200 Customers = $100,000+ a Year

[JasonParker]

Anybody read Willie's article today?

Here's part of it:

"To an Internet marketer who understands the power
of residual income, I know that earning six-figures
per year only takes putting forth the effort to find
fewer than 200 customers.

...

This service sells for $97 per year, and I earn 50%
commission. To earn six-figures per year from that,
I need a mere 172 customers (172 customers x $48.50
per month commission X 12 month = $100,104). If I
gave myself a year to get those 172 customers that
would equate to me just needing to find one customers
every two days... with a few "fishing days" built in."

I love this article. This is the type of thinking that personally makes me money.

...Now the question I ask you IS...

Where are all the good residual commission affiliate programs?

Here are a couple from me:

-Warrior Lee McIntyre's Standing Start Profits

-Affiliate Classroom

[giveusallfreedom]

Good idea bad math. I'm guessing he probably meant $97 per month.

The point though is not that you only need to find 172 people. The problem is you have to find the 172 right people. That's why you have a sales funnel. You start with 172,000 visitors, they become 17,200 members of your list, who become 172 people who buy this program. If you have another way of finding 172 people that will buy a $97 per month product let me know.

[Eric Johnson]

Spot on giveusallfreedom (man do you have a shorter nickname? jeez ). You are also not mentioning the fact that you will have a significant drop rate on any montly membership. Good idea and everything but the whole get one new customer every 2 days, while true, does not present an accurate picture of how it really works.

Anyone who knows what he is doing will understand this and get the overall point... but someone who doesn't will be given a false sense of how this really works.

[JayXtreme]

Ya gotta love the thought process...

Technically there is a bigger picture to be seen but it does display a good point quite well

Jay

[karunnt]

Are there many $97/month products out there? I have not seen many in my short exploration in IM.

[Tirmizi]

am not to sure about it either .......

[calvin69]

Originally Posted by karunnt

Are there many $97/month products out there? I have not seen many in my short exploration in IM.

No, there are not many that I know of... not many I'd recommend either.

My friend John Saya offers over 100 webscripts for $97 (and pays 50% affiliate commissions)... and he's able to get 'em to stick around a lot longer because if the member stops paying, the scripts stop working... whether it's fair or not, that's how you get members to stay on board.

Here's his website:
http://www.cgiconnection.com

[JasonParker]

Who's to say the bulk of your customers won't stay for a year?

I see a lot of assumptions and no real hard evidence in this thread.

...This article was written by millionaire internet marketer and Warrior Willie Crawford.

The way I see it, his credibility outweighs all your opinions.

[Bill Brickman]

Fully agreed with Mr. P on this. Attrition has got to be factored in if you are looking at this realistically.

The truth is you would need an ever-replenishing set of customers to maintain the 6-figure income, just like any other business.

Bill

[OnlineMasterMind]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Where are all the good residual commission affiliate programs?

Jason,

Thanks for posting this; I was wondering the same thing.

I recently was at a seminar and heard a great talk by Alex Nghiem and I know he has one.

You get paid on his ENTIRE back end by simply giving away his front end cd.

I'd also like to hear about some other proven funnels/programs.

Any metrics is also appreciated!

[calvin69]

There are also a few factors not mentioned that make it a bit more work...

... Chargebacks and lack of funds.

I have a $17-a-month, members-only site (billed via PayPal) and it's STUNNING how many don't have $17 a month to pay for their membership...

... As you probably know with PayPal, you get to list numerous funding sources. So when I get a lack-of-funding notice from PayPal, this tells me this particular member probably doesn't have a mere $17 left on their credit card OR in their bank account.

The bad news is this is only going to get worse as the economy continues to hit people hard.

Even worse is when a member claims they never ordered the product. They protest with their credit card issuer and usually win back 2 to 3 months of member payments... so not only do you miss out on that commission, but your affiliate account gets wacked, too.

I understand the average refund-request rate via ClickBank (as an example) is 11%.

