12 Steps to Start a Fixed-Term Membership Site
...and how a $19.95 product can be turned into a $46k a year income stream!
Take a look at the screenshot above. That's 42 membership payments at $27 each. A total of $1,134 in sales on March 7th - just from this membership alone. There is no doubt in my mind that memberships are one of the best ways to make money online. Period. It may not be the fastest way at first but you will pick up the pace as you go along. It may not be the easiest, but process-wise, it is simple. Read this post if you want to learn the basic steps to do this.
Making your first sale online is a great experience!...
For the first time you've proved to yourself that you can make money other than working at a job like every other ordinary person.
It also proves that you're able to scale up and expand and even automate the entire process. However selling membership access is even better!
First let's define what a fixed term membership is...
A fixed-term membership is an agreement whereby you charge a weekly / monthly fee for a set amount of time whether it be 3 months... 6 months... 12 months... 2 years... 3 years and so on to access pre-written or pre-created content.
An on-going membership is where you charge your members a weekly / monthly fee to access fresh new content on an on-going basis.
So rather than charging a member on-going fees where there is no end in sight... a fixed term agreement lets them know what they're getting involved with and for how long.
...The first advantage that springs to mind is that fixed-term membership mean less work for you in the long run. You can prepare the content for your membership ahead of time, drip feed the content and then leave it to run itself.
...Whereas with on-going memberships you have to continously update them to keep your members happy. The flip side to this however, is you can have members staying with you longer and generate more income as a result.
If you've never created a membership site before then, I recommend you start with a fixed-term membership to get the ball rolling.
A Membership Site Brings in a Predictable Recurring Stream of Income...
The membership model is far superior to one-time payment models. And whilst you can do very well online with a one-time payment offer, you'll do far better in the long run if you build a business that pays you month after month.
Take a look at this scenario where you receive 1 new member every day who pays you $19.95 a month and remains a members for 12 months...
Month |
One-Time Payment Model |
12 Month Membership Model |
||
Number of Payments @ $19.95 |
Total Monthly Earnings |
Number of Payments @ $19.95 |
Total Monthly Earnings |
|
1 |
30 |
$598.50 |
30 |
$598.50 |
2 |
30 |
$598.50 |
60 |
$1197.00 |
3 |
30 |
$598.50 |
90 |
$1795.50 |
4 |
30 |
$598.50 |
120 |
$2394.00 |
5 |
30 |
$598.50 |
150 |
$2992.50 |
6 |
30 |
$598.50 |
180 |
$3591.00 |
7 |
30 |
$598.50 |
210 |
$4,189.50 |
8 |
30 |
$598.50 |
240 |
$4,788.00 |
9 |
30 |
$598.50 |
270 |
$5,386.50 |
10 |
30 |
$598.50 |
300 |
$5,985.00 |
11 |
30 |
$598.50 |
330 |
$6,583.50 |
12 |
30 |
$598.50 |
360 |
$7,182.00 |
Total |
360 |
$7,182.00 |
2,340 |
$46,683.00 |
Selling membership access for $19.95 for 12 months based on 1 new member per day can mean the difference between $7,182 in sales and $46,683.00 in sales over a regular one-time payment model.
That's a lot of cash sitting on the table... and that only represents ONE membership running for 12 months. What happens if you increase the price?... Add more membership content and set the term for 24 months?... What happens if you setup multiple memberships in different niches?... What about setting up affiliate programs for each one and earning 50% recurring from affiliate's efforts?
Granted there are other variables to consider such as refunds and cancellations - but you're beginning to see what you're really missing out on when you just set up single payment sites... especially if you're in a niche where there's scope to sell more!
Not entirely convinced that a membership site is worth setting up?... Think about this...
Would you rather promote to your subscribers again and again to generate more sales, or would you rather promote once and get paid month after month without further effort?...
Would you rather do business with a customer that spends $19.95 with you one-time, or would you rather do business with a member that believes in the value in what you have to offer, and stays a loyal and PAYING fan for a whole year?...
Would you rather have an affiliate promoting your one-time payment product, or have an affiliate promoting your membership product so you both get paid month after month?...
Would you rather promote your high ticket products to someone who has spent $19.95 with you once, or with someone who has spent $239.40 with you over the past 12 months?...
