Category: Grow a Home Business

    How to Make the Most of Your Membership

    When you join a membership it’s imperative to find a way to make the most of your membership. When you spend money on something, you need to do so with a business mindset of how much your return on investment will be, and how you will ensure that you do get that ROI you believed you would get.

    * Join the Right Membership – Joining just any membership is not going to work to help you expand your business or your knowledge. You need to be choosy about which memberships you join based on the results that you want.

    * Read the Materials Provided – Every membership provides some sort of welcome material, plus a newsletter of some kind. Make sure that you read all the information, because you never know when an opportunity will occur that you want to take advantage of.

    * Take Advantage of Any Opportunities – Often members and the group will have opportunities that enable you to show what you can do. Even if you have to do some things free or for a discount, it can help you get the word out. Go to educational events; even if you know the information, you never know what can happen.

    * Volunteer – When you join a group you need to be willing to volunteer your time toward the efforts of the group. This is why it’s imperative that it’s the right membership so that their goals align with your own values and goals. Take the time to join in with the group and do your time as leader, or host, or take part in the charity work that the membership does.

    * Get Involved – Outside of volunteering, when you show up at a meeting, offer your thoughts and opinions. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and get involved, because there are likely other people who are thinking about the same things you bring up.

    * Go to Every Meeting – Of course things happen, but it’s important to make the time to go to the meetings because that’s where the relationship building happens. Sure, it’s nice to get a link back to your website as a member, but without the relationships to back it up, it’s not going to do very much good.

    * Get Prepared before You Go – You want to appear professional at every meeting and interaction with the members of the group. This is how they will judge you in terms of wanting to work with you or recommend you to someone else. Keep in mind that even if the members who show up aren’t the right clients for you, they may know the right clients for you. Set a good impression from day one.

    * Give Out Marketing Materials – Get a professional business card made, and even a brochure if it’s relevant to your business. For example, if you’re a graphic designer, you might want some examples of how awesome you are in your brochure.

    Memberships are wonderful ways to network with potential new clients and get referrals to new clients, as well as a great way to learn new skills. But, you must choose the right membership to join, and make an effort as an active member to reach your goals.

    Categories: organizations Tags: Tags:

    How to Get Paid for an Email Course

    An important aspect of having an email course is finding a way to monetize it. Making money for your hard work is important. When you make money doing something you love, and that you really know how to do, it will enable you to do more of it – thus helping more people learn the information that they need to know.

    * Moon Clerk – This works with MadMimi.com, Aweber.com, GetResponse.com and other autoresponder services, which will enable you to collect one-time and recurring payments for your courses. You’ll need a stripe account as well to get started with using Moon Clerk.

    Link to Moon Clerk – http://www.moonclerk.com/

    * PayPal – You can set up a PayPal subscription payment with a simple link to set up an eCourse, using either ClickBank.com or another shopping cart system. Set up a sales page with the payment option, and then send them to a thank you page with a sign-up sheet. That will sign them up for the autoresponder with the eCourse.

    * aMember.com – This is a membership software, which you don’t need to run an eCourse, but it is a good way to set them up to avoid issues with people unsubscribing and still being on the course list, as can happen with the PayPal / ClickBank idea.

    * Upsells – A great way to make money from a free email course is to offer an upsell of some kind. This could be a product you’ve shown them that they need, such as a private membership group and other related products to the course.

    * Affiliate Programs – Your course may suggest different types of tools, software and services to your audience. This is a good opportunity to include an affiliate link. You do need to disclose in your terms of service on the sign-up page for the course that some links will be affiliate links. However, most people will not mind if you are suggesting things you’ve tried that work.

    * Exclusive Offers – People on your list will love feeling exclusive. Use the list to make “list member only” special offers. When you hype up these offers to let them know that they are honestly the only ones getting a “sneak peek exclusive offer” and an inside view of your products and services, they’ll be excited to get the chance.

