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Running a Non-moneymaking Membership Site?

by Adie
16 replies
I never run a membership site but I am planning to have one this coming 2014. I have several offline businesses (auto-repair shop, small farm, a stall in wet market). This coming 2014, I decided to focus more on my small farm. I am raising rabbits, poultry, pigs, cattle, goats, etc. I have a pond of eel, a pond of tilapia, a pond of mudfish (snakehead), Australian red claw crayfish, and a lot of red worms. Last month, I was successful in my long-time planned project about putting pressure on spring water so that it could reach the higher ground without the use of any electricity or mechanical force. Now, that free-flowing spring water is supplying all of my ponds, my farm house, and 3 of my neighbors' houses through a series of pipes..

I documented everything (video and written materials) and planning to put all these information in my planned membership site. I already have a lot of guides, tips, and articles about running a farm and raising these animals and even about solar panels, sheds, and everything. I never published a single material online as I think these are every valuable materials and worth the money.

I know most of you here are not familiar with these and how valuable they are but how much do you think should I charge for a member monthly if I am going to put these materials in a membership site? Way back then, I remember a sports membership site that charges $29.9/month. The site offers advanced statistics of players (NBA) and does not even have unique data as most of the stats are found also in espn and basketballreference.com

Based on the information I provided above, how much do you think shall I charge per member per month? There's no detailed free guide online (aside from thesis and desertions) about culturing eels, mudfish, and other related things and I think people will surely pay for this information if they find it legit, based on personal experience together with videos and photos.

What do you think?
All opinion counts.
Thanks
#membership #moneymaking #online #sites
  • Profile picture of the author Peter Lessard
    Hi Adie

    It sounds like your knowledge solves some serious problems that would be of great value to those in similar circumstances.

    From the brief explanation it seems to me you have several stand alone info products since many people will have one or two problems you have solved but not all of them.

    Personally I would create clickbank products one at a time with laser targeted products that solve a specific problem. Next I would do an upsell for a membership site that offers a user community with breaking news on whatever subject they bought info on. I would then offer discounts on other products and provide access to yet another section of a forum based on that purchase.

    The reason I am recommending this course of action is because I think it is a huge mistake to dilute the marketing by saying join our site we solve a, b, c, d etc...
    and I believe that one or two of your guides or products will be the big money makers and the others just nice to have.

    You could get much more money with one off sales using clickbank and still have the best of both worlds since you will be building a list to sell them the other products or the choice of selling them on membership.

    Further by focusing on just trying to sell your top one or two products you will see if there is demand and what conversions are like instead of making the sales pitch about a membership site. If the membership site fails it could be easy to blame the products. The success of the product should come first with the membership as an upsell or add on.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    Great suggestion. I never created my own product and don't have any idea about these upselling etc thing and I think I need to study this tsystem in the near future.Or I could also outsource the marketing stage.

    Creating a clickbank product was actually the first thing that comes to mind. I think even if I have a membership site, I still need to have a cb product so that other people who don't want to be a member could still buy.

    And since I will be adding contents every now and then, I think I also need to update my CB products from time to time.

    I am a member of some aquatic/aquaponic forums and I saw large number of people who are asking related questions that I have the answers. They will be my primary target customers in the near future.

    I will surely consider your helpful suggestions. Thank you
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
    I don't know how profitable your niches are, but I know there are sure a ton of people looking to be more self sufficient. Well, sure you know that because your in it.

    Would think that that small farm idea alone could make a membership site. But will those kinds of people pay? I say that because it "seems" they are into finding the answers on their own, and there are so many websites for everything small farm. Course people still pay for mother earth news even though it stinks now.

    But I agree though, as plessard said, sounds like you have a number of stand alone products. One each just for the fish.

    On a side note the Red Claw crawfish sound delicious
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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    Yes Ron, the Red Claw is surely delicious and I am the only one who grow this creature in my province and is very expensive. Even here, there are a lot of people who wanted to grow crawfish as this is is still new to them. I even give a 3-page free printed guide on how to grow red worms to my local customers who wanted to grow the same thing.

    Many times I thought of blogging about my farm but I think I am going to make more money by having a membership site than just a normal blog that sells adspace.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
      Originally Posted by Adie View Post

      Yes Ron, the Red Claw is surely delicious and I am the only one who grow this creature in my province and is very expensive. Even here, there are a lot of people who wanted to grow crawfish as this is is still new to them. I even give a 3-page free printed guide on how to grow red worms to my local customers who wanted to grow the same thing.

      Many times I thought of blogging about my farm but I think I am going to make more money by having a membership site than just a normal blog that sells adspace.
      Seafood is my fave. Many years ago, I was checking out how people were farm raising shrimp, think it was mostly prawns, and there was good money in it. All from ponds. Was very interesting.

      Any ways, here's another thought, one tactic is to have a free membership section, and your paid membership section could be the upsell. It's a way to get them into your house. In the free section you could give away things that give them a taste of your content, such as the worm farming report for example. Plus they could see all that is available to them if they join the paid section. Just an idea.
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  • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
    Why don't you sell it in one large pack?

    I don't see why people would pay a monthly fee for access to the same info, unless you're regularly updating...

    As a side project, you could perhaps also consider starting a forum on the subject?