Just something to consider when running the numbers.

[JayXtreme]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Who's to say the bulk of your customers won't stay for a year?

I see a lot of assumptions and no real hard evidence in this thread.

...This article was written by millionaire internet marketer and Warrior Willie Crawford.

The way I see it, his credibility outweighs all your opinions.

I have to agree with you Jason...

Whilst there IS more of this picture than the simple math.. I promote a lower priced membership site and they TELL ME the average staying time for a sign-up is 3 months... My stats tell me differently, I have been a member for over a year and of over 150 customers I have had 2 drop so far... all going strong 6 months+ and counting..

I stopped an active campaign 6 months ago and I still have the customers from before this.

Jay

[JasonParker]

Originally Posted by OnlineMasterMind

Jason,

Thanks for posting this; I was wondering the same thing.

I recently was at a seminar and heard a great talk by Alex Nghiem and I know he has one.

You get paid on his ENTIRE back end by simply giving away his front end cd.

I'd also like to hear about some other proven funnels/programs.

Any metrics is also appreciated!

That sounds like a great funnel to be part of.

I'm part of one right now kind of like that. $1 gets the customer in. I get recurring commissions from the monthly membership. I get a commission on the OTO upsell. I get a commission on the major backend product that's priced in the thousands.

[giveusallfreedom]

Originally Posted by TOPGUN08

Heres what WOULD work

What I would do is create a "club" and charge $6.95 per month but instead of 200 members I'd get 1,200 members. Far greater chance of a member not dropping and in my opinion a much better way to make $100,000 per year.

1,200 members might sound a lot but it isnt really. It's 100 members per month or just over 3 members per day.

Yeah, but how much value can you give for $6.95 per month? You want to talk about drop rates. After the sales pitch wears off and you look at that $6.95 month charge, you have to ask yourself. Why bother? I say this from experience, but maybe it just me.

Then again, maybe I just like playing devils advocate.

[giveusallfreedom]

Originally Posted by TOPGUN08

I was thinking $6.95 for access to games or something like that. ClubPenguin makes about $5,000,000 per month and it charges around $4.95 I think.

Something addictive where you just have to keep paying

Oh God can you say World of Warcraft. That's like selling crack to kids. I know so many kids that play WOW it's ridiculous. That's like $19.95, but you're right. Find an addiction and fill it and you'd probably do alright.

[giveusallfreedom]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Who's to say the bulk of your customers won't stay for a year?

I see a lot of assumptions and no real hard evidence in this thread.

...This article was written by millionaire internet marketer and Warrior Willie Crawford.

The way I see it, his credibility outweighs all your opinions.

OK but my question and original post still stands. Regardless of how many people you need to be paying members, you still need a funnel to find those people. So how do you find 172 people without finding the 17,200 or 172,000 first?

[karunnt]

My analysis.... not a lot of things that people buy cost $97/month. Maybe...

- car payment (?)
- cable TV
- high-speed internet

So you are probably being compared to the value that those bring.

Buy they probably have lots of things that cost $4.95

- Macdonalds
- Doritos
- Starbucks

How many times a month do people do those a month? They probably do not know themselves. So I think they just compare it value-wise to a fancy coffee at SB.


When I heard $97/month, I immediately thought that is almost exactly how much I pay the cable company for cable TV and high speed internet per month. And I think that is a little high myself so I have a high expectation of the value $97/month should provide.

[JasonParker]

Originally Posted by giveusallfreedom

OK but my question and original post still stands. Regardless of how many people you need to be paying members, you still need a funnel to find those people. So how do you find 172 people without finding the 17,200 or 172,000 first?

First of all I would pitch it to my customers who already trust me and you better believe it'll convert at way above the 1% conversion rate you're talking about.

It wouldn't take me 17,200 prospects to make 172 sales.

All I personally need is probably a quarter of that many subs in my funnel... and I'd probably run a 5 to 9 day e-mail promotion offering a HUGE bonus IF you become a member during the promotion.