With this in mind it should start to be obvious that membership sites are a great way to bring in more revneue without having to completely re-invent the wheel. So let's look at what tools you'll need...
The 3 Tools You Need...
Tool #1 - Webhosting
If you want your own domain name and intend on hosting content for your membership you will need a web hosting account. There are many great providers out there such as Hostmonster, Bluehost, Justhost, Hostgator and many more. Get yourself a hosting account and a domain name because this is how you start an online presence!
Tool #2 - Auto-responder
Instead of using complicated membership server script or software, we're going to make things easy on ourselves by letting our auto-responder do the work. You will be using it to collect your member's name and email and so it can drip-feed pre-written emails to your members on a consistent basis so they can grab the membership content.
Tool #3 - Membership Content
You hear a lot of mention about the word 'content'. By this we mean the stuff inside your membership that members are willing to pay monthly for. This could be video training, transcripts, numberical data, PDFs, MP3s etc. It's what your members find valuable and will continue paying for month after month to access!
There are 3 ways you can go about getting content. 1) You can create it yourself... 2) You can outsource the work and get someone else to do it... 3) You can buy PLR private label rights to existing work.
In most cases, buying PLR content is your best choice. Unless you've got a lot of time and energy on your hands and actually enjoy this bit you can do it youself. Likewise unless you've got a large budget, you're not going to be outsourcing it to others. Acquiring PLR however is relatively cheap and requires little of your time to assemble and edit it how you want.
TIP! Google the content you're after followed by 'plr' and you'll find what you're looking for. If you don't, you're in the wrong niche!
3 Membership Ideas You Could Start...
Idea #1 - Product Creation Workshop
Instead of calling your site a “membership site,” you could instead call it a workshop. The actual mechanics of how you set up and run your site are the same ??? but you may actually boost the perceived value of your offer, thereby allowing you to charge more per member.
One such idea is to run a product creation workshop. Here you might include weekly lessons that members follow in real time, with the goal of completing their product right as the workshop ends.
Here are a few topics you might include over the course of the workshop:
??? How to choose a potential topic.
??? How to do market research to determine if the market wants the product.
??? How to do competition research and analysis in order to create a better product for the market.
??? How to create a unique selling proposition (USP) / how to position your product in the market.
??? How to create a video product yourself.
??? How to create an ebook product yourself.
??? How to create an audio product yourself.
??? How to create a software product yourself.
??? How to get JV partners to help create a product.
??? What format is best.
??? What delivery method is best.
??? How to boost the perceived value of a product.
??? And other similar ideas.
Idea #2 - Copywriter's Weekly
There are plenty of people who are eager to learn how to write a good sales letter. Some of these people want to learn how to become copywriters so that they can start a business writing letters for other marketers.
Then there are marketers who want to learn the art and science of copywriting so they can improve their conversion rates. If you focus on those who want to start copywriting businesses, then you’ll want to add in lessons such as business licensing, where to get clients and other marketing topics.
For both groups, you can offer copywriting lessons such as:
??? How to use the AIDA formula (attention, interest, desire, action).
??? How to craft a killer headline.
??? How to craft compelling bullets.
??? How to write a good guarantee.
??? How to profile the target market.
??? How to write short ads (like classified ads and PPC ads).
??? How to test and track your results.
And so on.
In addition, you can offer weekly or monthly critiques of your members’ sales letters. The best way to do this is by offering video critiques, so that members can “look over your shoulder” and listen to you as you critique the letter.
It’s a win-win situation, because members get “free” critiques, and you get training materials and content to use for future and present students.
Idea #3 - Resell Rights Monthly
The resell rights market is HOT! If you don't what resell rights products are, they allow you to take a product and sell it for yourself. The main difference between resell rights and PLR is that you're not allowed to edit the content of the product itself.
However this doesn't mean that you could become a wholesaler for other marketers (inside and outside of the I.M. niche) and provide turn-key websites for them on a monthly basis!
And unlike the previous two ideas, this wouldn't involve written content, rather entire websites. And because there's less written work and more 'sourcing' involved you could easily turn this into an on-going membership with little maintainence.
You could accompany the site with a weekly 'how-to' course on how to make the most money with their resell rights products.
