This is slightly off topic, but somewhat relevant.
I am concerned about our economy in the coming years, and the direction it's heading. One way I feel Obama can help turn this around is instead of "handouts" or tax breaks which does very little but (in my opinion) gets us more of the same thing that got us into trouble in the first place....spending without real production increase. We need to focus on value creation...not wealth creation.
Instead of handouts, why not inject 10 to 100 billion of zero interest LOANS to the banking system that is specifically set aside for lending for small business and start ups. These are loans TO the banks...this means, the bank has to be left holding the bag if they underwrite bad loans. The money is then lent out to small businesses at a low rate...like 1 to 3%. Should the business fail...the money is still owed by the person taking out the loan...so everyone has a risk and stake in the game. No "free money".
The reason I suggest giving the money to the banking system instead of having the "SBA" handle the loans is because in my opinion, private institutions are a lot more efficient and better at handling this than bureaucracies government institutions are known for. Banks have existing infrastructures for loan underwriting and servicing, and the 1-3% mark up is their profit and payment for underwriting the loans. It is still (in my opinion) a lot cheaper than rebuilding the infrastructure for the SBA to support this program. The banks are also the ones at risk as they still owe the government the money if the loans go bad.
Small business is what America was founded on. The land of opportunity. Anyone with the will, fortitude and persistence can start their own company and have as much a chance as anyone. Small business is where there are huge opportunity for job creation and value creation. We should go back to actually making things and selling them (as oppose to mostly being consumers of things as we currently are).
With money made available to small business and start ups, these new companies will be hiring people, invest in computers, buying capital assets and other things that will genuinely stimulate the economy.
Some people may argue "but 95% of small businesses fail within their first 5 years?" That's because the people quoting this are not looking at the statistics with deep introspection. While it is true that many small businesses fail, many people have half baked business plans, lack of capital, and sometimes register companies and not follow through.
As part of this "small business stimulus" package, we should also boost up small business education programs and business reviews. These are often provided by local Chambers of Commerce. In Oregon, we have SCORE - a great resource for anyone wanting to get help starting their own company. These types of organizations can dramatically increase the chance of success for many would be entrepreneurs.
Look, even in the WORST case scenario...even if these ventures fail...it is no worse than the government giving free handouts to average citizens (as it currently propose to do anyway)....but at least to people who are doing the best they can to further themselves and our country by starting their own company.
I don't have all the answers and possible angles of this idea...but it's just an idea that seems to make a whole lot more sense than what's currently proposed.
Would love to hear your input.
Friday, February 20, 2009
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Book is done!
Well, after a long absence, I am back.
The long awaited book; "The Social Marketing Manifesto" is finally done. I will be sending out a broadcast to my list at www.i360connect.com. Everyone on my list will receive an UNLIMITED REPRINT/RESALE rights copy of my book.
Please give me your feedback, opinions, and testimonials as a comment on this blog. It would be greatly appreciated and I will incorporate your feedback into improving the book.
Thank you.
The long awaited book; "The Social Marketing Manifesto" is finally done. I will be sending out a broadcast to my list at www.i360connect.com. Everyone on my list will receive an UNLIMITED REPRINT/RESALE rights copy of my book.
Please give me your feedback, opinions, and testimonials as a comment on this blog. It would be greatly appreciated and I will incorporate your feedback into improving the book.
Thank you.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
10 Things to Look for in a Social Membership website Solution
Most social network solutions are advertising based revenue. While this works for companies like Facebook and MySpace, a more realistic revenue model would be to use a hybrid social network but with membership fees instead.
If you are looking for a membership solution, here are 10 things to look out for. Of course, these are just my opinions and I'm sure there are other features I haven't thought of. Ideally, your solution should have some, and preferably all of these.
1) Easy Installation and Management - Yet flexible and powerful
The solution should be easy to install and setup. Most open source solutions are relatively easy, although you will likely require a “geek” to install in on your own server.
The assumption here is that you have your own server. If not, it is fairly inexpensive to rent a server. Virtual servers can go for as low as $59 per month. Do a search on “web collocation” to find a good host provider. I’ve used Aplus.net, and they are a pretty good outfit.
Make sure that once installed, the software is easy to configure and customize. In other words, you can change your logo, set up new membership packages on your own without needing a geek to do it for you.
Hosted solutions in general are easier to install and all you need to do is to customize it.
2) Easy and Convenient User Experience
Some solutions are prettier on the eyes than others. Also, your solution ideally should make the users feel comfortable and be intuitive. Users should not feel lost, or overwhelmed with too many things on the screen.
In some instances, it is better to have "too little" items present than too much as people can get easily confused and intimidated. If users feel frustrated or confused, they will be more likely to leave your membership site.
You should look for a solution that has an intuitive user experience.
3) Social Media
As of 2008, videos are becoming common place. Your solution should be able to support streaming videos. Videos are useful for teaching concepts and ideas, or just talking to people. You could record a tutorial video teaching people on the perfect golf swing and make these available for "members only".
Simularly, your users will want to upload their own videos too. Your system should ideally support this also.
Of course, videos come at a heavy price. You will need to properly plan for server space to support this. Videos need to be re-encoded to support streaming format...and encoding takes tremendous server resources. Not to mention the disk space required to store all these as well as the bandwidth to support it. For a smaller membership site, a single server could serve this purpose, but for larger networks, you will likely need to build a cluster to handle load balancing.
