Membership Sites Are EASY…No, They’re Too Much Work…Hang On…Which is It?

It seems for a long, the guru of the month, would shout out from the rooftops (while peddling their high-ticket product on well…you guessed it…membership sites) how easy it was to build a membership site. I mean, who doesn’t LOVE recurring, “auto-pilot” income, right?

But then reality hit and there’s been some backlash for some time now. I see people saying it’s not that easy to get new members. They say it’s not easy to retain members. And gosh darn it, it takes a LOT of work to keep delivering the goods to members.

So who’s right? The guru of the month…or the people out in the field, getting their hands really messy with this membership site stuff?

I’d say they’re BOTH right, depending on how you go about it.

Some background:

• Membership sites and recurring products are responsible for approximately 85% of my income.
• I’ve successfully (in partnership with others in most cases) launched 8 membership sites…and although I’ve moved on from one project, all are still in existence and thriving.

Now, this is not to brag. My accomplishments aren’t terribly unusual for someone who is serious about getting serious with memberships. I’m just mentioning it to show that doing well with memberships is more than just a possibility.

So let’s get to it…

Success Strategies for Membership Sites

If you’ve been trying to get a membership up and running…or if you’ve been thinking of getting started with one, here’s a few tips that will make things much easier for you.

1. Make sure what you’re selling is in demand. I guess it’s kind of obvious, but many people pick a topic and think they can just set up a membership and everything will fall into place. Make sure your market wants what you want to share. Look for other similar and successful products (a good indicator of demand), listen to your customers and readers – then deliver based on that.

2. Make it difficult for members to cut ties with your membership (KEEP READING TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I MEAN). Now, I don’t mean to not answer the phone, ignore emails and create cancellation buttons that don’t work. Of course not! I mean, offer something that they won’t want to unsubscribe from.

Ideas:

• Offer them access to an online software program (think file storage – ex. web hosting, photos, etc. or calculators, databases, etc.) that is discontinued when they cancel their membership.
• Give them incremental content and access to certain areas of the membership. Don’t give it to them all at once…and make sure that what you give them becomes greater in value over time.
• When you raise your prices, grandfather the membership dues of all your current members. As long as your members maintain an active subscription, they keep the low price. If they leave and come back again – they have to pay more.
• Offer products that are consumed (i.e. your members will always need more). This could be physical consumable products or something digital like the PLR content that we sell.

3. Focus on MARKETING your membership, rather than working on it. Many people get bogged down in putting together content and spending endless hours making the membership great. Problem is, all that effort means you’re taken away from what truly makes your membership site as success and that’s – MEMBERS. If you don’t take time to get new members on an ongoing basis, your AWESOME membership site will be pretty lonely.

Ideas:

• From the very beginning, you should have an outsourcing plan. Even if you initially want to get your membership content together, make sure your pricing strategy considers a budget where you can get help with your membership site. If you’re going to do EVERYTHING, you’ll burn yourself out and likely won’t be happy with the results of your efforts.
• If you don’t want to hire, consider partnering with someone. One person can be responsible for maintaining the membership (creating and updating content) and the other can be responsible for acquiring new members (managing ad campaigns, creating promotions, running the affiliate program).

Overall, membership sites are not a complete “set-it-and-forget-it” opportunity. You do need to ensure you’re set up to deliver ongoing content – and you do need a plan for continually bring in new members as old members will drop off. But if you set it up right, it’s well worth the effort.

BONUS TIP: Always be careful in promising more than you can give. We all want to create a great resource for our members, but many people start by piling on the perks so high they can’t keep up, especially if the membership isn’t as immediately successful as they’d hope. Start small…price accordingly and keep loading on the extras to attract new members and keep existing ones from wanting to leave.

(Note to Sweetie Saturday Report Club Members: There is a report in the back-issues called “Recurring Revenue Recipe for Success” that you might want to pick up for more strategies for recurring income.)