Fixed-Term Payment-Plan Membership Sites: Why No One Wants Your $9.95/Month Interview Site (and How to Make “Retirement Money” from One Site)
It really chaps my hide. When I see someone taking forever to write a long book, instead of writing an "e-book" that doesn't help anyone and only makes you $10 per sale... instead of trading your time for money with a 1-on-1 coaching program... my answer is to create a membership site. But what chaps my hide is that the number one reason people hesitate or avoid membership sites altogether is because they think a membership site means MONTHLY CONTENT!
"Writing" or "recording" consistent monthly content, or creating a "constant stream of products" is probably the worst way to make money. You might as well be writing articles for $5 per hour, coaching on the phone all day for $10 per hour or setting up hundreds of Made-For-AdSense sites that only generate $1 per year in income.
The Problem Is: There's No Room to Grow
(But I Have the Solution For You)
When you create monthly content, you're constantly struggling and working just to MAINTAIN the same level of income. That's no good. You stop and the money stops. Wouldn't it be better for the money to keep flowing in, and you only put in extra time when you want to INCREASE that level of income?
Everyone brand new to making money online tells me their goal is $10,000 a month. $10K monthly is more money than they know what to do with. It would pay off a mortgage, debt, travel, family, and make for a very comfortable full time income anywhere in the world.
The logical conclusion is... if I want $10,000 every month, I "only" need to get 1,000 people to pay me $9.95 per month. Simple, right?
This is backwards thinking. Your only idea so far is a number (the price). Then you think... I'll choose a niche like dog training, I'll create about a year's worth of videos, articles, tips, audios, resources and drip it out. And THEN... I'll schedule thought leaders in my niche (other dog trainers) and record another interview every month. That way I won't have to do any work creating the content month after month.
- People will join and never cancel... right?
- I can hide and they'll automatically pay month after month... right?
- Anyone has 10 dollars every month to spare, so I can add whatever I want in the site... right?
Unless your site delivers a service that peoples' businesses absolutely depend on (like web hosting, webinar service, an email autoresponder, payment processor) then your interview site is a LUXURY site, and it's the first thing they'll cancel!
By the way, you don't want to provide a mass-market monthly service (like an autoresponder) for several reasons. First, it's very competitive and hard to compare/differentiate/beat multi-million dollar companies like Amazon.com, Aweber, GetResponse, InfusionSoft, and more. Second, there are just too many expenses involved and it's tough to make a profit. Third, you become a commodity! If your web host is down for 1 hour in a month, people quit. If you charge $9/month and someone else charges $8/month, and it's easy for people to switch, they quit!
A monthly service won't cut it, an interview or "tips" site won't cut it, so what will? A fixed term membership site that solves peoples' problems! More on that in a minute.
Here's why "monthly forever" (continuity) sites also don't make sense from a marketing and copywriting perspective: what about Month Five?
Tell me about your monthly dog training interview site. You have two choices. Either you can leave the details out and say... just pay me monthly for this site, it's just 30 cents a day. Or, you tell me about your upcoming training... which is great for the first month...
But what happens when you'll be able to stop your dog from pooping on the carpet by the end of the fifth month. Really? I have to wait 150 days, 20 weeks, for that?
You're either trying to solve a non-urgent problem (something where I can wait two months), or you are solving an urgent problem but you're taking too long to get to it.
You can make money from a never-ending monthly interview site, but the reason people buy (and stay) is because they're buying based either your personality (they buy everything you release anyway) or they buy for LUXURY of getting new ideas and distractions. These are only the top 1% of your subscribers, so most of them aren't buying (no matter what you do), and you're giving your best stuff away for 10 bucks!
This is the solution:
Step #1: Choose the End Result
Know your marketplace well enough to uncover how to make ALL THEIR DREAMS come true within a VERY FOCUSED SUB-TOPIC within 21 days.
The key here is to deliver TANGIBLE results but also deliver something people want. For example, in 21 days from now, you can have an affiliate program completely setup including tools, traffic, and automatic marketing.
Step #2: Outline the Course
Break that 20 day plan into four milestones, one every 7 days, including TODAY! Each milestone is about 1-2 hours of training. Not five minutes, not all day, just 1-2 hours. That means I can show you...