Having a hosted solution will negate the need to worry about these concerns. The trick is to find the right solution that support this.
4) Customizable
Make sure the solution you selected can be customized to support your business needs.
There are two axis of customization you need to investigate: Image and functional.
With an image customization axis, you have a degree of control on the layout, the colors, the images you can customize to fit your image brand and site’s appeal.
With a functional customization axis, you have control over the feature set of your solution. For example, if the solution does not support a shopping cart, and if it is important for your business, that you can have that function programmed in. Most Open Source solutions support this, although some off the shelf software does not.
While both axis of customization are important, you will need to prioritize what is more important for your business model. Of course, the ideal solution will have high customization in both but you will more likely have to pay for it in the price tag.
5) Integrates a detailed Member Profile and Search function
Make sure your solution supports the Web 2.0 paradigm and the ideals of a social network. People expect these features in their solutions. It strengthens the building of bonds and community. Most membership solutions are based on the old "BBS" forum structure (for those who are not familiar, BBS stands for a Bulletin Board System as popularized in the 80's and 90's).
Having a detained member profile allows members to put in a detailed write up about who they are, what they want, what they are looking for and a way for others to connect with them….much like Facebook. Unfortunately with many existing membership software solutions, they fall short on this area as their focus is in the membership access control, and not on the user experience.
Ideally, members can locate each other based on interest, location, industry, and profession…to mention a few criteria.
6) Integrated e-Commerce
Perhaps you sell books, CDs or DVDs. Why not have these available on your membership site for your members to purchase. Better yet, why not have the ability to offer "members only" prices that are substantially cheaper than "retail"? This gives people an incentive to become a paying member.
It is even more important to have this function integrated if your system supports an integrated affiliate tracking system. This way, when a member buys something, the referring member gets paid a commission.
7) Event Calendar and Registration
This feature is important for someone operating an information marketing/seminar company, event promotions such as concerts or conferences. Having an integrated system for your members to buy tickets right from your social membership site, and track commission is a powerful way to market your events.
Having an integrated event calendar means you don’t have to wait for your web master to update your event calendar all the time.
8) Integrates an affiliate tracking and payout system
Having an integrated affiliate tracking system is a powerful and effective way to grow your social network as it gives your users a financial incentive to refer their friends and associates to your network.
Imagine saying to your members, "refer your friends to join our network. Should they decide to buy a product from us, come to one of our events or upgrade to premium membership, we will pay you a commission."
Unfortunately, very few membership systems have this feature.
9) Classifieds/Reverse Classifieds
Ideally, your solution offers a classifieds system for your members to post ads. This gives your members…particularly your paid premium members an incentive to stick with your network….and gives your free members an incentive to be premium members so they can post ads and gain clients from your network.
Some systems support a Reverse Classifieds system where members can post “I am looking for” ads. Why is this cool? Imagine if you can have a place for your members to post ads such as “I am looking for an investor”, “I need tickets to next week’s Madonna Concert”, “I need to find a mentor in Marketing”.
10) Free and Paid Member hybrid
Most systems fall into one category or the other;
if it is a free network, it is called a social network - like Facebok and Ning.
if it is paid, it is called a membership network.
An ideal solution is one that supports both a free member and a paid member. This way, your network can grow by attracting free members and then upgrade these to become paid members. Ideally, your solution should also support multiple membership package definitions such that each package has its own access rules ie. "who has access to what".
Other Considerations
In addition to these features, you should also keep in mind the following important infrastructure considerations.
Scalable Secure Server Maintenance and Backup
If done right, your network will grow. Be careful that your server can handle your growth from 10 people to 10,000 people…or more. Make sure your hardware has a RAID drive array so it can still be operational should you experience a drive failure. Without this, even if you have a backup…restoring from a down drive can take you offline for days...and this could destroy your business.
You will also need to install a firewall. Most solutions will require you to store your client’s credit card numbers on your own system (so you can charge them month after month). This also means your system will be a target for hackers. You will need to hacker proof your system to ensure maximum security. It is advisable to hire someone familiar with internet security to audit your site.
Of course, backups are crucial. Your solution should have a backup solution that is NOT backed up to the same drive as your main machine. This is because should you experience a drive failure, having the backup on the same drive will be disastrous.
On of the benefits of using a hosted solution such as Ning is that you don’t have to worry about this. Frankly it’s a pain in the behind to deal with this and it is not a productive use of your time and energy.
Ongoing Maintenance and Development
This is the most important part of the puzzle and often the most neglected. Companies treat their software as one off projects. This is not true. When deploying a solution, be sure to have a budget for maintenance and bug fixes. Not all software is 100% bug free, if you use Open Source…you may run into bugs and need to hire people to fix it.
Also, keep in mind that your needs (as well as the needs of your customers and the environment) often change. Companies often hire a team to deploy a solution and let the team go, then 6 months later; realize they need some other feature. It is difficult to track down the same team as they may have moved onto other projects.
This is one argument in favor of hosted solutions as they will always be there to handle your needs as they change.
If you are looking for an affordable, yet powerful social membership platform, you might want to check out our solution at www.i360connect.com. It has most of the features described here and you can get started with as little as $2.
