Membership Websites Andrew and Daryl Grant

Agenda (morning) 1.Glossary of terms 2.Benefits & disadvantages of a membership site 3.Sites we’ve been working on in the last 2 months 4.Structure of membership sites 5.Our process to set up a membership site 6.How to choose a topic 7.How to design your business model 8.Membership site software

Agenda (afternoon) 1.Building the content 2.Pricing 3.Marketing strategies 4.How to monitor and fine tune 5.Outsourcing and leveraging 6.Upselling with backend products

What is a Membership site? AKA subscription site, continuity program People pay you on a regular basis Not for everyone – more sophisticated process than ebooks Can clip onto the backend of your ebook business Can range from free weekly newsletters to thousands of dollars a month

Glossary of terms Aweber Amember Verisign (Payflow Pro) Merchant account 2checkout Paypal

Benefits of a subscription site Only make the sale once and continue to get paid every month. Build a relationship so you become a trusted advisor. Can continue to upsell other products based on the relationship. Makes a great backend for your ebook (forced continuity).

Disadvantages of a subscription site Time consuming creating new content. More complex to administer. Can be expensive to set up, depending on the model you use. Can take time to set up (eg 6 months) depending on the model you use.

How much does a Membership site make? Price is usually $9 - $99 per month Aim is to get 1,000 members in 12 months 1,000 per month = $49,000 per month ($588,000 pa)

Our Round 1 JV Partners’ sites

Basic structure of a Membership site marketing free list marketing paid list - Provide good quality free content - Collect payments - Provide ongoing content & upsells - Administer list

Landing page Free content page Sign up page Members’ only page Eclass #1 Example and guided tour…

Steps to build a Membership site 1.Choose the topic 2.Design the business model and choose the software 3.Design and build the content 4.Plan and implement the marketing 5.Monitor and fine tune 6.Leverage and outsource 7.Upsell back-end products

1. Choose the topic

Criteria for a good topic 1.Hungry crowd (fanatical or illogically committed) 2.Easy to find the crowd (JVs, on or offline) 3.You are interested in the topic (or someone you know is) 4.Able to provide good quality ongoing / sequential information that is not available for free elsewhere

Choose the topic Or just use your best ebook topic…

2. Design the business model and choose the software

Topic examples

80/20 planning process 1.NOW – current situation 2.WHERE – 3 year goals 3.HOW – steps to achieve goals

80/20 planning process - NOW 1.Title and description 2.Who is your target market? 3.What are your customers needs, wants, fears and frustrations? 4.Where is your market? 5.Who has the customers before you? Where would you find existing lists or potential customers? 6.Who is the competition and what do they offer? 7.How can you differentiate from the competition? Are there any existing systems, constraints or preferences in terms of the software, regulations or business model?

80/20 planning process - WHERE 1.Where do you want to be in 12 months? (We use a 12 month target of 1,000 people paying $49 a month within 12 months). 2.What is your long term goal? (We like to keep our options open, so we put the site together in a way which makes it easy to sell, but with the option to outsource the day-to-day work and keep it to produce ongoing passive income, provided it’s headache-free).

80/20 planning process - HOW 1.Design the business model 2.Design and prepare the marketing 3.Design and prepare the content 4.Design and develop the software, including the payment processing system 5.Implement the marketing 6.Monitor and fine tune

Our software model

Benefits of our software model Able to send sequential eclasses Cheaper than most other membership site software Able to link to range of payment options that work in Australia Provides password protected members’ only area Able to clip on other modules as required, eg affiliate program, forum Automatic processing of unsubscribes

3. Design and build the content

Types of content Articles Eclasses Teleseminars Product reviews Testimonials Forum Workshops Coaching Audios Videos Camtasias

How to build the content Write it yourself Get an expert to write it for you Get a free-lance writer to write it for you Interview a different expert each week / month Use your past articles or newsletters Cut your ebook into eclasses Record yourself talking about each topic and provide each eclass as an audio

4. Plan and implement the marketing

Basic structure of a membership site marketing free list marketing paid list - Provide good quality free content - Collect payments - Provide ongoing content & upsells - Administer list

Marketing to get people to your free site

Marketing methods JVs with list owners ebook buyers google adwords ad to free report in targetted magazine free publicity / press release speaking opportunities forums and blog posts

Marketing methods (cont) fax or voice broadcast coregistration ebay free report search engine optimisation articles and linking strategies set up an affiliate program and encourage your current members to promote

Joint Venture with the Grants?

Questions about the JV How many will you choose? What are you providing? Will there be a JV agreement? What if it doesn’t work? Is there a guarantee? What’s the time commitment? When will it all start?

Marketing to convert people on your free site into paying members

marketing funnel Free DVD, audio or report Special offer / scratch and dent sale Offline (if you have their offline details) - lumpy mail, voice or fax broadcast, invitations to seminars Add as forced continuity bonus to yours or other people's products Teleseminars and webinars Marketing methods

5. Monitor and fine-tune

Number of people visiting free site % of people visiting free site who leave their name and % of people who buy at each stage of the funnel % of people who unsubscribe When people unsubscribe Average lifetime of a member (Eclass #35) Things to measure

6. Leverage and outsource

Things to outsource Help desk Content writing Database administration

7. Upsell backend products

Ascension model Ebook $19 - $47 Transcripts, audio mp3 $97 DVD course $197 - $297 Home study multi-media pack $497 - $1,997 Seminar, accelerated learning program $497 - $5,000 Group coaching, workshops, mastermind groups $2,500 - $20,000.

Thank you