5 Big Membership Site Mistakes Online Marketers Make

Have you ever wanted to have a membership site?

I’ve had the pleasure/pain of running 5 membership sites over the years and I can talk about these mistakes from my advantage point of having learned personally from some of them.

Having a membership means that wonderful 14 letter phrase savvy marketers like to hear… residual income. But only if you do it right. Every month people start membership sites only to shut them down a few months later. Often the failed site hurts their reputation because they didn’t deliver what they promised to members.

Don’t be one of those guys. Here are 5 big membership site mistakes:

Customer Base Issues

If you pick the wrong topic, you’re doomed from the beginning.  A membership site needs a wide customer base. Your topic should be specialized but not so narrow that you can’t consistently attract new members.

Your membership site topic has to be large enough that you can produce fresh content month after month. Pick a topic that a lot of people are interested in. It should also be evergreen content.

One of my membership sites was very narrowly targeted, which was perfectly suited for my narrow niche, but was not good for getting new members because the topic was so specialized. I had plenty of content to run this for a year, but I didn’t have a wide base of potential customers to draw from that was interested in this.

Content Issues

Point blank, members of your site are looking for fresh content every month. You need to give this to them or they’ll unsubscribe. Do up an editorial schedule so you know exactly what you’ll deliver each month. This will help you stay on track. Base your schedule on the benefits that you promised in your sales letter and you’ll have happy, satisfied customers that will stick around.

Tip - Every time you put out fresh content, drop hints about what amazing (benefit-driven) content will be coming out the following month.

Conversion Issues

Think of your sales letter as your 24/7 sales person. It doesn’t matter how much traffic you drive to your membership site if your sales letter isn’t doing its job. If you don’t trust your own copywriting ability, hire a professional writer with mad skills. The investment should be worth it because you’ll see higher conversions and therefore more members.

Saying from experience – don’t overlook this!

Circulation Issues

You should always have new members coming into your membership site, but the only way you can do this is to market your site continually.

You should be conducting pay per click campaigns, distributing article marketing articles, submitting guest posts to higher traffic blogs, doing webinars, and utilizing social media to drive more traffic to your site. Work this into your weekly plans so that you can keep the flow of new members consistent.

Tip - One thing that really helps is to have the majority of your content ready to go so you can concentrate more of your time on marketing.

Commitment Issues

It takes much more effort to get a new member than it does to keep one that you’ve already got. By posting consistent content, offering polls, running contests, etc., you’ll be able to hold onto your members.

A wise marketer, Cindi Dawber, once told me that the word membership is an “action verb”, not a “noun”.

There is also your commitment to putting out the content in a timely manner, month after month. This is where I highly encourage you to make your membership sites a fixed term (ftm). It can be for a year or 10 intense weeks, or anything in between.

One of mine is a year long, another is 6 months. This made them NOT overwhelming for me to take on.

I’m sharing these mistakes so that when you create a membership site your sales can really soar. I hope I haven’t scared you off though! Memberships have really made a HUGE difference to my income.

I do know a way to minimize these issues – Jimmy D. Brown’s new Membership To Go package.

It’s a complete, one-year membership site that you can purchase and use as your own. He’s never offered this before and it includes everything you need to get started, including all the membership content, the expertly written sales letter, a pre-sell report, articles, and other marketing  materials. And yes, you can customize the content however you want to.

Set it up at your site, sell as many memberships as you want, keep 100% of every sale!

Get all the details at: Membership To Go

I think you’ll find that using this complete package for your own membership will eliminate costly mistakes and get you set up for profitability. And since Jimmy D. Brown wrote all the content himself, that means it’s amazingly detailed and thorough… just what your members will love and stick around to learn from month after month.

It gets even better…

For a limited time BONUS he’s offering to throw in his Memberhaire product for free! So it’s like getting 2 great products for the price of one. Membernaire goes along perfectly because it’s all about setting up a successful membership site model and it’s for YOU, the owner. You can learn more about it through the link above.

P.S. I was interrupted while writing this post no less than 25 times by my 20 year old and my 17 (18 in 2 days) year old so if you find small errors or typos, my apologies. If I wasn’t so passionate about this topic, I would have just given up and not fought the battle to stay focused here.

