The Membership Guys Podcast - Practical Advice For Membership Website Owners

When you're running an online business like a membership website, the idea of going to live events as a way of growing that business may be counterintuitive when you're spending so much time behind your computer screen. However for membership site owners; conferences, workshops, mastermind days and other such events hold potentially even greater opportunities than for other kinds of businesses; and in this episode I talk a little more about how you can extract huge value from regularly attending live events. In this episode, I discuss: - The main reasons for attending live events that you may not have thought of - How networking and meeting new people can open doors that will add value to your membership offering - Why meeting up with your members and peers at events is a game changer - Creating your own opportunities you simply won't get when you're in front of the screen

When trying to attract new people to your membership site, giving potential members a taste of what's on offer before asking them to part with their cash and invest in your product is a great way of overcoming any doubts they may have about joining. With this in mind it stands to reason that hosting free webinars can be a fantastic way of winning new members by demonstrating your expertise, proving your credibility and showing why joining your membership is worthwhile. When it comes to using webinars to sell digital products, there are few people quite as knowledgeable as Amy Porterfield. Webinars are fundamental to Amy's success, and in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, she shares with us her top tips and insight on how you could use webinars to promote and grow your membership site.

While in a lot of cases people will have joined your membership to get the benefit of your particular expertise; bringing in experts in complimentary topics can add a lot of additional value to your offering. Not only does inviting guest contributors increase the value and variety you provide to your members; but it's also a smart strategy for minimizing the workload involved in creating all content yourself. In this episode, I discuss: The benefits of inviting other experts to contribute to your membership How best to approach your guests and convince them to get involved Examples of the types of content you might ask a guest to contribute How to make it easier for your potential guest to say "yes"

I regularly talk about how your members will join for the content, but they'll STAY for the community; and that's something we see reflected in every successful membership site we've been part of. But what options do you actually have for creating your community from a technical standpoint? How do you add an online forum to your membership? In this episode I talk more about the importance of community, forums in particular, and discuss the various routes you can go down to add one to your website. In this episode, I discuss: How adding a forum gives your passionate members a space to engage with others Why community is a vital asset for membership sites Examples of Wordpress plugins and stand-alone software you can use to set up your forum Why a Facebook group isn't an adequate replacement for building your own community

As membership site owner, the ability to protect our premium content is at the heart of how your business functions. And when that protection is threatened you, naturally, start to panic. So it stands to reason that you'd want to take action to prevent "hit and run" members who sign up, download everything you have to offer, and then cancel straight away. However before you batten down the hatches, make sure you listen to our advice on how to handle this sort of situation... In this episode, I discuss: Preventing the fear of temporary members discouraging you from providing your best experience Pros and Cons of limiting your membership-only content as online only Examples for how to keep your subscribed members engaged over time Why you shouldn't focus your energies on preventing piracy

It's easy to see why the strategy of offering lifetime memberships is a divisive one. Unquestionably the biggest benefit of the membership model lies in recurring revenue, so the notion of providing unlimited access to your site for a single one-off fee may seem counter-intuitive; however as we discuss in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast there are definite pros and cons to this strategy... In this episode, I discuss: Pros and Cons of offering a lifetime membership option Examples of the type of sites or situations where a lifetime option could work very well Why it's important to define what a lifetime membership actually is How to decide on what to charge for lifetime access

Most memberships will consist of two things - premium content (such as courses and tutorials) as well as community. While the quality and depth of those elements will vary greatly from site to site; it does mean that when your potential member is considering several options for sites to join it can be hard to tell the difference between memberships which appear to essentially be offering the same thing. This is where going that extra mile to provide added value to members is key to standing out from your competition - and one of our favourite ways of doing this is to offer exclusive member-only perks and offers. In this episode I discuss this further as well as provide my tips on how to approach vendors to negotiate deals for your membership.

It's easy to assume that mainstream media coverage is the domain of celebrities, huge businesses and crazies claiming to know where the aliens took Elvis. As such, most membership site owners don't even think about trying to use PR to get their story out there, as they see traditional media as out of their reach. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I'm joined by Janet Murray who not only explains why this isn't the case but also gives advice and tips from her 15+ years in journalism on how you can attract media attention for your membership site. Many membership sites revolve around their founder or founders positioning themselves as an authority on a given topic or in a specific market; and attracting media coverage can be invaluable to establishing and strengthening that credibility. Even if you're not running an authority-based membership, chances are you have a story to tell that it would benefit you to share with the world. This interview is packed with actionable advice and tips that wo

One of the more challenging changes that comes with moving to the membership model is dealing with the increase in how many people are contacting you and vying for your attention. Supporting hundreds or thousands of members can certainly take its toll and becoming uncontrollable without procedures and a solid approach for dealing with handling communication. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I talk about how you can set boundaries and expectations in order to ensure your membership remains manageable. It should go without saying that if you think a membership isn't going to involve work that you're mistaken - but that doesn't mean that handling member communications has to take over your life! Having a solid strategy for supporting members and enabling communication is key to the long term success of your membership site. Establishing boundaries enables you to better and more effectively serve your whole membership base, so it's key to put these into place early.