[Bill Brickman]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Who's to say the bulk of your customers won't stay for a year?

I see a lot of assumptions and no real hard evidence in this thread.

...This article was written by millionaire internet marketer and Warrior Willie Crawford.

The way I see it, his credibility outweighs all your opinions.

Jason,

With all due respect you are naive in this regard. Willie may have credibility, but my friend what you quoted was Willie's marketing.

And guess what? It worked on you, didn't it? THAT is why Willie makes 6 figures a year... because he knows how to use words that move people.

I'm not saying there aren't elements of truth to what he shared. In theory he is correct... all he would need is 172 customers to bring in 6 figures a year.

But for those of us who have been in this game for a while (I may not be Willie but I earn six figures a year and so do many others) we understand that what Willie wrote is marketing and nothing more.

I've had personal experience with pretty much everything you can imagine online, including similar models to the one he describes.

Guess what? In the real world factors like those mentioned on this thread are the key between whether or not you actually earn six figures from a model like that.

Respectfully,
Bill

[Jelasco]

Originally Posted by TOPGUN08

What I would do is create a "club" and charge $6.95 per month but instead of 200 members I'd get 1,200 members. Far greater chance of a member not dropping and in my opinion a much better way to make $100,000 per year.

How would you get 1200? That price wouldn't leave much for paid advertising, so I'm curious how you would get so many members.

[JasonParker]

Originally Posted by karunnt

My analysis.... not a lot of things that people buy cost $97/month. Maybe...

- car payment (?)
- cable TV
- high-speed internet

So you are probably being compared to the value that those bring.

Buy they probably have lots of things that cost $4.95

- Macdonalds
- Doritos
- Starbucks

How many times a month do people do those a month? They probably do not know themselves. So I think they just compare it value-wise to a fancy coffee at SB.


When I heard $97/month, I immediately thought that is almost exactly how much I pay the cable company for cable TV and high speed internet per month. And I think that is a little high myself so I have a high expectation of the value $97/month should provide.

Sounds like you have a problem that's common to a lot of IMers.

That's the way YOUR life is. But there are many types of customers.

You are a certain type of customer with a certain demographic, for example. You wouldn't pay $97 per month to a membership site. Thing is, there are internet marketers paying something like $800 per month to Stompernet right now.

...If you can step outside yourself and see the way things REALLY are, then you'll make more money.

...If, however, you stay stuck inside your own perception, then you'll probably stay where you're at now in your internet business.

[MikeLantz]

Originally Posted by karunnt

My analysis.... not a lot of things that people buy cost $97/month. Maybe...

- car payment (?)
- cable TV
- high-speed internet

So you are probably being compared to the value that those bring.

[...]

When I heard $97/month, I immediately thought that is almost exactly how much I pay the cable company for cable TV and high speed internet per month. And I think that is a little high myself so I have a high expectation of the value $97/month should provide.

I pay about $250/mo to my webhost for hosting and other related items.

One site alone that I am hosting with them makes me about $10,000 per month.

Would you pay $250 per month to get $10,000?

Would you pay $97 to get $1000?

I know I would.

Mike

[Dana_W]

The item that Willie is pushing for $97 is easypushbuttontraffic. As far as I can tell from the sales page it submits videos, podcasts, articles, and press releases for you automatically, to multiple sites, which according to the sales page, will "driving an amazing amount of organic traffic."

In all honesty I think the unsubscribe rate for something like this would turn out to be fairly high, just because so many internet marketers have a tendency to buy things and not take action. And at $97 a month if they haven't used this at all or haven't used it to its full potential, they're not going to let that slide for too long.

If this software truly works and does really send a ton of traffic to one's website, then hell yeah it would be worth $97 a month. That's much cheaper than outsourcing to someone to have them submit your stuff to multiple sites.

But as to the original post - yes, it is good to sit down and make calculations like that, but it is also good to make sure that people who may be new to internet marketing don't get the impression that it's easy to make six figures a year.

