How to Create a Membership Site

8/13/2019 How to Create a Membership Site

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Andrew McCauley: Hello everybody. Welcome back to podcast #13, lucky13 for some. I am looking forward to tis podcast. !is is going to be a fun oneand of course to sare wit me is Heater "orter. Hey, Heater

Heather: Hey $ndrew Hello everybody. It is good to be back and yes tis is

indeed a lucky episode because today we are going to talk about a continuityprogram wic in layman%s term is ow do you make money over time for settingssometing up once.

Andrew: &ea, I love setting tings up once and making money regularly. It iste Holy 'rail of being online and if you can do it, tat%s great. I know a lot ofoffline businesses run tis sort of program. !ings like gyms run a continuityprogram. &ou know you pay a montly fee to (oin a gym, ten you may or may

not use it but at te end of te day, te gym doesn%t care weter you do or notbecause tey are getting teir money coming troug. )o, gyms are good

e*ample of an offline business tat does it. Wat oter offline businesses usecontinuity programs+

Heather: Well, I mean people do not really tink of it like tis but one of temost popular ones tat we all ave to use is te cell pone or mobile poneprovider basically because if you tink about it, you are paying tem a flat feeevery single mont. f course, if you go over, you pay more but tat%s a greate*ample of one.

Andrew: &ea, I don%t remember te last time I paid te e*act same amount of

money on my mobile pone ever. )o, ow do we make tese appen online+-ow, tis is as you said te Holy 'rail. If you ave got an online business or even

if you ave an offline business and you want to start making some money / oursa day 0 days a week, aving te opportunity to ave your cas register open, tentat is wat we are talking about today, rigt+

Heather: &ea and I tink te key ting to tink about is tat yes tere%s somuc free content online and we recommend tat you do free content all te timeto get your message and your voice out tere and you know track new leads butte difference of a membersip site is tat it%s packaged premium content. )o, it%s

truly tere put togeter all in one place to give a result. )o, let%s talk troug acouple of membersip models and wat tey are and give some e*amples so

people can really understand tem because wat we want to do is e*cite you guyson wat tese are and to see te potential on your business, so ten wen weactually get some of te platforms in a little bit, you are writing notes and you aregoing &up, I am going to use tat one and I am to go out tere and make onerigt now.2

Andrew: &ea, tey are not ard eiter.

Heather: -o, tey are not.

Andrew: )o let%s (ump on in.

Heather: kay. )o, one very popular one tat e*ists is (ust te standard elearning, like universities and tere is lynda.com. Wat%s tat oter one+

4isten ere: ttp:55autopilotyourbusiness.com5podcasts513owtocreateamembersipsite5

'et a copy of our nline )urvival 'uide ere: ttp:55aybguide.com

www.autopilotyourbusiness.com

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Andrew: 6demy7 it%s an academy but 6demy.

Heather: &es, yes e*actly. )o, tese sites are basically were you go and you

can punc in wat you want to learn. I know 4ynda is more software based but6demy is a wole bunc of different information but you can type wat you want

to learn and ten you ave suddenly access to all tese incredible videos at yourfingertips. -ow, tese sites generally will carge you weter a flat fee or montlyfee or you can buy courses for flat fees as well and ten add more on from tere.!ey are all different price models but te idea is te same and te fact tat teyare online, essentially scools, a place were you can go and learn informationabout someting. )o, tat%s one. 4et%s see. We also ave like really a greatmodel tat%s starting to appen and it is for coaces because life coacing asgotten so popular and business coacing as well were a coac is trying to grow

teir business and trade, not trade you know teir ours for money as mucanymore and tey want to get bigger tan (ust teir individual clients. )o, a great

way to do tat is to actually package teir information, teir signature programtat tey run troug teir clients wit into membersip site so ten suddenlyovernigt tey can be coacing tousands of people all over te world using tesame platform and te same concepts tat tey are using in teir individualsessions plus tey can give it to teir client as a bonus or for free and tat clientcan always ave a piece of tem, so to speak, online in teir private membersipsite.

