I’ve come across a half-dozen different programs in the last year that have targeted information to help people start their own profitable membership site – so what’s the problem?
Unfortunately the message often delivered is filled with lies, or at least mis-representations.
Here are 4 different fallacies that are either overtly listed as benefits OR that readers walk away thinking that are just not true…
1. That you can pick any topic, start a membership site and become wealthy online within a few months. We’ll talk more about when this can be true, unfortunately for most beginners, this is simply not possible.
2. That somehow maintaining a membership site is less work that other forms of product development. Sure, you can do some intelligent things about how you structure your membership site and what tools, content and value you deliver to minimize your workload, but the fact remains that there must be ongoing value delivered in return for the priviledge of collecting continuity income.
3. It’s incremental – that I will increase my size each month by 30-50% without extra work. Mostly a lie – since you will always have turnover. For some sites that turnover looks like 50%, for others it may be as little as 10%, but it is NOT negligable. People will leave your membership program and the less value you provide each month, the faster they will leave. Your model needs to factor in a loss of 20% to be conservative.
4. That your membership site should be the only (or even the main) source of revenue. I have found from my own (and many other clients I have coached) that the healthiest internet businesses are those that market information in a variety of formats – low-end reports and ebooks, mid-range home-study courses and video packages, and higher-end coaching programs, consulting and/or seminars/workshops.
SOME TIPS FOR INTERNET BUSINESS MODELS THAT WORK
We focus specifically on teaching our online marketers and info publishers how to structure their internet businesses to bring in maximum profits within InfoMarketer’sZone, that means tapping into the flood of demand in their marketplace for multiple products and services.
For example, instead of selling your customer only a 10-page report on your topic and then trying to sell another 10-page report and so on…OR marketing them ONLY a membership site…
A better approach would be to sell the $20 Report, move 20-30% of the most serious customers into a higher-end training package – say for $97-$597 depending on your topic, knowledge level and market.
Then, move a large majority of them into a continuity program that will help them achieve their end goals – could be a coaching club, membership site, monthly newsletter, etc…
Understand that in any market there will be lots of tire kickers that will buy the $20 report, but there will be a sweet spot of 20-30% that are really passionate, serious customers who should be turning into 1yr to lifetime customers.
With a one-time sale of $20 report or membership site that keeps them for 3-months, you miss out on the monetization of the biggest opportunity within your marketplace.
Another quick point – in any given market, there are customers that would rather pay $397 for a home study course than to pay $27/month for the same information – it’s just reality, so it’s good to offer a range of higher-end options.
Remember, your currency when starting an online info product marketing business is to delivery value to your customers in the form of information that helps them achieve an end result.
Mix it up, publish a report that helps them get started, then deliver a more detailed home study program or video series on DVD, then determine what help you can provide them on an ongoing basis and turn that into a membership program.
By following this monetization model you can be the master of your own 6 to 7-figure online business within 12-18 months.
