Creating a Minimum Viable Membership Community

It might depend on how much authority you've got built up prior to launch.

i've launched memberships sites with nothing more than an empty membership area with a welcome video and welcome letter saying part one of the content is being broadcast live and please watch at the link below - send to webinar signup.

Explain they can either join you live or watch the replay which will be posted in section1 - a few days after the live event.

Then you just keep pushing out live content each month week whatever interval you want and build as you go.

This approach allows you to tailor your content to members and attendees.

You can list a structure and ask for feedback on what each person wants to get out of the sections as they progress.

This way you don't waste a lot of time building something out that people don't want and you can very quickly build out content derived from your members as you move forward.

Best regards,

Ozi

It really depends on your audience, authority and market.

For example:

In the Internet Marketing industry customers usually expect stuff like a community, office hours, regular content, worksheets, videos and more.

While in the knitting niche customers might only expect an ongoing release of videos on how to knit various apparel and whatnot.

A great way of finding out what to include in your membership section is to actually join an existing membership site in your industry. What do they do? What do they include? How can you make yours better?

Other than that, have look at Amazon and look for physical products and books related to your topic, what are people writing in the reviews sections?

Key is to get to know your audience, email people, talk to them in blog comment sections, forums etc.

A general rule you could follow though, regardless of the membership site and industry is this:

You need content, services and/or products that makes them stay a member at least 6 months

But start with doing research on both your ideal customer and competitor. Here's a few links on tools and guides on the matter:

How to find a profitable product to sell

SEMrush - A tool for researching the market and competition

Hope this helps!

Regards,

Karl

I guess I'm not clear on what an "MVP" is . . . but I have always suggested to clients and followers that a single product is never a good match for a recurring membership site unless there are extenuating and specific reasons why buyers need to come together in a community to learn about or use the product.

In other words, starting a membership site just because you want recurring income is a bad reason to set one up. Consumers have a strong preference for one-time payments for most purchases, unless they see the membership as a way to get a discount on products they intend to buy anyway. Another reason people buy into recurring memberships is because that may be the only way they can get access to advice from a professional, or certain products not generally available.

I would never suggest starting a recurring membership site without a pretty well researched plan on how you're going to "feed" your members and keep them happy over the long haul. I think if you only have one product it's going to be a "tough row to hoe."

The best to you on your project,

Steve