Subscription Websites Andrew and Daryl Grant

Agenda (morning) 1. Glossary of terms 2. Benefits & disadvantages of a subscription site 3. Structure of subscription sites 4. Our process to set up a subscription site 5. How to choose a topic 6. How to design your business model 7. Subscription site software 8. Processing payments

Agenda (afternoon) 1. Building the content 2. Pricing 3. Marketing strategies 4. How to monitor and fine tune 5. Providing ongoing support via a help desk 6. Upselling with backend products

Glossary of terms Aweber 1shoppingcart Infusionsoft Membergate Amember Visiongate Verisign Merchant account 2Checkout Paypal

Benefits of a subscription site Only make the sale once and continue to get paid every month. Build a relationship so you become a trusted advisor. Can continue to upsell other products based on the relationship. Makes a great backend for your ebook (forced continuity).

Disadvantages of a subscription site Time consuming creating new content. More complex to administer. Can be expensive to set up, depending on the model you use. Can take time to set up (eg 6 months) depending on the model you use.

Basic structure of a subscription site marketing Free list marketing Paid list - Provide good quality free content - Collect payments - Provide ongoing content & upsells - Administer list

4 types of subscription site 1. Basic – weekly or monthly or hard copy newsletter. Non-sequential. Eg Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. monthly newsletter and CD. 2. Sequential – weekly or monthly sequential ecourse. Eg Andrew and Daryl’s mentoring program. 3. Membership – content-rich members’-only site with regular newsletters, Eg High level coaching – content-rich members’-only site with regular events. Eg Stompernet.

Our process 1. Choose the topic 2. Design the business model and choose the software 3. Design and build the content 4. Plan and implement the marketing 5. Monitor and fine tune 6. Leverage and outsource 7. Upsell back-end products

1. Choose the topic

How to identify potential topics You want a topic with enough traffic, a hungry crowd, and low advertising costs. Sources of ideas: Hobbies Other lists Job Clickbank Problems Pixelfast (or equiv.) Magazines TV

Or just use your best ebook topic…

Reduce 20 ideas down to 5 using the 6-step checklist

The 6-step checklist 1. How much does the client desperately want the product? 2. Is it an inch-wide, mile-deep niche? 3. How many people are searching for the topic? 4. How many other membership sites are there on the topic (and can you differentiate)? 5. How much good-quality free information is available? 6. Is it a topic you are passionate about?

2. Design the business model and choose the software

Components of the business model 1. Methods to generate traffic 2. Squeeze page to collect name and 3. marketing funnel to convert people who visit the free site to paying members (run via autoresponder) 4. Free content pages 5. Password-protected members’-only area with valuable content

Components of the business model (cont) 6. Ongoing content (and a method to develop it) 7. Databases of paying and non-paying members 8. Method to collect recurring payments 9. Method to manage un-subscribes and refunds 10. Method to manage questions from members and non-members 11. Affiliate program

Software options

Autoresponders 1. Aweber 2. 1shoppingcart 3. Infusionsoft

Members’-only area and password protection 1. C-panel 2. Amember 3. Visiongate 4. Membergate

Payment processing, refunds 1. 2checkout 2. Paypal 3. 1shoppingcart 4. Offline merchant account 5. Verisign / online merchant account

3. Design and build the content

Types of content Articles Eclasses Teleseminars Product reviews Testimonials Forum Workshops Coaching Audios Videos Camtasias

Or find affiliate products to market…

Pricing

Pricing models 1. Monthly flat fee (usually $9 - $99 a month). 2. Joining fee then monthly flat fee (eg $99 joining fee then $9.95 a month. Stops people leaving and rejoining later. Use if you have lots of downloadable info on membership site.) 3. Free trial period before joining (usually 7 days to 3 months), then payments start automatically unless you unsubscribe.

Pricing models (cont) 4. Two options, eg $5.95 for the first 14 days then $29.95 per month, or $19.95 per month from the beginning. 5. Discount for group memberships (50% +). 6. Discount for quarterly or annual payment (annual fee equivalent to 7 monthly payments). 7. One-off offer to free list, eg half price to join this month. 8. Various combinations of the above.

4. Plan and implement the marketing

Marketing methods 1. Joint ventures with list owners in your topic area 2. Provide affiliate links on the free site 3. Teleseminars 4. Squeeze page and marketing funnel 5. Free DVD or report 6. Free publicity

Marketing methods 7. Speaking opportunities 8. Offline advertising 9. Google (free and paid) 10. Blogs ( 11. Podcasts and interviews 12. Co-registration

How much does a membership site make?

Example Goal: 1,000 paying members At 10% conversion, you need 10,000 people to opt in to your free site At 20% conversion, need 5,000 opt-ins At 25% conversion, need 4,000 opt-ins

Example 1,000 per month = $50,000 per month, or $600,000 per year

Even if you get only 100 per month that’s still $60,000 per year

5. Monitor and fine-tune

Things to measure 1. Success of each step of your marketing campaign / conversion rate. 2. How long people stay members. 3. Lifetime value of a client (including upsells).

6. Leverage and outsource

Things to outsource Help desk Content writing Database administration

7. Upsell backend products

Ascension model Ebook $19 - $47 Transcripts, audio mp3 $97 DVD course $197 - $297 Home study multi-media pack $497 - $1,997 Seminar, accelerated learning program $497 - $5,000 Group coaching, workshops, mastermind groups $2,500 - $20,000.

Next steps Repeat the process with another topic. Increase traffic with other strategies. Improve conversion rate with split testing. Find more back end products to sell (yours or others’). Sell the subscription site (3-5 x annual earnings).