Many people measure success according to vanity metrics.

How many followers you have rather than how much engagement you get; how much your turnover is rather than how much net profit you make; how many members you have rather than their average lifetime spend.

But is success as a membership site owner all about how many members you have?

Or is it about the money you make? Or the lifestyle your membership affords you?

I give my take in this week's episode of The Membership Guys Podcast...

• Are your goals ambitious enough? And if they're not, does that make you a bad entrepreneur?
• Why member numbers are meaningless when it comes to assessing the success of your membership
• Would you trade in a measure of personal happiness for a measure of increased profit?
• How small membership sites can actually be more attractive

If you’ve spent much time looking at online courses or membership sites and their associated plugins and software, then you are probably already familiar with the terms ‘drip feeding’ and ‘content dripping’.

Drip feeding is essentially time-releasing your content so that it isn’t all available to someone immediately after they sign up to your site. But unlike simply providing ongoing content (where new content is released into the general membership regularly), your content is released on a set schedule based, usually, on when the member signed up.

While this can be a great way to stagger content, prolong subscriptions and avoid 'hit and run' members; there are some downsides to consider.

In this episode, I discuss the pros and cons of drip-feeding your membership content.

It can be difficult to judge whether or not you're delivering enough value in your membership for the price you wish to charge.

That's mostly because "value" is an abstract concept.

There is no scientific formula behind it; it's not something you can accurately measure - it's entirely subjective, based entirely on individual perception.

So how do you know if you're getting it right? It is even possible to know?!

That's what we're tackling in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast.

• What 'value' truly means in the context of online memberships
• The most common mistakes people make when pricing their membership and assessing what it's worth
• Questions you can ask yourself to get a better measure of whether you're delivering enough for what you're charging
• What do your members care about most, and how does that factor in to their perception of the value your membership offers

While the majority of online memberships tend to fall into the same 2 or 3 models in terms of how they deliver their premium content; there is much to be learned from those membership sites that do things a little differently.

In this episode I discuss 4 content strategies for memberships that are fairly uncommon but certainly effective, and discuss ways in which you could incorporate aspects of those strategies into your own business.

• Why platforms such as Patreon and the creator programs offered by YouTube and Facebook are giving way to a new breed of online membership.
• How some memberships give away their content for free initially, and then charge money for access to their archive
• How one of the oldest offline content distribution models could be used for a membership website
• Giving your members "credits" to allow them to purchases limited quantities of content

One of the key decisions to be made when planning a membership is whether to offer multiple membership levels or a single 'all access' option.

While we always advocate for simplicity, there are definite pros and cons to consider.

In this episode I discuss the key things you need to consider when deciding whether to have multiple levels in your membership, and provide my top tips for making this strategy work. And I also share a 'middle ground' for people who prefer to stick with a single level.

• Pros and cons of offering multiple different membership levels
• The benefits of keeping things simple in your membership (especially at the beginning)
• How "price anchoring" can increase sales, and an alternative way to leverage it
• Why you shouldn't differentiate your membership levels based on content alone

Most membership owners - especially those earlier on in their journey - try to do everything themselves

Chris Ducker refers to this as "Superhero Syndrome" - where you convince yourself that everything in your business rests on your shoulders; that you’re the only person who can possibly handle it all.

But it’s a fallacy.

You shouldn’t be trying to do everything yourself because it’s just not sustainable, especially as your membership grows.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I highlight 6 key areas of your membership business that you should look to outsource in order to free you up to focus on the things that only you can do.

• Why trying to do everything yourself is actually bad for your membership (and your members!)
• Outsourcing isn't just about offloading tasks you're no good at or think are 'beneath you'
• How to change your mindset about paying for specialist help
• Why you need to be the "rockstar" and not the "roadie"

This year we embark on our biggest and most daunting challenge to date - running our very own live conference: Retain 2019

It's something we've wanted to do for years, and we're beyond excited to bring together hundreds of membership site owners from around the world for 2 days of amazing speakers and high-level networking.

But the journey has not all been smooth sailing...

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I take you behind the scenes of the story so far, revealing our thought process, strategy and sharing the highs and lows of orchestrating this kind of event.

• Why we've waited until now to run our first conference of this scale
• What happened that almost made us throw in the towel and cancel the entire event
• The specific steps we took to validate our idea for this event, including our pre-sale strategy
• Insights into choosing speakers, picking a location, approaching sponsors and more

Your membership sales page is perhaps the single most important piece of the puzzle for attracting member signups.

Whether it's a cold lead or someone who has been following you for years - it's your sales page that needs to seal the deal and help them to make the final decision to join your membership.

So it's crucial that you get it right!

In this episode I walk through the key elements that every membership sales page should have in order to maximise new member sales.

• Why you need to zero in on the problems and pain points your potential members have, and how to use that info on your sales page
• The importance of transparency, particularly when it comes to your membership pricing
• What "risk reversal" is and why it plays such a big part in crafting an effective sales page
• Pre-empting your customers questions and overcoming objections that might stop them from joining

Most online memberships involve content.

A lot of content.

Not only are you creating content for your membership, but often you're blogging, podcasting or creating videos as part of your marketing strategy too. It can be a lot to handle!

That's why it's crucial to have a solid plan for your content production, so you know well in advance what you need to create in order to schedule accordingly and avoid constantly doing everything at the last minute.

In this episode I'm joined by Janet Murray to discuss how to plan an entire year's worth of content, and the tips and tools you need to help you stay on track.

Considering starting a membership website in 2019?

Perhaps you should be...

In this episode I look at 6 types of people who are especially well suited to starting a membership site, and discuss some of the various strategies they could consider.