How To Create A Membership Site

Growing a Membership site can be frustrating and fun at the same time as you tackle the question about what type of content do you include in your membership.

Memberships are an online business model and can be profitable and proved time freedom.

In this blog we look at some of the most frequently asked questions about memberships.

What Type of Content Do You Include in Your Membership?

Any type of content can be included in your membership, it just depends on what your customers want, and the problem you are solving for your members.

I have two memberships “Members Only” and “KNI Mastermind“.

In my membership “Members Only” the focus is on building online businesses.

The content reflects this and includes

Live coaching sessions for a course I call Online Business Mastery.
Video recordings of the sessions and additional coaching videos
A community feature for support
Success story videos
Free ebooks
and more.

My clients have direct access to me each month through the live coaching sessions and the community feature.

In the 2nd membership, members get access to everything in “Members Only” plus

Zero to Millionaire Live Coaching
Strategic Investing live coaching
Market News and Strategies live coaching
Joint Venture Opportunities
Speaking opportunities at my summits
They can co-author a book with me on their topic
Unique Community
and more

The pricing in the first membership is lower than the second membership and reflects how much live time is spent with the members.

Whatever you include in your membership has to reflect what your business has to offer your clients. Ultimately the type of content included comes down to the product or service being offered in the membership.

How to Create An Online Membership

There are several ways to create an online membership which again comes down to your topic, interaction with members and the problems you are helping them solve.

When I created my first membership it was through Facebook Groups.

I created groups that were hidden so members had to have the link to access the group. I used FB live and posted the video from the live into the group.

The next evolution in the process was to use Messenger Chats and WhatsApp but members were unhappy with constant chats bombarding their notifications.

The format I use now is through an online training platform. All the content relating to the membership is created/hosted inside whichever membership they have joined. This includes, videos, pdf, quizzes and the community feature.

Meetings are held live through Zoom.

There are a variety of options from starting with zero cost to set up the membership through social media to paying hosting fees for the membership.

The membership format decided on will probably change as your business grows.

How Do Memberships Make Money?

Membership sites create content that is unique to the membership and charge for the service.

For both my memberships there is a monthly subscription fee with the option to pay annually for a discount.

Monthly membership subscriptions are recurring revenue which is beneficial to most businesses as it helps with money management and knowing there is a certain amount of income to come in each month.

Are Membership Sites Profitable?

In general, membership sites are profitable as they bring a lot of people into one place.

For many people, especially coaches, it can become time-consuming to run several courses and work with private clients.

A membership means that everyone has the opportunity to join the live sessions at the same time with your content adjusted to suit different levels throughout the session.

For example if you run an exercise membership you can demonstrate this is the beginner level and this is the more advanced level of this exercise.

As experience is gained the profitability of the business will become better.

Memberships Create Freedom of Time

When you combine members into one membership site it frees up your time in delivering content.

When I started Karen Newton International, I ran two training sessions per night for my clients because they were all at different levels in their education.

Once I created KNI Mastermind as a Membership, I provided one core coaching session per month and one advanced training session. With the core training it is the same content split into 12 sessions and then repeated every year.

Now instead of running 28 hours of live training per month, I’m providing 4 hours of live training.

This has provided more time to work on other projects or just enjoy my free time and lifestyle.

Why do People Buy Memberships?

Many years ago, when someone was interested in a specific topic, such as photography, they would go to a club to learn their trade and mingle with other people also interested in photography.

Today, clubs have been replaced by Memberships. They offer the opportunity to mingle with other people interested in the same topic.

Memberships provide a community where they can feel part of something and receive support.

Being part of something encourages people to pursue their interests and hobbies or in my case learn about building online businesses and investing in a safe environment.

People buy memberships because they like to feel part of something.

How to Manage a Membership Site

Managing membership sites is surprisingly easy as everyone is in one place.

The community feature is your best tool as it allows you to communicate with your members as well as engage your members. The better the engagement the better the membership does.

Paying Membership Fees

Most payments can be managed through your preferred payment option such as PayPal, Stripe, Thrivecart, or your business bank account.

As most of my clients are overseas, I manage my payments through the membership hosting platform and offer PayPal and Stripe for processing the payment.

Managing Content Release

Probably one of the biggest concerns is that someone accesses the membership site and has access to all the content built up over a year or more then cancels their membership after one month.

This is where a membership hosting platform is beneficial instead of a Facebook Group, as the content can be time released.

In my membership, there is a minimum of 12 months membership with content released each month. Once the member has paid for the full 12 months they then have unlimited access to the content on the site.

Emailing Your Membership

Even though your membership is online and you are in frequent communication with them, it is still a good idea to obtain emails for members and nurture your list regularly.

This can be done in a variety of ways

Every member gets a weekly tips newsletter. The newsletter covers a specific topic each week with action steps to improve their online business.

The newsletter is also a lead magnet to attract customers to the Membership so has a dual purpose of bringing in new customers and retaining existing customers.

On the 1st of each month, I send a general newsletter with updates about the business and pick a product of the month that I want to sell.

It has been shown that 95% of online sales are still generated through email.

Don’t let the sales opportunity be missed because you are not engaging with your customers through email and email offers.

Email Engagement Rate

Even though my clients see me in person a couple of times a month the emails still have good engagement with an open rate between 50% – 85%. The monthly newsletter has the highest opening rate and click through rate.

Email is a great way to stay in contact with all your members as some will not be part of the membership community and joined purely to for the content.

Are Memberships Worth the Effort?

While it might seem that there is a lot of work around creating and building a membership, there are also huge benefits to having a membership site.

Regular income and sales opportunities far outweigh the effort if you set everything up properly from the start.

Whichever membership model you decide on, be it Facebook Groups or a hosted membership site, like any business it will require work and consistency to make it grow.

Key Takeaways

Definition of Membership: A membership model involves customers paying a recurring monthly fee for access to exclusive information or resources not available elsewhere.
Examples of Membership: The author runs two memberships, one focusing on building online businesses and the other on investing in various assets like business, property, shares, and commodities.
Components of a Membership: Each membership includes monthly live training sessions and a community for engagement and support among members. Additional bonuses such as ebooks and resources are also provided for free within the membership.
Benefits of Memberships: Memberships offer access to coaching, support, and resources for a monthly fee. They can be a valuable addition to various types of businesses.
Business Model Viability: The viability of memberships as a business model depends on the type of business but generally can be attached to most businesses. They can sometimes generate more revenue than sales alone.
Efficiency of Time: Memberships enable greater efficiency with time by bringing more people together for coaching than if coaching were sold individually. They offer flexibility and freedom of time for both the business owner and the members.
Different Types of Memberships: The author offers two different memberships with different pricing structures to reflect the content offered. One focuses on building online businesses, while the other concentrates on investing.
Consistency and Commitment: While memberships can be beneficial, they require consistency in creating content, providing training, coaching, and resources to maintain their value.
Additional Resources: The blog post also references further resources and posts on memberships and online business entrepreneurship for those interested in exploring the topic further.

These takeaways highlight the advantages and considerations of implementing a membership model in a business context.