Andrew: &ea. We ave seen tat done a number of times and it as beenreally effective tat, as you said, it (ust enables people to get out tere and not

(ust teac wat tey know to one person but teac it to many people all at tesame time. &ou do not ave to pysically be present wen you are teacing tose

people. )o, if you ave got information in your ead and you are teacing oneperson at a time rigt now, ten start tinking about ow can you leverage tatand make it go out to more people tan (ust one.

Heather: )o, we will mention a few oter ideas as well. $ couple tat are reallybig are callenge websites. )o, you come in and to get access to tis incredibleinformation wit te outcome of acieving someting. )o, one tat as gotten8uite big ere at least in $ustralia is Challenge by Michelle Bridges wic is one of

te $ustralian 9iggest 4oser%s coaces and se as put togeter weigt losscallenge. I tink it%s four times a year and you log in and you ave like a fullon

callenge for a few monts and after tat you are on a maintenance program. )o,you ave an initial upfront payment for tat period and ten after tat it is a lowmontly amount but callenges are great because again you are building sort of atribe, a community, and everyone is in tere, active, all wit one outcome andtat%s to get a massive result in tat sort amount of time tat tey are togeter.)o, you can build up 8uite a great community in a callenge as well.

Andrew: &ea, I love it.

Heather: !ere is a website actually I love and I always sare tis wit clients

wen I am talking to tem about te power of a membersip site. I still tink tatte biggest membersip site tat e*ists in te world is te )out 9eac iet wic

was an incredibly popular book and wat tis autor as done is basically turnedteir book into a membersip site. !ey ave millions of members in tere and






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initially tey were paying ; dollars a mont. I know I tink it as gone up to ;<dollars a 8uarter but it%s incredible. It%s basically te book tat as come alive onte internet, millions of members. Wat a model

Andrew: Wow !at%s cool.

Heather: $nd wat is a membersip site essentially+ It%s a private website. &ouget a user name and a password and you log in and you ave access to content.

Andrew: !at%s a good point. -ow, let%s (ust define ow ard are tey to set upand wat makes it different tan (ust a normal membersip site.

Heather: &ea. 4ook, tese sites are very, very easy nowadays because of teincredible ease of tings like Word"ress and tere are even oter platforms tat

you can buy and login and tey are already built for you and tey look reallyama=ing and you (ust customi=e a little bit and upload your content and tey are

almost ready to go. )o, I guess before we (ust (ump in to te platform, let%s talkbriefly about te types of membersip model tere are. !ere are two main onesand I want to talk about tis because ten as we are going to te platforms tenall of you guys will understand a little bit more about ow, I guess, tese two waysof delivering information fit. )o, te first one, te most popular one is evergreen.&ou may ave eard tat word being trown around 8uite a bit. $n evergreenmembersip site is basically were you as te creator of te website put a wolebunc of ama=ing content in tere and it%s all tere in one go, somebody signs up,

tey get access to tat private site and ten tey ave access to all yourinformation at once and ten if you want to add new stuff, you can over time but

it%s always tere and it%s released to te person. If >on )mit comes along andten e signs up in ?ay and tey you ave ?ary )mit tat signs up in ecember,

bot people get access to te same e*act information.

Andrew: @igt, okay.

Heather: $nd ten tere is anoter one. $ndrew, tell us about tat. Wat%s teoter one tat%s popular.

Andrew: !e oter one tat we ave got as opposed to evergreen is drip fed and

drip fed is a membersip site were you migt sign up for a particular membersipand let%s say you sign up in ?ay, te person wo owns te membersip and te

content will drip feed it to you over a period of time so tat you do not getoverwelmed, you do not get slammed wit all te information at once. !esewebsites are really good for educational style websites were you need to teacsomebody certain aspects or certain tings and you don%t want tem to go aeadtoo fast or too 8uickly because tey may not understand it fully. )o, you canactually drip feed te content, you may let out ?odule 1 wen tey sign up andten ?odule a week later, ?odule 3 a week later after tat and so on and so on.)o, tat%s a drip feed membersip. -ow, can you ave, I will ask Heater,

evergreen and drip fed at te same time.

