Genius or Just Plain CRAZY

That sounds like a pretty good plan to me if you can afford to do it. I like the way you are thinking long term.

100% CRAZY!

I think you need a reality check. People take advantage in this day and age and you will not be fulfilled. In my honest opinion.

Louis

I like the input so far 50/50 but being told im crazy just motivates me more.

My advice... give away 50% of your knowledge/content, and sell 50%... like personal coaching ... your time is valuable.

You are on the right track tho... giving away something of value is the best way to build your business...and gain authority... just make sure you have a way to monetize the free viral traffic.

- Jared

oh yeah!!! there is some monetization involved, but just for joining the free site they will know everything they need to know to make money, plus they are on my list and are interested in making money online cant go wrong there.

I wasn't trying to insult you mate.

You asked lol

That is the craziest thing I have heard. Why are you planning to have it for free anyway?

While your reasoning behind your idea sounds admirable, you might want to consider limiting the amount of sign-ups. Otherwise you may become overwhelmed, I mean consider the possibility several hundred or more people signing up. And then trying to answer all the questions that are almost assuredly going to flood your email. Not to mention all the requests that your going to get for one on one coaching from individuals. There is no reason that if after your first group of sign-ups are successfully "graduated", that you can't offer your training again. Just something to consider.

It could possibly pay off. But you're trusting the good of people a little too much

Well I figured once I reached my peak of phone calls and emails I could handle with one on ones

I could hold weekly conference calls so I could address major issues or just do some Q & A

It is very nice of you to be thinking of helping others to build up an online business free of cost. It looks well planned and if executed according to your design, should work out very nicely. But also beware that you dont lose what you earn through this online business. People should not take advantage of your plan and you should not be at the losing end for having taken up this "utopic" project.

Your premise is good. Membership-club-group programs can be very profitable when managed correctly...but they can quickly become a burden if not controlled.

Having grown an internal private client based group(off -line) to 350 million in sales over a six year period. I can personally say that private membership based marketing programs work well.

That being said you might think about tightening up your sturcture. Here are some suggestions you might want to consider;

1) Require the prospective members to be qualified for membership. The methods can vary, for example you might require all prospective members to fill out a short application or be sponsered my another member or just pay a small fee.

2) Restrict access to youself so that members can't always reach you. This will make them want your services even more. For example only respond to emails Mon. to Thur. 8-4

3) Offer three levels of initial membership a) Free with only email access, B) Paid with email access and a 15 minute laser call once a month & C) Mastermind with all of the above and a 2 hour mastermind group call. You then could give samples of your higher level offerings with free tele-seminars to free or non-members.

4) Restrict your phone access to only laser call in days. If you don't you will not be able to handle more than 100-125 members. 125 members does not build a large list. Remember you will have quite a bit of left messages if you let people call you directly.

5) Before you launch and spend to much time Survey your existing prospect list and ask them this one question...What are the top 3 problems you face in your buinsess right now...that you need help on. This is where you will spend the most of your time in your membership site and with the feee informational products you produce.

If you have a 3 to 4 level intitial membership site with some kind of qualifying structure in place up front. You will have put into place a process that will screen and help decide who will be your key affiliates without as much one-on-one work.

I hoped this was helpfull.

Oh by the way I have just finished building a membership site ( non-competing niche) with my partner which is in the pre-launch stage(launching Jan 2009).

If you would like contact me privately and we can talk further...

Thanks jim great advice

admirable - but I would consider making it a payment site by monthly subscriptions - maybe ?

Yeah, I wouldnt give it all away for free, some yes, but not all of it. Good Luck whichever way you decide to go

First of all it's tough to coach 50 people on the phone regularly, second of all, you're going to end up with a lot of not-so-motivated people.
Like, out of the 50, you might only get 5 people who would be really committed and efficient - and those guys would have become efficient superaffiliates anyway.

I don't think it's a clever use of your time. Try thinking about a system that gives away value to more people AND takes less from you.

See Ed Dale's challenge for an instance of this.

Zig Ziglar said, "You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want."

I believe him, so I am leaning towards Genius...

The question you will need to answer ... how many people will be enough for you to effectively help?

I trust you have an answer.

You can never go wrong offering help to those that need it...

Kelly