This part 3 in the Create the Ultimate Membership Site series, where we take a look at what you need to consider to build a successful membership site.
Today we are talking about your membership model
There are 3 main components you need to think about when it comes to your model:
- Content
- Delivery
- Access
So, let’s look at each of those in detail.
Content
Take a moment to think about the type of content you want to have in your site.
Is it video, workbooks, pdf, live calls, online quizzes…? Honestly, it is probably a mixture of content types.
Think about what you want to create, but also what your audience wants to consume.
There is a big difference between video and audio, when if comes to ease of consumption, and sometimes audio only (eg podcasts) are better.
For my audience, I tend to find they are at their desk most of the day, watching video is convenient, but they do like to be able to read about the video down below, and download relevant worksheets as they go. If you have an audience who is often on the move and spends a lot of time travelling, or lives in an area with poor internet, then audio may be a far better option for them than video.
What content will you be adding to your site?
Delivery
There are 3 main ways you can deliver your content.
- Instant access – They get access to everything, the moment they sign up
- Drip fed – content is slowly dripped out to them, based on the day they signed up
- On going – New content is dripped out over time, regardless of when they signed up
There isn’t really a right or wrong answer, but again you need to think about what suits your content and your audience. There are pros and cons to each (as mentioned in the video) so take a moment to think about it.
Access
How are they going to access this? Again, there are 3 main options you can think about:
- Pay as you go – they just pay for what they want, when they want it. It might be month by month, but there is no fixed term contract, they just pay for each month as they need it. You could do pay as you go content as well, just pay for the post you want, video you want, or course you want.
- Recurring – A subscription based payment system, with recurring payments
- Fixed term – Pay one fee which gives them access for a set period of time. Eg $x for a year.
Again, there is no right answer as such, but you need to think about what will work for you, your audience and your business. I’ve used pay as you go, but have now shifted to a fix term model. I knew that I could deliver better results for my clients based on a fixed term, so it made the most sense. I may change back in the future. The membership site is ever evolving, as is the content and delivery.
Take the time to think about your content, delivery and access, before you start to build your membership site.
It will make a difference to the plugins and tech options you look at, and save you a heap of headaches down the track.
The main complaint with other membership sites in the real food space, or any membership site for that matter, is that there is so much content that it s overwhelming.
This is a really good point.
People feel the need to make it “valuable” by adding more stuff… but in reality the value is in the ability for them to implement.