If you are looking for a membership solution, here are 10 things to look out for. Of course, these are just my opinions and I'm sure there are other features I haven't thought of. Ideally, your solution should have some, and preferably all of these.
1) Easy Installation and Management - Yet flexible and powerful
The solution should be easy to install and setup. Most open source solutions are relatively easy, although you will likely require a “geek” to install in on your own server.
The assumption here is that you have your own server. If not, it is fairly inexpensive to rent a server. Virtual servers can go for as low as $59 per month. Do a search on “web collocation” to find a good host provider. I’ve used Aplus.net, and they are a pretty good outfit.
Make sure that once installed, the software is easy to configure and customize. In other words, you can change your logo, set up new membership packages on your own without needing a geek to do it for you.
Hosted solutions in general are easier to install and all you need to do is to customize it.
2) Easy and Convenient User Experience
Some solutions are prettier on the eyes than others. Also, your solution ideally should make the users feel comfortable and be intuitive. Users should not feel lost, or overwhelmed with too many things on the screen.
In some instances, it is better to have "too little" items present than too much as people can get easily confused and intimidated. If users feel frustrated or confused, they will be more likely to leave your membership site.
You should look for a solution that has an intuitive user experience.
3) Social Media
As of 2008, videos are becoming common place. Your solution should be able to support streaming videos. Videos are useful for teaching concepts and ideas, or just talking to people. You could record a tutorial video teaching people on the perfect golf swing and make these available for "members only".
Simularly, your users will want to upload their own videos too. Your system should ideally support this also.
Of course, videos come at a heavy price. You will need to properly plan for server space to support this. Videos need to be re-encoded to support streaming format...and encoding takes tremendous server resources. Not to mention the disk space required to store all these as well as the bandwidth to support it. For a smaller membership site, a single server could serve this purpose, but for larger networks, you will likely need to build a cluster to handle load balancing.
Having a hosted solution will negate the need to worry about these concerns. The trick is to find the right solution that support this.
4) Customizable
Make sure the solution you selected can be customized to support your business needs.
There are two axis of customization you need to investigate: Image and functional.
With an image customization axis, you have a degree of control on the layout, the colors, the images you can customize to fit your image brand and site’s appeal.
With a functional customization axis, you have control over the feature set of your solution. For example, if the solution does not support a shopping cart, and if it is important for your business, that you can have that function programmed in. Most Open Source solutions support this, although some off the shelf software does not.
While both axis of customization are important, you will need to prioritize what is more important for your business model. Of course, the ideal solution will have high customization in both but you will more likely have to pay for it in the price tag.
5) Integrates a detailed Member Profile and Search function
Make sure your solution supports the Web 2.0 paradigm and the ideals of a social network. People expect these features in their solutions. It strengthens the building of bonds and community. Most membership solutions are based on the old "BBS" forum structure (for those who are not familiar, BBS stands for a Bulletin Board System as popularized in the 80's and 90's).
Having a detained member profile allows members to put in a detailed write up about who they are, what they want, what they are looking for and a way for others to connect with them….much like Facebook. Unfortunately with many existing membership software solutions, they fall short on this area as their focus is in the membership access control, and not on the user experience.
Ideally, members can locate each other based on interest, location, industry, and profession…to mention a few criteria.
6) Integrated e-Commerce
Perhaps you sell books, CDs or DVDs. Why not have these available on your membership site for your members to purchase. Better yet, why not have the ability to offer "members only" prices that are substantially cheaper than "retail"? This gives people an incentive to become a paying member.
It is even more important to have this function integrated if your system supports an integrated affiliate tracking system. This way, when a member buys something, the referring member gets paid a commission.
7) Event Calendar and Registration
This feature is important for someone operating an information marketing/seminar company, event promotions such as concerts or conferences. Having an integrated system for your members to buy tickets right from your social membership site, and track commission is a powerful way to market your events.
Having an integrated event calendar means you don’t have to wait for your web master to update your event calendar all the time.
8) Integrates an affiliate tracking and payout system
Having an integrated affiliate tracking system is a powerful and effective way to grow your social network as it gives your users a financial incentive to refer their friends and associates to your network.
Imagine saying to your members, "refer your friends to join our network. Should they decide to buy a product from us, come to one of our events or upgrade to premium membership, we will pay you a commission."
Unfortunately, very few membership systems have this feature.
9) Classifieds/Reverse Classifieds
Ideally, your solution offers a classifieds system for your members to post ads. This gives your members…particularly your paid premium members an incentive to stick with your network….and gives your free members an incentive to be premium members so they can post ads and gain clients from your network.
Some systems support a Reverse Classifieds system where members can post “I am looking for” ads. Why is this cool? Imagine if you can have a place for your members to post ads such as “I am looking for an investor”, “I need tickets to next week’s Madonna Concert”, “I need to find a mentor in Marketing”.
10) Free and Paid Member hybrid
Most systems fall into one category or the other;
if it is a free network, it is called a social network - like Facebok and Ning.
if it is paid, it is called a membership network.
An ideal solution is one that supports both a free member and a paid member. This way, your network can grow by attracting free members and then upgrade these to become paid members. Ideally, your solution should also support multiple membership package definitions such that each package has its own access rules ie. "who has access to what".