- Milestone 1 (how to get the affiliate program online) the day you get it, on day 1
- Milestone 2 (connect the affiliate program to a membership site) comes on day 7
- Milestone 3 (setup on multiple affiliate marketplaces) on day 14
- Milestone 4 (re-launch your affiliate program) on day 21
I show you how to create a podcast (internet radio show). Module 1, setup and submit to iTunes. Module 2, create longer podcasts with music and graphics. Module 3, market the podcast on social media and special directories. Module 4, how to make money with that podcast.
These are almost always screen capture videos (show your screen and speak out your voice) where you ACTUALLY SHOW yourself going through the steps. Setting all these things up, not just discussing or lecturing.
Every module along the way gets you one step closer to that end goal of having an affiliate program with all the bells and whistles, a podcast that makes money, a sales letter that converts. Every module or milestone comes with a built-in DELIVERABLE. Go through this module and you'll have this result.
They are clearly separated BUT they're all important and they're not just meandering from one topic to another. Each one builds on the previous.
Step #3: Transform it into a Magic Offer
Package it all together into a magical, sexy, unbeatable, irresistible, juicy offer. Everyone else tries to compete by:
- Loading in 50+ videos (I think you mean OVERLOAD 50+ videos)
- Reducing the price down to $9.95 (how many copies will you have to sell)
- Promising bonus after bonus (now the offer is just confusing)
- Adding numbers and numbers, X number of minutes and pages (too much work as a buyer)
Sure, you can get your videos transcribed, add screenshots and package them into reports, organize that membership site with tables and pages. I guess you could add a FAQ or Q&A session or two, which makes me think your core training isn't helpful enough.
BUT what if that podcasting course included (in addition to the 4 how-to screen capture videos in a membership site with transcribed and screenshotted reports)...
- An easy to follow checklist to reference again and again anytime you want to publish a new podcast episode
- A built-in community (usually just comments within the site) to ask questions
- A built-in traffic exchange where you can submit your podcast and get a jumpstart on your number of listeners and sales
Basically, everything you need to make it almost IMPOSSIBLE to be without a podcast of your own this week or this month... without piling on bonus after bonus (which just confuses your offer). And, if copycats come along and create their own knockoff course... just ABSORB THE CHANGES!
Either that "other guy's" bonus doesn't matter, or it's something you can duplicate in your own way and make better.
Step #4: Assemble Your Sales Letter
Create one single web page (with nothing to click on other than your a buy button )so people actually know what they're buying. But when I tell you to "write a sales letter", you get scared...
Sales letters have gone through several cycles. First, people wrote big long direct response style letters where you couldn't really tell if you were buying a book, video course, software, membership site... or even what was in it. Or even what the price was!
Then people moved on to video sales letters. Same idea, just as long and boring – if not even WORSE because you had to sit through 90 minutes of PowerPoint slides.
And finally, WordPress-based graphics heavy multi-column sales letters... basically 5-10 bullet points listing a few sections, and that's it! A site that looks pretty but doesn't convert well because it's so generic.
Do you see the common problem with sales letters? Whether they're long, short, video, or WordPress-based... the problem is CONFUSION!
That's why the most important thing in your sales letter (second only to the buy button) is what I call a "1-sheet." List every all four modules of your course, plus the exact bonuses, checklists, and software. WARNING: you might actually have assign INTERESTING names to your modules and checklists to pay people to pay attention.
For bonus points, make it a stack table... meaning, assign a dollar value next to each module (what it's worth), total up all the value, and then drop it down to the actual price.
A sales letter only needs to do four things but it NEEDS to do these four things, and in this order:
- Attention: Identify their problem and WHY they ended up on your site
- Interest: Agitate the problem and explain WHAT they've tried that didn't work
- Desire: Clearly and dramatically introduce your solution including each HOW-TO step of it
- Action: Tell them to buy right now instead of later, get them excited about the WHAT-IF they buy
That's as simple as I can make it. Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. Why, What, How-To, What-If. If your sales letter is story-heavy, offer-heavy, price-heavy or guarantee-heavy... it needs re-adjusting. If you are missing pieces or they are in the wrong order, tweak it.
If you wanted to be really lazy, title your headline as, "Who Else Wants to (blank), (blank) and (blank)" and list each bullet point as: "How to (blank)," "How to (blank)" and, "How to (blank)."
(To really crush it, model the sales letter into about 20 PowerPoint slides and present it on a live 1-hour webinar telling people to buy at the end.)
Step #5: Create the Content of Your Fixed-Term Membership Site as Live Webinar Sessions
Schedule each module as a 90-minute live training session.