 

Internet Marketing Advice, Whether You Think You Need It Or Not

It’s not hard for me to put internet marketing aside for a bit when I’ve got other pressing concerns. Like helping my son  get ready to graduate from high school – advising him on his senior project, making sure he’s jumped through all the required hoops, sending announcements, finding something suitable to wear to the ceremony, planning a celebratory party, etc.

Last night I was reading some parent tips about getting ready for college and I realized how I appreciated this good advice, even though I already have a daughter in college. A bit of the advice was new to me but most of it was a refresher. It got me to thinking and will help me get organized, focused, and headed down the right path.

In the spirit of giving helpful advice, I decided to talk here about what I know about marketing on the internet. I’m also incorporating some of the most common questions I get in my inbox. Maybe you’ll find some of these tips helpful. Maybe you could add your own to the comments.

1. There’s always a debate about whether you should pick a niche that you’re passionate about or just follow the money. Honestly, you need a niche you’re crazy about, but that others are just as crazy about and are willing to spend money in. It’s been my experience that if you love it, it’s So. Much. Easier. Not only do you like to talk and blog about it, but you already know it inside and out.

If you just go for a niche that’s a potential income earner, it won’t be long til you absolutely hate it. It gets to the point where you’d rather go to the dentist for a root canal than write one more blog post about it. Of course you can outsource, but you still need to edit what is written for you and you’ll still be involved in the topic.

2. Build your list! I can’t stress this enough!

“My income is directly proportional to the size of my list.  This doesn’t mean two lists the same size earn the same amount.  It means that YOU, if you consistently grow your list and stay in contact with them can see your income grow with the list.” ~Terry Dean

3. If looking at another marketer’s success in your field disheartens you, don’t look at what they’re doing. Have confidence in what you’re doing or are about to do and go for it.

4. It’s really not that hard to create a product. Do some interviews and bundle it up. Viola! A product. Or look at the top questions in your niche and answer them. Add images and turn it into a pdf. See? You’ve created something people want.

5. Good ideas are not enough. You have to take action. Taking action is scary for a lot of people, you are not alone. Do it anyway.

6. Follow-through is so important! It doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect, but it does have to be complete. If you’re a starter and you have trouble with this, find someone to partner with that loves to finish.

7. People ask me what they should blog about when everything has already been said. Be yourself! You’re unique and you have your own way of looking at something. I know I appreciate reading posts where there’s personality shining through. I do like knowing what they think about a method or an idea or whatever.

8. Challenge yourself. Be public and transparent about it. Talk about it all the way through and show the results as a case study. Don’t you love reading about case study results? So do I.

9. Don’t start a new, big, involved project right when your kids are going to be home for a school break (says Peggy to herself too). Take time for your family!

10. Yes, you’re going to do some chasing after shiny objects when you first start online. How else are you going to see what’s available so you can narrow it down to a business model that really resonates with you? Give yourself permissions to do lots of exploring at first, but try to do it without spending too much.

11. When you find a path that you’d really like to take, put on blinders so you don’t get tempted by other shiny objects. Be fair to yourself, give your new business model 200% effort and see it through to something you can be proud of and is giving you an income. Continue to educate yourself in this field and figure out ways to ramp it up with software and tools that help you go faster and bigger.

12. How to decide your USP (unique selling proposition)? You have a unique way of looking at things, so capitalize on that. When you know what you want to deliver, put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about how they might want that product, or what they might want to go along with it that helps them solve their problem. Do not get hung up on this; because it really will evolve over time. You see, there’s no way to know for sure until you jump in and test the temperature of the water. Plus you’ll need to adapt with the direction the market is going and as you find who your customers really are.

13. Don’t sweat it! Yes, it’s scary to start a blog or write your first ebook because you think you’re going to suddenly be on display, warts and all, in front of the whole world. The reality is that the only people who will know at first is you, your mother, and a few close friends. This gives you time to iron out any little technical issues. But don’t iron out your personality.

14. It’s not enough to create the product. You’ve got to market the heck out of it! And then after sales have peaked and ebbed, you’re still luckily not finished with it because you can repurpose it or turn it into something that’s even bigger and better. I love that what you create is real estate you can leverage into More and Better so it can continue to help people!

15. Surround yourself with other ethical successful marketers like Lynn Terry, Pat Flynn and Ana Hoffman who you can learn from, help out, and network with. This has been key to my success, for sure!

