How to Create a Membership Site that Generates Passive Income #2

Simple Membership SystemIn Part 1 of the “How to Create a Membership Site that Generates Passive Income”,  you’ll notice that I gave an example of a 12 week course. That was no accident.

You see, most people who think of “membership sites” think of content that’s delivered weekly or monthly… indefinitely. Members pay month after month and the owners deliver month after month.

This works fairly well if you’re running a PLR membership site or similar. But if you’re running a training site, your members are going to drift away if you just give them tips and tricks indefinitely. And they might even bail out a couple months after joining, simply because there’s no end in sight.

So here’s what you do instead…

Create a fixed-term membership site. This is a site that runs for a specific period of time, such as three months, six months, twelve months… or any length of your choosing.

Tip: For best results, create a step-by-step series as described in Part 1 of this article.

Here’s why this works…

Imagine if your site went on indefinitely. Someone might join and after a couple months quit. That’s pretty normal. But if the course only stretches out for six months, psychologically the customers will feel better if they just remain a member for the entire six months. They want to see through to the end.

This is actually a Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) trick. Simply put, people don’t like unfinished business. That’s why they’ll even read books they don’t like or watch boring movies – once they’ve invested some time into the activity, they want to see it through to the end.

While just creating a fixed term site created this psychological commitment to your course, you can make the commitment even stronger by building anticipation for the upcoming lessons. That is, from the very first lesson you work on “selling” the other lessons. Like this:

Build anticipation for the whole course in lesson #1. Your first lesson should include an overview of all the lessons. But don’t just write it out like a table of contents. Instead, write it like bullet points to a sales letter.

Example: “In Lesson #3 you’ll discover a simple trick that will triple your conversion rate!” In other words, arouse curiosity whenever possible.

Build anticipation for the next lesson at the end of each lesson. At the end of each lesson you’ll want to include something like, “Stay tuned for next week’s lesson, where you’ll find out the secrets of creating cash-pulling headlines!”

Build anticipation for future lessons and bonuses periodically. Finally, from time to time you should remind members of upcoming lessons. For example, in lesson #5 you might remind members of a particularly valuable lesson or bonus that you’re offering in lesson #9. Again, write it like a sales letter bullet, where you arouse curiosity and put forth a benefit.

The biggest challenge in running a membership site is retaining members.

With a typical membership site, your members may only stick around for two or three months. But you can quickly and easily ensure that more of your members stay around for six months, twelve months or even longer by creating a fixed-term membership site!

In part 3 of this series I will be showing you the fun stuff, which is “How to set it and forget it!”

Stay tuned!

Dave

 

Are you like a Lawn Mower?

My Lawn Mower

I just fininshed mowing my lawn and I said this a couple of weeks ago on my Facebook page but for me mowing the lawn is so therapeutic. Her is  a picture of my lawn mower and yard. As you can see I have quite a bit to mow, so it allows me to focus and think about what it is I want to accomplish in my lifetime.

My Yard

Now, my dad would laugh at me because when he was alive he owned his own commericial landscape business and they would consider my yard puny. They would do my lawn just for the fun of it!

Anyway, as I was mowing my yard I was thinking about an article I read last week in Dan Kennedy’s marketing newsletter. In the article he made reference to Walt Disney. He said, “Walt Disney had described most people as lawn mowers.” Interesting!  He goes on to say that Disney said, ” People start each week at one end of the same patch of grass and plod along, back and forth, back and forth, head down, until week’s end at the other side of the lawn, then next week is the same all over again. Wow, I started to think, man that is exactly what I had been doing for some time now.

You see, the week is going to end anyway, why not do something everyday that is different, creative, and interesting. Why not do something that is beneficial to to others as well as yourself. Make your days matter?

Ask yourself this, and I do this constantly, “If you had six months to live what would you want to do with the rest of your days here?”

Seriously, would you stay in a job that gives you no fulfillment or rewards?

Would you spend more time with family?

Would you call a friend you have spoken to in awhile?

Whatever it is, start mowing differently and choose to get everything out of life!

Now, summer is almost over and my days of mowing are coming to end. Anyone have any ideas as to how I am going to get my therapy?

Coach Dave

7 tips on getting more personal training clients

How would you like to know seven tips to start doing today that will help you get more personal training clients? Now, my goal for you is over the next month try and implement two or three of these tips and six months from now you will start making more money and have more personal training clients. Today’s post is going to include the first of three posts that I will share with you on how to get more clients. Here are the first three.

1.) Get more knowledge – Yes, the first thing I tell new fitness professionals is to read, listen, and watch anything that is related to improving you as a trainer and business person. I am sure you have heard the phrase “Leaders are Readers”. This is so true if you want to be the lead personal trainer in your area you need to keep learning.

2.)Write articles – This is something I wished I would have done sooner. Newspaper and magazine editors are always looking for a great story and by being published it does two things. One, you become tagged as an expert and two, you get free marketing to hundreds of readers and potential prospects.

3.) Speak at local companies – In today’s economy, companies have had to dial back the perks they are giving out to their employees. So, having an expert come in and speak on health and fitness is something that employees want and value. You are doing the company a big favor and also yourself because it gives you a chance to market yourself.  Also, this will continue to build you up as an expert and give you the credibility you need to make the sale. If you do a good job you will be asked to come back and each time you speak you have the potential to get more clients.

Tomorrow I will share with you two ways to get more clients without physically training anyone. As for now pick up a book or listen to an audio of someone who can give you more knowledge, which will start you on a path to more money.