Topics would be similar to the product creation idea...
??? How to do competition research and analysis in order to create a better product for the market.
??? How to create a unique selling proposition (USP) / how to position your product in the market.
??? How to get JV partners to help product the product.
??? What delivery method is best.
??? How to boost the perceived value of a product.
??? Adding one time offers
??? Cross-selling for even more profit
??? How to set up an affiliate program
??? Selling personal rights and up-selling resell rights to more profit
??? How to gather buyers with resell rights products
and so on...
Let's move on to the nitty gritty of getting YOUR membership site set up!...
12 Steps to Build Your First Membership Site...
Step #1 - Write Your Sales Letter
The easiest way to start is to actually decide and plan on what information you want to provide and in what order directly in your sales page. When you start writing things down you'll know where your membership is heading and what content to include even before it's created.
If you're already an expert in something that you know people are willing to pay for then please feel to plan out your membership! However if you feel you've go no expertise in anything (which I don't believe), then you should follow my lead because I will give you a profitable setup in the internet marketing niche.
QUICK TIP! There are written eBooks, articles, audio and video content out there that come with 'PLR' private label rights. This allows you to edit and sell them. Type in a major phrase with +plr in Google and you'll find what you're looking for e.g. 'make money' +plr or 'learn guitar' +plr or 'weight loss' +plr.
Whilst this is not a guide on copy-writing I will give you a quick few pointers for the structure of your sales page:
??? Start with the problem at hand and emphasize it in the title
??? Explain why this problem exists and why it continues to exist.
??? Follow on to explain how your site can help.
??? Go deep into what content you plan to deliver in your membership + how long.
??? Add testimonials (worth paying people to review your membership site for you)
??? Explain how the content will be delivered to them (via weekly emails)
??? Explain what happens after they've completed your membership.
??? Explain why you're delivering the content in parts (depends on niche)
??? State how much your content is worth inside your membership and why.
??? State how much you could charge for access to your membership
??? State your guarantee (could be 30 day, full term, lifetime guarantee)
??? State your monthly fee and a call to action - e.g. 'join now', 'buy now', 'add to cart'.
??? Add P.S.s to the end of your sales letter to remind them of how valuable your membership is and how it will eliminate their problems.
Again, I don't want to go into too much detail on writing sales letters because you've been exposed to them so many times. Let's continue...
Step #2 - Get a Domain Name
For example if I'm creating a membership on how to create a website so an idea domain name would be www.createawebsite.com, or www.howtocreateawebsite.com, or www.buildasite.com etc. I'm sure all these domain names are taken but you get the point. Make it simple, short, catchy and easy to remember.
For niche membership sites include the keywords of what people would be typing into the search engines as the name of your membership site. This will help you get more traffic when your site becomes popular - especially when affiliates start promoting it!
Decide on what your membership will be about and secure a domain name for yourself.
Step #3 - Plan Out Your Weekly / Monthly Membership Content
Next you need to decide how you're going to deliver your content. Are you going to deliver more content on a monthly basis or are you going to deliver smaller amounts every week?
Weekly content is great for short video lessons, audios, PDF manuals and so on. Monthly content is great for 'done for you content' like PLR products, PLR articles, resell rights, website services and so on.
The idea is to develop your member so that every week/monthly, he or she is progressing and building on top of what they learned previously. People would rather pay for organized information so if your content is scattered and disorganized they'll cancel... or even worse ask for a refund.
Example: If your membership is on 'getting your first website up online', don't start the week with how to send traffic to your site when they haven't even set up hosting, or 'what to send to your mailing list' when they don't even have a squeeze page set up.
Step #4 - Get Your First Week's / Month's Content Ready
If you're building a 12 month membership, do you really want to all 12 month's worth of content ready before you promote your site? No. Of course not.
So the way to get your membership going is to get your first week's/month's content ready, write up your sales letter, promote your site and then get members in early BEFORE all the content is created.
Here's a quick tip, if a 12 month membership is overwhelming for you, start off with a short term membership (3-6 months) with less content at a lower price so you can launch your site and get members. Then as your site progresses and you get new members, add more content, lengthen the term, adjust your prices and so on.
