Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

Creating a membership is an exciting time. The creative juices are flowing, the sense of accomplishment from building and launching something new can be exhilarating, and there's an undeniable buzz you get with every new member who joins. But what about 6 months down the line? 2 years? 10 years? Is that buzz still there? Does your membership still excite you? Or perhaps it's started to feel like a...

With so many moving parts involved in building and running a membership site, the costs can quickly add up. And while constantly trying to penny-pinch and always going with the cheap option isn't the best approach, it's also prudent to ensure you're not unnecessarily wasting money. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I share 9 ways to cut your day to day costs when running a membership...

While in a lot of cases people will have joined your membership to get the benefit of your particular expertise; bringing in experts in complimentary topics can add a lot to your offering. Not only does inviting guest contributors increase the value and variety you provide to your members; but it's also a smart strategy for minimizing the workload involved in creating all membership content yourse...

During the course of running your membership site, there will inevitably come a point where you want to increase your pricing. Maybe your offering has changed, perhaps you're responding to increased demand or maybe you just want to earn a little more for your efforts. Rather than simply raising your prices overnight, check out this latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast for my tips and stra...

Membership websites come in all shapes and sizes; but the type we primarily deal with here on The Membership Guys consist primarily of content and community. Given that content marketing is, without doubt, one of the best ways to promote your membership site; then it can be a real challenge trying to figure out which content should be free - via blogs, podcasts and the like - and which content sho...

The typical membership site owner creates a LOT of content. Not just for their paying members, but as part of their marketing strategy too. It's a lot of work - so anything you can do to increase the impact and the reach of the content you create is a big win. Content repurposing can help you squeeze every drop of value from your courses, tutorials, blogs, videos and podcasts; and in today's episo...

Wow, time flies when you're rocking the membership world! In what has become an annual tradition - we're celebrating the 3rd anniversary of Member Site Academy with a very special episode looking back at the past 12 months of our business. And of course I'm joined once again by the other (and arguably better) half of The Membership Guys, the one and only Callie Willows, to discuss year three of ru...

As your membership grows, so too does the likelihood that you'll encounter negative feedback from your members. You can't please everyone, it's a fools errand to even try. But what do you do if one of your members says something you don't like about your membership? How you react to and process negative feedback can have real implications on the way you run your membership. In this episode of The...

Podcasting can be an extremely effective outlet for experts and influencers to expand their reach, grow their audience and demonstrate their credibility. And for membership owners, a podcast can be a great source of new members too. In fact our podcast is perhaps one of the most important pieces of our marketing puzzle, and helps generate hundreds of thousands of dollars in membership sales each a...

"The average length of time someone will stay subscribed to your membership is just 3 months." You’ve heard that before, right? You’ve no doubt seen "experts" throwing this statistic around. Heck, if you dig hard enough I wouldn't be surprised if we've repeated it ourselves once upon a time! Well here’s the truth - that 3 month average subscription length? It’s nonsense. Utter nonsense. In today’s...

On June 20th, Facebook officially announced that they are trialling the option for Group admins to charge a recurring subscription fee to their members. This is definitely a huge move, and one that capitalises on the fact that there are already many membership owners using Facebook Groups "unofficially" for their paid community. So what does this mean for the membership industry? Should we all pac...

We're constantly banging the drum on how important it is to have an established audience BEFORE you build and launch a membership. However for some people the temptation to rush headfirst into their membership is just too strong. Truth is that if you haven't built an audience that you can mobilize and monetize, you're going to find it an uphill struggle trying to get your membership off the ground...

When we talk about membership sites, typically it's in the context of being the main part of the membership owner's business. However that's not the only way to do it. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I dig into 4 of the main ways you could create a membership site that's secondary and supplementary to the real focus of your business. Episode Summary: Why it's okay to not have a mem...

This is the ultimate “how long is a piece of string” question. There’s no exact science or specific formula that will accurately predict how many people are likely to join your membership. However when setting goals for the launch of a new membership site, or even the growth of an original one, it’s useful to know whether your aspirations are realistic or just pure delusion! In this episode, I att...

In today's online world you're increasingly competing with a lot of noise and distraction when it comes to your members time and attention. How do you stand out? What can you do to deliver a member experience that will make logging into your membership and spending time in your community preferable to watching hilarious cat videos on YouTube or chatting with friends on Facebook? Andrew and Pete ar...

So your membership is ticking along nicely, you're bringing in new members at a steady rate (and they're sticking around too), you've got your systems and processes nailed and everything is running like clockwork. What next? There are a few different paths you can take for growing and scaling your membership business; but in this episode I want to talk about my favourite approach, one that's perfe...

Making the move from working one on one with clients, to running a "one to many" subscription business like a membership can be a daunting transition. It's one Mark Asquith made several years back, when he called time on his successful digital agency to focus entirely on his SAAS company. And it's a journey we've taken ourselves with The Membership Guys. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podc...

Most memberships in the online space feature some form of video content. But the question of where to host these videos continues to confuse many membership site owners. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I delve into the 6 main options you have for hosting your membership videos and give my definitive recommendation (as well as what the absolute no-no is when it comes to video hostin...

Refunds suck. Let's face it - someone asking for their money back is never cause for celebration. But the fact is that while it might hurt your feelings, hurt your wallet or just flat out annoy the hell out of you when people ask for a refund - having a fair refund policy is ultimately a good thing for you and for your membership. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I explore the best...

Much of the marketing advice you'll come across conditions you seek out a magic bullet that will unlock a tidal wave of leads and sales. The blueprint for the perfect funnel; the foolproof launch strategy; the latest killer Facebook ads hack. It's all nonsense. There is no "easy button" - and the people telling you there is are almost always trying to sell you something (or regurgitating the advic...

A clear understanding of what makes your audience tick is key to ensuring your marketing is on point. So often people forget this. They get swept up in the latest quick fix marketing tricks, Facebook ad hacks and flavour-of-the-month sales funnels that they ignore that the foundation of successful marketing is understanding your audience. Their pains, their problems, their motivations. This stuff...

Social proof is a powerful marketing tool. Everyone expects you to talk about how awesome your membership is - that's a given - but when others back you up then it's a whole different ball game. Testimonials, endorsements and success stories go a very long way - and as a membership site owner you have the perfect resource at your disposal to generate this sort of social proof: your existing member...

There's an element of risk involved with every type of business. Particularly online. However when it comes to membership sites there are a few things in particular that you want to pay special attention to. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast - I look at 5 of the biggest risks membership owners need to be aware of and give my top tips for pre-empting and preventing problems. Episode Su...

The one-to-many aspect of the membership model is one of it's greatest benefits. Being able to serve your audience on a larger scale is what attracts a lot of membership owners to this type of business - however it does come at a cost. The larger your membership grows, the less able you are to create a more personal connection with individual members, and that can be unsatisfying for both them and...

Gamification is the strategy of using gameplay elements as a means of encouraging engagement with your product, course or membership. Typically with membership sites, this manifests itself as point systems, badges and other rewards for completing content or contributing in your community. While gamification can be a highly effective strategy, it isn’t a “magic button” for creating an engaging memb...