Essential Books Every Membership Site Owner Should Read

Naturally as membership site experts we have a penchant for online learning.

However sometimes you really just can’t beat a good book.

Fortunately there are several great books out there that form essential reading for anyone looking to start and grow a successful membership site.

Read on for our top recommendations…

How to Keep Your Membership Waitlist Engaged

We are BIG advocates of setting up a waitlist for your membership.

But once you do, what’s next for those people who sign up?

There are lots of ways you can keep your waitlist interested and engaged with you and the launch of your membership site…

How to Deal With Payment Disputes in Your Membership

Payment disputes are a reality of running any business, including membership sites.

Luckily, they don’t happen too often – but when they do, they take valuable time away from your business and revenue generating activities.

So, knowing what to do and how to minimize the risk is important.

Biggest Takeaways from the Online Membership Industry Report

In our early days of working with memberships, we stumbled across an article that claimed that the average member only stays subscribed for a mere 3 months.

You’ve probably heard this yourself. It’s a claim that’s been repeated and republished so much, that it became readily and widely accepted.

But it’s nonsense.

There’s not a single shred of data or evidence for that ‘3 month’ claim. No source data, report or study cited, anywhere.

The fact that this claim persisted for so long is part of a larger problem. There is no reliable data available about the online membership industry.

Truth is, this market is relatively tiny. It’s a niche, of a niche, of a niche.

What data we do have comes from either the broader subscription industry, or from membership associations.

Neither of which reflect the online membership world.

We figured it was time to change that.

It’s time for some real data and benchmarks for the online membership industry.

Using Offers And Promotions To Attract New Members To Your Membership

It’s coming up to that time of year where promotions and discounts abound.

Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas or New Year, the sales season is definitely upon us.

While these kind of sales are traditionally for physical products, there’s no doubt that digital products have jumped onto the bandwagon over the last few years, and you’ll see more and more discounts being offered.

But what about membership sites? Should you capitalize on these busy promotional periods where some kind of special offer is almost expected?

7 Principles Shared By Every Successful Membership Website

Despite what the slickest of snake oil salesmen will try to tell you, there is no secret sauce or golden formula for building a successful membership website.

The key to the long term success of your membership site lies beyond marketing tactics, sales spiel and fancy production values; and the memberships which do best are those which – at their heart – understand and embrace a core set of fundamental principles.

7 Biggest Mistakes That Growing Membership Site Owners Make

The path to membership success is paved with a litany of mistakes.

However you will come to a point where it feel like you truly have your house in order, you’re now on the right track and those initial stumbles are far behind you.

But time and time again we see seasoned membership site owners falling into the same traps as they attempt to manage and grow their business.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some of the most common pitfalls for experienced membership owners and, more importantly, how you can avoid them.

How Your Service Business Can Move to the Membership Model

There are many reasons people are attracted to the membership model.

The most compelling for us is how dramatically different (and better) making recurring income from a membership is compared to servicing clients on a one-on-one basis.

This is particularly true if you’re a “one man band”, where you’re solely responsible for the delivery of what you sell

In this article I’m going to explain why the membership model is far superior to offering one-to-one services, as well as show you how you can start incorporating memberships and subscriptions into your own business.

Retain Live 2019 Debrief with Mike and Callie – Part Two: The Event

Retain Live 2019 was a phenomenal success – especially for our very first live event!

However as we discussed during the first part of our “debrief”, it was a little rocky in the build up.

In this concluding episode, Callie and I talk through the event itself, breaking down everything that happened and how it all came together; sharing some of our biggest lessons and top takeaways for anyone thinking of running a similar event.

Retain Live 2019 Debrief with Mike and Callie – Part One: The Build Up

Two weeks ago, we kicked off our very first live conference: Retain Live 2019.

It’s the first time we’ve run an event of this scale, and to say it was a new, interesting and challenging experience would be a major understatement!

While the event itself was a huge success and we’ve had overwhelmingly positive feedback – getting there certainly wasn’t smooth sailing.

In the first of our two-part debrief, Callie joins me on the show to discuss the weeks leading up to the event – as the workload (and stress levels) ramp up.

Creating an MVP to Test and Validate Your Membership Idea

One of the biggest reasons memberships never get off the ground is that the initial idea for the product just wasn’t right.

While you can research the market and survey your audience until the cows come home, it’s extremely easy to allow your bias towards what you think is a winning concept to sway your analysis of that research or – even worse – to ignore warning signs that you’re heading down the wrong path.

If you want to be successful, you need to truly test and validate that your idea is worth pursuing, and one of the best ways to do this is with an MVP.

Join me for the latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, where I deep dive into what an MVP is, why they’re important and how to go about actually creating one.

4 Key Differences Between B2C and B2B Membership Sites

B2B and B2C membership sites share a lot of similarities, but there are a few key differences you need to be aware of.

These differences are important because they can potentially impact how you approach your strategy, marketing, and even your mindset when it comes to your membership site.

So, what are the main differences between B2C and B2B memberships?

And, why you should you even care?

Celebrating the 4th Anniversary of Membership Academy

Holy smokes, has it really been four years already?!

It honestly feels like yesterday that we were gearing up to open the doors to the Academy. I’m not sure we fully realised the awesome journey we were about to embark on.

Join us as we celebrate the 4th anniversary of Membership Academy by taking a look back at the last 12 months and highlighting the 7 ‘ups’ and 3 ‘downs’ from the past year.

What To Do When Someone Cancels Their Membership

Like it or not, membership cancellations are going to happen.

Hopefully if you run your site well those cancellations will come at the end of a long tenure, but regardless they will happen.

How you deal with these cancellations has numerous implications for the continued success of your membership site or online course; so it’s important to know how to handle them and also what to avoid.

Building a Legacy by Creating a Membership with Chris Ducker

Chris Ducker joins Callie in the final season 3 episode of Behind the Membership to talk all about his membership site Youpreneur Academy.

Chris already had several successful 7 figure businesses before starting Youpreneur Academy four years ago, and here he talks about how his desire to create a legacy and help others achieve success led to him creating his membership in the first place.

Chris also discusses how the positioning of the membership and its place in his ecosystem has evolved over the years as he’s added additional features like a live event, new book and round table mastermind, as well as new projects he has on the horizon.

And Chris talks about how he spent 12 months testing the closed door model, and why he wouldn’t do it again. How organic marketing and content is the key to their new member sales, and what he’s doing to achieve a five to 6% retention rate, including the importance of growth records in his community, and why he’s stopping his monthly member q&a call.

Plus, Chris reveals that he spends just three hours a week on the membership on average!

4 Essential Considerations When Choosing a Membership Plugin

Choosing a membership plugin isn’t easy.

For the most part, your decision comes down to the nitty gritty details of how you plan to structure and run your site; as well as the specific integrations you need for things like payment processors and email marketing software.

With so much attention given to the granular details, it can be easy to overlook some pretty important things that could have long term implications for your business…