Think of this - some people here seem to be indicating that if Willie Crawford says it, it's as good as gold. Which means it will be MUCH easier for Willie to convince people to sign up to that system than it will be for people who haven't built up a reputation at his level. And even then, I seriously think the unsubscribe rate for a service like this will be high. So I don't think most people are going to achieve the numbers that Willie quotes for this service.

I think that when you're writing out a business plan you want to think of the potential negatives as well as the positives.

[JasonParker]

Originally Posted by Bill Brickman

Jason,

With all due respect you are naive in this regard. Willie may have credibility, but my friend what you quoted was Willie's marketing.

And guess what? It worked on you, didn't it? THAT is why Willie makes 6 figures a year... because he knows how to use words that move people.

I'm not saying there aren't elements of truth to what he shared. In theory he is correct... all he would need is 172 customers to bring in 6 figures a year.

But for those of us who have been in this game for a while (I may not be Willie but I earn six figures a year and so do many others) we understand that what Willie wrote is marketing and nothing more.

I've had personal experience with pretty much everything you can imagine online, including similar models to the one he describes.

Guess what? In the real world factors like those mentioned on this thread are the key between whether or not you actually earn six figures from a model like that.

Respectfully,
Bill

Thanks for the tips Bill.

[Harvey Segal]

Originally Posted by calvin69

I understand the average refund-request rate via ClickBank (as an example) is 11%.

It's actually 7-8%

Harvey

[karunnt]

Originally Posted by MikeLantz

I pay about $250/mo to my webhost for hosting and other related items.

One site alone that I am hosting with them makes me about $10,000 per month.

Would you pay $250 per month to get $10,000?

Would you pay $97 to get $1000?

I know I would.

Mike

Sure. That's why I said '...you are probably being compared to the VALUE that those bring'.

[John Rogers]

I haven't seen the article, but Dana's observation reflects exactly my thoughts as I read the OP.

John

[KenSilver]

Originally Posted by calvin69
I understand the average refund-request rate via ClickBank (as an example) is 11%.

Originally Posted by Harvey.Segal

It's actually 7-8%
Harvey

Mine's under 1%. And it's the lottery fergoodnessake... so on the surface this kind of topic would appear to have the potential for being the highest refund kind of program around.

So I guess it depends on other factors, and Willie's years in the business has built the trust he needs to do well. And I think I know why - I've spent the last couple of days looking at IM sites intensively for a project I'm doing, and I'm about to throw up... every site looks the same, has the same overinflated promises, same lame guarantee periods, same "I was homeless living in my car then I found the solution", even the same red headline.

It's no wonder the membership attrition rate is so high. But for 3 months you make bit of cash from the members before they leave. However it's just like selling products, and the advantages of true residual income are lost.

[Folusho Orokunle]

I guess I can help in this discussion because I have a membership in IM that costs $97/month.

My numbers show that no matter how much value you provide, the average customer stays only 3 months or so.

The hard part isn't signing up a few people a day, the hard part is replacing the people that drop off every month.

Membership sites are great outside of the IM niche, but inside I've been able to make a lot more money by offering bick ticket products, insteads of getting the monthly membership payments.

Yes, you can get a nice monthly income coming in, but that's actually secondary to the lifetime value of a customer, especially in the IM nice. This isn't as important though outside of the IM niche.

[ahlexis]

You guys all have valid points.

But you have missed the premise that Willie Crawford is talking about. Go back and read it again!

This service sells for $97 per year, and I earn 50%
commission. To earn six-figures per year from that,
I need a mere 172 customers (172 customers x $48.50
per month commission X 12 month = $100,104). If I
gave myself a year to get those 172 customers that
would equate to me just needing to find one customers
every two days... with a few "fishing days" built in."

This "year" vs. "monthly" is a very important distinction, as monthly subscriptions are harder to maintain members for! It says YEARLY, not monthly.

