7 Common Membership Site Mistakes (and How to Avoid Them)

Everyone makes mistakes with their membership website. It’s often from those mistakes that we learn the most important lessons about what works and what doesn’t. Most mistakes are harmless and go by unnoticed; but there are some whoppers that can do real damage to the potential success of your membership website…

The State of Social Media Marketing with Mike Stelzner

Social media marketing has changed dramatically over the past few years.

From the rise of live video, to the huge drop-off in organic reach for Facebook pages. New platforms launching and disappearing seemingly overnight. It can be hard for the busy membership owner to keep up.

Mike Stelzner is a man with his finger on the pulse of social media marketing. As founder of Social Media Examiner and the man behind the largest conference in the industry – Social Media Marketing World – he’s the first port of call for experts and influencers worldwide when it comes to whats working right now in social media.

In today’s episode of The Membership Guys Podcast – I talk to Mike about the current state of social media marketing, and chat about how he uses social media and content marketing for both his conference and Social Media Examiner’s own membership website.

5 Types of Content That Will Increase Member Engagement

When charging a monthly payment for access to your membership site, member engagement is key.

It’s not enough to have static content that never changes, as once that’s been consumed by your members they’ll have very little reason to stick around.

Many membership site owners set out with the intention of continuously adding new courses and premium content to their site; however this typically proves easier said than done, and often the logistics of doing so can be too great an undertaking.

Fortunately there are a number of types of content you can produce that will add value to your membership site and give your members something to get their teeth into without requiring a huge amount of effort on your part

Do You REALLY Need to Add a Community to Your Membership?

We often talk about how crucial community is to long term membership success.

In many memberships, even though members join for the content it’s actually the community that they stick around for.

However that’s not always the case, and in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I dig into ways in which adding a community to your membership may not be all it’s cracked up to be.

5 Things You Need to Know Before Shopping For a WordPress Membership Plugin

Trying to pick the right WordPress membership plugin can be a painstaking process.

It’s harder still if your expectations and understanding of what a membership plugin will and won’t do are unrealistic.

In this episode I go through the 5 things you need to understand before you even start shopping for a membership plugin, in the hopes that it will make the whole process easier and save you some frustration.

Growing Through Collaboration with Laura Robinson

Laura Robinson from Worditude joins Behind the Membership this week for the 10th and final episode of Season 1.

The Worditude Club is still in it’s first year and Laura talks with us about how the membership has already changed and evolved in that time, why she is aiming for consistency more than scale, how collaborating with others has helped growth and also how the membership fits in with her one-to-one services as well. And much more!

How to Attract New Members Without Feeling Like a Sleazy Marketer

Sales and marketing are crucial parts of your role as a membership site owner. Even the best membership website in the world will fade away into obscurity if you’re not doing anything to attract new members.

However when selling your membership offering, there are certain tropes and cliches that you want to avoid to ensure you’re not lumped in with the sleazier elements of online businesses. Here are our top tips for attracting new members without feeling like a scumbag…

Running a “Limited Lifecycle” Membership with Lisa League

Lisa League from QPractice is today’s guest on episode 9 of Behind the Membership with Callie Willows.

QPractice has been running for 4 years and focuses on helping interior designers to pass their professional exams, which means that the membership is somewhat finite as there is a natural conclusion to the membership once members pass their exams. Listen in to find out how Lisa deals with this and ensures that the membership works for both her and her members.

Simple Ways to Create Membership Content From Things You’re Already Doing

To attract new members, you need to keep providing value.

To keep providing value, you need to keep sharing content.

To keep sharing content, you have to spend time (and probably some stress!) creating it.

Content creation might take up a lot of time, but there are ways you can create great content for your membership without having to reinvent the wheel.

In fact, a shift in perspective may be all it takes to create amazing content from the things you’re doing already…

Achieving Success in a Small Niche with Shannon Rogers

Shannon Rogers from The Hand Tool School joins Callie on episode 8 of the Behind the Membership podcast.

The Hand Tool School has been up and running for 7 years now offering standalone courses, and the recurring membership element was added just over 12 months ago. Shannon provides a unique approach to his teaching model and makes impressive use of automation and tagging to provide a more hands on and customised approach to his members.

Bucking the trend: 5 Ways to Break From The Membership Norm

There’s a single, absolute truth of memberships, and indeed business in general: there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach.

What works like gangbusters for one membership, can end up completely flopping for another.

So in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I wanted to talk about doing things differently – things that go against the grain, break the norms and in some cases contradict what is typically considered best practice in the membership space…

Experimenting Your Way to Success with Holly Gillen

Holly Gillen from Business Cinema Academy and Holly G Studios is joining Callie on this episode of Behind the Membership.

Holly has been running her membership alongside her video production business for 15 months now, after trying lots of other business models previously. Holly shares a lot of great tips for us in this interview, including how she uses challenges to attract new members, her experience with using Kajabi for her membership site, and how important it is to only attract members when they’re ready for your membership.

Must-Listen Podcast Episodes For Launching Your Membership Website

As a membership site owner, your first big test comes with launching your site.

This is the culmination of all of your planning, hard work and preparation; and a great launch can give you the momentum that will carry your membership forward towards long term success.

To help you get off to the best possible start, we’ve rounded up 10 of the most essential episodes of The Membership Guys Podcast for anyone planning their membership launch.

Building a “Non Guru” Membership with Christopher Sutton

Christopher Sutton from Musical U joins Callie on episode 6 of Behind the Membership.

Christopher has run his business for 8 years now, with his membership site being the predominant offering since 2015.  Christopher places a lot of emphasis on user experience and gamification in the membership and unlike many membership site owners, Christopher is also not the figurehead or guru of the membership, in fact most of the content is created by other people.

4 Ways to Ensure That Your Members Will Stick Around

Keeping your members engaged and happy is key to maximizing your member lifecycle and, as a result, ensuring the success of your membership site.

When members aren’t engaged, that’s when they’ll start to question whether it’s worth sticking with your site and whether they’re getting what they’re paying for.

Fortunately there are a variety of things that you can do in order to encourage your members to stick around…

Attracting the Right Kind of Members with Julie Christie

Julie Christie from Togs in Business joins Callie on this week’s episode of Behind the Membership.

Julie’s membership is less than a year old, and Julie shares some great insights into the first 6 months of her membership and how important narrowing down her ideal member has been and why her focus is on quality of members rather than quantity.