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45 Clients Paying $79 Per Month...

by RyanLester
22 replies
That's $3555 Per Month! That's All I Need!

I believe that the recurring income business model is incredible. With this I mean something like a membership site focusing on a particular niche...

I don't think that people will STOP LEARNING...and with hundreds of millions of people coming online each year that business model is incredibly scale-able.

Is there anyone out there running memberships sites? or have another form of monthly income...this business model excites me so much....

Thanks for the responses...
#$79 #clients #month #paying
  • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
    Why not 5 clients at $750 per month, less workload for you. But more importantly, why is only $3500 all you need? Why not shoot higher?
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    • Profile picture of the author RedShifted
      Originally Posted by Matt Lee View Post

      Why not 5 clients at $750 per month, less workload for you. But more importantly, why is only $3500 all you need? Why not shoot higher?
      This is true but it would require a drastic change to his business model.

      If I was the OP I'd tag on some extra services and raise the price to $99 / month. That'll get him up to $4500 / month.

      Then after 90 days I'd make a few more changes and raise the price to $150 / month. That'll get him to $6750 / month which is a much nicer number.

      This is basically what large corporations do. Like comcast, I was paying $30 / month for internet then after the first year they tried to raise the price to $50 / month. So I called them up and told them to cancel my contract then they dropped the price back down to $30 lol.

      With that said, I like the strategy of slowing raising prices. Its sneaky and most people won't even notice it.

      -RS
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    • Profile picture of the author ezyvirtualassistant
      Originally Posted by Matt Lee View Post

      Why not 5 clients at $750 per month,
      How do you do it?
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    • Profile picture of the author infamous dave
      Originally Posted by Matt Lee View Post

      Why not 5 clients at $750 per month, less workload for you.
      Tell that to Walmart.
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      • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
        Originally Posted by infamous dave View Post

        Tell that to Walmart.
        Walmart is more of the "quantity over quality" and I'm in the quality over quantity part of the pool. Truth is, if you deliver results, and your clients are impressed they'll pay whatever you charge them - as long as you're delivering the honey.
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        • Profile picture of the author infamous dave
          Originally Posted by Matt Lee View Post

          Walmart is more of the "quantity over quality" and I'm in the quality over quantity part of the pool. Truth is, if you deliver results, and your clients are impressed they'll pay whatever you charge them - as long as you're delivering the honey.
          I thought the OP was talking about starting some sort of a membership site? I don't know of too many membership sites that are able to charge $798/month:confused:

          The "experts" here always say everyone else should raise their prices while they are selling a WSO for $5.00
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  • Profile picture of the author AmericanMuscleTA
    So, you're thinking about starting a membership site or you already have one?
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  • Profile picture of the author TerriL
    Originally Posted by RyanLester View Post

    That's $3555 Per Month! That's All I Need!

    I believe that the recurring income business model is incredible. With this I mean something like a membership site focusing on a particular niche...

    I don't think that people will STOP LEARNING...and with hundreds of millions of people coming online each year that business model is incredibly scale-able.

    Is there anyone out there running memberships sites? or have another form of monthly income...this business model excites me so much....

    Thanks for the responses...
    I'm confused... do you have a membership site that is charging $79 per month, or are your managing people's websites offline, and charging $79 per month?

    Very difficuly to understand what you are saying by your post.
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  • Profile picture of the author RyanLester
    Let's not get too specific over figures or the amount of clients. It's just a number.

    I could have said...50 at $80 or 60 at $100 but whatever...

    I dont have a membership site. But would love to start 1 or 3.....
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    • Profile picture of the author DarioMontesdeOca
      Originally Posted by RyanLester View Post

      I dont have a membership site. But would love to start 1 or 3.....
      Why not just start and let us know your progress?
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  • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
    I brought our subscription webservice from concept to what it is now. It's really software, only now the distribution method is different. Instead of purchasing the software and installing it from a CD, it is distributed over the Internet and customers simply login to use it.
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  • Profile picture of the author iAmNameLess
    Subscription based software services are much easier than a membership based site that is basically selling information. There has to be a reason for people to subscribe, and there needs to be a reason for them to continue to pay monthly.

    It all sounds pretty easy in theory, but difficult to execute successfully.

    What do you have in mind?

    As for other ways to have recurring income, anyone that builds a site with us pays $50/mo in hosting/maintenance. Adds up pretty fast and is mostly passive. Could also offer SEO services but that is definitely not a way to build a passive income.
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    • Profile picture of the author jamesfreddyc
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Subscription based software services are much easier than a membership based site that is basically selling information. There has to be a reason for people to subscribe, and there needs to be a reason for them to continue to pay monthly.

