Like most people before gaining experience I have fear about my capabilities. As you grow you become more confident and thankfully confidence transfers across a whole range of activities in your life. Unfortunately the opposite is true too - if you don’t feel confident in general, then you don’t feel confident doing anything new to you.
It’s a lot easier to accept your fear when you don’t attach your ego to the outcome you want. If you want to achieve something and it relates to something very important - like for example, starting an Internet business and doing well enough that you can quit your job - the fear of failure is so extreme that it can bend your perception of reality. It can be so bad that your subsequent poor mindset as a result of the fear will guarantee the outcome you are so fearful of - failure. That’s a nasty catch 22 situation.
For a long time I was fearful of selling my own products online. I knew I could do it in terms of creating a product, but the fear was whether I could actually help people and whether people would buy from me. No doubt this is common for every person before they release a product of their own creation.
The day I became a lot more confident was the day I experienced someone else’s product similar to what I wanted to create.
In my case, it was making the decision to join Rich Schefren’s Business Growth System, which led me to find the confidence to believe I could launch a membership site too.
Remove Ambiguity By Seeing What Others Do
Right now if you have never joined a membership site then you have no idea what is really inside them. You might read sales pages and comments from previous members and all kinds of details about the features inside the site, but until you really experience the content you just don’t know.
That’s where I was before joining the Business Growth System. This was a big step for me because the price was $397 a month - not a small amount of money.
I joined Rich’s program to learn how to take my business to the next level and get out of my own way. However, the real benefit for me that had a lasting effect was seeing what Rich put together, how he marketed his membership program and what people received for their fee.
Knowing that Rich had sold thousands into his coaching program also helped cement the idea that his process worked. I was studying his materials from two perspectives - as a student of his content and a student of his methods to sell and deliver the content.
The end result of this experience was a huge boost to my confidence because I felt that I could replicate much of what Rich was doing with my own membership site. I would make my own spin on how I thought best to do it, but seeing the inside of a million dollar membership site was clearly motivating.
To clarify - Rich’s program is NOT about how to launch a membership site, but it was through experiencing his membership site from all angles that I gained the confidence and understanding to start my own.
Don’t Reinvent The Wheel
Internet marketing is not new. It’s a relatively new industry for sure, but how people do things and what works is established information. There’s no need for you to reinvent the wheel here - replicate what works and apply it to your situation.
Joining other membership sites gave me insights into how to do following -
- How to take payments
- How much to charge and what is “enough” value in return given certain pricing points
- What technology to use to deliver the content (email, membership site scripts, blogs)
- What media formats to use (audio, video, text)
- What presentation tools to use (slides, teleconferences, PDfs, forums etc)
- How much content to deliver
- How the marketing message connects with the reality of what is delivered
- How best to set up a coaching sequence
- And so on…
I probably learned just as much by observing the delivery as consuming the training, which is something you should consider if you also want to launch a membership site.
By joining someone else’s program you can see the pieces come together for your own program. It becomes so much more concrete in your mind. Ideas start to flow as for what you can provide your members, how you deliver the content and what you could charge. It’s a very motivating experience and definitely takes a lot of the fear away since the ambiguity disappears, at least to a degree.
You can never be sure your membership site will be a success until you launch, but you gain tremendous insight by experiencing the work of others and then taking those ideas and applying them to your site.
Experience Is The Best Teacher
We all know that experience is the best teacher. Right now there are hundreds of membership sites online and quite likely several that target you, that present an offer of something you want.
If you plan to launch a membership site but you are not sure what goes into one, join a membership site that appeals to you and learn not only from what it offers to teach you, but also how it teaches and how it is marketed to you. There’s as much to be gained from meta-analysis of the process and the system as there is from the content inside the site.
Yaro Starak
BlogMastermind.com Mentor
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There is really no greater rush than the thrill of your first sale on your membership site (this goes for online retail sites as well). It is just such a great feeling knowing you have something people are willing to part with their hard earned cash for.
Yaro,
Great post! Membership sites are a fantastic business model and very rewarding as it seems to me that people get better results from being a member as compared to an individual product.
Launching my membership site was a lot of work but going through the bootcamp cut my learning curve tremendously. One of the best decisions I’ve ever made!
hi yaro
i have started following you for, last around two months,
a real newbee.
i am lucky that before i even start my serious foray into blogging,
i came across you, darren, john chou and many others, so i feel i can really avoid some of the pitfalls that people do just because they didn’t consult right people like you folks.
I THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT POSTING THIS COMMENT, but finally decided to do it.
you see, no denying the fact that your study material, videos, tips etc have been great to me as i am sure would have been to many other people.
what i am gonna say might offend you and so many of your loyal followers(trust me i am too one of the loyals), but if i don’t get this out of my gut i will feel guilty.
you see yaro, of late you have begun to sound precisely like those fly by night,get rich rich scheme people.
you hold a very high place in our hearts and mind,
its ok for you to promote someone else but for gods sake be discrete about it,and yaro while being frank and forthcoming is damn great thing,
but sometimes it really pays to keep some of your thoughts to yourselves, you know what i mean??, unwritten rules,(u never tell your girlfriend that her friend is a bomb,lol)
well sorry if it was too harsh but thats the way it is
take care yaro
Hey Moneymanager…if that is indeed your real name :-).
