Successful Membership Site Owners - I NEED DIRECTION PLEASE!

What do you recommend is the best turnkey software to run a membership site?

Good idea! Thanks! I was looking into PLF but WAAAAY to expensive. I want to be sure I launch correctly.

Hi nmh,

I run a successful memebership site. I'm sure a lot others have much more sophisticated methods than I do. I don't use any scripts.

I simply have a private forum, which is where training takes place. We also train sometimes via teleconference and record those and put them in the forum for overseas members to listen to who couldn't be on live.

All monthly automatic payments are handled thru paypal, which accepts major credit cards.

Here are some short answers based on my experience to your question:

1) Is there a step by step product out there that will teach me how to set this up or what to use (or do you have any suggestions)? I have hear good things about Ryan Diess but his Continuity Blueprint is WAY out of my price range.


Answer: I did not buy any step by step course on how to set it up. I'm not saying this isn't a good idea, but I just used commonsense and it worked.

2) Do these membership site software products or scripts have forums for members to communicate.

Answer: We use a forum.

3) What is the average price to keep people in a membership like this?

Answer: This depends on the service. How much work does it take on your part to keep running it. Also, if you eventually plan on getting JV partners or rolling out an affiliate program, pricing will be influenced on how much you plan to pay them. Remember, the more you can pay them, especially on a recurring basis, the greater chance you'll have of getting people to work with you.

Mine is priced at 49.99 a month and we give 50% away to the JV partners. It started at 29.99 a month and 25% away to the JV partner.

4) Do you upsell within the membership site? How?

Answer: We do, but ours are very specific to our program and not really applicable to what you'd come out with.

5) Can you sell products on the same page of the site so those that don't buy the membership at least purchase something.

Answer: don't do this personally.

6) Do I need a landing page for such a site?

Answer: Yes.

7) How hard is it to start and what do you do when your members area is totally empty b/c you have no customers yet. How do you fill that in to make it look at least like someone is on there?

Answer: Good question. I was fortunate in that my first JV partner was Allan Gardyne, an obviously very reputable marketer with a big list. He was able to give us a strong push right out of the gate and create a lot of activity and excitement in our forum from the first day of the launch.

Then, it was my job to make sure the students were taken care of and trained well, and most importantly, live up to my promise that I had a really good product/service that would help them make passive/lifetime income.

Ok, enough questions (at least for now) but this might help get started with my research.

Answer: I wouldn't overcomplicate this. I'm no master at this, but our service has been successful now for over 11 months now and all I use are: paypal, a forum, a salesletter for the service, and an ezine to stay in touch with subscribers.

Regards,
Dan Ho

Dan - I had to send you a HUGE thanks for your input! You may have saved me a TON of $$$ and I guess all I need to do get to building a list first etc.

NMH,

You can do a wordpress blog with password access on individual pages you build.

Not the most secure but a cheap way to get started.

a script to manage that many I've talked to use is called amember. Like any out of the box solution it has some limitations.

Watch Ryan's Continuity Blueprint and Russell Brunson's Micro-Continuity promos only. This will give you the idea. I've heard that one of WSOs was almost a summary of Ryan's product. Don't remember which one that was.

Checkout Jimmy D. Brown's "fixed-term membership" Membernaire model as well.

You might want to checkout David Moskovitz's Membership Academy website as well. Heard a lot of good things about him.

Drip-feed content. Use software like WP WishList or Amember + Incremental Content plugin to make new content available on a weekly basis.

As for content: use PLR or similar type of stuff (*cough* see my sig *cough*). A 100-page ebook will give you 100 pages of content. That's weeks or even months of content for membership sites.

Have a look at DLGuard -
DLGuard - Download page protector, create expiring download links

Will WishList or Amember work w/ Boonex products? I saw was checking out this product recently. Is there a way to use Boonex to allowing different parts to be viewed by members only? ie. Forum, Chat, Member List etc. Does any software give you that much control?

Simple Member Pro is what I am using.. AND IT ROCKS. . . You can even try a free version before you purchase.

I use WishList Member (for WordPress) because it has the ability to deliver the content on time-intervals. This ensures that members that sign up on Week 1 are able to see all of the content at once.

I've tried MemberWing (for WordPress) which is free but their paid version has a lot more functionality.

Easy Member Pro was probably the first one that I've ever used and it's pretty good but I didn't want to upload new content every month considering most members don't stay on more than 4 months.

I learned from Russell Brunson's Micro-Continuity that you don't even need a membership site to get started. You can just deliver everything by email autoresponder. That's probably the fastest way to get started.

As was already pointed out above, you need a plan first and foremost...

* Sit down and turn off your computer (so you are not distracted), get out the good old fashion pen and paper

* Write down what goal you are wanting to meet with a membership site, where you expect to take your membership and what type of membership you want. There are many different kinds of membership sites, some sell products while some sell services and others sell access to tools and etc...

* Plan on how you want your membership to be run, it is fine to do upsells and etc but make sure what you are doing is related to your membership. Decide on what you are going to give away to build your opt-in list for those that do not buy.

* Detail your plan as much as possible, keep in mind this is not written in stone but having a plan will help keep you on track. Once you have finished with your plan then you may want to do some research on the type of membership you have decided to offer..

- Is there a need for what you are going to offer ?
- Is there other sites offering the same thing already ?
- Can you supply a constant need to your membership ?

By doing your research it will save you many wasted days and $$$ ...

You need to plan on hosting, domain name, payment system and etc so make sure to factor all that in your plan....