      It all sounds pretty easy in theory, but difficult to execute successfully.
      Good point. It is an important differentiation to make as the effort to build software is much greater than an info-based product with the majority of that work front-loaded.

      I will say that aside from maintenance and feature additions, deploying a SaaS is pretty much a flip-the-switch and let it run type of operation. But the developers must be really organized and on top of things to keep it all running smoothly.

      Edit: typically for SaaS, the website itself really consists of two parts: the software/membership area and the front page(s). In this it really is a hybrid of both needing good copy on the front page(s), and the membership area designated for the "software".
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by iAmNameLess View Post

      Subscription based software services are much easier than a membership based site that is basically selling information. There has to be a reason for people to subscribe, and there needs to be a reason for them to continue to pay monthly.

      It all sounds pretty easy in theory, but difficult to execute successfully.

      What do you have in mind?

      As for other ways to have recurring income, anyone that builds a site with us pays $50/mo in hosting/maintenance. Adds up pretty fast and is mostly passive. Could also offer SEO services but that is definitely not a way to build a passive income.
      A membership site that gives information has a much shorter "Customer lifetime" than billing monthly for web services.

      I used to charge $39.95 a month for a newsletter and interview CD. My average customer lifetime was 18 months.

      I also charge $199 a month for marketing, hosting, upkeep (as a tail to a local online marketing package). That tail lasts an average of 14 months.

      And I used to have a monthly fee for a membership site, I think it was $39.95 a month. My average was 5 months, before they quit.

      All of these were billed to their credit card automatically.

      If you have a membership site, it's typical for the members to read everything they are interested in...in the first month...then it's just a matter of waiting until they get tired of paying for access.

      There are exceptions, of course.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sean DeSilva
    The numbers you are targeting could be a good fit for a specialized niche newsletter. You gather 100 to 300 dentists or other service professional with a recurring need to stay up-to-date in their industry, hire a writer to put together five pages of top-tier content, and mail it to everyone on a monthly basis at $100 per month. There is another thread in the warrior forum that goes over this exact method; I believe the thread creator had great success with it.
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  • Profile picture of the author massiveray
    Personally I love the membership model, I currently have 2 sites that were created using the exact same strategy, 10 base articles, rank them for decent sized searches in the target industry (mainly questions). Once they generate revenue sort out some adwords and Facebook ads and you're golden so long as you have a decent product for people to sign up to.

    From personal experience though, you'd need to provide something special to charge that kind of fee, and probably some exclusive software, I find that £30 is the limit for what I can charge, as soon as I go any amount above this sign ups drop rapidly.

    Charge monthly for advanced lessons, personal time, video content, premium products etc etc I also like to give away a lot of stuff, it really increases engagement on social media and comments On posts etc which I'm turn is great social prof and increases sign ups.

    Hire 4-5 writers with personality, each should fit a different type of person so people can have their "favourite" and let them do their thing and it can be a pretty hand off model.

    You have to keep an eye on churn though, as Claude said the customer lifetime can be a frustrating thing, as is the entire point of people paying you, they want to learn and once they learn a certain amount, they then think they are the expert, they then think they are too good to keep paying you, so a constant source of new sign ups is required.

    It's also quite difficult to keep the content fresh, in certain niches where there are constant changes and industry news it's not so bad but in others it can be frustrating as there is only a finite amount of information.

    With these types of sites it's better to have some form of course that is drip fed monthly to guarantee that they will stay a member for the duration rather than consuming all of your content and doing a runner.

    Also on the SaaS thing, there a lot of upfront cost and time involved and no guarantee on return so I personally prefer the membership model for a cheap quick start up. Although I'd be very interested in SaaS if I had a good enough idea that I was passionate about.
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  • Profile picture of the author jontipping
    All really great comments on your post.
    I have a background in computer consulting and the industry is RAPIDLY moving to SaaS.
    Anti-virus products, backup products, hosted Exchange, remote access.
    There are a ton of opportunities to sell or resell SaaS!
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  • Profile picture of the author iamchrisgreen
    Ok, so now you've seen that it can be done. What's your next step to starting your membership site?
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    • Profile picture of the author midasman09
      Banned
      Some yrs ago I started a "New Resident" program that involved sending Discount Coupons to New Home Buyers.

      In those days I bought a Mailing List of 150/mo for my area and got biz owners who wanted to contact new House Buyers to pay $1 ea for each Name.

      Biznesses like;
      Pest Control
      Plumber,
      House Painter
      Landscaping
      Roofing
      Financial Planing
      Accounting
      Spa & Pool
      etc...etc

      I gave each biz an exclusive.

      I then built a website for New Residents.