Other Considerations
In addition to these features, you should also keep in mind the following important infrastructure considerations.
Scalable Secure Server Maintenance and Backup
If done right, your network will grow. Be careful that your server can handle your growth from 10 people to 10,000 people…or more. Make sure your hardware has a RAID drive array so it can still be operational should you experience a drive failure. Without this, even if you have a backup…restoring from a down drive can take you offline for days...and this could destroy your business.
You will also need to install a firewall. Most solutions will require you to store your client’s credit card numbers on your own system (so you can charge them month after month). This also means your system will be a target for hackers. You will need to hacker proof your system to ensure maximum security. It is advisable to hire someone familiar with internet security to audit your site.
Of course, backups are crucial. Your solution should have a backup solution that is NOT backed up to the same drive as your main machine. This is because should you experience a drive failure, having the backup on the same drive will be disastrous.
On of the benefits of using a hosted solution such as Ning is that you don’t have to worry about this. Frankly it’s a pain in the behind to deal with this and it is not a productive use of your time and energy.
Ongoing Maintenance and Development
This is the most important part of the puzzle and often the most neglected. Companies treat their software as one off projects. This is not true. When deploying a solution, be sure to have a budget for maintenance and bug fixes. Not all software is 100% bug free, if you use Open Source…you may run into bugs and need to hire people to fix it.
Also, keep in mind that your needs (as well as the needs of your customers and the environment) often change. Companies often hire a team to deploy a solution and let the team go, then 6 months later; realize they need some other feature. It is difficult to track down the same team as they may have moved onto other projects.
This is one argument in favor of hosted solutions as they will always be there to handle your needs as they change.
If you are looking for an affordable, yet powerful social membership platform, you might want to check out our solution at www.i360connect.com. It has most of the features described here and you can get started with as little as $2.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
10 Compelling Reasons to Own a Membership Business
There is a growing number of information marketers who are realizing the power of owning a membership business due to its residual income nature compared to a traditional ebook sales model. You see, traditional sales model is based on a transactional model. This means, unless you have another product to sell to your customer, they are no longer paying you money. This means as a marketer, you have to charge a high upfront cost for people to get access to your information. By operating a membership website, you can make your product a lot more affordable to more people. In other words, if you charge $99 for your product, you might want to consider charging only $14.99 per month for people to access your portal instead. This way, within 7 months, you will have broken even and the rest is pure profit.
Credit for some of these points goes to Jay and Sterling from Internet Business Marketing podcast.
Here are the 10 compelling reasons you might want to consider:
1) It's a business in a box.
It's like owning your own cash machine. Especially if you set your site up right to encourage user generated content, your users will create content while you benefit from the membership fees. Your users would appreciate you for putting together the space for them to network with each other.
You can set it up to also have volunteer/user moderated content to ensure proper standards are met. Your moderators will receive special benefits from you, like priority access to other content or being able to attend special events hosted by you for free.
With the proper marketing and membership site infrastructure, you could even make your site grow on its own by encouraging members to refer other members to your site, and paying commissions for those referrals. This cuts down marketing costs and increases your profits, as well as putting your business on autopilot.
2) Residual Income
With your users paying you month after month for the benefits of being a member, you will receive a residual income from your membership business. This changes your business from being strictly transactional to one which focuses on bringing ongoing value and developing a deepening relationship with your clients.
What does this mean?
Stop for a minute and ponder on the beauty of this model. Everyone wins. You win, your clients win and your affiliates win (they love getting paid on residuals too).
3) Residual Commissions for Your Affiliates
Let me ask you this. Would you rather be paid one time upfront for your referal or month after month? Most people would rather be paid month after month because it is less work and more money in the end.
If you can provide a residual stream of income for your affiliates, they will love you. They will be more inclined to cross promote your products to their people. In fact, if you can say "look, I've been paying Bob $10,000 a month for the last 3 months because he sent a broadcast to his list for my program." You are going to get people's attention.
4) It Strengthens Your Brand
Listen, fans need a place to hang out. Whether you are in the internet marketing space, knitting, coin collecting, you want to hang out with other people in your special niche. People like to network, share ideas, get feedback, help others and be helped. It's human nature.
By creating a space for people to talk about your product/brand/company, you strengthen your brand, and customer loyalty. Especially when you show good customer service and have a good product that you stand by. Invariably, in any business, you are going to encounter the occational bad apple. Should that person complain about you in your membership area...others will likely come to your defense...without you having to lift a finger. That's powerful.
5) Deliver Value to More People
If you operate your business on a consulting basis, you are trading time for money. You might even charge $10,000 per hour....but as soon as you stop working, the money stops flowing. By operating a membership site, and systematizing your information, your clients can help themselves. This way, when they want to talk to you, you can charge a lot more for your time.
Operating a membership site also establishes you as an expert/authority on the subject matter.
6) Easy to Create a System
There are literally millions of things that needs attention when operating a business. Whereever you can automate and systematize your business, you can save time and money. By putting your information and process onto one place, it is a lot easier to "McDonald-lize" your operation.
Create operational procedures and manuals so you can pass on mundane maintenance tasks to volunteers, assistants or secretaries. This frees you time to do other more important tasks, including time with your family.