    * Cross-Promote – If you have other offers outside of this course, such as more courses, you can cross-promote. This is an offer that is related to the course your customer is taking, but is not a sale that’s directly related to the course they’re in now.

    * Coaching – If you’ve given a good eCourse to your audience, you can offer to give them extra help with one-on-one coaching or group coaching calls for a fee. Make the offer through the course in the beginning, toward the middle and at the end.

    If you give it some thought, you’ll be able to cash in on email courses. You can make it as simple as you want, or as complicated as you want, depending on which software you choose to use. But, one thing is for sure; you can make money and get paid for an email course.

    Categories: Email Subscribers Tags: Tags:

    How to Develop an Email Course

    An email course is usually delivered in “drip” mode. This means that whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly, part of the course is delivered to those who signed up for it via their email, through an autoresponder service. An autoresponder service like Aweber.com, Mailchimp.com, or another one can get the job done delivering an email course.

    Determine What the Purpose of the Course Is

    Is this a free or paid course? Is the purpose of the course to encourage your audience to buy something from you when the course ends? If it’s a free course, what will the offer be at the end of the course? If it’s a paid course, how can you deliver exceptional value to your audience and make them feel as if they got their money’s worth?

    Decide What to Teach

    Teach your audience about or how to do something that is unclear, frustrating or hard to do for your audience. If you’re not sure what this could be, look be ask your audience for the answers. You can ask them directly, or you can find groups where they ask questions. Any question is a likely a good choice for an email course.

    Organize the Subject

    Choose your topic or question to answer so that you can now organize the subject into subtopics. You’ll want to pick one focused subtopic for each part of the email course. You don’t want to overwhelm your audience with too much information at one time. Instead, think of it like teaching one point of a problem at a time in a logical order.

    Choose How Long You Want the Course to Be

    Usually an email course consists of five to seven emails for free courses, but sometimes a topic will require a lot more than that – especially if it’s a paid course. Decide how long, but more than six to eight weeks might be too long. It’s important to consider your audience so that you know how they’ll deal with shorter or longer courses. Making it too long might mean a lot of people don’t finish, but you do want to give enough information that they learn the material.

    Tell the Subscriber What to Expect

    Before and after the subscriber signs up for the course, you should let them know what to expect. Be explicit about what is in the course so that they’ll know what’s coming and know what to look for. How many emails will be in the course? How often will they come? Will you send other emails and information to them? Let them know what to do if there is a problem. Probably the best place to do this is on the sales page, plus on the thank you page, plus in the first email.

    Format Each Email Similarly

    You want each email to look like part of the same course by branding it the same. Use the same fonts, images, colors, intro and exit. Always tell them what you have already told them, and then after the body of the email tell them what to expect for the next part of the course. This will help hone their expectations in a way that keeps them interested and involved.

    Make Each Email Simple and To the Point

    Once you’ve created a template for your course, it will be simple to fill in the details for the course. Give them one strong lesson each email, and keep the emails on the short side – no more than 700 to 1500 words per email. Otherwise it will be too overwhelming.

    Craft Subject Lines They’ll Recognize and Open

    The subject line is important because it will be key to ensuring that your subscribers know to open the email. You probably want to put the name of the course and the lesson name inside so that they know.

    Finally, give your audience a way to report problems and ask questions. You can do that via a special course email address or by making a private and closed Facebook group only for people who have signed up for the course. In addition, you can use eCourse software to help you make an eCourse without having to know any coding or even have a website.

    Link to eCourse software – https://coursecraft.net/

    Categories: Email Subscribers Tags: Tags:

    How to Determine the Cost of Your Membership Site

    One of the most important aspects of starting a membership site is to determine how much the membership will cost members. Like with any product, there are many factors that go into pricing – issues such as the cost of the technology, cost of the products, time spent on the membership each month, the number of members you believe you can keep, and the profit you need to earn. Let’s look more deeply into these issues.

    * Cost of Technology – First, figure out what technology you plan to use for the membership. Include the cost of upgrading and maintenance, and everything that may need to be paid for to keep the membership going in terms of the technology.

