November 4, 2009 – 10:50 am
Reason #10: Membership Sites Aren’t NOT Magic
When you start a membership site, don’t expect to get rich overnight. You’re not going to earn a million bucks
…in a weekend
…while you’re sitting on the beach
…in your pajamas.
What a membership site will do for you, however, is provide you with a business model that has been used successfully and profitably in offline, “brick and mortar” businesses for hundreds of years.
Here’s what I mean…
I’m a member of an auto club and I’d wager you are too. We pay them a fee – usually once a year – to enjoy all of the resources, facilities, and amenities available only to members of our club. These auto clubs have been in existence for years. And they’re so profitable that credit card companies, auto manufacturers, and even insurance companies are now trying to get a piece of the pie.
Then there are health clubs. Health clubs have been around for hundreds of years. They charged fees which their members paid in return for access to the facilities, the resources, and often the exclusivity of the club. Today, we call them fitness centers and memberships are much more universally available because enterprising businesses saw the potential in offering health club memberships to regular, working class individuals. But the basic concept remains unchanged – members pay a periodic fee for the right to receive the benefits provided by the club.
We pay for golf memberships, we subscribe to magazines and newspapers, and we join discount clubs like Sam’s Club, Costco, and BJ’s just so we can have access to the facilities, resources, and information available only to members or subscribers.
These are all examples of solid, successful, profitable, membership based businesses – real “brick and mortar” businesses that are using the membership model to bring in big-time dollars for their owners.
So, what’s so great about the membership business model?
It’s a business model that inherently does one thing really well. When you start a membership site you’ll be forced into doing the single thing every successful business MUST do – provide ongoing value to your members.
It forces you to refine and improve you products and processes to make sure your members are satisfied and continue to renew their memberships. Unlike the business model most companies are built on – where no one really keeps track of unsatisfied customers or one-shot customers (customers that buy just once and never return) – large numbers of non-renewing members is concrete evidence of a problem with your business.
If you don’t fix the problem… if you don’t start giving real value to your members, you’ll lose them. They won’t renew their memberships your membership site will fail.
If you continually provide an obvious value to your members, they’ll continue renewing their memberships – and continue buying your products – over and over and over again.
Reason #9: Membership Sites Offer a Dependable Income Stream
When you start a membership site, the very nature of the business model forces you to do the one thing every successful business MUST do.
You are forced to provide ongoing value to your members.
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