7) Multiply Your Value Proposition
When your clients come to your social network/membership site, they have the opportunity to network with people local to them, share common interest as they do, be able to get advice, tips, and ideas from other members...this gives your network tremendous value.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog: 10 Secrets to a Successful Membership Site, people join your membership site for the content BUT THEY STAY FOR THE COMMUNITY. This is a critical factor in fighting membership attrition.
Your members can find mastermind partners, joint venture partners, accountability partners from your network. They can find clients, investors, business partners from your network. All these things they previously can not get from just buying your product.
8) Product Research
Want to launch another product but not sure if it's going to work or not? Ask your social membership site. Ask them to participate in the creation process so that the product launched will be exactly what they want.
Pay attention to their frustrations. What's not working for them? What's that "magic wand" that will make their pain go away. Without tapping into a community, it's a lot harder to find out what your people like and don't like.
Perhaps there's a feature of your product your clients don't like. How would you know about it without having a place for them to voice their complaints? This is your opportunity to continually improve your products and offerings.
9) Leverage Social Proof
In an age of decreasing trust, people want proof of success. By having your social network/membership site, you can highlight and showcase success stories from your members. You can ask for testimonials from your members a lot easier than if they were a one time buyer.
Especially if your membership site has some sort of a free membership or a free trial, your new members can experience the benefits of membership...thus easing them into a relationship with you and with your community.
10) Survival
If you don't do this, then your competitors will. This is your opportunity to re-engineer your business and leap frog your competitors. Be an industry leader. Take advantage of the first mover advantage. Once you are branded as "the industry's leading club (within your niche)"...it's hard for others to follow.
This is classic evolve or die. The social networking movement has changed the way people communicate. The businesses that change and take advantage of this will thrive. Those that resist, won't.
This is an excerpt from my book: The Social Marketing Manifesto. This book will retail for $29.95 and will be released early 2009. As a special offer, just sign up for my A-List newsletter, and I will send you a copy for free. Being a subscriber, you will also recieve pressing industry news. And, no, I will not spam you. I practice what I preach.
Sincerely
George
Credit for some of these points goes to Jay and Sterling from Internet Business Marketing podcast.
Here are the 10 compelling reasons you might want to consider:
1) It's a business in a box.
It's like owning your own cash machine. Especially if you set your site up right to encourage user generated content, your users will create content while you benefit from the membership fees. Your users would appreciate you for putting together the space for them to network with each other.
You can set it up to also have volunteer/user moderated content to ensure proper standards are met. Your moderators will receive special benefits from you, like priority access to other content or being able to attend special events hosted by you for free.
With the proper marketing and membership site infrastructure, you could even make your site grow on its own by encouraging members to refer other members to your site, and paying commissions for those referrals. This cuts down marketing costs and increases your profits, as well as putting your business on autopilot.
2) Residual Income
With your users paying you month after month for the benefits of being a member, you will receive a residual income from your membership business. This changes your business from being strictly transactional to one which focuses on bringing ongoing value and developing a deepening relationship with your clients.
What does this mean?
- It Breaks the Customer Churn.
Instead of spending money chasing new customers month after month, you can focus on servicing the clients you currently have. It is easier to sell to people who have already opened their wallet to you than to someone brand new. Remember, people buy from those they know, like and trust. Selling to your existing customers is easier because they already know, trust and hopefully like you. Of course, you will want to bring more people into your network through marketing, but this will give you a base of dependable income. - It Breaks the Product Creation Cycle.
Instead of producing product launches month after month to push to your clients and encouraging them to “get the latest product” or the latest product upgrade, you can focus on adding value to your members and network. This also means you do not have to “sell” constantly. - It Breaks the Event Churn.
Some businesses promote seminar events, day in, day out. This is extremely taxing and involves extensive traveling. By bringing people into your private social network you can not only create residual income for your business, but enables you to launch mega events. Thus you can bring in a lot more people and may only need to hold these events once or twice a year. - It Breaks the “Pitch Fest”
Instead of constantly promoting products and inducing “social fatigue” to your list, you can reserve promotions for only the very important or more profitable opportunities. People don’t like to be constantly “pitched”. Having a residual income business model allows you to earn a healthy living without “cheapening your brand” through constant joint venture marketing.
Stop for a minute and ponder on the beauty of this model. Everyone wins. You win, your clients win and your affiliates win (they love getting paid on residuals too).
3) Residual Commissions for Your Affiliates
Let me ask you this. Would you rather be paid one time upfront for your referal or month after month? Most people would rather be paid month after month because it is less work and more money in the end.
If you can provide a residual stream of income for your affiliates, they will love you. They will be more inclined to cross promote your products to their people. In fact, if you can say "look, I've been paying Bob $10,000 a month for the last 3 months because he sent a broadcast to his list for my program." You are going to get people's attention.
4) It Strengthens Your Brand
Listen, fans need a place to hang out. Whether you are in the internet marketing space, knitting, coin collecting, you want to hang out with other people in your special niche. People like to network, share ideas, get feedback, help others and be helped. It's human nature.
By creating a space for people to talk about your product/brand/company, you strengthen your brand, and customer loyalty. Especially when you show good customer service and have a good product that you stand by. Invariably, in any business, you are going to encounter the occational bad apple. Should that person complain about you in your membership area...others will likely come to your defense...without you having to lift a finger. That's powerful.