But after looking this over via the filter of my calculator, one thing comes out weird, though. The math sounds like a monthly subscription, but then he's saying "take a year to get 172 customers". At the same time, the yearly subscription thing would mean 172 customers per month. Or a monthly subscription while he was mentioning a yearly subscription.

I think the point to this wasn't about the monthly recurring membership payment, it was more about the customer every other day or so, taking a year to build up to that point.

[clanspring]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Sounds like you have a problem that's common to a lot of IMers.

That's the way YOUR life is. But there are many types of customers.

You are a certain type of customer with a certain demographic, for example. You wouldn't pay $97 per month to a membership site. Thing is, there are internet marketers paying something like $800 per month to Stompernet right now.

...If you can step outside yourself and see the way things REALLY are, then you'll make more money.

...If, however, you stay stuck inside your own perception, then you'll probably stay where you're at now in your internet business.

I think the main point to observe here is Jason's mindset. What I see here is the mindset of a winner. I remember a saying but I can't quote it exactly, but it goes something like this:

The successful person is the one who takes action regardless of the naysayers standing by explaining why it can't be done.

I remember once I met an older, more experienced business man. I described to him the particulars of a certain project, to which he exclaimed that what I was talking about was impossible. His mistake was this: he thought I was describing what I was thinking about doing, while in actual fact I was explaining to him what I had already done!

Jason - never, ever let others define what is possible or what you are capable of. There are in fact a lot of different business models capable of producing sizable incomes.

Take care.

[jensrsa]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

I love this article. This is the type of thinking that personally makes me money.

...Now the question I ask you IS...

Where are all the good residual commission affiliate programs?

It's interesting how most of the posts focused on Willie's maths and on the price and all the drawbacks and why it all can't work in the long run and why it's not easy so the original question of availability of good residual income programs sort of got lost.

So, taking all the negatives mentioned into account what would a good residual program have to offer to provide sustainable ongoing income?

And which programs fulfill these criteria?

The main feature of a good program is to provide ongoing perceived value to its members - that's the only way that it will keep its members happy and paying.

I'm not involved with any membership affiliate programs at the moment but I would like to so I am quite interested to know if there are any good ones.

Jens

[n\a]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

To earn six-figures per year from that,
I need a mere 172 customers (172 customers x $48.50
per month commission X 12 month = $100,104).

As has already been stated several times, the real problem with this is retention.

By the time you get to the 12th month, do you really think all of the people from the first six months are still going to be paying subscribers? Hell no! Not even with the best program.

This is typical MLM style hyped up fantasy math, and the author has lost all credibility with me, regardless of who it is, as soon as I read some rubbish like that.

[Black Hat Cat]

You are a certain type of customer with a certain demographic, for example. You wouldn't pay $97 per month to a membership site. Thing is, there are internet marketers paying something like $800 per month to Stompernet right now.

...If you can step outside yourself and see the way things REALLY are, then you'll make more money.

...If, however, you stay stuck inside your own perception, then you'll probably stay where you're at now in your internet business.

Maybe his own perception was focussed outside the internet marketing/make money niche, because once you get away from it, there aren't very many membership sites that cost $97 a month, and definitely don't cost $800 per month.

[TimG]

It's already been mentioned directly or hinted at indirectly but one thing any residual income producing program has to be able to do is fill the ranks as members depart. I think that once the funnel is built to facilitate this process then the ability to generate a 6 figure sum yearly pretty much goes on auto pilot.

Tim

[Mike Hill]

Originally Posted by karunnt

My analysis.... not a lot of things that people buy cost $97/month. Maybe...

- car payment (?)
- cable TV
- high-speed internet

So you are probably being compared to the value that those bring.

Buy they probably have lots of things that cost $4.95

- Macdonalds
- Doritos
- Starbucks

How many times a month do people do those a month? They probably do not know themselves. So I think they just compare it value-wise to a fancy coffee at SB.