Heather: !at%s a great point actually. &es, someting like a callenge site, youcan make all of your information available at once for specific amount of time and

ten after may be tree monts or watever, ten boom, you (ust go on a drip fedmodel were may be you (ust ave a little bit of information, drip fed every mont






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over time. )o, you can mi* tem up a little bit as well. &ou can also give differentpeople different access levels to your membersip site. Here is a great e*ample.We are actually building a training program for sales team and wit tem tey areongoing sales team, tey need to ave access to everyting tat is in tat

membersip site. )o, tey ave te evergreen model. However, te new salesteam tat is coming on board, tey want structure and control around ow tey

learn te wole system. )o, tey come in and tey go troug in actual drip fedmodel were tey literally watc everyting modularly. )o, tey ave like a videotoday, a video tomorrow and tat continues on for 1 days and ten after tatpoint tey are given access to te Avergreen area of te site were tey aveeveryting but all at once. )o, it%s a great way for corporates, a great way fortraining teams, new teams, automating your training process7 we are loving teautomation stuff. )o, tat%s a really andy tool.

Andrew: We do, we do.

Heather: $noter key point too is wit membersip sites tere is always tis8uestion of ow do you get te people engaged and active in you membersip site.)ome membersip sites like forums and some membersip sites do not. It%s (ustliterally content and information and tat%s a tricky one because if you start out ata membersip site and you are tinking I want a forum, wat activity going on intere.2 If you ave te forum open and te comments open but you don%t aveany comments going on, ten you risk looking like not a very popular, I guess,website.

Andrew: &ea, like an empty movie teatre or empty nigtclub wit no one in it.

Heather: )ocial proofs are so popular. &ou can go and you tink , must not

be good2, rigt+ )o, I want my money back.2 4ook, Bacebook is a great tool. Iknow one of anoter site tat we built for somebody, tey ave a private Bacebookgroup and tey actually ave a big icon rigt in teir membersip site area tatsays Have 8uestions+ Want to connect+ >oin us on Bacebook.2 and it links temto teir private group and ten tat%s ow tey manage it because everyone is onBacebook anyway and tey ave ad no problems aving activity in teir privateBacebook group wic corresponds to te membersip site. )o, it%s a great littletool.

Andrew: @igt, rigt, cool.

Heather: )all we move on+ "latform timeC

Andrew: We sould, we sould. kay, so platforms can be a little confusing.!ere are so many different platforms out tere. Wat are te best ones tat weare talking about+

Heather: Well, let%s start at te beginning. 4et%s start wit te easiest tat at

least I know we are aware of and very popular one. It%s called Da(abi and asalways, guys, we will put te 6@4s of everyting tat we talk about in tis episode

on our website www.$utopilot&our9usiness.com5"odcast. )o, Da(abi E basicallywat it is, is you pay tem a montly fee E get tat E membersip model for

membersip site. How is tat &ou pay tem a montly fee and ten you getaccess to te platform.




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Andrew: ouble killing, I love it ouble killing.

Heather: It%s great.

Andrew: If you ave got a number of membersip sites for Da(abi, you can add

up, rigt+

Heather: $bsolutely. I tink for te initial 1


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Andrew: &ea. It was developed by internet marketers wo knew watmembersip sites sould really be all about. &ou can ave a wole range ofdifferent sopping cart integrations, you can ave integration wit your Word"resswebsite wic we recommend. !ere are so many features, it%s cra=y and it is only

F0 dollars.

Heather: ne off.