Create a FEW PowerPoint slides just to announce and then later recap your how-to training. Explain EVERY click and actually do it. Present with GoToWebinar and record with Camtasia. After just four 90-minute sessions spread out over three weeks (day 1, day, 7, day 14, day 21) you're done.
Setup WordPress and place the videos inside a Wishlist Member site and then sell the recordings – but call it "training" and not "replays" or "recordings."
"But What About My $10,000 per Month Recurring Income?"
I don't know what your personal situation is, but I'm convinced that most people want a $9.95/month membership site because they want a site that's an easy sell (who wouldn't want it?) BUT they also want to stop building a list once they hit 1,000 subscribers.
You heard right. The $9.95/month wanna-be's want a $9.95 per month site, with 100% a retention rate (exising members staying in) and a 100% conversion rate (new members joining) and 1,000 email subscribers. (In reality you would need 100,000 targeted subscribers.)
I don't want 5,000 subscribers because what if I make a typo in my email, and lots of people see? Or if 1% report my emails as spam, that's 500 spam complaints. My autoresponder will cost me $30/month instead of $10/month, I'm not sure if I can afford that even at $10,000 per month profit.
Not you, of course!
Here's the reality. Not only do I believe it's tougher to sell $9.95 per month forever than $99 one time, you'll get massive cancellations month after month.
You might have heard people like Jimmy D. Brown claim that the "average membership site retains members for three months" and I've seen many, many, many people worry about retaining members (even they don't have a membership site) along with what price to charge (even if they don't have a membership site).
Look...
- Make your membership site a how-to course (instead of tips and interviews) and you'll increase retention
- Make your membership site single-payment or fixed-term (with an end date) and you'll keep the average person in for longer than they'd stay in a "monthly forever" site
- Add assignments (challenges) to your membership site so people can clearly measure their results and you'll increase retention
- Add a tool or software inside your membership site that they'll lose if they cancel and you'll increase retention
Honestly, as soon as I shifted my thinking from: dripping, dishing out content in little bitty pieces, adding filler content, worrying about "how much content per week" is enough... and into: getting people from point A to point B, I created sites faster and made more money with them.
I have plenty of membership sites where the content is all delivered upfront, and people continue to make payments for months to come. Our "Make a Product" system allows anyone to dictate out articles and a book. It's $197 when paid upfront or $39.95 spaced 31 days apart for five total payments.
No Drip Content with Zero Percent Financing
If they stop payments they lose access to our tools that make article and book dictation possible.
We make more sales because of the payment plan. About half of people take the payment plan. Way more than half of the people completed all five payments. It's as simple as can be!
We do this with Newbie Crusher which is $97 (or two payments of $49.95 spaced 31 days apart), Speed Copy ($497 or five payments of $99.95 spaced 31 days apart). Note: Speed Copy drips out a little bit (one module every 30 days with bonus reports and videos in-between) but the content finishes before the payments do and people don't cancel... because they COME BACK AND RE-USE the tools and the training even after they've completed the course.
If you're THAT worried that people will join and then cancel, JUST TRY THE PAYMENT PLAN OPTION! You can always remove that button later, and if people cancel partway through, they lose access. It doesn't cost you any extra money or take any extra time and it'll make you more money.
I can't estimate your own numbers, but you can expect HALF of your buyers to pay full price, HALF of them to take the payment plan. HALF of those will complete all payments, and the other HALF of payment plan buyers about HALFWAY through. It's spooky how dead-on the numbers are for me.
Now all you have left is to...
- Step #1: Choose the End Result
- Step #2: Outline the Course
- Step #3: Transform it into a Magic Offer
- Step #4: Assemble Your Sales Letter
- Step #5: Create the Content of Your Fixed-Term Membership Site as Live Webinar Sessions
So go ahead right now and stop worrying about pricing, retention, or content -- launch your membership site that solves peoples' problems.
Filed in: Archive 1: 2012-2016 • Membership Sites
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Thanks for a different perspective on building a membership site. Most of the concerns I’ve had that has held me back from building one were addressed here. Now I need to digest and proceed.
Great article Robert. Thanks for boiling it down to what is really happening out there. Those membership sites never really made sense anyway to me, and now I see why they didn’t. Your way makes total sense in reality. I’ve bought your fixed term memberships while passing on the $9.97 per month ones because of the ownership idea. I will finally own my membership and have lifetime access to all of the information. Even though I only need part of the info to solve immediate problems, the other content is perceived by myself as helping to solve future problems that I will need your tools and guidance for.
