Are you looking for other ways to increase profits using the web? Aren’t we all? One thing to consider is starting a membership site. It’s really quite simple… set up a website, charge a monthly fee, offer your customers awesome content, keep it running, aaaaaand profit. Ok – maybe there’s a little bit more to it than that, so that’s why we’ve got this handy list of benefits to owning a membership site.
• Dominate the competition in your niche
If you have a membership site, you’ll stand out amongst the people who have a score of e-books but nothing else to offer their customers.
• Get more money out of your list
You may have heard that “the money is in the list”. And, you’ll want to get as much money from your list members as you can. A membership site is the perfect way to do this.
• Increase customer loyalty
If your site has great content and you respond promptly to all queries, a membership site will increase customer loyalty a lot better than selling individual products. This is because the customer will feel as if you’re more accessible.
• Develops a sense of community
Membership sites that have a forum help encourage a sense of community. So not only do the members interact with you, but they can interact with each other. This is a good selling point and a benefit for the owner of the site because it is another thing that will help increase your customer’s loyalty.
• Great way to build a list
If you want to start a free membership site, or offer portions of your membership site for no cost, it can present an effective way to build a list.
• Develop passive income
Although internet marketing is a great career, the money can be a little unstable. A membership site is a good way to not only make more money, but to make the income you do bring in a lot steadier.
• They don’t need to be complicated
A lot of people assume that a membership site is complicated. Not necessarily. There are plenty of options that are simple, such as exclusive content delivered via autoresponder.
Back to that profit, let’s look at the math… say you have a membership site that offers exclusive content related to your niche. If you charge $19.95 a month and have 100 subscribers, that translates to nearly $2000 profit and all you needed to do was refresh the content and make sure the site is running properly.
Not a web person? Or a writer? We can help you with both. Shoot us a note at Smart to Finish – we can build, maintain, and market your new membership site and really make it a seamless process.
I have had the opportunity to create and setup Customer Hub with infusionsoft for two clients in the last few months and I must say, I’m really lovin’ it! For those of you that don’t know what Customer Hub is…it is a membership site program that only integrates and only works for those using Infusionsoft.
Now, I will admit that the first time I set it up, it was a bit confusing. Customer Hub does provide some great setup and install videos to get you going but setting up a few of the advanced features such as delayed content delivery and partials was a bit confusing.
For the most part, my review contains a list of the features I really like.
Here is my short list of what I really about customer hub:
All content is safe and secure.
Completely integrated with the Infusionsoft CRM.
Automatic user registration. You can easily create an action at signup for the system to generate a username and password and updates their CRM record immediately.
Clients can use the Customer Hub interface to update their billing and credit card information.
Sequential content delivery. You can deliver new content based on a pre-specified time frame using actions and tags.
Now of course, no application is perfect 🙂 But for the most part, the only issues I have found so far is that the setup/learning curve does take a bit of time and that this is a stand alone program – being that it is not a plugin that you would add to an existing wordpress blog or website. It is completely hosted on the customer hub servers. I really don’t see Customer Hub hosting the program as a deal breaker – because they do allow you to customize the look and feel of your membership.
Overall, I think it is a great solution for those who want to create a secure, automated and integrated membership site with your infusionsoft application. I would recommend it 🙂
Many clients come to me and say, Amber, I’d like to start a membership site. How soon can you make this happen – by the end of next week…?
My first response is usually to laugh (with all due respect of course!)
Here’s the thing. Yes, a Membership Site can “technically” be set up in a week. And by technically, I am referring to the “nuts and bolts”. BUT, what I have learned is that it takes MORE than just these nuts and bolts and some old audios and previously written articles to make a membership LAST.
What I have seen happen over the last few years is that everyone is in a rush to create a membership because someone told them it was an easy way to make money online – with little or no effort. This is a lie folks. Sure, you can – but here is what will most likely happen. Your clients will come in, download what they need, and cancel. Simple as that.
A truly successfully membership site does more than provide “content”. I provides a community…somewhere for your clients to not only learn the valuable information you were born to share – but to also find a place of belonging. And guess what? YOU need to play an active role – not just upload it and let it run itself.
I recently had the opportunity to do some coaching and brain storming with the 1Shoppingcart.com creator and Guru himself, George Tran, around Membership Sites and around his methodology. For someone who has been providing membership site support for years to my clients – I learned an incredible amount from George on the mindset that MUST happen first before you even begin to setup a membership site – if you are looking to create something that will last.
Stay tuned as George and I roll out a new wave of training on this and his new program with Practice Pay Solutions called Ecommunity. I know this will blow your mind as it did mine! My clients are already seeing the benefits of my new way of thinking and managing their membership sites!
Yes, it sure is according to Dave Crenshaw, Author of The Myth of Multitasking! I have to admit, when I first heard that statement by Dave, I had to laugh. Why? Because I have dubbed myself for years as the “Queen of Multitasking”.
I multitask during many aspects of my life. Here are a few examples:
1) While cooking dinner I will open/review mail, load the dishwasher and make lunches. (Have always wondered why I burn the bread every single time!) Dave’s book clearly tells me why!
2) While driving I tell my kids to ask me their homework questions they have. Why not? (I Wondered why my daughter received a “D” on her homework I helped her with.) Dave’s book clearly tells me why!
3) While sending an email I was also on the phone paying my water bill. Who likes to wait during those automated messages so why not compose an email. (Couldn’t figure out why later I sent the email to the wrong “Joe”.) Dave’s book clearly tells me why!
After learning about Dave’s book The Myth of Multitasking, I decided I had to go to the bookstore last weekend and get it. Let me tell you. I couldn’t put the book down and read the entire book on Sunday afternoon. Amazing. His book is amazing. He clearly shows me how multitasking is hurting me – way more than it is helping me.
Dave says in the first chapter of his book, “Your lack of effectiveness has everything to do with your multitasking”. Wow. Is he serious?
Still skeptical I continue reading – and by the time I got to his ” multitasking test” (which I LOVED!) I realized, Holy Cow! He is really on to something here.
I recommend you check out his book The Myth of Multitasking, or if anything, his free training videos that will for sure give you something to chew on if you think Multitasking is effective!
I have now had about a month to play around with a new wishlist membership site. Being someone who has supported clients who use aMember, I am finding myself asking clients to make the switch and try the wishlist wordpress plugin. I so far think it is much more user friendly and easier to use.
I have not yet had the chance to move over an existing aMember site to wishlist…I will be doing that within the next two weeks. I’ll keep you posted on how that move goes and if it is as easy as it seems to be!
I had a chance yesterday and today to really play with the Wishlist Plugin for WordPress. This nifty plugin works with wordpress blogs to manage and allow you to use wordpress as your membership platform.
Now, I have been doing this for several clients using aMember with a blog, but I have to tell you – Wishlist is AMAZING! I love it. The setup proceed does take a few hours – but actually much faster than aMember.
Here are a few features I really liked:
IP Address limit: How cool, you can limit the unique number of IP addresses that attempt to login with the same user login. This prevents those from passing around their login details.
There is a login widgit you can use on the homepage of your blog. Very cool.
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