16. In my opinion, if you blog like a real person talking to other real people, then you don’t have to worry about Google Pandas, Penguins, or whatever comes next. Google is trying to give people the best search experience and even though they sometimes get it wrong, they’re getting a lot of it right. Your aim should be to give searchers and readers the best experience they can get at your site.

17. If you can swing it, go to an internet marketing conference (I highly recommend NAMS) where you can learn what works and what not to waste your time on. You meet people who are just beginning and others who are 7 figure earners. You get to help some, get your name in front of others, and you will have joint venture opportunities. I can’t say enough good things about doing this!

18. Bottom line, you’ve got to have content! I can help with that with my PLR articles, PLR full product packages, or Easy Article Starters.

19. With failure comes wisdom. How many times did you fail when you were learning how to tie your shoes? My son refused to learn how to tie his shoes for the longest time because he didn’t think he could do it as good as his mom and dad could. When he finally took the plunge he discovered he was right, but with practice he was able to get those shoes tied perfectly. It turned out NOT to be as hard as he had imagined.

• It’s your turn. What pearls of wisdom and advice do you want to share?

 

photo credit: Photos by Mavis

5 Things I Do Well With Internet Marketing

Working alone at home sometimes can get a little boring so I’ll head off to the coffee shop to do some of my internet marketing “work” now and then. It’s fun to people-watch and I can’t help overhear some snippets of conversation. Why do people talk so loud in coffee shops anyway?

I just overheard one lady talking about Tony Robbins and because of him she journals every night about the 10 things she’s done well that day. What she was saying got me to thinking and so here I am with a blog post about 5 things I do well with internet marketing.

Permit me to share my 5 things here in no particular order in hopes that you’ll tell me your 5 things. We’re all unique and we’ve got strengths that (hopefully) we’ve learned to apply to our online businesses. Are you with me here?

 

1.  While I’m not as savvy a marketer as some, I’m much better at effective marketing now than I was back when I started, or even a year ago for that matter. I can only get better by learning (like with MyNAMS), observing, and getting coaching.

2.  I recognize and thank people and organizations who have helped me along the way.

3.  I am full of ideas of how to move my internet marketing business forward. I love that I have ideas, I love ideas. Ideas are full of hope, aren’t they?

4.  But I also take action. I’ve done a lot of writing and I’m not afraid to roll my sleeves up and get busy.

5.  I can write pretty well, which translates into writing content for my blog, my info products, and physical books, and content that others can use via Easy Article Starters and AllstarPLR.

What are the 5 things you do well with your online presence? I want to hear about you!

 

Going After Info Products Based On Need AND Desire

Have you ever bought an info product on a whim… you know… for later? Because you know you’ll need that info some day?

And then you never even looked at it?

Guilty as charged!

Why do we do that? (assuming you’ve done it too, and don’t you dare tell me you haven’t! )

For me, it’s probably because I think it’s going to go away or I won’t be able to find that sales page with the Buy Button again.

BUT…

I’ve changed that around and now I get my info products based on my needs AND desires. I also save lots of time by getting it all at one place from people I trust, but more on that in a minute.

Permit me to explain my new successful tact with an example.

I’m a product creator. I do a lot of other stuff online, but my first love is creating products. So this is how my smart buying cycle goes:

#1 - One day I wake up with the itch to create a product. It could be that I’ve seen a gap in the market, or I’ve had lots of questions on a particular thing that I already know a fair bit about. Before I get going on it, I might pick up something to read or listen to on product creation. I always want to know how to create better products, how to decide on the perfect medium, and how to do it all faster.

#2 - Next I dive into creating the product and at first all is well. Then I get bogged down and the whole project slows to a creep. This is when I find myself needing some gems on focusing, saving time or becoming more productive. That way I get the kick in the butt I need and I’m raring to go again!

#3 - As the creation process nears the end, I’m looking for  better ways to outsource the little details. I’m a big believer in outsourcing the stuff I find boring or that someone else can do better than me, so any tips I can pick up in an info product about outsourcing can only help me.

#4 - Next up is my desire for the latest info on affiliate marketing to help me grow my affiliate army even bigger. From experience, I know that having affiliates on-board makes a huge difference. So I want more info on that to shore up what I know and to get more people promoting.