Hi Martin,
Yep, $5/month or $10/month “sounds” cool until…
1. the people suggesting it start telling you to hide from your customers
2. you take fees into account (did you know if you charge $5 you’re only getting $4.56 using PayPal or $3.62 using Clickbank?)
3. you realize it takes a year to get $100 (versus just charging 100 bucks right now)
4. these guys tell you to expect 3 months retention anyway
5. Lance and I actually get quite a few yearly renewals when we update these courses
I’m going to put this into effect for a new membership site I’m about to launch.
Robert, you definitely gave us something to think about. We are getting close to developing a membership site and your comments will help with the planning and deployment. Thanks!
Always a good idea to start by keeping the end in mind. Now let’s brainstorm for all those ways that I can get people from A to B.
Hey Robert,
This was a very timely discussion for me because I have several membership sites in mind and even a couple that are up that really aren’t as effective as I’d like. I’ve been watching you do this now for a couple of months with your memberships that I belong to and I’m glad that now you took the time to spell it out psychologically and otherwise. It’s a great idea and I plan to model it. It follows along well too with something else I heard recently which is that it pays to be known as a marketer who sells higher priced products. Selling a membership at $9.95/mo puts you in with the class of marketers that sell $10 products but by associating it with $99 as the full price it puts you into the range of marketers selling products in the $100 – $500 or $100 — $1000 range which is a much better range to be associated with. Once you sell a bunch of $10 products it can often be psychologically more difficult for your customers to associate your work with a higher price range.
Fascinating, as usual Robert, but I have a question.
Is there a good “retention” solution for a site following your model that does NOT have a tool or software they lose access to?
Robert
Thank you for these tips. You make it look easy because of the way you explain
the process. I enjoyed reading this post.
The idea of a podcast sounds great. I may take you up on that offer.
Thank you,
Marsha
Thanks Robert,
there were several AHA! moments for me reading through that article.
Robert, this might seem like an odd question, but I’m curious if you see a logical upper limit price point for the kind of exclusive membership sites you’re working with (or perhaps planning in the future.)
Theoretically, it would be possible to offer almost any kind of content at a price point that reflects its value. But would that work out in actual practice?
What are your thoughts about an upper limit (or even if there is one.)
Thanks for providing such great content consistently!
Nancy, the price depends on a bunch of things.
The big one is the perceived value of what I’ll get after applying your training. For example, a $100 course on how to write and market articles “feels” expensive because I won’t make as much money from that as, say, a course showing me how to flip a house for an average of $12k (in that case, $997 seems cheap). $100 and even $500 is too cheap for copywriting courses.
Find 5 of your competitors and look at what price they charge, price somewhere in that range but preferably on the higher end, if that makes sense.
Hey Robert,
I’m glad you emailed me about this, I think it’s great. It makes perfect since to me. What’s the old saying, “keep it simple stupid”. I think we try to get too technical sometimes with things.
Anyway, great letter. As a matter of fact, I’m going to make a copy of it.
Later,
Ozmann Unlimited, Llc
J.Osborne
I concur with the majority of the comments I’ve read so far, it’s an excellent article and after reading its recommendations, I’m going to change how I operate my existing membership site based on the suggestions contained within it.
the idea of being a member of a membership site must be of benefit to the member asap other wise like you mentioned members will lose interest or leave for somthing better price/service/ there must be an imediate benefite to be a member like say 30 days or less but for me i need to see results asap if i follow your steps asa an example imtarget http://buildmuscle.publicsets.com amazon dont work with people from illinios so this whole site is dead to can you say refund thank you much looking for sale still.
Hey All,
Yes it’s true so many are caught up in paradigms and can’t see the freedom they have to step out of the box and into success. I’m sure guilty of it. We just have to WAKE UP that’s all… Good advice, all of it, I frequenlt give advice in many different categories, TURN IT AROUND….think about it Thanks for the reminder.
Robert,
Thank you for this great post. It pays to listen to someone as experienced as you in marketing. Your membership model solves one of the perennial problems all membership site owners face – retention.
Clarence
There’s more actionable content here than in most $97.00 courses! I especially like the reminder in step One: “Know your marketplace well enough to uncover how to make ALL THEIR DREAMS come true within a VERY FOCUSED SUB-TOPIC within 21 days.” Solid gold, man!
Hey Robert,
I must say thank you for your very insightful thoughts. I have completed your membership cube course and I must say you and Lance are the only ones out there teaching this way. Thoroughly recommended.
Having been bombarded for years by bits n pieces of the overall picture, your training is brilliant.