Step #5 - Create Access Pages for Weekly / Monthly Content
This is where you'll be sending your members to on a weekly basis. It will contain all your content for that week whether it be a training video, a report, an MP3 audio, a PowerPoint presentation or more.
The links on your access pages, should connect to each piece of content you deliver whether it be zip files, video files, mp3, pdf, etc. Check your links and make sure they're working.
Step #6 - Upload and Protect Your Membership Content
Make sure your access links are hard to guess so your members can't accidentally access everything at once.
This is an example of a bad file setup:
Week 1 link: https://www.mywebsite.com/week1.html
Week 2 link: https://www.mywebsite.com/week2.html
Week 3 link: https://www.mywebsite.com/week3.html
Instead create them like this:
Week 1 link: https://www.mywebiste.com/week1_35g79hf93h823y/index.html
Week 2 link: https://www.mywebiste.com/week2_68hj39gh3gh3gh/index.html
Week 3 link: https://www.mywebiste.com/week3_3df265df374fgdf/index.html
By doing this we add a little more randomness to the links, and it means we can place all our content in a folder hidden away from obvious places.
If security is a real issue for you, it's worth investing in a membership script. But because we're building a membership site on a budget and you want to make money asap it's worth using this method. Later on you can use membership scripts.
Step #7 - Create Emails for Each Week / Month
7.1 Write Confirmation Email
When your member first sign's up to your membership, you will take them to a member's squeeze page. Most auto-responders require a double opt-in, so your confirmation needs to stand out so they don't miss it in their inbox!
Example...
SUBJECT: ACTION REQUIRED - Please Confirm Your Order For YOUR MEMBERSHIP NAME!
Hi {!firstname_fix},
Thanks again for joining YOUR MEMBERSHIP NAME. You're almost done! There's just one more step left. To ensure that we have the right information, please follow the link below to activate your membership account...
GENERATED AUTO-RESPONDER CONFIRMATION LINK HERE
Once confirmed, the auto-responder will be triggered and the first email in the sequence (week #1) will be sent to them immediately.
7.2 Write Weekly Monthly Emails
Your auto-responder is what's going to send your customers to your access pages so you'll want to create a quick email for each week or month. Inside the email you'll have your membership name as your subject line, a quick summary of what's instore for them that week and the link to the access page.
Example...
SUBJECT: YOUR MEMBERSHIP NAME - Week #3 Lessons Are Ready {!firstname_fix}!
Hi {!firstname_fix},
I hope you enjoyed last weeks information on the basics of HTML and setting up your site. This week we're going to develop your site and start adding sales copy to it. No matter how amazing your product or service is, if you people to buy your products, you will need to convince them.
You can access this week's content here:
LINK TO WEEK 3 CONTENTTalk soon,
YOUR NAMEP.S. Next week we'll be adding a presentation video to your site. This will increase your conversions, so please take action on this week's task to ensure you benefit next week!
Notice what we're doing here...
First in the subject line I want to make sure that the member knows exactly what this email is. Secondly I want them to know how far into the membership they are by stating which week they're at.
I then re-cap on what they should have already learned from last week, and follow on stating what they'll learn in the current week's lesson and how important it is. I provide them with the download link for week 3 and finish with a P.S. telling them what I will have in store for them next week.
It may seem like a simple email, but there's a bit of pyschology going on making sure that you put your member's interested first. You will need to create an email like this, one for each week.
7.3 Write End of Membership Email
After the membership term has finished, inform your member! You can either state this in the last lesson, or add a follow-up email a few days later after the last lesson congratulating them for completing the course.
Example...
SUBJECT: CONGRATULATIONS {!firstname_fix}... You've Successfully Completed The Course!
Hi {!firstname_fix},
Thanks again for seeing this course all the way through to the end. You should now have a complete website setup and ready to take orders.
All that's left is for you to take action on our recent week's lesson and continue building traffic to your site and I can promise you you'll start generating sales!
Again, because I appreciate that you as a member and allowed me to be your teacher I want to provide you with some extra bonuses which weren't advertised....