Andrew: F0 dollars once off. !at%s not a mont7 tat%s (ust oneoff fee tat youpay for Wislist member to ave access to teir membersip portal. $nd it%sosted on your site, so you control everyting you do and tey also ave anawesome range of training videos as well. )o, if you ever get stuck, apart fromte great support tat tey ave, tey also ave a wole range of training videos,so you can (ust watc tose as you go.

Heather: )o, I guess a good point on Wislist is wereas Da(abi is a self

contained tool were tey do te osting, tey store your content and everytingis done for you wit Da(abi, Wislist is actually wat%s known as a plugin and watyou must ave in order to make Wislist work is you ave to ave your owndomain wic is yoursite.com, you ave to ave your own osting wic you knowyou can get troug 'o addy or tere are so many of tem all over te world, 'oaddy is a popular one and ten you ave to install Word"ress and we avetalked about Word"ress in many of our episodes before7 it%s a free websitesoftware platform tat literally is a oneclick installation on a great osting

company and tey can do tat for you as well. )o, you can install your Word"ressand ten you install Wislist and wat it does is it basically allows you to lock down

certain pages on your website. )o, you can actually (ust say I want tis pageidden to member, you to log in2 or I (ust want tis page wide open for te

public.2 )o, it allows you to ave a lot of control around different pages on yourwebsite. )o, tat%s te Wislist is7 it%s more of a plugin tat you add on to makeyour site into a membersip site.

Andrew: &es, definitely.

Heather: It%s really cool.

Andrew: ne of te trainers at te 6ltimate ?embersip )ite )eminar, it%s aseminar we run once a year in 4os $ngeles and we use Wislist for all of tose

people tat go, so tere are 3


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tat say you ave "ay"al, wat it does is tat you set up a sales page were youare selling your membersip program, people click on te "ay"al button, Wislistallows you to do some fancy stuff beind te scenes wit your "ay"al accountwere if somebody clicks on "ay"al, tey get taken into "ay"al, tey pay and ten

tey are redirected to a page in Wislist on your website to assign temselves ausername and a password and wat tat means is tat at tat moment tey now

ave access to your membersip content and tat%s all automated. $lso, if youave an email program, for e*ample, ?ailGimp or $weber or iGontact or any oftose and you want everybody%s names wo signs up to automatically sow up onan email list tat you ave created, you can do tat too. )o, wat appens wentat person comes back into te site you assign temselves teir login details+!eir information automatically gets sucked into a list on your email program. )o,it%s fully automated, like cra=y automated if you want it to be.

Andrew: &es, tat%s Wislist member. I tink we could keep talking aboutWislist forever.

Heather: Gan you guys tell we like it+ We love it. It is great.

Andrew: We love it, we love it. It%s always upgrading, it%s always doing newstuff and integrating wit new software tat%s out tere wic we will talk about ina few minutes. &ea, tat%s Wislist.

Heather: $nd if you guys want really beautiful easy template as well, we love

someting called ptimi=e"ress. ptimi=e"ress as been built to work witWislist. It%s actually been built to not only ave really incredible looking sales

pages but also it as a full membersip template and all you do is basicallydownload Word"ress , you get ptimi=e"ress wic is a teme and ten you install

your Wislist plugin and togeter as a treesome tey look really ama=ing andten you ave a membersip site, lockdown pages and all part of tat.

Andrew: 4aunc formula, product launc formula sort of stuff as well. )o, tat%sanoter story altogeter.

Heather: &ea, we will go into tat later. In anoter few episodes, I tink fortat one.

