Thinking about reducing the price of your membership?
Right now, you may be wondering…
‘Why in the world would I ever want to reduce the price of my membership?’
Surely that’s the opposite of what I should be doing?
The short answer is yes…
Ideally, the price of your membership should be going upwards…
To correlate with the value of it increasing over time…
Especially when you’ve probably invested a lot of time, energy and resources into making it more valuable and result-oriented…
But the reality is sometimes very different…
There are some legit reasons why you may need to lower the price of your membership…
And this is something we’re going to explore…
Lowering the price of your membership WITHOUT causing issues for your existing member base…
Because that’s the last thing you want to do!
So if you’re seriously considering lowering your price, then read on to find out how you should approach it…
Read More
Whether you’re teaching a specialist subject, or want to support others who share your interests; it’s now easier than ever to reach a global audience and get paid for sharing your time, skills, experience and expertise.
Two of the best models for doing so are online courses and paid membership websites.
However with those terms often used loosely and interchangeably, it can be tricky figuring out which is best for you.
Read More
We can spend months creating content, writing workbooks, pulling our hair out, and spending a small fortune on promoting a new membership site and then when we finally launch it… nobody joins.
We all dread this as membership owners; and when it happens, the panic sets in and we start scrambling to rearrange the website, add testimonials, and change prices.
This is all completely irrelevant stuff and won’t turn things around.
So what should you do if your membership launch fails?
Read More
One of the best things about running a membership website is that we can market and position it in a way that we attract the sort of members that we most want to work with.
However no matter hard you try to get only the “right type” of people in your membership, you will inevitably experience problem members.
Sometimes it will be a personality clash, where certain members just rub you up the wrong way; however there will be instances where you need to deal with potentially toxic elements among your member base. So how do you deal with them?
I address that question and more on the latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast.
Read More
Creating content can be one of the most time consuming parts of running a paid membership website.
If you’re billing people on a recurring basis, you need to deliver value on a recurring basis; and often delivering that value involves some form of content.
In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I discuss how to approach content strategy for your membership, and the steps to take in order to ensure your production process is streamlined so you’re not constantly grinding to put out new content.
Read More
Less than a month ago, Callie bought a book.
Unbeknownst to her, that simple act would be the start of the single worst buyer experience she’s ever encountered, as she found herself subscribed to a membership she never signed up for, with no clear way out.
In the interests of seeing how far the rabbit hole of terrible business practices went, she decided to see it through…
Join us on this rather unusual episode of The Membership Guys Podcast as we take a step by step tour through how NOT to run a membership (or any other business, for that matter!)
Read More
Many people measure the success of their membership according to vanity metrics…
They focus on the amount of followers they have rather than the level of engagement they generate…
Turnover rather than net profit…
And the number of members they have as opposed to how many members they retain in the long-term…
So to many, success is defined by attaining those big numbers…
But is this how you should measure the success of your membership?
And should you be aiming to build a BIG membership or it is ok to create a smaller more intimate community of highly engaged members?
In other words, how big does your membership need to be in order to be considered successful?
Let’s explore this in more detail…
Read More
This year we’re extremely excited to pull the trigger on something we’ve wanted to do since we very first launched The Membership Guys back in 2015: running our own conference.
Retain Live is a 2-day live event for membership site owners taking place September 11th-12th 2019, and it’s shaping up to be an extremely special conference.
It definitely helps that we’re pretty seasoned at attending events like this around the world, as we’ve been able to draw on what we’ve liked (and what we haven’t!) in order to help us design the type of event that we’d love to go to ourselves.
However we know that many in our audience might not have been to a conference like Retain before, and as such perhaps you’re not sure what to expect, or can’t figure out whether it’s worth the time, money and energy to actually attend.
After all, what can attending an event in person give you that watching a few videos online can’t?
Well, the answer is – a lot!
There’s a huge array of benefits to attending live events – some obvious and some not so obvious. So we thought we’d highlight just some of the reasons you might decide to attend Retain 2019…
Read More
Drip feeding your membership or course content can be a good way of increasing the value and stickiness of your membership, as well as providing other benefits for both you and your members.