    * Cost of Products – How much will it cost you to maintain your commitment to fill the membership with content? For example, if you’ve promised a full information product monthly to do with this niche, how much will it cost to produce?

    * Time Factor – How much time do you plan to commit to the membership each week and what is your time worth? For example, if it’s going to take a couple of hours a day, you need to count that in the cost.

    * Membership Equilibrium – How many members do you think you can get? Your audience may consist of thousands of people, but thousands aren’t going to join or stay members. More than likely 2 to 5 percent of your audience will join if the price is right. Most will only stay paying members for four months.

    * Profit Desired – After expenses, how much do you need to earn? Will this be your main source of income? If you know that it will be, and you know that after expenses you’d like to make $2500 a month from the membership, this will get you closer to the right pricing point.

    * Audience’s Ability to Pay – Your niche audience has an income and you need to know that information, including how much income they can spare to spend on something like your membership.

    * The Value You’re Offering – Even when people think they cannot afford something, if it offers a lot of value, they’ll come up with the money.

    * Your Niche’s Popularity – If your niche is super popular, and there are many other people doing the same thing, you may need to consider how you can differentiate yourself. But, if it’s really popular, that means more people to join your membership too.

    * The Competition – Is anyone offering the same thing you’re offering? If so, how much are they charging and how busy are they? If you can spare the money, join a few of your competitors’ membership programs to find out how it’s working for them and how you can do it better.

    Pricing the membership program you’re offering has many factors involved, but you’ll be really glad you gave it thought before just slapping any price on it. Consider all factors, including your competition, and you’ll get started off on the right foot. Remember, you can always raise or cut prices based on what happens after your grand opening.

    Categories: Membership Tags: Tags:

    How to Choose the Right Membership to Join

    One way to move your business to the next level is to join inner circles, mastermind groups, and other types of memberships. These groups help you make contact with people who may want to use your services or buy your products. Or they might simply offer a “water cooler” type environment to help you socially and educationally.

    It can be difficult to know which memberships you should join. Here are a few tips to point you in the right direction.

    * Know Why You Are Joining the Membership – There are a variety of reasons why you may want to join a membership. Sometimes that reason is to find new clients, and sometimes that reason is to expand your network of colleagues. This is something often done by people who work from home and also who work at jobs such as an association of bookkeepers or a networking group that comprises only one member from each industry. Which kind you want to join is something you need to be clear about.

    * Ensure That the Group’s Mission Aligns with Your Values – Check out the membership materials to ensure that the group’s mission fits in with your own ideas and values. There are many mastermind groups and memberships that will not, but there are some that will be right on the mark. Being in a group that’s on the mark is going to be more beneficial to you because you’re going to be proud to be part of the group.

    * Make Certain That They Are Active Memberships – If you can get a trial membership, that’s a good way to check it out before joining. You want to make sure that the members are active and that they are really doing things. There are many memberships where people just join to get on a list, but that’s not going to serve you very well. Make sure you’re involved with a membership that is active.

    * Determine What the Member Perks Are – Every group and membership has some sort of benefits and perks for joining. For some it’s educational opportunities, for others it’s a social type benefit such as weekly luncheons. There are even some that offer less expensive liability insurance or health insurance, depending on the state you’re in and the rules. Check out the benefits and perks as you narrow down your choices.

    * Make Sure It’s in Your Budget – When it comes to your business, joining a membership is tax deductable as a business expense. However, you want to make sure that you get a return on your investment. Think about the cost of the membership, what benefits you should get out of it, and whether or not that helps your business and bottom line.

    * Talk to Current Members – Interviewing members is a great idea because you can find out what they think about the membership. Ask them the right questions, such as what they have got out of the membership this year in terms of return on investment. Ask them how involved they are.

    * Talk to Past Members – If you can talk to people who used to be members and aren’t any longer, then that’s really great. Ask them why they left; it might be due to being too busy to be involved or some other reason, and the membership may still be wonderful.