Andrew: $lrigt, wat oter platforms do we ave+

Heather: Well, tere are basically plugins tat oter bigger companies avedeveloped. !ere is a lot of tese but I am only going to cover (ust a couple ofmore. $ lot of you guys ave eard of Infusionsoft or even ffice $utopilot. -ow,eac one of tose companies ave developed teir own plugin and witInfusionsoft I believe it%s called Gustomer Hub and wat it does is it allows you tolock down certain areas of your website and wit ffice $utopilot it is called"ilot"ress and "ilot"ress does te same ting7 essentially you install it and it allows

you to lock down certain pages as well. )o, wat%s different about tose is tatbecause Infusionsoft and ffice $utopilot are databases tecnically, tey ave a lot

more going on beind te scenes, tey ave email programs, tey ave soppingcarts and all sorts of tings built into tem. Wen you use teir customer or teir

membersip area, I sould say, it (ust automatically works wit all te data tatyou already ave in your system. )o, if you are a bigger company or you are






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looking to grow 8uite 8uickly, you migt want to consider one of tose because itall integrates togeter to one big massive macine.

id I go too tecie on tat+ id I+ >ust a bit tecie cra=y. Bor tose of you wo

are (ust getting started, absolutely look into Wislist. Bor tose of you tat aremore advanced and ave a bigger platform already, ten definitely consider trying

out te Infusionsoft Gustomer Hub or te "ilot"ress from ffice $utopilot. )o,tose are te main platforms. $gain, tere are undreds more but tose are tebig guys tat play out in te market.

Andrew: &es, big time. )o, you spoke about ptimi=e"ress. 4et%s (ust talkabout tat for a 8uick second. ptimi=e"ress is not a membersip site, is it+

Heather: -o, it%s a very good distinction actually. It%s a teme. )o, basically

wen I say teme, it%s built wit a lot of different temes inside of it. )o, youbasically, if you are writing a page in your Word"ress site, you can assign it to

eiter look like a membersip page or you can assign it to look like a sales page.)o, it as someting like


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Andrew: Wy is tat+ 4et%s give it a rundown on wy we tink tat%s animportant piece to know.

Heather: 'ood 8uestion. )o, let%s (ust say tat you sold a undred people into

your membersip site at /0 dollars a mont and ten suddenly you are not able toget anymore and you are tinking 'os ?aybe it%s a little bit too e*pensive. I

am going to drop te price to 10 dollars a mont2 and ten suddenly you arestarting to get more people signing up tat way. -ow, imagine wat toseundred people will feel like if tey suddenly tink Well, I was te first person inyour site, you know, and suddenly I found out tat undred more people avebeen sold te same ting tat I bougt at /0 dollars for 10 dollars.2 It will start abacklas and people will not be very appy.

Andrew: A*actly.

Heather: !at is te biggest reason wy. $lso, if you flip it around and you start

low and ten you grow up, te great ting about tat is tat you can actually startto do really great sales. )o, if you say you are starting at 10 dollars a mont markand ten you tink I am going to up my prices now to / dollars a mont or /0 amont2, you can do a big uge sale and say kay, our Bounder%s )pecial is endingin 3< days2 and be actually telling te trut tat you are going to up your prices in3< days and ten you will never go back. )o, tat%s te reason wy you do liketat.

Andrew: Wat about free membersip sites tat turn into a paid membersipsite+ Wat about tat sort of model+

Heather: 'reat point as well. Wit tose sites, you want to tink about teaser

content. )o, you want to offer a bunc of content tat gets people engaged ande*cited rigt in tat very moment tat you are really going to go into te (uicy bit,like really dive into wat tey want to know. !at%s wen you can say I ope youave en(oyed tis. Bor te actual points, te ne*t tree points, tat%s in my privatemembersip area. It%s only 10 dollars a mont.2 )o, it%s a sales tool essentially.&ou are still giving great content but (ust not at te level tat it%s still free.

Andrew: )ure, sure. Wat about trial periods+

Heather: !rial periods as well. I know a lot of people use tose and tey were

probably more popular in te past as well were your carge a dollar for say acouple of weeks free to get into te membersip site. -ow, one issue wit tat istat a lot of banks were picking up on tat if you were using credit cards, teywere saying tat tat%s fraud and tey would automatically block te credit card ofte user and ten get tem 8uite angry. I know tat from personal e*perience.)o, te wole 1dollar trial, people are now (ust because of wat%s going wit tebanks, tey are offering tat for a little bit iger, more like /.FF for a trial periodand ten it will go up from tere. )o, yea, tat%s still doable, a lot of tese tools.