As I’ve written countless times in reply to comments like yours that inevitably come when I post anything linking to a product or service as an affiliate - please, if you do not get any value from my blog, don’t read it.
This is a relationship where the power rests in your corner. I don’t force anyone to read my content, but for those people who stay I hope they get something from me and that includes the majority who never ever buy anything.
I’m having a hard time understanding what moneymanager’s issue is. He claims to be a “loyal follower”, but then complains about you promoting an affiliate product. That’s a large part of what Internet Marketing is about. Affiliate Marketing is a huge industry and it’s how so many people are making money.
Yaro, I do appreciate all you put into your blog. Some suggestions I take, others I don’t, but what you have put together on this site and in your coaching program is of TREMENDOUS value to me so thank you.
Yaro,
Along the lines of your post here, I think you are right on the button. Most Bloggers start out with a little trepidation and worry about what will they think? I believe that stifles one and it is better to just let it roll and be natural. Thank you for your wisdom and guidance. I’m lovin’ the Blog Mastermind program. To the moneymanager previous. I disagree.
Rich Hill
Often when Yaro promotes something, he offers a product of his own which is great value. I have no problems buying through affiliate links but, being poor, I will see if there is a better ‘deal’ when it comes to either discounts or bonuses.
Yaro please dont waste your time responding to comments like that. People that read your blog know what kind of person you are. I read your blog religiously and dont mind you posting about affiliate marketing opportunities. After all your blog is about internet buisness and affiliate marketing. Just my 2 cents. I’ve purchased from your blog before because my intersts revolve around affiliate marketing. Had i not read your blog i would of missed out on some real good opportunities. The commission you earn from my sale is a thank you from me to you. One for the honest review and two, for unearthing the opportunity. From one Aussie to another, Big thumbs up.
Hi again Yaro!
It is certainly true that confidence is a key player when it comes to anything in life, but you are definately on the ball here!
The more you learn the more confident you become and the more positive you are about trying new things.
I have learned alot from you about blogging and am more confident in my own abilities because of it!
Thanks for another great post!
Kym
Yaro makes an excellent point about fear. You cannot let it hold you back from reaching for your dreams. With great classes like this one and BMM out there you’ve got the support, you just have to do your part! If this is your dream folks, I say go for it!!!!
Hi Yaro,
you are dead right about learning on two levels. There is the actual content and then there is the ‘meta’ level or ‘conceptual’ level. Looking at information on both these levels is a massively powerful thing.
Getting detailed information about the subject area is very important but equally forming a concept of the structures and methods that are being used to present that information is super powerful.
It is the people who can do both these things that will succeed and ultimately be able set up models that will bring them lasting income from the internet.
As for posting with affiliate links. Well, everyone has got to earn a living!! Those who care about their readers include extra information in the post that would be useful and informative even without the affiliate link, which is exactly what I think you do.
Steve
Hi Yaro,
Excellent article (again).
People should stop whining about affiliate stuff. It’s part of the game. Besides, most of the stuff Yaro recommends comes with a money-back-guarantee, so if you don’t like ‘em - you can return them. No big deal.
Wish you even more success!
(p.s. just saw “Membership Site Mastermind” program (3rd option in your site) - what’s that…?))
Holding back and fear what others will versus might think? I did it for four years and ended up learning lots but also owing a lot of credit card companies lots also. Being that opportunity chaser does nothing for you as you never learn to focus. Nothing will be perfect and certainly nothing will be a magic pill solution for everyone. Not until I finally sat down and began focusing on writing content for the last six weeks has anything of real gratification or interaction with others being a reward (without a ‘payoff’ yet). And please excuse the run on. Sometimes you have to write like no one else will read it just to get over that hump.
Hey Yaro
Yeah the confidence thing…
I was just thinking about this the other day…how much confidence plays a role on one’s success.
Or more accurately, SELF-confidence.
But somehow I’ve always been confusing self-confidence with ego-confidence. I realized that there is a HUGE difference between the two.
The ego-confidence relies on something that is limited by time and space, while the true self-confidence relies on something that is infinite and outside time and space.
In other words, true self-confidence is confidence in the true self. NOT confidence in what is mostly and erroneously perceived as the self, i.e. the ego.
Once I realized that, I realized that anyone has the ability to have a very high level of self-confidence…even without any previous achievements.
And therefore, anyone has the ability to achieve great things.
But it’s important to realize what the confidence is based on - the false self (ego) or the true inner self. The one is perceived as empty arrogance, and the other is perceived as deep resolve.
Gideon
The Philosopher
Gideon - you can’t be that deep on my blog, only I can do that
And stop reading Eckert so much, it’s impacting your blog comments.
LOL!
More recently, it’s more been the influence of Carl Jung I reckon…
He has some crazy cool ideas!
Gideon
Since I am really not into selling anything online, I don’t quite know the rush of the first sale, but I’m sure of one thing. If Yaro gets into anything its after a lot of planning and foresight and its bound to be a success.
Yaro,
Your posts have really helped me manage my new blogging “career” (if you will)!
I anticipate great things for the future, and they are surely related to the things I’ve learned while I read your articles.
So again, thanks for being such a great help for me and my blog.
Yaro,
Im a new reader to your site, trying to learn how I can make money from my blog because I have been slaving away for 6 months and had little or no success. I hope your content can help me
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