Completed Member Bonus #1:
LINK TO SPECIAL BONUS GIFT #1
Completed Member Bonus #2:
LINK TO SPECIAL BONUS GIFT #1
Completed Member Bonus #3:
LINK TO SPECIAL BONUS GIFT #1As an extra special bonus, I'd like to enrol you into my affiliate program. Because you've already gone through the whole course and know exactly what it's like, you're the perfect candidate to tell other beginners about this course.
You can join my affiliate program here:
LINK TO YOUR AFFILIATE PROGRAM AND RESOURCES PAGEAlso, if you'd like to have yourself featured on my website, please reply to this email with your testimonial, your picture and website link. You'll be displayed predominately on the front page of my site and get exposure to 1000s of visitors.
Thanks again for being my student and I wish you all the success in your online endeavours.
To Your Success!
YOUR NAME
Again notice the details in the email...
Your first job is to congratulate your member. If they've remained a member for the entire duration, don't you think that at least deserves a 'thank you' email? Not only does it show your appreciation, but it also makes them feel like they're being looked after - and everyone likes a bit of special treatment.
Also reiterate that they will achieve the result that they're after, wether it's to make a sale, a comission, make their first $1000, etc - reassure them that it will happen because they've taken action on what you've taught them.
This is completely optional, but will make you stand out if you go the extra mile - give un-advertised bonuses! In this example we could have given our member a turn-key website, a graphics package, automated software or anything else that would compliment what they've learned.
We also ask them to join our affiliate program. If you ask a member to join your affiliate program on the first lesson, they my automatically have their defenses up and query the content of your membership. However what you ask towards the end, they know exactly how good your membership is and have credibility to promote you. And because this example was all about setting up a website and getting traffic to it, wouldn't it be perfect that they used your banners, emails, and article reviews to promote you? More sales for them, more sales for you.
And lastly, we ask them to submit their testimonial. Who better to ask than a member that's stayed with you till the end? Their testimonial will be glowing and you can place it on your main sales page to convince new visitors! The more members you have, the more testimonials you'll receive, and the more establish your site becomes. It's a true snowball effect!
Your finish email is very important because that's where your member will take the most action. Use this as a point of leverage to build your own credibility!
Step #8 - Add Your Emails to Your Autoresponder
Remember we're not using any special software or script for our membership site. We're relying on our auto-responder to drip-feed the emails to our members so they can download their content. Here are the main steps you need to take...
??? Create a new auto-responder list - every auto-responder server will have their own instructions and video tutorials on how to create a new auto-responder sequence so please refer to them.
??? Update your confirmation email so you're not using the standard template.
??? Add the weekly emails into your auto-responder sequence and space them 7 days apart. This will ensure that they're delivered on time no matter when they join.
??? Ensure that your last email is added to the sequence to congratulate your members.
??? Grab your opt-in form code - this is usually in HTML or Javascript and will be needed for the next step.
Step #9 - Create a Thank You for Payment Page
Grab the code to create your opt-in form from the previous step and copy and paste into your thank you page. This will allow your paying members to get on your auto-responder sequence so the content can be delivered to them in a fashionable manner.
Your thank you page doesn't have to be anything fancy - it can just thank them for their order and then ask them to sign up to create their account.
You should also make the page URL hard to guess so people can't easily find it!
Example:
Don't make the thank you page link: https://www.mywebsite.com/thankyou.html
Rename it to something like: https://www.mywebsite.com/thankyou13498j3h4fg935.html
You can enter this piece of code into your site files that you want to hide so search engines don't list them: <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow">
Step #10 - Create Your Subscription Payment Button
There are a number of merchants you can use to create a subscription payment but the most popular are PayPal, ClickBank and JVZoo.
If you just want to focus on getting your membership site up online and getting members in, then use PayPal. After time, you can switch to JVZoo or ClickBank to get your site listed on the marketplace and start adding an affiliate program for your site.
The reason I suggest using PayPal first is because if you can't make a sale promoting your own site, then your affiliates will hardly stand a chance either. This will encourage you to keep improving your sales page until your conversions are high enough to affiliates to promote!
To create a subscription button, log into PayPal and locate 'Merchant Services' then 'Sell subscriptions' as shown below. You can then go ahead and create a subscription on your terms.
Step #11 - Upload and Test Everything
Launching a site without testing everything first is a bad idea - especially if you're setting up a large site like a membership. It's worth spending some time checking that all your links are connected properly and that all the systems are in place.