    * Consider Whether You Will Truly Participate – There is no real point in joining a membership if you’re not going to participate, because only in participation will you get the benefit of the membership. Joining in and volunteering is how you’ll prove your trustworthiness and abilities.

    A membership is a wonderful way to gain knowledge, make connections, and boost your business. But, you have to choose the right type of membership for your goal, plus remember that you must dive in and participate to get the results that you want to get.

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    How to Charge for Your Membership

    Once you’ve decided to create a membership, one of the things you’ll need to determine is the price. How you price your membership is very important. You can turn away or bring in the right market based on the price. Price in and of itself doesn’t always indicate value, though; that’s for the members to determine. What you need to do is figure out what you want to charge based on the type of value and the number of members you want to attract.

    Limited Memberships Mean Higher Fees

    If you have a limited membership where you only let a certain number of people in the group at any given time, then your fee structure will be based on that. Figure out the time and effort the membership will take from you, how much you want to earn each month, and then use that information to determine the monthly fee.

    For example, let’s say you’ve created a membership that you’re only going to allow ten people to join. In this membership you allow open office hours, a one-hour personal call each week, unlimited email interaction, a weekly teleseminar, and a monthly webinar on a topic of interest to the group. Plus, you have a private Facebook group for members current and past only.

    You can go by the time it takes you to conduct all this work, or you can instead just determine how much you need and want to make. Let’s say you’ve decided you want to earn $100K a year with the membership. With only ten paying members allowed at any given time, you’ll need to charge about 833 dollars a month to each paying member to earn $100K a year.

    Here’s the math: Desired earnings 100K a year / 10 Members = 10,000K /12 Months = $833 per month, per member.

    Unlimited Members Means Lower Fees

    With unlimited members allowed, you won’t have time for the one-on-one work, so it’ll be hands off other than interaction in a private forum. So, let’s say your membership offers a learning center, with a new course added each month that relates to the niche, plus a group coaching forum. Through the membership you’ll offer other opportunities, but they’ll all be group format and no one-on-one activity. For example, you may offer a teleseminar monthly on a topic, as well as early intro to new products and services.

    In this case, you need to find out how many potential customers you can attract to meet your goal of $100K a year. If the market has one million people in it, how many of those can you convert to paying subscribers? At $27.97 a month you’ll need about 298 members to meet the $100K a year goal.

    You’ll need to study whether it’s a possibility or not. If not, you may have to raise or lower the price to ensure that you attract the right amount of regular members to the membership. Here are some examples of how it might break down.

    Goal $100K a year:

    * 418 Members @ $19.97 a Month
    * 298 Members @ $27.97 a Month
    * 174 Members @ $47.97 a Month

    You’ll need to also keep in mind the payout to affiliates, marketing, advertising and so forth, but this gives you a general idea of what to consider when pricing your membership for best results. It always starts with your goal, big or small group, and your audience. How many of them are there, and how many can you attract and keep happy?

    Categories: Membership Tags: Tags:

    How to Build an Online Community

    Building an online community is an important way to build your business online. Online communities usually consist of an information area, members’ area with a message board, perhaps a chat room, and then some members only resources like a membership directory, checklists, white papers, eBooks and more.

    * Determine What Technology You Will Use – One of the most important aspects of starting an online community is choosing which technology you will use to build it. There are many options to choose from. Base your choice on your technical knowledge, your budget, and what features you want the community to offer.

    * Choose the Niche You’ll Focus On – It’s best if the online community you build is based on one target audience and not too widespread. Just like you focus on a niche with your business, focus on the same niche with the community.

    * Create Content Specifically for the Community – Once you have a community it’s important that you create content specifically for that community on a regular basis. Consistency is the key to ensuring that you attract new members and keep the old members satisfied and interested.

    * Invite New People on a Regular Basis – You want to have regular new members showing up because it keeps the group fresh and brings in new questions, thoughts, and conversation.

