with your own membership site, among other monetizations.
    You can think of your list, currently, as a garden. And that garden is fertile. What you do, SG, is plant seeds. An article here; an image there; a video over here. Seed that content. Infuse it with viral potential and seed it. Use that list to give you free content, user-submitted content, since these are people, who, just like yourself, suffer from anxiety and know enough about it to help others; use the list to seed content, to share that content, to get the viral ball rolling. And if you do that? Those seeds will grow. Your media will be engaged, shared, and if your list is big and high-quality, viral reactions will happen, and those reactions will amount to your content getting seeded elsewhere: SG seeds his list with a great article; Jane loves the article; she plants that article in a Facebook group; other Joes and Janes love it; they seed it elsewhere. Pretty soon you have flowers all over the place. And your garden is much bigger than it ever would have been.

    If, say, you have a 100K list, then terrific. You have 100,000 potential Joes and Janes to pay up and join your membership site. But, instead, what if you use that 100K list to grow your business? You have 100,000 potential free content providers. 100,000 potential social media managers. You have the power, in other words, to grow your audience from 100,000 to a great deal more.


    - Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author ElGuapo
    If you're serious about developing a membership site, then join Member Site Academy. Not affiliated with it, I don't run it, but you'll get all the answers you want there.
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  • Profile picture of the author zenmack
    Oh I learned it's not about what WE LIKE OR WANT, but about what they like and want. One fella hates drip feed and most people don't even know what that is or have any knowledge of anything else.
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  • Profile picture of the author C G
    You already have a large audience. I would recommend asking them what they want and simply give it to them

    Cheers,

    C.G.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    I too have some experience with and love for the membership model. But it fits some niche markets better than others.

    I would suggest thinking about your potential membership subscribers and what is best for their needs/wants/desires in the niche.

    Remember WIIFM. What's in it for me. That's what your prospects want to know . . . not what is best for you, the vendor or business owner.

    My experience is that paid membership sites work best under the following niche conditions:
    • If there is a timeliness or urgency factor - do you need to get the word out quickly? A good example would be a stockmarket advisory service. Your clients want to know, right now, what they should do in a very volatile environment. I don't think you have this in the anxiety niche - you could sell your information in an ebook and it would be just as good next year as it was last year.
    • If there is a massive download library. Are you offering 10,000 downloadable images? 10,000 sewing patterns? 1,000 video tutorials? A membership site would make sense here. Again, I don't think you qualify here.
    • If there is a community of people that feed off each other or want to communicate back and forth. A private paid forum site could be the means they use to engage one another. The example here would be a cruise site for senior citizens that want to discuss with other seniors the best cruise lines, where to go, what to see, etc. I don't know if you have this in your niche or not.
    • If there is a tight-knit group of owners. I'm thinking Harley-Davidson owners, Airstream trailer owners, etc. These people feel comradery and kinship. They want to be friends with like-minded people. I'm not sure if your niche participants have a desire to talk amongst themselves to help and support each other. If so, that's a good thing. Be sure to have a membership platform that allows subscriber interaction.
    • If there are forms, templates, resources that you offer in a particular niche. You don't want to sell these individually, but for all your members (and their monthly fees) you want to give them access. This is a good candidate for a membership site.
    • As a licensed professional or association site where other (CPAs, counselors, architects, engineers, etc) hang out together to learn about specific occupational news, events, best practices, etc. This wouldn't be for your niche.
    • "Jelly of the month club" - You know what I'm talking about. You give your subscribers something special each month that appeals to them and maybe saves them some money. It could be a magazine or newsletter or a tie. This isn't your niche.
    • Challenge event or period during which you're giving instructions and maybe keeping track of progress. A private paid membership site makes sense as you engage your members and they pay to have you "coach" them along.
    • Guest or expert coaching. Here, you do not provide all the content. You invite niche experts or guests to supply your subscribers with what they want. It's a convenient platform for "pushing" expert advice along that can be valuable and unique to your site.
    • Courses, step-by-step instructional material, curriculum, etc where you publish your content in an orderly, "this first, then that" fashion.
    • As a marketplace. Sometimes a paid private marketplace is a great way to bring supply and demand together at one web site. Active collectors, for example, (like coin collectors) will pay to have a site where buyers and sellers can interact. You don't have this in your niche but I mention it so that others thinking about membership sites will understand the possibilities.
    I'm sure there are other good "platform" reasons for having a membership site. If your niche isn't a prime candidate, then you might be better off just putting your information in an e-book, a series or sellable reports, or something else. There is a lot of work and some time requirements on the part of the owner that make this membership platform model "not so glamorous" and easy as some of the hype surrounding it would lead you to believe. But it is a great option for some niches where it makes sense!

    Good luck to you,

    Steve
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