Membership Site Retention?!?

[winebuddy]

Yo -

Which, in your opinions and experiences, works better when it comes to membership site retention rates:

1) An absolute ton of content that would take a speed reader at least 6 months to go through - or

2) Content that is released on a monthly basis?

I have seen both but I have seen a combination of both. Obviously, it's easier to just throw up a bunch of quality info and forget about it.

Which tactic will keep members longer?

And if you pick number 2 - how do you consistently produce new hi-quality info?

[jonb]

I gotta go with #2. People will stick around to see what comes next (especially if you do a good job of teasing them).

Also, even with loads of content, everything won't be of interest to everyone. If it's static, a new member will pick and choose the items of interest, read them and cancel.

You're better off putting all the content on a content drip and posting it over time.

On our site, we try to add 2 or 3 new articles and at least one video and/or audio each week. We also produce a monthly newsletter in PDF that's put on the site once a month.

[winebuddy]

well - my "we" is just me.

And i do go to work every day and I'm sort of lazy and just like to play on the computer :-)

What sort of "content drip" feature are "we" referring to? And do you have to create new and unheard of content every week/month? 4 - ever?

[jonb]

Originally Posted by winebuddy

well - my "we" is just me.

And i do go to work every day and I'm sort of lazy and just like to play on the computer :-)

What sort of "content drip" feature are "we" referring to? And do you have to create new and unheard of content every week/month? 4 - ever?

Heh. My "we" is my wife and I. So I'm double the size of your enterprise.

Now, I have 19 years worth of back issues to pull content from, so it's easy for me to find content. However, we do create video and audio from scratch on a regular basis. We use a webcam to record short "Ask the Expert" videos, and Skype/Call Graph to record phone interviews with other experts for podcasts. easy and fun.

Then you can get transcripts of the interviews and post them as PDFs. And you can turn your articles into powerpoint presentations with audio narration, turn them into flash video and post them. And you can collect all your articles and put them into an ebook and post that. And you can... well, you get the point.

By content drip, I mean you load up your CMS with material every couple of months (another reason why Wordpress is an awesome platform for a member site), set the date you want the content to go live and forget about it. You can do the same with audio and video by creating them all at once and posting them at intervals.

You can also, using membership software like wishlist, create a multi week or multi month course, load everything up at once and, when someone joins, they always start with module 1, go on to module 2 the next week and so on.

Lots of options available for those who don't want to be real hands on with their site.

[gabibeowulf]

2) content released on a monthly basis

And that's not just to keep the members on their toes and expect the next month .. but sometimes too much information all at once can overload the member ... and end up never using the information you release because it would take too much time to go through all the data ..

"Obviously, it's easier to just throw up a bunch of quality info and forget about it."

You can build all the information from the beginning, but release it gradually.

[winebuddy]

I'll have to look into wishlist.

Is there a way to use the WP membership software and release content to individual members a little at a time? i know you can post-publish pages and posts but that's for every reader at one time.

How do you control it for an indiviual? I can see that you could use an autoresponder but what about for someone who has joined your site - a "function" that the site itself does - so to speak.

Yall have some excellent info - appreciate it

[jonb]

Originally Posted by winebuddy

Is there a way to use the WP membership software and release content to individual members a little at a time?

Yep. Wishlist works with Membership Levels. So, when someone joins, he can be placed at "Level 1" and see only the content for that level. After a week (or a month, or whatever) he can be automatically upgraded to Level 2, where new information will now be accessible to him and so on.

Wishlist is an amazing piece o' software!

[~kev~]

Member created content is what I like to see and not just content from the owner of the site.

I have been a member of a few paid sites. And the ones I liked the best were the ones where the members could post their own images, videos, forum post and blogs.

[winebuddy]

for wishlist - who does the "upgrading"? Do you have to wait until a certain time and go in and upgrade them or does that happen automatically with the software.

Kev - good idea - I could even hold contests for the BEST video or tip and then dribble them out over time.

My juices are starting to FLOW!

[jonb]

Originally Posted by winebuddy

for wishlist - who does the "upgrading"? Do you have to wait until a certain time and go in and upgrade them or does that happen automatically with the software.

The software does it. you create membership Level 1, set it to expire in 30 days and automatically transfer all paying members to Level 2. and so on....

[nzdealer]

The best option is monthly updates as this has worked for us before.

[winebuddy]

I'll have to go take a long hard look at wishlist. Hope it's not to dollar intensive :-)

[housefinder]

Excellent ideas. How do you suggest driving traffic to these membership sites?

[Richnana]

I think JonB states on his webpage that the software costs $97.00 He shows you how to put together a really cool site for under $300.00. . . Did you see the site?
Thanks for all the really cool information that you provided Jonb

[winebuddy]

Originally Posted by housefinder

Excellent ideas. How do you suggest driving traffic to these membership sites?

The same way you drive traffic to any site

Sorry - I couldn't resist

[jonb]

Originally Posted by Richnana

I think JonB states on his webpage that the software costs $97.00 He shows you how to put together a really cool site for under $300.00. . . Did you see the site?
Thanks for all the really cool information that you provided Jonb

My pleasure. And yeah, it's $97 for a single site license, and that includes updates and superb support.

For $247 you can buy a 5 site license.

It's a massive bargain for a piece of software that's already made me thousands.

You can find direct links to wishlist and everything I used to build my site in my sig file.

[Leon McKee]

Jon, nice site and a smart move

Leon McKee