Personally, I’ve been stalled by an overdue new autoresponer system which is now working so I am looking forward to bringing my site live in the very near term.
I will put everything you said in place and look forward to meeting you guys face to face one day soon.
Interesting stuff Robert! You always have great ideas for membership sites and webinars.
The problem I have have with the one time membership concept is that the member site seem stagnate after the initial launch period is over. The first group gets all the live webinars, etc and the people who sign up months later don’t.
How do you solve that problem?
Hi John Braun,
As I stated in my comments, I’ve done his course which I stated was excellent. What these guys do is place the recorded webinars/training inside the membership area. I was able to follow on in the exact order the original attendees did.
He has a special plugin that releases out content slowly no matter when someone joins. eg lets say module one and 4 “posts” are part of the first week. module two and another 5 “posts” are part of the second week. Well you cannot access module two until after a designated time set by Robert (usually around 1 week), so new members are not overwhelmed by having all the content available at once – just like the ones who may have joined a few months prior.
Even if you joined one year after me, you would get the material in the same order as me. Just follow along with the webinars, and all the appropriate posts appear. You can also see whats coming up.
These guys get their customers results, not digital dust and overwhelm!
Hi John Braun, David is right. We re-launch those courses over and over. Some courses, only a few times a year. But our most popular ones, we make it a point to run a pitch for that once per month.
Most of a week lead-up to that one webinar event, so it takes up about one week, so there’s only room for 4 pitches per month.
There’s always a new angle to promote even with new products, especially if we can use something that the rest of the marketplace is talking about.
Thank you Robert, another great post from you 🙂
I’m slowly building out my site, based on a membership model, but only using the email address as payment for basic membership. I know that by keeping it interesting and up to date, I can make enough (2-3k/m) with affiliate sales.
I’ve taken note of your 21 day concept, a very useful idea. I’m going to try setting up a series of them, so that people can do 1 per month. That way they will have definite actionable goals, and know what they should have achieved within a specified time.
As people work their way along, I’ll be offering what they need, and making suggestions for nice add-ons. Needless to say, a couple of your products will be in there :).
Richard 🙂
Yes Robert,,
You guys have the most conscientious team on the planet..
At the end of your concepts there is that extra that uncovers that would be mystery
that would never enter the students mind.. I hope you are having as much fun as we are.. I read your report 3 times and somehow you knew I didn’t submit,, lol
Here’s to winning!!!!
Awesome training Robert. You never cease to amaze.
John
Once again, awesome content Robert! I have a fixed term membership site right now, but looking at this article I may have missed a few steps in the process.
Going to use the info here to update and revamp the content and the sales funnel. I am working on version 2.0 so the timing is perfect.
Thanks!
Rich Dietz
Thanks Robert as usual you make it sound so matter of fact, but I’m still working on setting the blog up right but can’t seem to get that right yet. lol See ya on the next course.
Really good and really thought provoking. I think most of ‘us’ wrongly end up creating a business model that resembles a job (ie. you don’t work you don’t get paid). This is evergreen and scalable. Thanks for the eye-opening, kick in the ass.
Hello Robert, Do you recommend using gotowebinar because you should do a live webinar first for your video material? Or can you do a pre-recorded webinar, using any recording software? Wanted to clarify if the membership site has more perceived value if live recorded first? Great article, thx!
An issue I have with offering payment plans (or monthly payments) with Paypal is that the customer is required to have a PayPal account. On the other hand getting a merchant account is a problem in my market (Italy). Is the PayPal issue really the problem I believe it is for installments? What is your experience? This is really something that bothers me.
You couldn’t have been more timely with this article. I have several membership sites that I am about ready to put up and your information in this article really has left me with food for thought. I was looking at a lighter side for a membership fee only know I will need to rethink this and look at possible other alternatives.
Thank You for this article
John
The “fixed term” membership offers make sense.
It is much more reasonable and straight forward to create a
membership site dedicated to one Idea and develop it with
what is required to accomplish the delivery of:
Information offered or
Product (software)
pdf or ebooks
videos
audios (if offered)
webinars (if offered)
Keep it simple, Finish it and deliver it.
Sounds easier to do than it is.
A how to is my favorite type of membership as I am still stuck in
the Learning mode.
Think it is time to move on.
Robert,
Focused solutions definitely seem to sell better than less focused continuity sites.
The beauty of single solution info product courses is that you can create urgency.
Urgency to buy, urgency to complete.