5) Deliver Value to More People
If you operate your business on a consulting basis, you are trading time for money. You might even charge $10,000 per hour....but as soon as you stop working, the money stops flowing. By operating a membership site, and systematizing your information, your clients can help themselves. This way, when they want to talk to you, you can charge a lot more for your time.
Operating a membership site also establishes you as an expert/authority on the subject matter.
6) Easy to Create a System
There are literally millions of things that needs attention when operating a business. Whereever you can automate and systematize your business, you can save time and money. By putting your information and process onto one place, it is a lot easier to "McDonald-lize" your operation.
Create operational procedures and manuals so you can pass on mundane maintenance tasks to volunteers, assistants or secretaries. This frees you time to do other more important tasks, including time with your family.
7) Multiply Your Value Proposition
When your clients come to your social network/membership site, they have the opportunity to network with people local to them, share common interest as they do, be able to get advice, tips, and ideas from other members...this gives your network tremendous value.
As I mentioned in an earlier blog: 10 Secrets to a Successful Membership Site, people join your membership site for the content BUT THEY STAY FOR THE COMMUNITY. This is a critical factor in fighting membership attrition.
Your members can find mastermind partners, joint venture partners, accountability partners from your network. They can find clients, investors, business partners from your network. All these things they previously can not get from just buying your product.
8) Product Research
Want to launch another product but not sure if it's going to work or not? Ask your social membership site. Ask them to participate in the creation process so that the product launched will be exactly what they want.
Pay attention to their frustrations. What's not working for them? What's that "magic wand" that will make their pain go away. Without tapping into a community, it's a lot harder to find out what your people like and don't like.
Perhaps there's a feature of your product your clients don't like. How would you know about it without having a place for them to voice their complaints? This is your opportunity to continually improve your products and offerings.
9) Leverage Social Proof
In an age of decreasing trust, people want proof of success. By having your social network/membership site, you can highlight and showcase success stories from your members. You can ask for testimonials from your members a lot easier than if they were a one time buyer.
Especially if your membership site has some sort of a free membership or a free trial, your new members can experience the benefits of membership...thus easing them into a relationship with you and with your community.
10) Survival
If you don't do this, then your competitors will. This is your opportunity to re-engineer your business and leap frog your competitors. Be an industry leader. Take advantage of the first mover advantage. Once you are branded as "the industry's leading club (within your niche)"...it's hard for others to follow.
This is classic evolve or die. The social networking movement has changed the way people communicate. The businesses that change and take advantage of this will thrive. Those that resist, won't.
This is an excerpt from my book: The Social Marketing Manifesto. This book will retail for $29.95 and will be released early 2009. As a special offer, just sign up for my A-List newsletter, and I will send you a copy for free. Being a subscriber, you will also recieve pressing industry news. And, no, I will not spam you. I practice what I preach.
Sincerely
George
Saturday, December 20, 2008
10 Secrets to a Successful membership site
A lot of people are talking about membership sites these days. There are a number of advantages to creating one; most specifically, it allows you to receive residual income from people coming to your site for membership benefits.
Typically, when you market an information product, most people buy the product from you, pay you once and just go away. You may keep them on a mailing list and send them other offers from time to time. When you put people into a membership site...your customers pay you month after month...and you can make the product more affordable...AND provide a whole lot more content and multi-media experience...such as a video showing people how to do it.
I recently heard a great podcast from Internet Business Mastery on membership success secrets, and this post is primarily thanks to Jay and Sterling. (if you are not listening to these guys, I highly recommend them).
While the temptation is to rush out and create a membership site right away, here are some success strategies you should consider when making your own membership site.
1) Create a community.
While your customers may initially join your membership site for your "premium content", give them more than what they bargain for. Surround them with a community. As Jay and Sterling points out, "people came for the content, but they are staying for the community." This is especially true if you are actively involved to build a caring and supportive community.
Attrition is the #1 enemy of operating a membership website. The more community energy/culture you can build, the less attrition you will experience.
Help the members find the support they need. Encourage new members to ask questions, and old members to help new members feel welcome. Ideas such as a general greeting announcement from all members to say "welcome home" to any new members makes them want to belong.
Choose a membership system where your members can "drill down" other members...much like Facebook, Linkedin, etc. The more you can help them get to know each other..the tighter the bond...the longer they want to stay.
Facilitate local meet up groups. Encourage your members to form their own master mind groups. Facilitate ways for them to have "side ways" communications with each other.
Seed your community with key customers and vendors. This is crucial in the beginning to build critical mass and content. Give key members deep discounts or even free membership for their name/brand/content/contribution to your network.
2) Provide a Step by Step Guide.
Often times, when you join a community site, it can be overwhelming. There's usually so much content that it is overwhelming. Make your content displayed in an easy "Step 1, Step 2" format. At the very least, give your members a "Getting Started Guide". Show them what to do.
Provide your members with a Week, by week guide. A Work Book, or some way to keep them moving forward and on progress.
If your site has technology to restrict access to content until a certain number of days/weeks has elapse since the member has joined, all the better. This content restriction is actually good...as it does not overwhelm your clients (and keep them on your membership site for longer).
