Creating Powerful Membership Sites When You Have a Small List
When it comes to marketing and making money, size does matter. The size of your newsletter list, Facebook Fan list, Twitter follower list and connections on LinkedIn that is.
The Big Question
I am often asked “Sandra I know you are in favour of creating recurring monthly revenue and membership sites. However I have a small list. Should I create a membership site?”
I reply “Yes and no. Yes you should create a membership site but not a membership site that follows the traditional/publisher model.”
The Problem
You see the traditional/publisher model promises fresh ongoing content on a monthly basis. The client pays for access to the content each month. The problem is the client never knows what they are paying for ahead of time. This “unknown” drives some people mad and they will instantly cancel their membership or never sign up in the first place.
As the owner of the membership site the stress is on you to create new and fresh content each month that your clients would enjoy and get great value out of it. This may not seem like a problem at the beginning but it will become a problem around the six month mark, trust me, I have been through it myself and I see clients and colleagues go through it too. Unfortunately you end up resenting your membership site and your members 
If you have a small list chances are just a few people will sign up for your membership site. So you can imagine your frustration when you spent your valuable time and money to set up a membership site when only a handful of people enroll and less people show up to your live training sessions.
Two Solutions
Instead of following the Traditional/Publisher model consider the Micro Continuity Model or the Self-Study/Modular Course Model.
Micro Continuity Model
A micro continuity site is very similar to a traditional membership site, but unlike the traditional membership sites where there is no set “end date,” micro continuity sites have a set “end date.”
It’s up to you how long you want your micro continuity site to be active. If you are offering a six-month training program you may want to offer a membership based site for six months. Members would be able to access training materials, training schedules, homework assignments, appointment booking calendars, bonus materials, and the list goes on and on.
When the program completes you have the option of closing the micro continuity site or leaving it open so that paid clients can continue to access materials.
Self-Study/Modular Course Model
If an ongoing membership site is not your thing, you can also offer self-study programs by using WishList Member’s “sequential upgrade” feature.
Let’s say you have a three-week course. Each week a new lesson will automatically be sent to anyone who has purchased your self-study program. At the end of the three weeks, you have the option of allowing clients to continue to have access to the materials or you can cancel their access.
What I love about setting up a self-study program like this is that you are giving your clients bits of information over a period of time and not overwhelming them with all of the course information at once. I also love that it does not have a scheduled start date. Anyone can buy access to your self-study program at any time or day, so you can promote it all year long.
Each paid client will gain access to Lesson One on the day they register and will receive Lesson Two the following week, and so on. So while some clients are on Lesson Three, others may be on Lesson Two. It’s the perfect passive offering.
A tool to help you build your membership site
Traditional membership sites, micro continuity sites and self-study modular courses are just a few examples of how WishList Member can enhance your offerings and expand how you are using WordPress.
Believe me, I’ve created numerous membership sites with programs that were unintuitive, expensive, energy suckers. For $97 you can grab this WordPress plugin and create your own membership site with any of the above membership models.
Visit http://wpblogsites.com/wishlist for more details and to purchase the amazing plugin that has changed thousands of ways in which entrepreneurs are doing business.
WordPress 3.3 is out!
WordPress just released version 3.3 this week! You may be wondering what key pieces they added to WordPress and if you should upgrade now.
The key new pieces added to WordPress 3.3:
1. Fly Out Menus
This is my favourite of all of the updates in WordPress 3.3. I tend to work in a number of different menus within WordPress and after a while I have opened so many menus that I have to scroll and scroll to get to the bottom of the WordPress menu and access “Settings” and “WL Plugins“.
Instead of opening and closing sections in the WordPress menu bar, you can just put your mouse over the menu and the sub menu will appear. It’s quicker, easier and cleaner.
2. New Toolbar
A new toolbar will appear at the top of WordPress. You have some plugins or themes to update when you see the two arrows in a circular motion with a number beside it (you’ll see number 2 in the graphic below and the two arrows in a circular motion beside it). The number represents how many updates are required.
If you have any comments to approve then you’ll see a number beside the “comment” image. Simply click on it to manage your comments.
The “+ New” button gives you short cuts to create new posts, upload new media, create a new link, create a new page or create a new user.
3. Drag and Drop to Upload New Media
To upload new media (images, pdfs, mp3s or videos) simply drag and drop the new media from your computer (windows users use “Explorer” and Mac users use “Finder”) to the window in the “Upload New Media” page. It will automatically load the new media for you. You can still click the “select files” button, search for the file on your computer and upload it the “old fashion” way! 
Should you upgrade now?
