When I started my membership site, the Members’ Club, back in 2013, I had absolutely no experience building memberships so I had no idea what I was doing!
I had to work so hard to figure everything out and get the first 1000 members.
Growing from 0 to over 5,000 members showed me that it’s 100% possible to go from being absolutely clueless to creating something wildly successful that generates recurring revenue.
So in this post I’ll be sharing how you can get started with building a membership site that can generate passive income for you every single month.
If you would like more help with this, my good friend Stu McLaren is hosting a free 3-part workshop teaching you how to turn your expertise and know-how into a profitable membership! He’s the #1 go-to person when it comes to membership sites, so definitely don’t miss this opportunity to learn from him!
Click here to save your spot in Stu McLaren’s free 3-part workshop!
TYPES OF MEMBERSHIP SITES
There are endless ideas for the types of membership sites that exist and that you can create.
No matter what type of expertise or know-how you have, there’s likely some way of packaging together a monthly offering that your audience would love to pay for.
The Members’ Club, for example, is a membership site for women who want to start a wildly successful business. Every month we bring in experts to do masterclasses about all sorts of topics… from branding, to creating online courses, running Facebook Ads to email list building and so on.
We offer monthly live sessions as well as a Facebook Group, which creates an amazing community where the members can connect, network, build friendships and support each other.
For your membership, you could create training videos, templates, get on a live call with your members or even simply give access to one piece of content, a library of content or a community.
Think about the type of audience that would join your membership, what they want to achieve and how your monthly content can help them do that.
Keep it simple! You don’t have to create lots of complicated content, just start out with something really simple (a minimum viable product) and build it up from there.
CREATING YOUR MEMBERSHIP SITE
Once you have the theme for your membership site, you’re clear on the audience you would like to serve and the kind of content you’ll be creating for them each month, it’s time to decide where your membership will “live” online.
You don’t even need to have a website to run a membership and you definitely don’t need a lot of complicated technology.
So many entrepreneurs get stuck because of the tech aspect of building a membership site, but you could simply use emails, Facebook Groups, Slack channels or even Whatsapp groups.
Think about what tools would work well for you, for your content and for your community and then find out everything you can about that platform/software so that you can master it and create an amazing experience for your members.
If tech is really holding you back, then you might want to try finding a developer that could take the weight of this off your shoulders.
ATTRACTING MEMBERS
Building your audience is one of the most important parts of building a successful membership.
Before I launched the Members’ Club in 2013, I had spent a lot of time growing my email list, building my social media following and increasing traffic to my website.
This meant I was launching to an audience of people who were really engaged and excited about what I was offering, which meant that lots of people joined right away.
Before you even launch a membership site, think about how you will:
- Build an email list and nurture your relationship with those people
- Grow your social media presence (pick one platform and go all in to create as much visibility and engagement as possible)
- Get your business out there in front of as many eyes as possible
Getting to over 5,000 members inside the Members’ Club and generating that level of recurring revenue per month took a lot of hard work – but the best part is that it was 100% worth the effort!
If you want to see the results, you have to consistently put in the hard work and focus on visibility, getting yourself and your business out there, creating awareness and building that audience of people who would love to be a part of your membership.
THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND…
- Building a successful membership site is possible for every single one of us – you just need to give yourself permission to start, try, experiment and grow!
- Focus on delivering value and creating an amazing experience every single month for your members and you will build recurring revenue!
- Visibility, creating awareness and reaching new people always needs to be a priority so that you can keep growing every single month.
When it comes to building a successful membership site, it’s not a question of “can you” create success – it’s a question of “will you” do what it takes, and this is where a lot of people get stuck.
If you’re ready to create a successful membership site, just know that it’s 100% possible for you, you just need to put in the work and figure everything out step-by-step.
If you would like more help with this, remember to sign up for Stu McLaren’s amazing 3-part workshop where you’ll learn how to turn your expertise and know-how into a profitable membership! (Stu always has the best strategies so don’t miss out!)
Click here to save your spot in Stu McLaren’s free 3-part workshop!