Aven "ay"al allows you to do tat. "ay"al allows you to set a trial period, a lot ofsopping carts do tat7 I tink all sopping carts do tat now. )o, yes, great

8uestion, $ndrew.

?ore specifically about pricing, actually tere is a couple of sweet spots. !is asbeen (ust from my researc but not only mine. Brom wat I know, $ndrew, you






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know tis and I know tat a lot of te mentors and people tat we know in teindustry use as well. $ great price is 10.F0 a mont and tat%s because te umanmind someow sees a 0 as less tan a F. )o, if you are 10.F0 a mont, it%s closerto 1; a mont rater tan < a mont. )o, tat%s a great starting point. $ great

sweet spot rigt now tat%s being used for membersip sites, again, it%s F dollars7it could be 0 but it is F.F; a mont as well. )o, te two I keep earing about

are sort of around te 10dollaramont mark and ten also around te Fdollaramont mark. Wat about you, $ndrew+ $ny new findings+

Andrew: Well, I guess tat 8uestion tat you got to ask is, is a membersip siteeven if it doesn%t carge a montly fee like maybe a oneoff fee of say F0 dollars, isit still a membersip site+ Is it still considered a membersip site+ Wat ave yougot to say+

Heather: 'reat. &es, yes, yes, good 8uestion actually because we are goingdoing tat wit one of our products actually rigt now. &es, it is. $ny site tat%s

closed down were a person as to log in and get access is a private membersipsite and, yes, you can carge money upfront and do it tat way. !ere is anoterway were you can ave tree payments, (ust tree payments for te first treemonts or you can carge 1


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te market, (ust to initially get someting out tere. &ou can get your email from"ay"al and ten give somebody access manually. If you really want to take babysteps, you can absolute do tat as well. )o, we are not wanting to make it overlycomple* altoug as you grow you will want to go automated so all tese sales

appen beind te scenes ticking over and you do not ave to do a ting.

Andrew: &es, I tink you summed it up nicely. ?embersip sites, as I saidearlier, we could talk about tis for weeks and weeks and weeks. We ave lots ofinsigts and information about different membersip sites. We wanted to give youte overview of wat membersip sites were, wat sort of platforms are beingused out tere tat are popular and we ave wole range of oter platforms wenever even spoke about only because tere is literally platforms and platforms andplatforms out tere tat you can use. We wanted to give you te best of te bestand tat%s wat we did.

Heather: A*actly and I ope you guys en(oyed it and really I tink tat%s all we

are going to talk about today on tat topic because tat is a great starting point foryou to go out tere, tink about wat you are going to sell, ow you can packageyour knowledge and look at some of tese tools tat we ave talked about. It%s agreat starting point for you guys and we igly recommend tat you get out tereand start putting togeter your first membersip site.

Andrew: )end us your membersip pages so we can stick tem on our resourceguide.

Heather: &es, please. We can sow sample membersip sites from you guys.

We would love tat and te best way to do tat is to go towww.$utopilot&our9usiness.com5"odcast, find tis episode and tere is great big

comment field down below te actual itself and te sow notes, type in yourmembersip site 6@4 so we can ceck it out and see wat you guys are up to.

Andrew: $nd if you are listening to tis podcast on i!unes, make sure you leavea review. >ust give us a 8uick review, tell us wat you tink, wat you learnt. Wewould love to ear your tougts about tis podcast.

!anks Heater for (oining us today as usual and I look forward to our ne*t

podcast. I ave no idea wat tat%s going to be but I am sure we will come upwit someting before ten.

Heather: !anks everyone for sticking wit us again and tanks, $ndrew, it%sbeen a good little sow.

Andrew: kay, goodbye.

**End of Audio.



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How to Create a Membership Site