How I Make $40k/mth From My Membership Site

Over the years I've benefitted a lot from the information on this forum, and so I thought it was time to give back a little. Originally I was going to write a book on my selling system, but since I spend less than 30 minutes a day in productive admin work, the thought of writing full-time for a couple months is not attractive right now. I've been a "4 Hour Work Week" sort of guy long before Tim Ferris fell into it.

So this post is just an overview of some of the processes I use.

I've never fully explained how I work my business. Nobody's asked me either, and I'm always surprised why they haven't. Anyone that sells well over seven figures a year has some knowledge that is worthwhile sharing, and usually just for the asking.

The best part of my income is that while most of it is very consistent, a solid percentage of the revenue comes from the membership site.

So here's some details on it. I've left a lot of information out - mainly because a good selling system is actually quite complicated. I have bits connected to other bits which spin off to yet others... even I get confused at times. But it's all necessary to make the whole business work effectively.

I'm not saying this to make it sound complex, but over time I've found there are essentials that are needed to make the sale... and if you leave them out, they won't.

OK, to the technical stuff...

My base model is quite simple. I sell a basic lottery system with a number of profitable 'back ends'... one of which is a membership site that provides a real benefit to the whole system.

Sounds simple, but the secret to the membership site success is actually the Product itself (capitals to emphasize its importance). It is a hugely effective winning system which works. Maybe the only one on the planet And since hundreds of millions round the world play each week, everyone needs it.

So if you wanted to sell dog collars by duplicating my selling system, you wouldn't get the same results. The Product is key. When you discover your own unique Product that appeals to desperate buyers, and give them an effective solution to their problem, then you'll also have the golden goose sitting on your doorstep.

It's so crucial I need to repeat it: *What* you choose as a Product is the essential answer to a multi-million dollar business. And you must sell to desperate buyers. Spend 99% of your time figuring out that, and the recurring income goes on forever. Get the Product right and it can be recession-proof, like mine. Sales have increased 20% over the last year.


Here's how it works:

1. I sell my main Product almost as a loss leader, as I give 50% of it away to affiliates. They are my mainstay. I put a lot of effort into the main Product to keep the true refund rate down to a consistent 1%. With figures like this it's hugely appealing to affiliates, and some of them make $30k/yr.

Once the Product is sold and in use, then I introduce the buyer to several spin-off products to better meet their needs. It's done by autoresponder - more on that later.

2. One of those essential byproducts is a $7.80/mth Membership Site. It took me a while to get a workable solution. Initially I struggled trying to figure out how anyone could make money with a membership site when most of the world's knowledge can be found for free in a few minute's search on the net.

The churn factor in many membership sites is high because there is no real reason to continue once the needed information is received. Ask anyone to make a choice between a site with all the information contained ready to go... or the same information dribbled out over many months, and most choose the instant result. So getting the right information combination for my buyers was the main key in my membership site business.

I spent a year or so developing my membership concept. And the time spent was worth it. Figure it out for yourself... $40,000/mth at $7.80 each, that's over 5,000 members and still growing. And they stay with me for years. One of the advantages of a low monthly membership fee is that it's usually more economical to bill in 3 or 6 month intervals. This locks in income.

I use aMember Pro to run the membership site, and while the member sign-up is a little complex, it generally works well.

3. In addition, I have a lot of sales and email-gathering systems that funnel sales back to the membership site. In one area recently I sold squeeze page mini-sites which link to the main product. That gave me two forms of income... one from selling the sites, and the other getting sales from the products these mini-site affiliates sold. In another area I showed affiliates how to develop and sell the Product using a free blog. I also give away a free book which virally grows more sales. All these approaches piggyback on each other to increase income and push buyers through to the membership site.

4. I ALWAYS collect email addresses at EVERY step of the way. In fact I'm probably one of the most aggressive marketers I know (in a honey/treacle kinda way), in getting names and email addresses from every part of my process.

5. Email is King. I send out email newsletters mostly daily. Some have called this frequency overkill. But I've sent them at this rate for years, and get powerful results by a factor of 10 times. I was able to prove that recently when I messed up for a week and watched 90% of my sales drop away.

I've found that when a prospect is in a buying frame of mind, they need every snippet of information on the Product they can get. There is no such thing as overkill because the prospect craves as much information and confirmation as they can. And after the sale they need more information to prevent buyer's remorse. So nothing is wasted on a buyer - only on the tire-kickers.

Oh, and I send out valuable information in every 4 out of 5 messages, not just constant sales offers. That's important.

Once the subscriber is in the mix, whether it's via a mass broadcast or individual subscriber email, they get a cheerfully relentless stream of interesting newsletters in addition to the ones I put out daily. Many of those promote the membership site.

6. I use GetResponse autoresponders for many reasons. I go way back with Simon, and over the years I found his product is extremely stable and a great business match for my Products. Another reason is his product solutions. GetResponse has all the answers wrapped up in one product.

7. After I write the daily newsletter, it goes straight on my blog. This is another part of the giant spiderweb which catches and draws prospects into my system to eventually lead them into the membership site. I use Google's free Blogger program, and back up constantly to insure the content. One of the advantages of using Blogger is that I can make a post and see it in Google less than 30 minutes later. Wordpress is just as good, but I find Blogger easier to use. Sometimes I optimize the subject heading for SEO, other times I don't. There are some 750 posts on it right now, and I get 50,000 unique visits a month. I use it solely as an ezine record keeper and promotion tool, and don't allow comments so I can reduce my time involvement.

8. I protect the sales process with a number of redundant processes like multiple credit card processors, hosts etc, so if one fails I can quickly change to another. This also keeps most of my business information separate so no-one group knows what the other is doing. Call me mildly paranoid but it's the reason I've never been affected or infected by the bad guys.

9. I never use outside advertising. I'm approached weekly and offered large sums to place ads on my sites, but I turn them all down. I believe it's important to lock prospects into a narrow beam of interest that leads only to MY Product. Once you dilute that interest with outside ads then you've lost them for good.


So there's a small part of my selling system, and I hope you can see how it all fits into the membership site structure.

Admittedly I have certain advantages in my business now which are hard to duplicate for beginners, and the main one is longevity. I've been selling my Products since 1991, and have been selling them on the net since 1995. A background like that is pure silver , but there's only one way to copy it, and that's to start now.

Good luck!