One of the top 3 reasons why people leave community websites is confusion. When people get confused, they disconnect...when they do this, then you've lost them. Make it simple.
3) Create a Clear Procedure Manual - Systematize everything
Document your process. "McDonald-lize" your operation so that other people such as virtual assistants can follow your process. The idea about creating a membership website is to create residual income...and get your out of the day to day work. By documenting how you create content, how you create events, how you moderate inappropriate posts, this makes it easy for your employees/VAs to take over the task for you, so you don't have to do it.
Start doing this practice early so the task is not so overwhelming. Create a schedule and stick to it.
4) Be in Integrity.
Deliver what you promise and more. Rise above the mediocre. Give people the "Wow!" This is how your business grows because the experience exceeds their expectation.
Do what you say you will do. This may be a no brainer, but you'd be so surprised how many people in business fall short of this. If you can't deliver what you promised, then be honest about it. Don't give excusses. The only way to succeed in this era is complete transparency. Otherwise, your people will talk...and news will spread.
In this age of low trust, your customer has shown considerable good faith to decide to do business with you. They are giving you an A score, and it's yours to lose. Don't waste it. Go from A to A++.
5) Provide a Resources Page
Include your rollerdex of vendors, clients, resources, websites, tools, etc that your people will need to be successful.
I've gone to so many conferences where the list of websites people share with me was well worth the price of admission. For example, a local media contacts list, where to buy stuff at wholesale, a list of websites/tradeshows to promote your products.
Include videos showing how to use the tools would also be handy.
6) Copy Best Practices
Join other people's community sites. Don't be judgemental or defensive. Keep an open mind. Learn. See what other people are doing that you like and dislike. Remember, "if you copy what successful people do...you will get the same results as those successful people." It's called mirroring.
Ask questions. Don't be shy. The only silly question is the ones unasked.
7) Mix up the content.
Provide your content in a number of ways. Use videos, podcast format, as well as writing. Some formats work better than others.
If you are a gardener, then filming may be best. Don't get caught up in the technicalities of production quality. People are very forgiving (within reason). Focus on the content.
If you are showing people how to use tools online...then a Camtasia video might work better. If you use a mac, I recommend ScreenFlow.
8) Highlight Success
Congratulate and praise success stories from your members. Give them the spot light. Allow them to put up stories about their success. Interview them and put up the audio for others to listen to it. Success breeds success. People want to know "how did you do it?"
9) Keep it Fresh and Exciting
No one wants to join a boring and stale site. Regularly add content, updates...additional field research to your site.
Launch competitions and challenges with your members. Raise the bar. Push your people to be better.
Invite special guests to write articles/content on your site. Better still, host regular "members only" teleseminars/webinars with a special guest and allow members the opportunity to ask questions with your guest.
10) Membership has its priviledges.
Fundamentally, it goes down to "what's in it for me?". To keep your members excited and interested about your site, you have to earn their attention. Why should they spend time on your site rather than time with their family?
Give your members special discounts to your products. Haggle special discounts from other vendors to give to your members.
Put together a conference for your members to attend so they can meet one another. People of like mind build synergies, allow the magic to happen.
Make a place for your members to access you...a place where they can ask you questions and that you commit to answering without giving them your personal email address.
Encourgage your members to give each other "members only discounts" to sample/buy each others' wares.
Maybe create a Join Ventures room for members to cross promote their products to each other's lists.
Conclusion
I liken the membership experience to joining a guild in World of Warcraft. In WoW, in order to really get ahead, you should join a guild...yet there are thousands of guilds to join...which should you join? Some guilds are better than others. The best guilds are the ones that give it's members common benefits. For examples, guild members get free stuff from other guild members instead of having to buy it from the auction house. They go on adventures together. Provide escort duties for members to go through difficult areas to fulfill quests.
Remember, there may be other products out there. Other gurus. Other places your members can spend their time, but they have decided to invest their time with you. Respect that. Give them a compelling reason to join, and stay.
Like any other business, owning a membership site is in many ways just like raising a baby. It's an investment. The more you invest in time and love for the baby, the more it will grow.
Sincerely
George Tran
Typically, when you market an information product, most people buy the product from you, pay you once and just go away. You may keep them on a mailing list and send them other offers from time to time. When you put people into a membership site...your customers pay you month after month...and you can make the product more affordable...AND provide a whole lot more content and multi-media experience...such as a video showing people how to do it.
I recently heard a great podcast from Internet Business Mastery on membership success secrets, and this post is primarily thanks to Jay and Sterling. (if you are not listening to these guys, I highly recommend them).
While the temptation is to rush out and create a membership site right away, here are some success strategies you should consider when making your own membership site.
1) Create a community.
While your customers may initially join your membership site for your "premium content", give them more than what they bargain for. Surround them with a community. As Jay and Sterling points out, "people came for the content, but they are staying for the community." This is especially true if you are actively involved to build a caring and supportive community.
Attrition is the #1 enemy of operating a membership website. The more community energy/culture you can build, the less attrition you will experience.
Help the members find the support they need. Encourage new members to ask questions, and old members to help new members feel welcome. Ideas such as a general greeting announcement from all members to say "welcome home" to any new members makes them want to belong.
