Comments on: The Truth About Membership Sites

By: John

John — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:03:29 +0000

Thanks Yaro. This is great starting point for me as I’m planning to start my own membership site.

By: Internet Age

Internet Age — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 10:55:44 +0000

Hahahahahah! I definitely didn’t see that one coming, Yaro! In actual fact, I’ve pretty much been put off the concept of running a membership site. I will however always remember this post, and if the urge to do a membership site grabs me, I know where to go for the best advice!

By: David

David — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 03:50:09 +0000

Hey Yaro, it looks like your cloaking your affiliate links ( sorry if I am wrong) perhaps you could go over this in a future post? Thanks

By: Online TV

Online TV — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 14:22:36 +0000

Hehe, I would also like a trial membership for 12 months.

By: Yaro

Yaro — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:17:11 +0000

Shoosh Blaine, don’t give away all the secrets

By: Blaine Moore

Blaine Moore — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:59:06 +0000

Yaro,

Another thing that I liked about your model that you didn’t mention was that you were able to create your next membership site off of the folks that stuck around for the entire course for the first one. Your early adopters (who are arguably your best customers) had the option to continue giving you money even past the 6 months for new information on a new topic, which allowed you to get paid to create another 6 month course and to work out all the bugs with folks that know you and love what you give them and will be less critical of any hiccups.

By: Syed Balkhi

Syed Balkhi — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:16:32 +0000

Yaro,

I agree with most of what you said. It is true that no subscription site can hold its subscribers forever with the same old boring stuff. But when you have a good number of subscriptions… Selling that site for a good profit is the option that I would take.

Then you can restart a subscription site in some another niche.

I have noticed that when you have a subscription site and you go to sell it, it is usually worth more.

That is the only time I saw success in this type of business model though. If you keep the site eventually and surely you will go down and you will end up in a loss.

By: Make Money From Home

Make Money From Home — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:43:48 +0000

Great advice. I like the idea of having a limited time membership site. If you tell them the training is 12 months long, they’ll most likely hang for the 12 months so long as you offering something new every month.

By: Noobpreneur

Noobpreneur — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:13:40 +0000

Yaro,

Walk the talk is key

Just like everything in life, I learn that this question is probably the most important question to ask to someone trying to sell any products/services: “Have you tried it, yet? If so, how well are you doing with it and how is it actually doing to your life/business?”

By: Kathryn Alice

Kathryn Alice — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 06:13:18 +0000

I have had a subscription program for about 18 months. When we first launched, it filled up almost immediately and I was GASPING over the workload I’d let myself in for. We had to cap the first one and start a new one that was a bit less money and WAY less work for me. It has taken me a full 18 months to correct my original error, but now, it’s not completely passive income, but not bad. Our attrition rate hasn’t been too bad, and I have to say I was pleased at a recent live workshop when I heard someone telling another attendee how great the subscription service was. Yes!

One trick I see people doing that I’ve thought about but haven’t done as of yet is INCLUDING the subscription program for FREE for the first two months when you buy another product. It’s a sneaky way to automate new signups.

In my experience, subscription service is a good way to solidify income and free you from always depending on product sales which can be up and down. It also makes you available to those who need what you do more consistenly so if you’re doing it right, everyone wins!

Thanks, Yaro, for covering a part of it you never hear about. I believe your original posts on subscription service helped us a LOT when we drummed up ours.