Do's And Don'ts Of Membership Sites

[Sam Crowley]

I'll be launching my new personal development membership site soon and as with any online decision, I come here first for advice.

My membership site will be three levels

Level One Thursday (free)
Level Two Friday (paid)
Level Three Saturday (paid premiere)

Obviously the 'Saturday Level' is the highest and will have the most content and services. But I also want to be sure to 'overdeliver' to all three levels...
I will be populating the membership site with:
audios
videos
pdf's for self learning
teleseminars
group coaching
free tickets to live events
etc

All depending on the level you are at..

Question:

What are some of the 'do's and dont's of membership sites?

What guarantees a memeberhsip site will NOT be successful. I am looking to build a huge community and want to avoid the pitfalls that are the cause unsuccessful sites.
EX: Do you offer first 30 days free to everyone to try the highest level first?

Also, If you have any recommendations on content or how it's delivered - please add that to your post.

Feedback is a gift - no wrong answers.

Thank you,

Sam

[Bruce Hearder]

Hi Sam..

I am buy no means a membership guru, but I have worked with a few, so this is my take on them..

1. Members stay if the content is good, is unique and is regularly updated.
The expected frequency of updated is a function of the monthly price. If the subscriber is paying >$150 a month, they seem to expect new content every single day.
If paying <$10 a month, they can go a good 1-1/2 months between content updates before too many complaints.

2. Depending on your content type, a free trial period may not increase subscribers (paying that is). There seems to be a fair number of people who sign up for free trials, try and download everything you have within the trial period and then unsubscribe..
I think a better way is to offer them a $1 trial, and then full price.
Its seems the concept of paying $1 frightens away almost all the time wasters..

3. Make sure the content is worth paying for.. This may seem a silly thing to say, but as long as your subscribers think the content is worth it, they will stay..

4. If your site is in the IM niche, then expect to see a steady "churn rate" of people unsubscribing every couple of months.. They seem to do this becuase the next "best thing since sliced bread" has just come along and they unsubscribe from your site and move onto the next membership site..
So ongoing marketing of your site is important, as well as ongoing content creations..

I wish you all the best with your membership site, and hope my comments helped..

take care

Bruce