Choose a membership system where your members can "drill down" other members...much like Facebook, Linkedin, etc. The more you can help them get to know each other..the tighter the bond...the longer they want to stay.
Facilitate local meet up groups. Encourage your members to form their own master mind groups. Facilitate ways for them to have "side ways" communications with each other.
Seed your community with key customers and vendors. This is crucial in the beginning to build critical mass and content. Give key members deep discounts or even free membership for their name/brand/content/contribution to your network.
2) Provide a Step by Step Guide.
Often times, when you join a community site, it can be overwhelming. There's usually so much content that it is overwhelming. Make your content displayed in an easy "Step 1, Step 2" format. At the very least, give your members a "Getting Started Guide". Show them what to do.
Provide your members with a Week, by week guide. A Work Book, or some way to keep them moving forward and on progress.
If your site has technology to restrict access to content until a certain number of days/weeks has elapse since the member has joined, all the better. This content restriction is actually good...as it does not overwhelm your clients (and keep them on your membership site for longer).
One of the top 3 reasons why people leave community websites is confusion. When people get confused, they disconnect...when they do this, then you've lost them. Make it simple.
3) Create a Clear Procedure Manual - Systematize everything
Document your process. "McDonald-lize" your operation so that other people such as virtual assistants can follow your process. The idea about creating a membership website is to create residual income...and get your out of the day to day work. By documenting how you create content, how you create events, how you moderate inappropriate posts, this makes it easy for your employees/VAs to take over the task for you, so you don't have to do it.
Start doing this practice early so the task is not so overwhelming. Create a schedule and stick to it.
4) Be in Integrity.
Deliver what you promise and more. Rise above the mediocre. Give people the "Wow!" This is how your business grows because the experience exceeds their expectation.
Do what you say you will do. This may be a no brainer, but you'd be so surprised how many people in business fall short of this. If you can't deliver what you promised, then be honest about it. Don't give excusses. The only way to succeed in this era is complete transparency. Otherwise, your people will talk...and news will spread.
In this age of low trust, your customer has shown considerable good faith to decide to do business with you. They are giving you an A score, and it's yours to lose. Don't waste it. Go from A to A++.
5) Provide a Resources Page
Include your rollerdex of vendors, clients, resources, websites, tools, etc that your people will need to be successful.
I've gone to so many conferences where the list of websites people share with me was well worth the price of admission. For example, a local media contacts list, where to buy stuff at wholesale, a list of websites/tradeshows to promote your products.
Include videos showing how to use the tools would also be handy.
6) Copy Best Practices
Join other people's community sites. Don't be judgemental or defensive. Keep an open mind. Learn. See what other people are doing that you like and dislike. Remember, "if you copy what successful people do...you will get the same results as those successful people." It's called mirroring.
Ask questions. Don't be shy. The only silly question is the ones unasked.
7) Mix up the content.
Provide your content in a number of ways. Use videos, podcast format, as well as writing. Some formats work better than others.
If you are a gardener, then filming may be best. Don't get caught up in the technicalities of production quality. People are very forgiving (within reason). Focus on the content.
If you are showing people how to use tools online...then a Camtasia video might work better. If you use a mac, I recommend ScreenFlow.
8) Highlight Success
Congratulate and praise success stories from your members. Give them the spot light. Allow them to put up stories about their success. Interview them and put up the audio for others to listen to it. Success breeds success. People want to know "how did you do it?"
9) Keep it Fresh and Exciting
No one wants to join a boring and stale site. Regularly add content, updates...additional field research to your site.
Launch competitions and challenges with your members. Raise the bar. Push your people to be better.
Invite special guests to write articles/content on your site. Better still, host regular "members only" teleseminars/webinars with a special guest and allow members the opportunity to ask questions with your guest.
10) Membership has its priviledges.
Fundamentally, it goes down to "what's in it for me?". To keep your members excited and interested about your site, you have to earn their attention. Why should they spend time on your site rather than time with their family?
Give your members special discounts to your products. Haggle special discounts from other vendors to give to your members.
Put together a conference for your members to attend so they can meet one another. People of like mind build synergies, allow the magic to happen.
Make a place for your members to access you...a place where they can ask you questions and that you commit to answering without giving them your personal email address.
Encourgage your members to give each other "members only discounts" to sample/buy each others' wares.
Maybe create a Join Ventures room for members to cross promote their products to each other's lists.
Conclusion
I liken the membership experience to joining a guild in World of Warcraft. In WoW, in order to really get ahead, you should join a guild...yet there are thousands of guilds to join...which should you join? Some guilds are better than others. The best guilds are the ones that give it's members common benefits. For examples, guild members get free stuff from other guild members instead of having to buy it from the auction house. They go on adventures together. Provide escort duties for members to go through difficult areas to fulfill quests.
Remember, there may be other products out there. Other gurus. Other places your members can spend their time, but they have decided to invest their time with you. Respect that. Give them a compelling reason to join, and stay.
Like any other business, owning a membership site is in many ways just like raising a baby. It's an investment. The more you invest in time and love for the baby, the more it will grow.
Sincerely
George Tran
Thursday, December 18, 2008
How to tie all it all together
Just watched this cool video that explains how you tie in Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/etc together to form a cohesive marketing strategy. Hope you enjoy it:
What do you think? Do you agree?
What do you think? Do you agree?
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