That’s instant gratification at its best. With a lot of info products, you buy the hype, then let the product grow digital mold in your download folder since the thrill was in the buying, not producing your own results.
As a long term customer of yours, I have benefited the most from your courses because they are created to teach a specific solution. Live is best, but even pre-recorded courses that challenge me to not only to buy now, but to complete the course and get results as quickly as possible, are gold for the seller as well as the buyer.
As a buyer, I’m happy with your courses because they give me a step-by-step instructions and get me motivated to create my own product.
As a seller, you benefit from people like me completing the course and then giving you feedback on what they’ve gotten out of it, which you can turn into a testimonial to sell more.
Even cooler from a selling standpoint is that you are training your list to anticipate and get excited about the next product, not for the thrill of buying it, but for the gratification of using it to get results.
It’s about time an internet marketer finally gets it. The only reason I’ve ever bought a product through a sales letter website was because I already knew about the product and really wanted it. I simply “tolerated” the lengthy BS crap I had to go through to get it.
Recurring fee sites? That’s what green-dot or gift cards are for. Fake name, fake address, get in, grab everything you want from the site, and leave it up to the marketer to figure out the damage with their payment processor after.
So many marketers take the same path as used car salesmen. Blah. Who wants to deal with that!?
Long sales letters or sales videos? That’s the result of watching too many infomercials. You’ve got to remember they have a 30 minute or 60 minute slot they MUST fill and the informercial was probably cheaper than a more effective and efficient 30 second slot.
BTW: I stopped buying online marketer products after the third time I got blasted with upsell after upsell after upsell before I could get to the download page for the product I just ordered.
As for AIDA. Good on you for nailing that! I teach a trailer editing class and focus on AIDDA (DECISION is the extra D). You’ve got a minute and a half to get me to buy a ticket to your movie or buy your video game. I break it down like this:
Attention: BIG BOLD STATEMENT ABOUT THE PROBLEM
Interest: More information about the problem
Desire: Make a personal connection to the problem (make it relate to the audience on a very personal level) and then show them how your “whatever” solves that problem FOR THEM (that’s the part most marketers forget…consumers already know the benefits for YOU, but how does it help ME?)
Decision: Tell the audience what decision needs to be made, make it easy for them
Action: Now that they’ve connected to and made the decision, show ’em how to seal the deal AND DON’T HIDE ANYTHING
And it works precisely in that order.
Great article! Hopefully your list of marketers follows the advice.
Roger, love this …” the thrill was in the buying, not producing your own results”.
The method here to break down a site is gold. That’s an issue I’ve had – content decisions. This makes it easier. Next project – rework my latest site to an achievable result in 20 days it less. Thanks once more.
Quite frankly, I wouldn’t have the time to run a never-ending monthly content membership site. I’m too busy developing other things than beating on the same topic way longer than it could possibly be unique. There are just not that many things that stay fresh forever, in my experience.
I like the idea of an end. People know what they’re getting into and they get everything exactly when they’re supposed to rather than having to wait around months.
Have to admit I had this same idea in my head. Residual income is really very attractive to me, and the idea of getting $9.95 per month from a whole bunch of people sounds like a great way to keep your income long term. But yeah, I forget about people unsubscribing and such. It would be really hard to keep people interested on a particular topic forever!
Dealing with things that end are much easier. First of all, once you set everything up to drip content with autoresponders and such, you really don’t have a ton to do to keep it running. If you constantly have to come up with new content and lessons, so much time is dedicated to one membership site. What if it loses it’s progress? Do you have time to create your next one if you’re middling about with it?
Seems a great way to make more money from people who finish the one-time payment type of membership site – the type with a definite end – is to create another one that touches on something in the same topic, or goes more in depth into technical aspects of whatever it was. It’s an upsell membership.
I do have one membership site with an ongoing subscription model. It brings in a decent amount of residual income for me, but of course it’s going down as time goes on. I’m so busy working on new projects and not paying as much attention to it anymore. Always a problem.
I chuckled at the bit about teaching the dog not to poop on the carpet after 150 days. You’re so right! The only ongoing membership site I can think of is one that gives personalized training or support to something that would take forever… although I’m not sure what that would be. Better to get them in, take their money, teach them what they want to know, and get out again.
Glad you listed community as one of the things to really make your product package stand out. I’ve found that people will be more willing to pay for ‘personal support’ and a community forum than just information, no matter how good it is.
What shopping cart and merchant accounts do you use for the 2 monthly installment option?