I would also like to point out that you can build your membership as you go, you do not need to come out blazing with forums, chat, and etc... One thing you should know is that it takes a great deal of time and effort to get any forum going so please do not be fooled into thinking just because you have a membership that they will participate in the forum.

Start your membership first and if things go good from there you can build on the membership and add to it as time goes on...

James

There's no need to buy any membership scripts. Most host's provide the ability to "lock" a section. I use HostGator and do this easily.

I use paypal and their FREE script to handle the subscribers. Been working glitch free for over 6 years!

But what are you selling?

Continuity Blueprint - The 12 Minute Membership Site

Offering something for free is a good way to build a list, which will in the long run be a good thing to do to kickstart your membership site when it is ready.

However, if I was you, I would make sure the book you offer is of REALLY good value. What I mean is, DON'T build a list by offering a book which is old info and is worth less than nothing. You want to OVERDELIVER, so that when you come to promote your membership site to your new list, they will be thinking "well if I got a $20+ value ebook for free, then this membership site is going to be worth a look too"


Although it may help, you don't need a step-by-step product teaching you this. I hope my answers below should give you sufficient knowledge to get started.

If you are completely clueless about what to do, then I would recommend investing in a membership management system. One I can highly recommend is the Rapid Action Profits system, the bundle package comes with an affiliate system, member management system and paypal subscription system. It's extremely easy to use and you do get a forum to get help from others AS WELL AS video tutorials.

If you want the bundle package, PM me and I'll give you the link.

Another system I have heard good things about is amember but I don't have first hand experience of that system or whether it offers forum support).

It totally depends on what your membership site is about. Your best bet is to research other membership sites. I personally offer a free 2 week trial and then charge $27 per month for a membership site in the IM niche. It works very well, in fact I have been told hundreds of times that I should raise the price, however I would rather have 1000 members thinking they are getting more value for what they pay than 1000 members thinking what they pay is a fair price on what they get.

Like I said before, if you overdeliver - you'll have members biting your hands off when you have other offers inside the members area.

SO if you think the content you have inside the members area is worth $35, $47 or $77 per month... offer it for less than $20.

Absolutely. If you don't, you are leaving money on the table. One way to do this is to offer a free trial and then offer ONE OTO (One Time Offer) before they get to the registration page. Then whatever you are offering as a OTO, sell inside the members area too (but for a bit more - it helps to mention on the OTO that the same product(s) is for sale inside but for more)

You CAN, but I wouldn't. You should have your sales page focused SOLEY on your membership site. You don't want people getting side tracked by purchasing something small from you.. you want them to sign up to your membership site which brings you a RECURRING monthly income.

Yes.

My #1 tip would be to setup an affiliate program (ie. using RAP system above) which will help you get members.. you just cannot rest on your own list to sign up. It is better paying affiliates half the commissions and using their lists too.

Good luck with it,

Daniel

I would like to start a membership site but at a total loss as to where to start.:confused:

**Take James advice about Russell, Ryan and Jimmy.

My plan is to offer a free ebook to build a list etc. Then market to the list to get members. Below are my questions.. I know I will have more later but for now I need some direction big time!

**Do not offer a free Ebook as a lead in to a membership site. Use a video series, or a series of materials that is is HIGHLY connected to your membership. Something that will create a desire - not just for more training, but for more of YOU.

1) Is there a step by step product out there that will teach me how to set this up or what to use (or do you have any suggestions)? I have hear good things about Ryan Diess but his Continuity Blueprint is WAY out of my price range.

**There are many step by step products. You need the one that matches the business model you want to employ. However, since you're just getting started I would choose ONE process and use it. If you chose something like Membernaire then follow it. Nothing else. Forget trying to figure out the BEST way based one a ton of knowledge. Just get to work following A plan.

2) Do these membership site software products or scripts have forums for members to communicate.

**Some do, but you're going to end up with a dozen different perspectives and more confused. Why? Because none of the advice will be "wrong." But you may know know how to make it fit your situation. Follow your chosen teacher and use forums for mechanical, not model, aspects.

3) What is the average price to keep people in a membership like this?

**$10 a month or $24.94 a quarter if you have a volume based business (5,000+ members relatively easily). $27 a month for a market which could deliver 1000+ members. Any amount you want for a high value market (i.e. StomperNet).

4) Do you upsell within the membership site? How?

**Offer a higher level experience. Use a script like Mike Filsame's that let's you upsell from within.

5) Can you sell products on the same page of the site so those that don't buy the membership at least purchase something.

**Bad idea. Do not distract or offer anything that requires thought. "O...I'll just buy the ebook and join the site later." Nope. Market ONLY your membership. Make additional offers only after you have made 10+ hardcore attempts to get them to join.

6) Do I need a landing page for such a site?

**Yes.

7) How hard is it to start and what do you do when your members area is totally empty b/c you have no customers yet. How do you fill that in to make it look at least like someone is on there?

**Per Jimmy's model you can start with an autoresponder account and NO membership area. HOWEVER, from your question, you're thinking about a membership experience where people get access to the member's archive. Just given them what they pay for each month. You do not have to have an archive area if you do not want one.

Mark Robbins
Recurring Revenue

Has anyone here used 'Simple Member Pro' would you recommend it?

I'm using MemberSpeed. First 30 days are free, then $60 a month. And if installation isn't your thing, you can have it done for you from $40-75
Once it's installed it's very self explanatory and easy to set up.