Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

When that burst of inspiration for a membership site starts turning into a fully fledged idea and plan, it's easy to think that you've stumbled onto something truly unique.

However as Mark Twain once said - "There is no such thing as a new idea", and this often rings true for membership website concepts.

So what do you do when you discover that there's someone else out there with the same idea for a membership site as you? Check out this latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast for my advice...

One of the biggest benefits of running a membership website is the ability to tap into a truly global audience.

However that does present the problem of having to decide which currency to use when it comes to pricing your membership.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I give my opinion on how to decide on which currency to use as well as some other factors you need to consider when setting your pricing for a multi-currency market...

Membership websites come in all shapes and sizes; but the type we primarily deal with here on The Membership Guys consist primarily of content and community.

Given that content marketing is, without doubt, one of the best ways to promote your membership site; then it can be a real challenge trying to figure out which content should be free - via blogs, podcasts and the like - and which content should comprise your paid membership.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I tackle this subject and look at some of the things to consider when deciding whether your content should be free or paid...

Facebook groups are a fantastic way of cultivating a community of like-minded people, all interested in a particular topic, product or problem.

It's little wonder, then, that running such a group can be a highly effective strategy for membership site owners, for a wide variety of reasons.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I'm joined by Jill Stanton from Screw The Nine to Five, who shares her insight into not only running a popular, highly successful free Facebook group; but also how she leverages this to benefit her paid membership community.

(Warning: this one gets a little bit sweary, so those of a sensitive disposition may want to give it a miss!)

In this episode, Jill and I discuss:

• Running a free Facebook group vs using a group for your paid membership
• Advice on how to get people engaged and active in your group
• Tips and techniques for attracting new members to your Facebook group
• The specific strategy that Jill uses to get people from her Facebook group to join her membership website
• How Jill manages her time keeping on top of a 10,000 person strong free group as well as her paid community
• ...and loads more!

You’ve got plenty of loyal members who continue to pay for your membership – but are you taking member retention for granted?

Some members may be paying for your membership without any delays or issues, but that doesn’t mean that they are happy and satisfied. 

You can’t assume that just because somebody is continuing to pay, that it means they are 100% pleased with their experience. The truth is that inactive paying members probably don’t even realize they’re still paying for their subscription!

So, what’s the best course of action if you think you’ve got paying members who could be getting closer to the exit door?

On this episode of the podcast, I reveal exactly what you should do, and I share three main reasons why you shouldn’t take member retention for granted. 

Essential Learning Points:

• The real reasons why members who are not engaged with your membership continue to pay for it
• Three reasons why you should never take member retention for granted
• Why you need to make sure you deliver constant value with your membership site

Important Links & Mentions:

• Creative ways to improve your member experience with Andrew & Pete
• Try these tactics to pre-empt and prevent member cancellations
• The Membership Economy with Robbie Kellman Baxter
• 4 simple but effective ways to deliver massive value to your members
• How to increase engagement within your membership site

Key Quotes:

“It's very easy to mistake somebody sticking around on your membership or the fact that someone continues to be a member, as an indicator that they're happy that they're engaged, that they're satisfied with what they're paying for.”

“You need to make sure that you're always looking for ways to continuously add value, that you have that ongoing dialog with your members that you're regularly getting feedback.”

“Some people will be paying you and will be continuing subscription without even realizing it.”

Cancellations are the one things most membership site owners hate and fear, but are also something we can't avoid - no matter how hard you try to hide the "cancel" button!

Your onboarding, engagement and retention strategies are key to prolonging the member lifecycle - however another key thing to consider is that often your members will have common "drop-off points", where you're most at risk of losing them.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I discuss how you can identify your common member drop-off points, and more importantly what you can do to deal with them.

Running an online membership removes the barriers for doing business around the world. Regardless of where you're based, your members will come from far and wide.

This represents a huge opportunity for membership website owners to build a global brand.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I'm joined by Chris Ducker - founder of Youpreneur - to talk about his experiences in launching a membership site that is truly global.

In this episode, Chris and I discuss:

• Refining how you position yourself and an authority, and how to escape the "pigeon hole"
• The important of "serving" your community
• How launching a membership site has changed Chris' approach to live events and speaking gigs
• Chris' top tips for building a global brand with your membership site.
• ...and loads more!

With Valentines Day just passed, love is in the air, and in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I'm professing my deepest feelings for my one true love... the membership model.

Tune in and find out why we're so enamoured with membership websites, and why they appeal to us far more than any other business model out there.

We've had countless people approach us over the years in need of help in figuring out why their membership site launch hasn't quite gone to plan; and in almost every case it's because they jumped head first into wrestling with membership plugins and creating content - skipping past the crucial task of actually evaluating and validating their idea.

I'm joined on this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast by Pat Flynn, founder of the extremely popular Smart Passive Income blog and podcast; and author of the brand new book Will It Fly, which teaches you how to test your next business idea so that you don't waste your time and money.

In this episode, Pat and I discuss:

• Why idea validation is so important for membership site owners
• Where to start if you have an idea and you're not sure how to figure out if it's worth pursuing
• What to do when you simply have more ideas than you can handle
• How to 'course-correct' if you've skipped the idea validation stage and you're now regretting it

Should your membership site always be open, or only open for limited periods throughout the year?

It's a question that comes up frequently; and while we tend to fall on the side of having an "evergreen" membership that's always open, it's hard to deny the appeal of using the urgency and scarcity that are only typically effective with a limited-opening approach.

In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I discuss some ways in which evergreen membership site owners can utilise urgency and scarcity in their marketing strategy without having to close the doors of their site.