How to Create Membership Websites that Make Money

Type “I’m interested” in the comments below if you are interested in receiving my free step-by-step instructions on How to Generate Recurring Income From Your Video And Your Knowledge.

Then check out the “Membership Site Dynamite” Training.

Content:

1. Adjusting your mindset
2. Selecting your niche
3. Finding your USP
4. Building your email list
5. Choosing your membership model
6. Naming your membership website
7. Pricing your membership fee
8. Planning the content
9. Choosing the platform
10. Creating your video content
11. Writing the sales page
12. Launching your membership website
13. Managing and retaining members
14. Growing your membership website

Reasons to create a membership website

• You get paid upfront.
• You get paid monthly.
• You make money while you sleep.
• You don’t need a heavy investment.
• You actually clone yourself on video to serve more clients at once.
• Compared with creating a one time course, you can continually spent more time and resources on the membership site and create a community around it.
• You are financially motivated to create updated content.

The only fear is nobody signs up. The other fear is you have to create content that the paid members like, unlike YouTube where it doesn’t matter if the audience don’t like your content.

Adjusting your mindset

• It’s an ongoing long term effort.
• There will be ups and downs.
• You have to kee
• p tweaking to grow.
• Think like a creator, not a consumer.
• Know your “why” for starting this.

My “why’s”. Reduce stress. Live the digital lifestyle. Serve more people at once. Sell my value not my time. Create an asset. Of course, finally, make more money.

Finding your niche

• What do people often ask you about? Expertise, skill, passion, hobby, life experience.
• What problem are you solving when they go in the membership website?
• Who is your target audience and will they pay?

My expertise or skills would be video content creation. My passion would be digital technology. My experience would be getting over 4 million views and over 7500 subscribers to my YouTube channel.

The problem I am solving is getting the right tools and techniques to quickly get started with video content creation.

My target audience will be soloprenuers interested in using video marketing to promote their business on YouTube, Facebook and other social media.

Finding your USP

• USP = Unique Sellong Proposition
• How are you different from others?
• Do people know what niche you are doing at one glance?
• What’s your story? What are the problems you overcame? Add personality.
• Use creative videos in sales page to keep them coming back like TV episodes.
• Keep it fun.
• Over deliver.

My USP could be Video Content Creation for Soloprenuers to promote their business on YouTube, Facebook and other social media.

My story? I have been a videographer for over 20 years making videos for corporate and government agencies. When I realized my age has caught up, I also realized I cannot be doing the same thing forever, serving one customer at a time. So I branched into the training business where I can reach out to more business owners and show them how to make videos on their own… Especially in the age of social media marketing where video is expected nearly every day.

Building your email list

• Verify your idea and aim for 500 subscribers before launching.
• Give something for free in exchange for email. Eg. Free report, cheat sheet, downloads, single video or series.
• Link from everywhere to the lead magnet opt in form.
• Slow method – blog, YouTube videos, Facebook posts.
• Fast method – Facebook ads, Instagram ads, YouTube ads. Get a pixel for retargeting.

I use Aweber email responders and I am still looking for an effective lead magnet.

Choosing your membership model

• All-in-one model – All courses bundled into one site.
• Hub model – Separate courses promoting one membership.
• Live training plus recording – meet at scheduled live session or coaching session.
• Interview model – Interview an expert and sell in membership site.
• Drip feed model – members don’t get everything upfront, but get information at intervals.
• JV site with one or several experts – Combine with other experts or within your own team.
• Community model – Just like a forum where members share ideas instead of creating courses.
• Digital downloads – Provide downloads and instructions on how to use the downloads instead of video training.
• Coaching or mastermind – For clients who want more contact with you. Could be one to one or a small group.
• Consulting or services model – Not exactly a membership site but a continuity model.
• Fixed term membership – membership with a fixed duration instead of never ending.
• PLR model – Using content that is ready made for you.

All models can be mixed and matched to create your membership site. You don’t have to create courses all the time. Mix with downloads.

Create one that suits the time you can devote and the time your members can devote. Ask them what they want from you. Evolve over time.

Naming Your membership website

• Make it sound interesting but appropriate.
• Include community or exclusivity words like Video Creation Circle,  Video Creation Academy, Video Creation Society, Video Creation Den, Video Creation Club, Video Creation Insider.
• Include power words like Video Creation King, Video Creation Hero, Video Hero.
• Say what it is like Video Creation Tricks, Video Creation Lessons.
• Include the goal like YouPreneur or Super Fast Business or Super Fast Video Creation.
• Include membership level label to reflect members journey and access. [Bronze, silver, gold, Platinum] [starter, standard, extreme] [apprentice, master, Grand Master]

Should I adopt Video Creation KING?

Pricing your membership fee

• What are your competitors charging?
• What are you paying for?
• What is your customer willing to pay for?
• How big is the problem you solve?
• How much contact are you offering?

Start low to have room to raise fee. Don’t provide to many options. 2 is best. Monthly and annual plans.