Here's a quick list of what you should be checking after you've uploaded everything...
??? Test that you can visit your site.
??? Test that the payment button link works.
??? Test that you get redirected to the thank you page.
??? Test that your customer can sign up to the buyer's list.
??? Check that the confirmation email gets sent to you.
??? Check that after you've confirmed, the first lesson get's sent out.
??? Check that the links in all the emails point to the correct download page.
??? Check that all the links on all download pages are linked up to your content.
??? Check that finished members can download your un-advertised bonuses and join your affiliate program - this is optional but well worth the effort.
Step #12 - Start Promoting
Okay, so you've worked very hard up to now creating your first membership - this is no time to get complacent and relax because we've only just got started!
One of the best ways to get traffic is to start participating on forums - i.e. helping others out with their problems, making suggestions, and contributing your expertise. Even if you don't feel knowledgeable in a subject, do your research and become and expert! - what's Google for?
With most forums you have the ability to create a hyperlinked signature so people can click on it and get redirected to your site. This will also show up on every post you make, so clearly the more you participate, the more this will pay off.??
What to put in your signature will depend on the niche you're in but for this example I could put something like 'get your first website up and running even if you're a technophobe... click here' or 'struggling to get your website up and running?... click here' or 'download your free 12 page report on creating profitable websites... click here' and you'd get away that free report on your website.
And if you're wondering what kind of forums to join, again type your main keyword followed by +forum, e.g. 'make money online' +forum, 'internet marketing' +forum, 'weight loss' +forum, 'forex trading' +forum etc. The forums that appear at the top of the listings are the ones you should be getting involved with because that's where most of the traffic related to that keyword is going to.
Also pay attention to the number of views and replies in a thread. If there is a lot of activity you should be spending your time there and gradually work your way through.
Do not spam. Period. That will just get you kicked out. You are looking to interact and provide value for other people. You will receive more clicks on your signature if you provide a useful and informative post than a quick spammy post.
There are many more traffic techniques I could list here, but this method is going to be instant and cheapest especially if you're on a tight budget and want to see results fast.
When you start generating income from your membership you can start reinvesting into more traffic generation strategies, invest in software and even outsource the task.
Let's quickly recap everything you need to do in order to get your first fixed term membership site up and running...
Summary
??? Membership sites are more profitable than single-payment sites
??? Fixed term membership sites require no maintenance after initial setup.
??? Start in the internet marketing niche because there's more scope for sales in future
??? Start with a short term (3-6 months), get members in and gradually build the site.
??? Plan to deliver content on a weekly/monthly basis in a logical order.
??? Invest in PLR material to create content fast!
??? Get online! Webhosting and an auto-responder are a must!
??? Register a domain ideally with keywords in the domain name (for niche sites)
??? Start with your sales letter. This will help you organize your content whilst you're writing.
??? Upload all your content in organized files / filenames on your server.
??? Create an access page for each week's set of content with hard-to-guess links
??? Create an email for each week's access page - keep them in anticipation for more!
??? Create a finish email to thank your member and congratulate them
??? Create a confirm email to make sure they're double opted-in.
??? Add your emails into your auto-responder
??? Create a thank you for payment page with your opt-in form so your members can receive emails.
??? Create a subscription payment button with PayPal and add to your sales page.
??? Upload everything to your server and test, test, test!
??? Promote and expand into other forms of traffic generation as site grows.
Final Thoughts...
There is no doubt in my mind that memberships are one of the best ways to make money online. Period. It may not be the fastest way at first... but you will pick up the pace as you go along. It may not be the easiest, but process-wise, it is simple.
Make a start today! Plan out your membership on a piece of paper... think about what you could deliver every month... write a rough draft of your sales letter. You don't have to do everything at once, just let the ideas flow and let the magic happen!
Posted and written by Aaron Danker - With over 18 years of online experience, Aaron takes complex subjects and breaks it down into simple layman's terms that anyone can follow. He provides high-level training, done-for-you solutions and website installation services so everyone can learn and profit. This blog is a insider journal of all the best tried and tested marketing methods to date backed by years or trial and error. If you'd like to learn more from Aaron and start your online business then sign up now for a free online masterclass.
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