      I then sold the biz and the people who bought it....didn't service it so it went by the wayside.

      UPDate to 2014 when Home Sales "appear" to be picking up AND....a BIG, AND....most of the home buyers have some kind of Mobile Device.

      So....why not create a "Mobile Town Directory" and send PostCards (with QR Codes) to Home Buyers telling them by "Scanning" the Code they can receive Special Discounts for Home Buyers.

      And....by contacting "Fresh Home Buyers" every month....I keep "INTEREST" high so my members KEEP PAYING!

      That's just one type of "Membership" program. Why not create a Membership Site....again, for people who have Mobile Devices who are staying at local Hotels and Motels?

      These Tourists/Travelers are hungry and have money to spend on Food and other things of interest to people who stay in local Hotels/Motels.

      Now....how can we get this "Target Market" to FIND our Mobile Membership Site?

      3 ways;
      1) Doing some SEO work for the site
      2) Placing Displays with QR Codes on the Front Counter
      3) Placing TV Channel Guides, with QR Codes, IN rooms so that when Room Guests are looking for their favorite TV SHows and discover that the Channels in their room are different than those at home...they look around for a "TV Channel Guide" for local channels....then they see mine AND.....also see a QR Code that tells them they can find Places of Interest to Visitors...just by Scanning the Code!

      And....when they discover and redeem the Coupons guess what?....my Paying Members KEEP PAYING????

      Don Alm
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      • Profile picture of the author Jack Gordon
        Originally Posted by midasman09 View Post

        Some yrs ago I started a "New Resident" program that involved sending Discount Coupons to New Home Buyers.

        In those days I bought a Mailing List of 150/mo for my area and got biz owners who wanted to contact new House Buyers to pay $1 ea for each Name.
        This is a great example of what can be done by anyone with the creativity and drive to succeed.

        It is very inspiring. Thanks for sharing it.

        To OP, I am a fan of the membership model as well. In one business, I provide an ongoing stream of fresh data (as well as a way to process it) to clients who are willing to pay for it. In another, I provide compliance training and daily testing (which is pushed to the students, tracked and reported to their supervisors).

        Note that both businesses offer something more than just "content" which can be consumed and allowed to grow stale.

        I would encourage you to think long and hard about ways to provide extraordinary value to your customers, above and beyond the traditional "online training" model.
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      • Profile picture of the author MindBuzz
        Originally Posted by midasman09 View Post

        Some yrs ago I started a "New Resident" program that involved sending Discount Coupons to New Home Buyers.

        In those days I bought a Mailing List of 150/mo for my area and got biz owners who wanted to contact new House Buyers to pay $1 ea for each Name.

        Biznesses like;
        Pest Control
        Plumber,
        House Painter
        Landscaping
        Roofing
        Financial Planing
        Accounting
        Spa & Pool
        etc...etc

        I gave each biz an exclusive.

        I then built a website for New Residents.

        I then sold the biz and the people who bought it....didn't service it so it went by the wayside.

        UPDate to 2014 when Home Sales "appear" to be picking up AND....a BIG, AND....most of the home buyers have some kind of Mobile Device.

        So....why not create a "Mobile Town Directory" and send PostCards (with QR Codes) to Home Buyers telling them by "Scanning" the Code they can receive Special Discounts for Home Buyers.

        And....by contacting "Fresh Home Buyers" every month....I keep "INTEREST" high so my members KEEP PAYING!

        That's just one type of "Membership" program. Why not create a Membership Site....again, for people who have Mobile Devices who are staying at local Hotels and Motels?

        These Tourists/Travelers are hungry and have money to spend on Food and other things of interest to people who stay in local Hotels/Motels.

        Now....how can we get this "Target Market" to FIND our Mobile Membership Site?

        3 ways;
        1) Doing some SEO work for the site
        2) Placing Displays with QR Codes on the Front Counter
        3) Placing TV Channel Guides, with QR Codes, IN rooms so that when Room Guests are looking for their favorite TV SHows and discover that the Channels in their room are different than those at home...they look around for a "TV Channel Guide" for local channels....then they see mine AND.....also see a QR Code that tells them they can find Places of Interest to Visitors...just by Scanning the Code!

        And....when they discover and redeem the Coupons guess what?....my Paying Members KEEP PAYING????

        Don Alm
        I think this is a fantastic idea to get started. I think anything that is monthly recurring, be it a membership site or otherwise, is the way to go for truly residual wealth creation.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mateenyall
    Membership sites are the bomb, I'm working on one as well.

    I think the challenge would be to keep the content fresh & exciting. I can see people leaving once they've read everything they think they need to. Unless you don't have a community feel then it'll be hard to keep people.
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