#5 - After that, I’m all about marketing tips, of course! And I’m no dummy – I know educating myself about marketing and traffic means a difference between making less than minimum wage for all my hard work, and paying for half a year of my daughter’s college education.

See… I try to stay away from the shiny baubles and strategically get what I need, when I need it. No more buying stuff that makes my hard drive look like I’m a hoarder who needs an intervention.

I’m busy (who isn’t?) so I like to look in ONE place for what I want to make me a better online marketer. My one-stop secret jewel is Product Drop, which is a membership site run by two marketers I highly respect, Dennis Becker and Rachel Rofe.

I like that it’s a membership site because:

• there is new information being added constantly
• the products are their own (good stuff) and other marketers that walk the walk (more good stuff)
• I don’t have to pay extra to get the goods, it’s all under one membership umbrella. This means I save money every month on info products!

Check out Product Drop if it sounds interesting to you, too, and from there you can nose around inside the site and see exactly what you get.

Let me know what you think or if you already use it!

 

Connie Ragen Green – My Thanks To You

Every so often I feel compelled to give a shout-out to someone who has really helped me in my internet marketing walk. Today I’d like to say thank you to Connie Ragen Green.

Why?

I’m glad you asked!

I’m going to make a list here, and I’ll probably forget something, but here you go anyway.

1. Way, way back when I was putting together an ebook called Twitter Success Stories, I asked Connie if she would contribute. She said yes. She was the first person to get her story back to me, and without any harassment and nagging from me. You know how hard it is to get people to say YES in this online world?! She didn’t know me from Adam, but she jumped in. Thank you.

2. When I was having my first affiliate contest, I boldly asked if she would be a super affiliate for me. I knew she probably wouldn’t remember me from the Twitter ebook a couple of years prior so I confess I did a little name dropping in my email to her.   She said yes and promoted my product. Thank you.

3. In August, when I went to my first NAMS and finally got to meet all these people in the flesh, she remembered me and gave me a big hug. She has no idea how that helped me settle in when I was quite nervous about not really knowing anyone there (in person). She also gave me her latest book. I love me some free things! A big thanks.

4. In the fall, I went to the Armand Morin conference in San Francisco and got to hang out with Connie. Not only is she funny and kind, she’s wicked smart. I got to pick her brain a bit and I listened in to the advice she gave others. Thanks again.

5. While at the conference, she promoted my brand new Easy Article Starters to her list. Woo hoo! Not only did I get to see how she emailed, the slant, and the timing, but they were about ME and they made us money. Thank you Connie.

6. At NAMS7 this February, she was one of the keynote speakers as well as a teacher. I heard from several people I met that weekend that Connie spoke highly of my PLR in the class she was teaching, and she mentioned my Easy Article Starters in the hallways. Thank you.

Do you see where all these are going? She didn’t have to do any of this! She’s a kind person who likes to help.

7. When Connie offered her 10K Laser Coaching program recently, I jumped on it. She normally charges something like $500/hour for one-on-one coaching, but this program is only $97. It’s what Bob Jenkins calls “fishbowl” coaching.

She does this coaching with one person with the purpose of helping them get to 10k a month in online income. I get to be a fly on the wall and follow along. But, of course, I don’t just listen, I pause the videos and take action myself. I pretend she’s talking to me. Thanks again Connie.

What makes this even better (besides the low cost of admittance to Connie’s brain), is all the videos are available for when she did this with a former student, Helen Raptoplous, who is now making over 10k!

I listen to the past videos when I want, and then listen to the newest videos with student Geoff Hoff, as soon as they become available.

I can honestly say I’ve increased the reach of my brand since starting this. Sometimes I feel like I plan my day beginning with What Would Connie Do? LOL. [If you'd like to join me, it's 10k Laser Coaching. Let me know if you do and we can chat about it.] It’s harder to tell yet how the program has affected my bottom line as it’s still early yet, but things are definitely looking great this month. Thanks again, Connie!

~~~~~

Knowing people who are willing to help, without much in return, is a blessing. When you connect with someone who has it going on, is an honest marketer, gives valuable advice – hang on to them! In the last post I talked about different types of “help” you can get. Right now, when it comes to moving my business forward, I’m getting a lot out of Fishbowl Coaching.

• Do I sound like a stalker?
• Have you ever been a part of coaching like this? You’re not being directly coached, but it’s as if the coach is talking directly to YOU.

 

 

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