    * Connect Your Community to Social Media – Social media is the best way to market your online community. You can even start with an online community first on Facebook with Facebook Groups.

    * Be Engaging and Caring to Your Members – Your personality will show through if you participate on a regular basis in discussions with the community. Let them see how caring you are.

    * Make It Easy for Others to Promote the Community – Start a referral club or an affiliate program that enables your community members to promote the group to others. Reward them for bringing in new members.

    * Interview Members on a Regular Basis – A great way to add content to the community is to choose a special member each month to highlight and interview. You can do these interviews in podcast form and put them on iTunes as well, for another way to promote your community.

    * Interview Experts in Your Niche – A great benefit for your community is to be able to learn from movers, shakers and other experts within your niche.

    * Promote Members of the Community – Once in a while allow the members of the group to promote their offers by having a something like a yearly fire sale that enables them to benefit from the entire community sharing.

    * Keep the Conversation Going – Don’t let the community die down. Keep the conversation going; ask for volunteers to monitor the group and to contribute to the content and discussion.

    Building an online community can help you create an entire community of raving fans that are not only ready to purchase your current products but who will also stand in line to purchase your new products. They’ll also promote you to their friends, family and associates. It’s a wonderful way to get to know your audience better and to improve product development.

    Categories: Membership Tags: Tags:

    Getting More Information from Your Subscribers AFTER They Opt In

    The best email subscription forms ask for very little information to start. But, the more personalized the emails you send your subscribers, the more response you’ll get. Therefore, you need to come up with ways to get more information from your subscribers after they’ve already opted in so that you can ensure that you are sending them the right information.

    Welcome Message – Right off the bat, when you send your new subscriber a welcome message to your list, it is a great opportunity to seek more information from them using a web form. Depending on which email marketing program you use will determine which features it has to collect more information.

    Thank You Page – Another great place to get more information from your subscribers. This can be true of an opt-in thank you page, and a product purchase thank you page. Create a form for the page where your subscriber or buyer can click to provide more information about them to help you serve them better.

     – Periodically, it is helpful to send your list subscribers interactive information such as polls and quizzes. This will help engage your list subscribers in a new way and open them up to providing more information about themselves so that you can personalize your interactions with them even more.

    Coupons and Codes – Any time a subscriber takes advantage of a coupon code is a good time to collect more information about them so that you can personalize the information you send them. You may have only collected an email and name when they first opted in but when they redeem the code, ask for just a bit more info.

    Request for Response – Sending out an email to your subscribers requesting a response such as a comment on your blog, or for them to fill out a form, or to ask you a question that you’ll answer on your blog, is a good way to get more information about each subscriber that can be used to create more personalized messages.

    Surprise Gifts – You probably gave your subscriber a freebie when they signed up for your list. You can use the same tactic in your subscriptions to get more information from your subscribers. Offer them a new free gift for some sort of action taken.

    Subscriber Preferences – This is a good way to get more information is to offer your subscribers various preferences they can choose for the type of information they want. If you have more than one type of list, why not give them a chance to get on other lists that you have at this point?

    Behavioral – Moving your subscribers from list to list due to the behavior that they demonstrate is a great way to personalize the information that your subscribers receive. For instance, if they click through to buy something, they should be moved to a new list.

    Don’t just try one time to get more information from your subscribers. Take time to build the trust between you and your subscribers and as time goes on, ask more questions and seek more feedback from them so that you can make the information you send them more personal than ever before. The more personal your messaging is to them, the more response you’re likely to get.

    Categories: Email Subscribers Tags: Tags:

    Get Others to Promote Your Membership Program

    When you start a membership program you want to have a steady flow of new members entering the program at any given time. The average time someone stays in a membership program is usually 12 weeks or 3 months. Therefore, you need a constant stream of people coming into the membership to keep it full and active.

    Members Only Referrals

    One of the easiest ways to not only encourage people to stick around longer than 12 weeks but also to get new members, is to allow members to refer your group. Require people to stay a member to be able to refer the group and receive commissions. Offer a nice 50 to 60 percent recurring referral percentage to the members who refer others. This will keep them around longer, as well as get more members.