Planning the content

• Keep it simple and over deliver.
• Spend 40% of time in content creation and community engagement. 60% of time in marketing.
• Don’t be a lifetime slave to content creation.
• Eg. 1 live workshop per month. 1 coaching call per week. 1 downloadable per month. PDF summary, Audio, recording, resources, later form a group or forum. Turn a free group to a paid group.
• Hub model eg. 1 core course. Then sell more courses. For retention, drip Advanced Training module each month. Monthly coaching call plus recording. Private group access.
• Netflix model example. Access to 17 courses. JV with other experts to create more courses. Add a new cost every month including One live Class. Access to private group. Members directory for premium members.
• Educate and entertain.
• Create a welcome video to mention goals and objectives of the course.
• Break the course down into separate videos or modules. Lesson 1, lesson 2, and so on.
• Keep each video short. 10 to 15 minutes. Below 10 minutes even better.
• Repeat the main points after each lesson.
• Call to action. What’s the next step. Go do this task. Go to the next lesson. Go and share what you learned in the group.
• Give an assessment.
• Provide extra downloads.
• Tip. Don’t say lesson 1 or lesson 2 and so on. It’s harder to edit if you want to insert a lesson in between in future.
• Emulate udemy format.

For me I think I will use example number one. I may be recording my live face-to-face class lesson and use that as the core content in my online course.

Choosing the platform

• SELF HOSTED – DIY
• Membership scripts – MemberPress, MemberMouse, Wishlist
• WordPress hosting and themes – Liquid Web, Divi, Thrive
• Carts – Thrivecart, SamCart, Clickbank
• LMS – Access Alley, Learn Dash
• Autoresponder – ConvertKit, Aweber
• Video Hosting
• PLATFORM – all in one
• Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific

I will try something else I learnt from another friend. Combine Paypal and closed Facebook group to form a membership platform.

I am also trying GumRoad.

Creating your video content

• Invest in lighting and audio equipment.
• Ring light, Logitech webcam, Blue Yeti microphone, tripod, phone grip, clip-on mic.
• Video editing software. Screenflow for Mac. Camtasia for PC. Also Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro.
• Screen recording of PowerPoint or keynote slides.
• Going live. Gotowebinar, Zoom, Facebook group live, ecamm live.
• Video hosting. Vimeo Pro. Wistia. Don’t use YouTube.

Learn more about video Styles in the six-figure video course.

Writing the sales page

• Study other people sales pages.
• Make it fun. Make it infotainment.
• Create the urge to jump in.
• Stress the saving of time and money.
• Remove side bars.
• Use green buy buttons. Works better than red.
• Provide two options. Monthly and annual.
• Put testimonials in the checkout page.
• SALES VIDEO.
• UP TO 8 MINUTES.
• Be on camera to build trust.
• Tip. Create a sales video after creating the course so that you can use the course as the b roll.
• Feature your prospects in the video. For example, students learning in the class.
• Use multiple music tracks the break up the video to keep the viewer interested till the end.
• LIVE SALES WEBINAR
• LIKE A SALES VIDEO
• Mention the why.
• Give a few actionable tips.
• Then sell.
• Next mention the how details.
• Edit and turn into evergreen webinar.

You can also launch your membership site without a sales page. Just use live webinar then direct to shopping cart.

Sales pages convert about 2 to 6%. Live webinars convert about 8 to 12%.

Launching your membership website

• Build build a waiting list
• Give Early Access to friends and family oh simple client for testing and feedback
• Put out more relevant content
• Be a guest in other people’s blog
• Do do a three-part video launch if there is a lot to explain
• Otherwise a sales page or a webinar will do
• Create a free group then hype it up with engagement then promote the paid group
• Give us a special launch bonus which will not be available afterwards. For example a half hour one to one call. Resources and downloads.
• Stop at a low price and say the price will increase later
• Do do an annual deal with three months off
• Consider consider an upsell or you can do that later
• Create a sense of urgency. For example signup within 5 days or bonuses will be gone.

Let me try that on my live class.

Managing and retaining members

• do free live training coursesCreate a welcome page to show what’s in the website and announce what is coming up next.
• Create an email sequence to check if new member can login and announce what’s coming up next as well as mention what’s popular in the site.
• Send personal messages to individual member.
• Follow up with individual member to ensure the complete each lesson.
• Check the analytics to see which content is popular and which is not.
• Survey members to find out what they want and what they don’t want.
• Provide news update using video.
• Create projects and challenges.
• Create rewards.
• Stop dripping content.
• Highlight members work in the training as well in the marketing.

I don’t know but I think I am already doing most of this in my free content blog and Facebook page.

Growing your membership website

• Launch mini courses.
• Launch mini challenges.
• Every content you plan for your membership site is an opportunity for getting new members.
• Do do free live training courses with a sales pitch.
• Mention fees are going up because they are more and more content inside already.
• Appear as a guest in other people’s videos and podcasts.
• Appear in traditional media and on stage presentation.
• Extract parts of training for Facebook ads.
• Email a regular newsletter with sales pitch.
• Survey non-members and find out their problems.
• Repurpose some content as blog post then run Facebook ads to the Post then the sales pitch for the membership site.
• Use countdown timer to create a sense of scarcity and urgency.
• Recruit affiliates and update them with the latest offerings and news. Reach out to influencers as affiliates. Duplicate your sales page in affiliate market like ClickBank and jvzoo and more.

Time to take action and get to work.

Get the step by step instructions

Type “I’m interested” in the comments below if you are interested in receiving my free step-by-step instructions on How to Generate Recurring Income From Your Video And Your Knowledge.

Then check out the “Membership Site Dynamite” Training.

Adrian Lee
Videographer turned Youtuber with over 7500 subscribers and over 4 million views.
https://adrianvideoimage.com
Living in a Digital World