    Good luck in 2014!
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    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by JRJWrites View Post

      Why don't you sell it in one large pack?

      I don't see why people would pay a monthly fee for access to the same info, unless you're regularly updating...

      As a side project, you could perhaps also consider starting a forum on the subject?

      Good luck in 2014!
      I will be updating the site every week that's why I need a membership site. The information will be always new all and all will be coming from my experiments in my farm.
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      • Profile picture of the author JRJWrites
        Originally Posted by Adie View Post

        I will be updating the site every week that's why I need a membership site. The information will be always new all and all will be coming from my experiments in my farm.
        Ah! Ok. Must have missed that part. Silly me.

        All the best!
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  • Profile picture of the author misshang
    Adie,
    have you checked how much your keyword in adsense paid?
    I am asian, and I find out that, sometimes it is more profitible with a profitable keyword ranked no 1 in google than your info products, especially it's detailed and you have tons of stuff to write about. In my own niche, if you ranked no1 in google, you will get paid 33kUSD monthly, and I have not found many ppl in this niche earned that much with a site.

    How you about you do an adsense site to rank to share some knowlideg, and another one for more detailized information as membership products?
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    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by misshang View Post

      Adie,
      have you checked how much your keyword in adsense paid?
      I am asian, and I find out that, sometimes it is more profitible with a profitable keyword ranked no 1 in google than your info products, especially it's detailed and you have tons of stuff to write about. In my own niche, if you ranked no1 in google, you will get paid 33kUSD monthly, and I have not found many ppl in this niche earned that much with a site.

      How you about you do an adsense site to rank to share some knowlideg, and another one for more detailized information as membership products?
      That's another possibility too but adsense had been my least priority for more than 6 years now as I don't want to rely my business to something that I have limited control. I have some nightmares concerning adsense.
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      • Profile picture of the author Renal Jo
        I learned from membership cube course that you don't want to invest your time in a site that may or may not produce any income.

        I would recommend you start your membership site with a one off product on a WordPress site with the Wishlist membership plugin under one level.

        I would then create another level with the reminder of your content drip feed at a monthly price.

        The reasoning is two fold. You will create a buyer list from the one off product and you already have them on a list. Your existing user base would be able to continue using their existing user and password.

        I hope that helps.
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      • Profile picture of the author Ron Killian
        Originally Posted by Adie View Post

        That's another possibility too but adsense had been my least priority for more than 6 years now as I don't want to rely my business to something that I have limited control. I have some nightmares concerning adsense.
        That's the key, no control. No control over what ads show, what you get paid (often pennies) and it's too easy to lose your account with no recourse.

        Maybe others have better results, but from my experience the CTR is usually terrible, and that's wasting your potential ad views/clicks. Losing money.
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  • Profile picture of the author misshang
    Adie,

    I understand you concerns, I have trouble with adsense as well, and I can never get it successfully. but I think it's wise you do a google trends/keyword planner search to see where your prospectus are. If this demands is from your country, then it's not very promsing you make lots of it than from google. I respect your determination and being Asians, sometimes, it is easier earning money from big company mainly. The example I mentioned, the keyword applied to my country only. It's complete different in other countries. open your keyword planner and trends, no harm in research potential first.

    All the best to your success.
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  • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
    Actually, I think you are underpricing your product. How much time, money and expense would it cost someone to do this all themselves or hire someone to come and build it. I imagine it would not be cheap, and it sounds like there is good profit making potential in it. Just because most warriors are cheap (OMG it costs more then $7 bucks.. rip off!) doesn't mean you need to sell outside of that market for cheap. Look at a 199 or 299 price tag and give it to them all at once. This is not like a fitness niche where there are thousands of other products, yours sounds fairly unique...
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    • Profile picture of the author Adie
      Originally Posted by OnlineStoreHelp View Post

      Actually, I think you are underpricing your product. How much time, money and expense would it cost someone to do this all themselves or hire someone to come and build it. I imagine it would not be cheap, and it sounds like there is good profit making potential in it. Just because most warriors are cheap (OMG it costs more then $7 bucks.. rip off!) doesn't mean you need to sell outside of that market for cheap. Look at a 199 or 299 price tag and give it to them all at once. This is not like a fitness niche where there are thousands of other products, yours sounds fairly unique...
      I haven't decided about the price yet although the first 2 products that I am planning to create and sell have zero competition even in amazon and clickbank, and I don't understand why even some people are already doing it. I will take a lot of thinking and working as I will base everything on the result of the actual work.
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      • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
        Adie, it sounds like you might be on to something with serious potential here. One of the big trends in the foodie world right now is sustainable production and local sourcing of ingredients.

        I'd look at a two-stage funnel, not including any freebies that you might offer to get people through the door.

        Maybe even three...

        1) Basic guides published on Kindle (if it's available to you). Add a call to action for a trial membership as a gift for buying.

        2) A series of more involved Clickbank products at a higher price.

        3) Your paid membership site, with in-depth information, updates and (using something like BuddyPress) an opportunity for members to communicate with each other and have more access to you. You could offer monthly, quarterly and annual pricing, sort of like the web hosting companies do.

        You also have multiple market niches you could appeal to. From folks like you with small farms, to people looking for sustainable lifestyles, to foodie types looking for ways to use/promote sustainable food production and local sourcing.
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