When I heard $97/month, I immediately thought that is almost exactly how much I pay the cable company for cable TV and high speed internet per month. And I think that is a little high myself so I have a high expectation of the value $97/month should provide.

High expectation for $97 or a necessity..?

Personally I pay (combined) well over $97 a month for autoresponder services at a few of the top service providers...

It's all about necessity and if you can provide that to your customers then you will have an awesome stick rate.

Mike Hill

[karunnt]

To each his own I'm sure. If you think you can do this then go ahead.

Lot's of people spend more than this on advertising for their business so if they can increase their profits by more than $97/month then they should buy it.

Consider that there are about 3 million people in the US that earn more than $1million/year. A lot of companies are targeting this small market.

Eg. Mercedes makes some very high end cars for this particular market. They do not have to sell boatloads of luxury automobiles to make a profit - a few thousand of ultra expensive cars make a good profit to justify the investment.

So I would not worry about the price as long as the material is good.

I here Bill Gates used to spend one day a week reading everything he can. I don't think he worries what his subscriptions cost either.

[Angela V. Edwards]

I'm actually working on getting members. How would you go about the "word of mouth" campaign? I'm very interested.

Originally Posted by TOPGUN08

Word of mouth - best form of advertising there is on this planet.

[Treece]

To me, the point of this is to do your own math. How much money do you need or want to earn and how many widgets, subscriptions, memberships, products, etc. will you have to sell in order to achieve your own goals? What are you going to do to get there?

By breaking it down the way Willie does, you can create a plan of attack.

In my opinion, too many internet marketing wannabes fail to look at this very simple concept. If your sales are dismal and you were working for someone else, you'd be fired.

What are you going to sell? How many? At what price? How are you going to find those customers? Why should anyone buy from you?

Treece

[JasonParker]

Originally Posted by Mike Hill

High expectation for $97 or a necessity..?

Personally I pay (combined) well over $97 a month for autoresponder services at a few of the top service providers...

It's all about necessity and if you can provide that to your customers then you will have an awesome stick rate.

Mike Hill

I second that.

In Willie's article he's talking about a service that allows you to mass submit articles, press releases, videos, and other things. If that became a key part of your business, you would stay on for not just a year, but maybe even years.

...Let's move to membership sites.

What if the monthly information was keeping your business afloat?

Or what if the PLR site was keeping you supplied with fresh content for products in your niche?

...Maybe I'm being naive, maybe not. But if you have a membership site or service that's brings a lot of value to the customer month after month, why wouldn't they stay on board?

My autoresponder makes me money, so I stick with AWeber. My web hosting makes me money, so I stick with them. A membership site I'm part of keeps me supplied with information that highly impacts my online business, so I stick with it.

Who wouldn't stay on board an IM membership site or service if it were making them money each month? You know, if it provides the same or more value again and again each month.

[Scott Ames]

Originally Posted by clanspring

I remember once I met an older, more experienced business man. I described to him the particulars of a certain project, to which he exclaimed that what I was talking about was impossible. His mistake was this: he thought I was describing what I was thinking about doing, while in actual fact I was explaining to him what I had already done!

.

I had the same thing happen once. I was telling a business consultant /author /speaker about a business idea. He said.. The hard part is.... I had to tell him I had already nailed that part and made it work. He was shocked then said.. If you did that, don't do it, write an information product on How to do it and you'll make more.

[zach2393]

How about 1000 people pay you 4 dollars a month. In one year that equals 48 grand?
Not bad right?
Or 1000 people pay you 8 dollars a month. Thats almost 6 figures for you.

[David_Thompson]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Anybody read Willie's article today?

Here's part of it:

"To an Internet marketer who understands the power
of residual income, I know that earning six-figures
per year only takes putting forth the effort to find
fewer than 200 customers.

...

This service sells for $97 per year, and I earn 50%
commission. To earn six-figures per year from that,
I need a mere 172 customers (172 customers x $48.50
per month commission X 12 month = $100,104). If I
gave myself a year to get those 172 customers that
would equate to me just needing to find one customers
every two days... with a few "fishing days" built in."

