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How my uncle with zero IM experience setup a profitable membership site in one week...

by NateRivers
12 replies
Last week while I was visiting my uncle in San Francisco, it dawned on my how simple it really is to make money online.... without even thinking that far outside the box.

Here's what happened...

My uncle is a graphic designer who is damn good, but he's recently been struggling to find work because he's always thrived on word-of-mouth, and it has simply slowed down.

He's made a lot of money in his career, and I never thought I would have any good advice for him on how to make money.

So, as he was showing me how to make an awesome looking ebook cover in Photoshop (of which there aren't any decent tutorials online that I've found), it hit me and I was like, "Mark, you need to start a membership site".

He had no clue what I was talking about, so to make a long story short, I gave him a crash course on Camtasia, Aweber, Wordpress, and forum and blog posting, ... and boom-- a week later he's already had 14 people sign up at $19 a month.

...and he's been telling me what a damned genius I am... It's funny how valuable basic IM knowledge is to business people that don't have any
#experience #membership #profitable #setup #site #uncle #week
  • Profile picture of the author Andy Money
    That's excellent--good job helping him out and congrats to him for taking action, that's pretty impressive.
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  • Profile picture of the author skwurl
    that's very cool. i'm hoping to have a membership site at some point, but i don't know what i have to offer anyone yet.

    to be successful with a membership site, do you think you need to have something to offer that nobody else does? i don't really know what people are willing to pay for, and then how i would keep them as a member.

    any tips nate? cheers.... :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author NateRivers
      Originally Posted by skwurl View Post

      that's very cool. i'm hoping to have a membership site at some point, but i don't know what i have to offer anyone yet.

      to be successful with a membership site, do you think you need to have something to offer that nobody else does? i don't really know what people are willing to pay for, and then how i would keep them as a member.

      any tips nate? cheers.... :-)
      The main thing to keep in mind is that you only need to know more than the people looking for the information.

      I've had the best results with a membership of under $10/month. You can deliver a "something" of the month type thing, an instructional video, a pdf, exclusive interviews, ... stuff like that.

      Then you can set each month's offering into the autoresponder so that new sign-ups start at month one, and automatically move through content that you've already done.
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    • Profile picture of the author Axel.jr
      same question, many people success from this technique, but when i try, always failed, i was use many tips from my friends and still just waste my time and money haha...

      Originally Posted by skwurl View Post

      that's very cool. i'm hoping to have a membership site at some point, but i don't know what i have to offer anyone yet.

      to be successful with a membership site, do you think you need to have something to offer that nobody else does? i don't really know what people are willing to pay for, and then how i would keep them as a member.

      any tips nate? cheers.... :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author LeadBoltBrian
    Nice one! It's amazing how you can monetize skill sets like that based on a simple "a ha!" moment. Hopefully this becomes an incredibly successful venture for him.
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  • Profile picture of the author skwurl
    also, does stuff like this work mostly with just IM sites? i wouldn't want to get into that, as i'm just a beginner myself, and as for dating sites, that would be difficult i think, considering the amount of people already doing it.

    i'll think of something :-)
    thanks for the reply!
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas W
    This is like hitting the lottery.. Now you should charge your Uncle to teach him how to scale up his business.

    Good Luck
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    • Profile picture of the author NateRivers
      Originally Posted by Thomas W View Post

      This is like hitting the lottery.. Now you should charge your Uncle to teach him how to scale up his business.

      Good Luck
      Haha, I might try that except he has helped me with ton of design projects. Whenever I need to learn how to do something with Illustrator or Photoshop I have him show me, which is obviously how I got the idea to have him start a tutorial site.
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  • Profile picture of the author Istvan Horvath
    I would like to be more helpful to those at the beginning of their IM career but it seems most of you are not really paying attention to the key sentence/phrase in the OP:

    My uncle is a graphic designer who is damn good
    Which, translated to marketing terms means he's offering tremendous value! He has talent, experience and knowledge.

    Sorry, but if you have none of those - or anything similar - it will be quite difficult to start any membership site. You have to come up with something unique and of value.

    I am not saying that YOU personally need to have the knowledge/experience etc. Buy it, if you are lacking it or partner with someone. But you need to offer value!
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    • Profile picture of the author NateRivers
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      I would like to be more helpful to those at the beginning of their IM career but it seems most of you are not really paying attention to the key sentence/phrase in the OP:



      Which, translated to marketing terms means he's offering tremendous value! He has talent, experience and knowledge.

      Sorry, but if you have none of those - or anything similar - it will be quite difficult to start any membership site. You have to come up with something unique and of value.

      I am not saying that YOU personally need to have the knowledge/experience etc. Buy it, if you are lacking it or partner with someone. But you need to offer value!
      Istvan-
      Very good point, that is a huge distinction to make. It definitely isn't something to just be slapped together... the content has to be great.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike McAleer
      Originally Posted by Istvan Horvath View Post

      I would like to be more helpful to those at the beginning of their IM career but it seems most of you are not really paying attention to the key sentence/phrase in the OP:



      Which, translated to marketing terms means he's offering tremendous value! He has talent, experience and knowledge.

      Sorry, but if you have none of those - or anything similar - it will be quite difficult to start any membership site. You have to come up with something unique and of value.

      I am not saying that YOU personally need to have the knowledge/experience etc. Buy it, if you are lacking it or partner with someone. But you need to offer value!
      That is very true.... he did not just throw something up and get it to stick.

      he offered value and was paid for it!
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  • Profile picture of the author Robert Brauer
    Check out letterly.net - it's the easiest way to set up a "membership" style site without needing to own your own domain or hosting...

    It's more like a "paid newsletter," but it's a great starting point if you want to create recurring income...
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