    Affiliate Marketers

    If you don’t want to allow only members to promote your group, you can let affiliate marketers promote it. But, you do want to choose the marketers carefully to ensure that they will use honest methods to promote your group. Provide graphics, blog posts, and other information to help them market your membership.

    Make YouTube Videos

    A good YouTube video can go viral. If you create a regular channel on YouTube that people like to watch, it is another means of promotion for your membership program. You don’t even have to mention the membership program other than at the end of the videos, and in the description bar. Ask people to share – this is a great way to get other people to promote your membership program.

    Create Infographics

    People love sharing infographics that give data that the audience needs to know. They also are more likely to share visual material than the same data in print or a blog post. The best way to start is to put the graphic on your social media networks. Ask your family and friends to share, and you’ll create momentum.

    Provide Excellent Graphics

    Other people are more likely to want to promote your membership group if you offer good material and graphics to help them promote it well. Memes, infographics, videos and more all offer everyone a good way to promote your membership program.

    Personalized Webinars

    A really good way to promote your membership group is to ask movers and shakers within the industry to host a webinar where you’ll be the guest. You will answer questions and then promote your membership at the end of the webinar.

    Ask for Testimonials

    The testimonials of others will help you promote your membership program, but it will also help other people promote your group. The more good things you can show people about your membership program, the better. The more good people see, the more they’ll want to help promote your membership.

    Memberships are a lucrative way to create a new stream of income based on the niche you’re already involved in. You can provide your products and/or services in an entirely new way that guarantees regular and timely income.

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    Expanding the Lifetime Value of Your Customer

    You probably know that each customer has a lifetime value in business. This is called the CLV, customer lifetime value. It translates into the amount that you can earn on any one customer as they enter your product funnel. Understanding your CLV can help you determine how much you should spend on marketing, and also help you determine ways to expand your CLV.

    * Become More Customer Centric – Customer service is one of the most important parts of any business. Even if you have the best products or services in the world, if your customer service is lacking you won’t last long. If you want repeat buyers, treat your customers with the importance they deserve.

    * Build Targeted Upsells – With technology like LeadPages.net you can easily create an automated system to build upselling into the buying process. For example, you can do it in the shopping cart, or you can do it through follow-up emails.

    * Create Logical Cross-Sells – A cross-sell is a just selling a different product to a current customer. It should relate to your audience, but it doesn’t have to relate to the first product that you sold them the same way an upsell does.

    * Be Responsive – It’s imperative that you set up a system that makes you seem super responsive to your customers. Whether that is a ticketing system, a 48-hour answering policy, or open office hours doesn’t matter. But, you need to be perceived as very responsive to keep your customers happy.

    * Over Deliver – Every product or service that you deliver should be better than the customer expects. The fact is, you won’t please everyone all the time, but you can shoot to over deliver. If a customer is unhappy, you can over deliver with your solution to fix their problem.

    * Create a Referral Program – Let your customers earn money or points by recommending you to other people. Often, when people can earn enough money to support their buying habits, they’ll be more likely to spend money with you. It’s a win-win all the way around.

    * Stay Connected – Find ways to stay connected with your audience, such as social media, email, teleseminars, and webinars. The more ways they can connect with you, the happier they’re going to be and the more your CLV will expand.

    * Develop an Inner Circle – One way to expand your CLV is to provide a fee-based inner circle that certain customers can join. It can be on a private forum or even be run by Facebook. You can use a private Facebook group or create your own forum with native software.

    Nothing is more important in your business than your customers. The more you can study what they need and find a way to deliver it to them, the longer they’ll stick with you. But, you have to keep creating products to keep those who’ve bought from you interested and wanting more. You also have to deliver exceptional service and quality so they get past the first product in your funnel.

    Categories: Customer Acquistion, Customer Engagement, Customer Service, Email Subscribers Tags: Tags: