What Is A Membership And Is It Right For You

Memberships are a fantastic way of joining with like-minded people and learning about your topic and sharing ideas.

What is a Membership?

Many years ago, if you were interested in a topic, as an example we’ll use photography, you would join a club.

Club meetings were help weekly or monthly and you could learn from other people at the club as members were at different levels.

It was a great way to meet people and learn.

With the advent of the internet, clubs have diminished to a certain extent and been replaced with Online Memberships.

Memberships offer a community feature, live training and access to unique information that would not normally be available elsewhere.

What are the Benefits of a Membership?

Memberships have a many functions –

1. They are a great way to meet people happy to talk about your topic and build relationships
2. A place for learning with a live training sessions
3. Provide access to material reserved for paying members

As a business owner a membership provides

1. A business model to attract clients who are specifically interested in your topic
2. Offer a networking opportunity for growing your business and upselling other products
3. Help to establish your business as the authority on the topic.
4. Build your personal and business brand.

Which Platform is Best for Memberships?

There are many different ways to create a membership site.

Social Media

When I started Karen Newton International the memberships were run through Facebook Groups.

As most of my clients used Facebook it was the best place to start.

However, one of the problems with using Facebook or indeed many other social media platforms is they can control the content in your groups.

For example, I train through Zoom and make the videos available in the groups. Facebook’s unwritten policy of not wanting content that moves the viewer off their platform meant they often blocked the videos or didn’t show the post at all.

This has happened several times to the extent that it has become difficult to provide a steady platform with access to content and resources.

Most members are unaware of the issue and wonder why you aren’t posting as frequently as you used to.

Website Plugin Memberships

On the WordPress platform, some plugins can be added to the website.

They offer different level memberships for clients.

Many websites use this feature to build their membership sites.

It provides freedom to include the content they want without the social media restrictions.

The only downside with a plugin is ensuring there is support when or if things go wrong. Check the comments and how happy users are with support and stability of the plugin.

Patreon

Patreon is a popular membership platform for content creators where products can be made available before they go to the public domain.

Some of the people who use Patreon include – YouTube creators who provide live sessions before uploading a video of the content to their platform.

A journalist may use Patreon for in-depth articles and content where an abridged version of their post is made available online.

Patreon has been around for a long time and is a popular membership strategy.

Coaching Websites

Coaching websites generally offer additional features as part of their hosting facilities. Membership sites and community features can be part of the facilities on offer.

I use MemberVault to host my online courses for Karen Newton International.

Through MemberVault, I’m able to offer a community feature with products.

I created 2 membership sites that provide training, live sessions and more.

Members Only and KNI Mastermind are the two membership groups.

Members Only

Members Only is an online membership offered by Karen Newton International. The focus being to help members build a cash-rich online business. Achieve high rankings on search engines and ultimately increase online sales.

What do You Get With Your Membership?

With a focus mainly on helping members to build successful online businesses the following things are included in your membership

• Online Business Mastery Training Course. This course covers everything you need to start an online business with videos for creating a WordPress Site; SEO Strategies for higher rankings; Content Creation Strategies and Social Media Advertising
• Live monthly training to get your website over any hurdles you are struggling with
• Fun challenges to kickstart an Online Business
• A community for helping address those issues
• eBooks – a variety of books are provided covering business, mindset and investing.

With almost 250,000 new websites created every day, you need something to help your business stand out from the crowd.

Members Only is a great way of starting your online business venture with great support, coaching and resources.

At just £9.97 per month, this is a fantastic way to kickstart your online business.

KNI Mastermind Membership

The KNI Mastermind Membership provides everything you get in Members Only plus more.

The focus for KNI Mastermind Membership is building wealth, income and ultimately the lifestyle you desire.

What Do You Get With KNI Mastermind Membership?

With the focus on building wealth there is a variety of training and resources.

• You get everything that is available through Members Only Membership
• Zero to Millionaire coaching covers business, property, shares and commodities plus leverage and compounding effect.
• Monthly group coaching
• Market News and Strategies monthly meeting looking at what is happening in the markets and the best strategies for growing your wealth.
• There are 7 hours of coaching if you attend all live training sessions per month.
• Joint Venture Opportunities in Business, Property, Shares and Commodities.
• Speaking opportunities at KNI Summits held 2-3 times a year
• Co-authoring book opportunities for promoting your business.

KNI Mastermind Membership is about getting you to your 1st million or more.

The cost for this membership is £197 per month.

A Growth Industry

According to Online Membership Industry Report, memberships are in high demand with the industry expected to generate 1.5 trillion dollars by 2025.

Memberships include media streaming services with Netflix being the largest.

However, membership services for businesses and coaches is still in it’s infancy with 37.8% of membership sites having existed for less than a year. 14% have been running for more than 5 years.

Of those working in the Membership Industry the chart below outline the main issues faced when starting a membership.

 Memberships should be treated as a business and one that requires consistent effort to build and grow.

Is A Membership Right For You?

Memberships can be a great way to grow a business but like any business, they take time to grow and consistent effort.

When I started my membership site it was a natural evolution as I already offered monthly payments for the coaching. Clients who started on Zero to Millionaire, paid monthly and just kept paying as they moved through different levels within the coaching.

Without intending to offer a membership site I had accidentally created one.

Today, there are two different membership levels depending on where the customer is in their journey to creating wealth, income and lifestyle.

In the chart below, people show why they started a membership site. If any of those resonate with you then yes, your business is suitable for running a membership site.

 

As previously mentioned, they take time, commitment and consistency to build a membership and retain customers.

One thing I do with my clients in KNI Mastermind Membership is ask them each year, what they need to achieve their wealth and income goals.

Coaching is geared around their requirements so they feel they are getting the benefit from continued membership.

I also offer joint venture opportunities that require the customer to be a member to access them.

Your business model will need to be flexible to meet the demand of your members and retain them.

Memberships Are An Online Business Model

When we talk about being an Online Entrepreneur, then Memberships should be considered as an online business model.

They are very successful for businesses that can offer unique content consistently but they do required the continous delivery of new content and new ideas for the members benefits.

Memberships are not for every business but for those that do offer memberships they provide monthly recurring revenue that offers stability to businesses.