Thanks for the series. It really brings home what a big undertaking something like this is.

Gillian

Congrats for this extensive series, I’m currently studying it to launch my own membership website. However, I have a question somehow related to pricing: how much are you paying the other mentors? Is it a fixed rate, a percentage of the membership site’s income?

Some people operate on a 30% attrition rate and still have very profitable membership sites.

It really depends on how your system is set up, but my training focuses on dropping attrition to the acceptable 10% or below level if possible.

Thanks for teaching on this. One question for you: what is your retention rate on a membership like that?

Thanks!

Sean

If you make it a 12 month course, then you have to always bring new people into the program at week 1 or you lose your income stream when you finish.

It really depends on how you source the content. If you can bring on others to write lessons and keep the content valuable then you don’t ever have to stop, but bear in mind too I don’t know any membership site that members choose to stay members of forever if it is based on education. If it’s a tool – like say an email autoresponder – that’s another story because you always need some tools.

I’ve found this whole series very absorbing and this one in particular. I am planning a Mentoring type of membership site rather than a “Download” type of Membership site, which seems to be the usual type.

If I decide on a Weekly lesson delivery I can see how I can easily create enough content for a few months…but is there a final lesson? Should we expect members to belong for a few months and exit when they have learned what they needed?

I used to be a college teacher and I’m wondering how far a Mentoring Membership Site can parallel a college course!

All The Best

Alex

One of the big issues now is technology and the expense to get it all working how I want to, or even just close to it, is the biggest drain, but that won’t last forever once we nut out some problems.

I’m also working pretty hard myself producing content and again that’s not something I plan to do forever.

Right now there is not much profit left over, but it’s an investment that I’m willing to make and I know long term it will be beneficial for me. It’s business building 101.

Another great post in this series. I look forward to the next one.

Thanks for putting this series together.

Do you mind sharing how much time you’re spending on your membership site every day? It sounds like you’ve hired some help, but you’re probably pretty busy too!

While it plays a part it’s quite secondary to other marketing elements.

As demonstrated by Daryl and Andrew, your site doesn’t have to look amazing, it’s the conversation going on in the head of the person visiting the site that matters. If someone thinks you offer value, then even the most basic design can be good enough (preeminence).

That being said, Andrew and Daryl appeal to the regular person by presenting themselves as technophobes (regular people) and by using a simple design they help promote the image of “everyone can do it”.

Different markets will demand different looks, but ultimately it’s the marketing that brought them to the site in the first place, and the words on the page, that matter more than the look of the design.

“Pricing too little can end up killing your membership site because everyone perceives your offer as low quality.”

Yaro – perhaps I missed it but could you address the role of presentation/graphic design of a site in the perceived value equation? The quality of Web design seems to be so low among many such sites. For instance, the sites for the Andrew & Daryl Grant e-books appear very amateurish, a style that – to me, at least – screams scam. (I’m not saying that it is but there is an overabundance of that same style). I’ve heard one online marketer say that such sites should look like they were designed by amateurs. Thoughts?