To celebrate the 50th episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, we decided to do something a little different. Not only did we bring Callie onto the podcast (for only the second time!) but we did so as part of a live Q&A we hosted on Blab.im all about our favourite subject - membership websites! We had audience questions, a guest appearance, and a pretty epic rant from Mike that you're really going to want to hear (unless you can't handle the occasional curse word.. or twenty!) In this Q&A we discuss: What most appeals to Callie about the membership model Can you create a membership if you don't have knowledge, skills or experience? Why snake-oil salesman and lazy marketers are doomed to fail When it would be the wrong situation to create a membership The future of live video and what it could mean for membership owners How to organise your activity and plan content Which membership plugins are best to use with LMS platforms ...and more!

The launch of a new membership site can be a nerve-wracking time, and adding to that anxiety is the question of whether you have enough content to open your doors. Is there a set amount of content that a membership site needs to have before you release it to the public? What content should you be creating and how do you know when to say "when"? In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I tackle this question, and provide my top tips for approaching content creation as you gear up for launch.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I'm joined by Amy Schmittauer from Savvy Sexy Social to talk about how you can build authority by incorporating online video into your marketing strategy. Amy has built a huge audience for her own business, with over 3 million views across the 600+ videos on her own Youtube channel, where she teaches others to effectively use video marketing in their own business. Amy specializes in using video to build brand and personal authority - something which many of us as membership site owners are trying to do as we carve out our spot as the "go-to" people in our market; and that's something which we talk about during this interview. In this episode, Amy Schmittauer and I discuss: Where video marketing should fit in terms of the bigger picture of your overall strategy, and how important it is to focus Amy's top tips for getting started with your first online video How to overcome the fear that your business or topic simply isn't interesting enough create videos ab

Finding the right web designer is like navigating a minefield. With so many people out there claiming to know what they're doing - and often no real way for the typical prospective membership site owner to know whether those claims are legit or BS - it's unsurprising that pretty much everyone and their dog has a horror story about that one web designer who screwed them over. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I share my top tips on finding and hiring the right web designer to create your membership site.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, it's the concluding part of my interview with Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine in which we discuss marketing your business and growing your brand on Instagram. As part of his marketing for Foundr Magazine, Nathan managed to explode their Instagram following to hundreds of thousands of highly engaged fans in a short space of time. In this episode, he discusses how you can get started on building your own following as well as how to leverage them as part of your list building and sales funnel for your membership site. In this episode, Nathan Chan and I discuss: How "boring" non-visual companies and brands can use Instagram as part of their social media marketing strategy Where to start when trying to build your Instagram following Leveraging influencers and figuring out what to actually post Strategically planning your content and campaigns to generate leads and sales Nathan's thoughts on how the recent algorithm change affects people marketing on Instagram

In this episode we discuss the importance of giving new members a warm welcome and ensuring that they feel part of your community from the instant they join. This is an area so sorely missed when it comes to memberships, because as online business owners we're conditioned to focus solely on getting the sale. But what happens in the minutes, hours, days and weeks following a new member joining are often what will determine the long term success of your membership website. Listen to this episode to get my 6 tips and tactics for ensuring that your new members get off to the right start.  

If you want to make an impact and grab a lot of attention for the launch of your membership site, then running an online summit can be a great strategy to use. This is especially true if you need to accelerate your visibility, quickly grow an audience and build a huge amount of momentum going into your launch. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I talked to Yann Ilunga about how he's making a splash with his upcoming Podcast Success Summit, and the strategy he's using to launch his own membership off the back of it. One of the biggest fears of any new membership site owner is that they'll open the doors to their shiny new website, only to be met with the sound of crickets; and if you don't already have a following or an established audience then there's a real risk of that happening. While organising and running an online summit is a lot of work, as Yann described; the pay-off can be huge in terms of getting peoples attention, building a highly targeted email list and generating positive moment

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I'm joined by Nathan Chan of Foundr Magazine. The founder of Foundr. And yes, I made that joke 30 seconds in. He'd heard it before. What was originally intended to be a discussion about Instagram turned into a value-packed chat about the background of Foundr magazine, how Nathan started it from scratch, without an existing audience to speak of and ultimately grew it into a successful brand that now offers several products including a recently launched membership site.

Fresh on the back of attending Social Media Marketing World 2016, we're sharing our top takeaways from the event for creating content and promoting your membership site through social channels. PLUS - you guys asked for it... after 8 months, the elusive Callie Willows finally joins me on The Membership Guys Podcast! Listen to the latest episode to hear us discuss our 4 biggest lessons from the event... In this episode: 2016 is the year of ____ _____ Organic reach is dead? You need to be more ________ with your content Stop focusing on _________ and _____

During the course of running your membership site, there will inevitably come a point where you want to increase your pricing. Maybe your offering has changed, perhaps you're responding to increased demand or maybe you just want to earn a little more for your efforts. Rather than simply raising your prices overnight, check out this latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast for my tips and strategies to help you to get the best results from increasing your membership pricing...

Podcasting is a fantastic way of promoting and growing amembership website. Not only does it help you to establish you as an authority anddemonstrate your expertise - things that are particularly importantif your membership is largely based on your being an expert in yourfield - but it also gives a human voice to your brand andestablished connections that most other mediums simply cannot. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I'm joined byJohn Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur On Fire, who shared some ofhis insight and experiences in not only building a wildlysuccessful business podcast; but also how that fits with his ownmembership communities. In this episode, John and I discuss: The role podcasting has played in developing and growing John'smembership community Tips for turning his podcast listeners into members How John creates extra member-only value from his freepodcast content What activity helps John manage the hectic schedule ofreleasing a daily podcast ...and loads more!