But what actually counts as drip feeding and in what circumstances should you use it?
Read More
How do you know if you’re delivering enough value in your membership for the price you’re charging?
This is something that every membership owner worries about at some point, asking ourselves questions like…
Is our membership good enough?
Are we doing enough for our members?
Are we meeting the needs of our members?
If this sounds familiar then don’t worry, you’re not alone.
It’s a common doubt that many of us have…
And whether we’d like to admit it or not, it usually comes from a form of impostor syndrome…
It’s that “comparisonitis” that we get when we look at what others are doing and somehow feel less in comparison…
Now, I could tell you to just not worry about it.
That it’s all in your head….
But in truth, the question of whether or not you’re delivering enough value for your members is a legitimate one to ask yourself…
And the mere fact you’re concerned about this means you’re a good membership owner…
So how do you know if you’re delivering enough value in your membership?
Let’s look at this in more detail…
Read More
How do you take your membership content strategy to the next level?
Or even get it up and running in the first place?
Typically, membership site owners follow two or three fairly common strategies when structuring and distributing their content…
Members are either offered full access to a library…
Or are drip-fed content through things like courses and other resources on a regular basis.
These are both very solid approaches…
But, when it comes to content there are a plethora of creative ways to skin the membership cat…
And if you have to do anything, why not stand out while doing it?
So if you’re in the process of mapping out the specifics of your membership…
Or are looking for ways to spice things up when it comes to your content…
It’s always a great idea to know some of the less common approaches out there…
And we’re going to share some of them with you!
Here are four fairly unusual, but pretty effective membership content strategies…
Read More
One of the key decisions to be made when planning a membership is whether to offer multiple membership levels or a single ‘all access’ option.
While we always advocate for simplicity, there are definite pros and cons to consider.
In this episode I discuss the key things you need to consider when deciding whether to have multiple levels in your membership, and provide my top tips for making this strategy work. And I also share a ‘middle ground’ for people who prefer to stick with a single level.
Read More
Running a membership single-handed is a tough job.
In the early days, most membership owners wear multiple hats and do everything themselves…
But as your membership grows, it’s time to think about getting help.
More help means it’ll be easier to manage your membership…
You’ll have more time (and sanity) and can focus your attention on what you do best.
It seems like a no-brainer, right?
And yet, taking that leap to outsource is a tough call to make.
Lots of business owners struggle to part with their responsibilities…
And it’s tempting to try and do it all yourself…
Especially if that’s how you started.
My good friend Chris Ducker refers to this as “superhero syndrome.”
This is when you convince yourself that everything in your business rests on your shoulders, and you’re the only one who can possibly handle it all…
But that just means working insane hours, increased stress and becoming at risk of burnout…
And while some business owners convince themselves that that’s just the price you pay for being the hero in your business.
That’s all nonsense…
You shouldn’t be trying to do everything yourself and here’s why…
Read More
This year we embark on our biggest and most daunting challenge to date – running our very own live conference: Retain 2019
It’s something we’ve wanted to do for years, and we’re beyond excited to bring together hundreds of membership site owners from around the world for 2 days of amazing speakers and high-level networking.
But the journey has not all been smooth sailing…
In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I take you behind the scenes of the story so far, revealing our thought process, strategy and sharing the highs and lows of orchestrating this kind of event.
Read More
Your membership sales page is perhaps the single most important piece of the puzzle for attracting member signups.
Whether it’s a cold lead or someone who has been following you for years – it’s your sales page that needs to seal the deal and help them to make the final decision to join your membership.
So it’s crucial that you get it right!
In this episode I walk through the key elements that every membership sales page should have in order to maximise new member sales.
Read More
Most online memberships involve content.
A lot of content.
Not only are you creating content for your membership, but often you’re blogging, podcasting or creating videos as part of your marketing strategy too. It can be a lot to handle!
That’s why it’s crucial to have a solid plan for your content production, so you know well in advance what you need to create in order to schedule accordingly and avoid constantly doing everything at the last minute.
In this episode I’m joined by Janet Murray to discuss how to plan an entire year’s worth of content, and the tips and tools you need to help you stay on track.
Read More
