Membership Site Advice

Its pretty much the same as you would release a new product.

For a membership you want to have better relationships.

I didn't do this but wish I did. Now I am building the lists as I go. You do want more then one list. A membership will have more then one area. You will be able to target your members better with each section/area.

I have a list for each section.

Step by step course
Done for you websites
List building
Traffic
ext....

Then you would target your lists to become members.

Hi Scott,

It all depends on what your goal is.

There are many variations on the word membership and each carries its plusses and minuses.

I am happy to chat if you want to PM me.

Best,

Sal

Hi Scott,

Sounds like you're ready to get going but in a bit of info overload...

To answer your questions:

1. It's not *vital* to build an email list prior to launching your site.

In fact, launching a product is one of the best ways to build a list (and a business). If it's a make money online product, you can even "field test" it as a WSO first. You'll get great market research via feedback and provide your product a discount to Warriors. Win/win.

If it's in a different niche, a good membership plugin such as DAP will integrate with your autoresponder and automatically add new buyers to your list.

You can write 5 good follow up emails an hour for each day for one week, and you'll have 35 excellent emails ready to go. :-)

-OR-

You can build a squeeze page and offer an opt in bribe (like a free ebook) in exchange for email, and then if a customer buys, there's a setting in AWeber that takes them off the "prospects" list and adds them to the "buyers" list. It's all automated...

2. Membership sites can be VASTLY different, so the kind of solution you choose in terms of themes/plugins/etc needs to be suited to your needs and the needs of your customers.

If you want to bounce some ideas off me, shoot me a message on Skype. I've set up a buttload of membership sites. I'll be happy to point you in the right direction. :-)

Skype = vtotheyouknow
email = victor.dorfman@gmail.com

Hi Scott,

I would be happy to help you from my own experience with building membership sites:

The first thing you need to decide is what type of membership site you would like to build.

There are several types of membership sites, the most common ones are:

• Blog with content that is released on a regular, and sometimes, on a periodic basis.
  
• Downloadable product - inside the membership area there is an option to download your product or products.
  
• Course - the course is divided to lessons that are revealed to the members every week, month etc.

After you decide which is the one for you, you can search for the right membership plugin for your site.

There are plenty of plugins, all you need is to do your research and see what best suits your needs.

I personally work with Wishlist Member, I think that overall it's a good plugin, even with its flows (if you have any questions about Wishlist I would be happy to help you, just PM me).

Regarding your questions:

1. You don't have to build an email list prior to lunching your membership site. You can build in on the go, but it really depends on the type of membership site you are building.

For example: if you plan on building a course membership site then you might want to contact other websites' owners and offer them a joint venture so they will market your product and you will be able to collect emails prior to the launch.

2. I can only help you with Wishlist because this is the only plugin I'm using - if you decide to work with this plugin then they have tutorials in their website, part of it is free and part is available only for Wishlist's customers.

I can tell you from my own experience that the plugin is very easy to understand, I learned it very fast. Also, their support tean is great so it shouldn't be a problem.

I hope that helped

You can PM me if you have any questions

Danit

Membership sites doesn't actually need a list to lunch unless you want to offer some pre-release offers. Its always better to build list on the go, thus you can have better control and relationship with the subscribers.

Not sure about ebooks, but you can find lots of websites with really good information with a simple Google search.

For the backend tech - use Optimizely plugin for WP.

It's only like $97 and absolutely fantastic.

What kind of business is yours and whom is your targeted customers, based on the term membership will wary. Provide the information clearly.

I agree with danits. There are various types of sites you can build. Just depends on what you want your site to be about and what you are selling. Is it the community? Are you creating a site where people can interact with others who share the same sort of passion? Are you selling downloadable products or are your creating courses? Is the site going to be a publisher type model where you will publish fresh new content on a regular basis, like a magazine, on a particular topic? Lots to think about.

One thing you can do for the launch, is create a free membership level - again depending upon the type of site. Then when the members see how great your free stuff is, they will want to upgrade to a paid membership after a while. Great way to build your list.

You can also have an introductory membership fee. For example, you could advertise that for the first 150 people who sign up or whoever signs up within the next 5 days (however you want to position it) their cost will be $10/month for as long as they stay a member. After that number or time period the monthly fee goes up to $15/month - or something like that. You would be surprised at how those initial members will continue to stay a member because they don't want to give up that charter member amount. Because if they cancel their membership and then decide to come back, they will have to pay the higher price.

There are so many ways to go about it. I hope this helps a bit. Good Luck!

I'd recommend working up to at least to 500 subs before launching to your list, but you could also use competent affiliates as well.

Hi,

Just a quick follow up question...

If I am setting up a fixed-term membership site and delivering my content via auto-responder, do I still need a membership site script? How many of you running a fixed-term membership site deliver your content via auto-responder, as opposed to dripping the content? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

Scott

Hi everyone,

I'm brand spankin' new to WF, and one of the reasons I joined was to vett an idea I have for an online course I'd like to create: How to build a membership website. I have extensive experience in this area, having built several membership sites myself, and I think it would be fun to put everything into a nice, self-paced video course.

...Hence how I came across this thread. I'm still very much in the vetting process, but my research so far tells me there is quite a bit of interest. If this does sound interesting, please let me know, and let me know about the sorts of problems, concerns, functionality, etc. that you'd like to see in a course.

Thanks!