I love this article. This is the type of thinking that personally makes me money.

...Now the question I ask you IS...

Where are all the good residual commission affiliate programs?

Here are a couple from me:

-Warrior Lee McIntyre's Standing Start Profits

-Affiliate Classroom

Here's my thought on this why give those 172+ people
away to someone when i myself can create my own membership
and keep 100% payment for me that's over $200000 in my
pocket.

Plus I can get other people to send subscribers to my membership
site and i'll pay them...

Just a thought

--David

[Dana_W]

The OP must have made a typo. I just went to the sales page of easypushbuttontraffic and it's $97 A MONTH, not a year.


"Unlimited Video, Article, Podcast & Press Release Submissions: $97/Month" is what the sales page says.

I'm not saying this is a terrible deal, or that everyone is going to drop out of this plan, or that Willie is misleading anyone, by the way. I'm just saying - when you plan to create membership plans or sites like this, take off the blinders and don't assume you'll have an immediate Willie Crawford level of success, or that you can just create a membership site and the profits will roll in forever.

Originally Posted by ahlexis

You guys all have valid points.

But you have missed the premise that Willie Crawford is talking about. Go back and read it again!



This "year" vs. "monthly" is a very important distinction, as monthly subscriptions are harder to maintain members for! It says YEARLY, not monthly.

But after looking this over via the filter of my calculator, one thing comes out weird, though. The math sounds like a monthly subscription, but then he's saying "take a year to get 172 customers". At the same time, the yearly subscription thing would mean 172 customers per month. Or a monthly subscription while he was mentioning a yearly subscription.

I think the point to this wasn't about the monthly recurring membership payment, it was more about the customer every other day or so, taking a year to build up to that point.

[jensrsa]

Originally Posted by JasonParker

Where are all the good residual commission affiliate programs?

Here are a couple from me:

-Warrior Lee McIntyre's Standing Start Profits

-Affiliate Classroom

For any membership program to keep its members it must offer an ongoing benefit to its members, the affiliate program is secondary.

The problem with many membership sites are that they provivide high perceived value in the beginning, i.e. "thousands of dollars worth of downloads" or "getting you started" but then peters out to an email newsletter with maybe one download a month, and that's when people stop their subscriptions.

Very few I've seen maintain a high level of value month after month.

The trick is to provide something of value that your members cannot do without, and which they will pay for anyway every month that you provide for free.

You need to tie them to you so that they actually lose if they cancel, not merely a perceived loss.

Think of a hosting company, e.g. godaddy or hostgator, they are, in effect, membership sites and if you cancel you lose your hosting, your web site, your web business and even your domain. Even if you change to someone else you merely swop one membership for another.

Now that's a membership site!

Jens

[Thomas Belknap]

Originally Posted by David_Thompson

Here's my thought on this why give those 172+ people
away to someone when i myself can create my own membership
and keep 100% payment for me that's over $200000 in my
pocket.

Plus I can get other people to send subscribers to my membership
site and i'll pay them...

Just a thought

--David

That would make it a lot more work than just getting the 172 people. You will need to work on that membership site constantly to keep those people paying every month. I would take the 50% profit and concentrate on feeding more people into the membership and let someone else worry about providing value to the membership.

[clanspring]

Originally Posted by Thomas Belknap

That would make it a lot more work than just getting the 172 people. You will need to work on that membership site constantly to keep those people paying every month. I would take the 50% profit and concentrate on feeding more people into the membership and let someone else worry about providing value to the membership.

That is a business model I believe in... focus on what I do best and affiliate myself with others with strengths that complement (as opposed to overlap) my own. Trying to be a jack-of-all-trades dissipates your energy and produces less desirable results. A lot of people seem to resist because they want to "keep it all."

But, think about it - 100% of 50 sales, or 50% of 1000 sales - which do you prefer?