I’d love to say yes. But I always say to wait a week to see if there are any other fixes that follow this upgrade. I also suggest you have your web person review your theme and all of your plugins to ensure they are compatible with the new version of WordPress. Considering this upgrade is mostly cosmetic fixes you should be okay, but just in case check with your web person. If you would like my team to review it for you fill in this form and we will connect with you asap.
Convert Clients Faster With LiveStream
Tired of running teleclasses and looking for a new way to build and engage with your community?
Would you like to convert more web visitors or tire kickers into customers and clients faster?
Isn’t it time you were known as one of the leaders in your market?
It is a known fact that video has a higher conversion rate than any other media including audio. There’s something about seeing someone, their mannerisms, their facial expressions and body language that makes us feel like we “know” the person and we trust them faster than we would if we were listening to an audio of them or reading the content in their book. When people get to know, like and trust you they buy from you, when they are ready of course. So why not incorporate video into your marketing plan? Too hard? You don’t have the time?
How about if I told you that all you need is to follow these steps:
- Get a web cam (some of you have them built into on your laptops)
- Download LiveStream Procaster (a small piece of free software)
- Create a free account with www.livestream.com
- Create your first livestream channel
- Create a registration page on your site. Example: http://wpblogsites.com/wpblogsitestv/registration/
- Invite your community to register and let them know to meet you at the scheduled day and time on your livestream channel.
- Start your livestream show with a few clicks. Your community can see you and ask questions in the live chat.
- At the end of your show you can grab the html code to show off your video on a blog post, or simply direct your community to your livestream channel on www.livestream.com
8 Steps to Fat Blogsite Profits
Step 1: Get a Blogsite
Traditional html sites do not cut it in a competitive and dynamic world. Using a blogsite (blog + site) to promote your business is easiest, fastest and most effective
WordPress is the leader in blogsite software.
Step 2: Create Valuable Content
Create content that your clients and ideal clients need and want to read. The more valuable it is the more often they will come back and refer you!
Generate content ideas by:
- listening to the trending topics your clients talk about
- trends in the industry
- use Google Alerts http://alerts.google.com
Step 3: Leverage Your Content
- Don’t just create content, leverage it!
- Take a series of blog posts, polish them up and create an e-book or published book.
- Market your blog posts on social media sites.
- Update your Facebook and Twitter status’ with your blog posts’ titles and links to them.
Step 4: Attract Google and Get Smart About SEO
- Don’t be suckered into SEO packages that cost thousands of dollars!
- Use keywords in your blog post title, content and category names.
- Use the Google’s Keyword Tool to research new keywords.
Step 5: Build and Attract Community
Your communities are your clients, newsletter readers, twitter followers, facebook fans and potential clients.
Keeping your community happy, loved and feeling special is the way to continue building your community and in turn they will be loyal followers and buyers! How are you currently keeping your communities happy?
Step 6: Drive and Direct Traffic
I hear so much on the web about “driving traffic” to your site. Yes we want to drive people to our blogsites but what do they do when they get there? If you don’t direct them within a few seconds then they will leave your site. Guide them. Let them know what they should read, click or do next.
This is one step that many people skip and then they wonder why they are not converting traffic/visitors into clients and customers.
Step 7: Monetize
Making money is the reason why we are in business. Otherwise wouldn’t call ourselves “entrepreneurs” we’d call ourselves “hobbyists”.
Make it obvious where clients can “insert their credit card”. How can they buy your products or purchase your coaching packages if they don’t know where they are or what they are?
Step 8: Measure, Analyze, Optimize, Repeat.
Statistics are king! Add Google Analytics to your site asap so that you can see where your visitors are coming from, how they heard about you, what words they searched to find you, how long they stayed on your site and more!
Learn what you need to know, without all the unnecessary hype, fluff, and confusion. And when you do you’ll:
- Avoid looking like a newbie on the web who has no idea what they are doing.
- Keep your reputation in tact online and offline.
- Get over your netophobia (fear or hate of the internet).
- Have an easy way to ongoingly create and publish content on your blog. Content that both Google and your potential clients will be attracted to and will keep coming back for more!
- Stop wasting time and leverage the content you already have that is hiding in secret places in your brain and on your computer!
- Let your competition think that SEO is still the way to attract Google, while you give Google what it really wants!
- Build a community of followers and fans!
- Drive traffic to your site and get them to do what you want them to do.
- Remove “scarcity” from your vocabulary and generate sexy hot profits. (No I’m not talking about Google AdSense here! Pa-lease!)
- Identify on your own, where tweaks need to be made on your site so that your visitors come back often, stay around for awhile and do what you want them to!
Do your clients feel special, well taken care of and treated like a true VIP?
A number of my clients and coaching colleagues offer special VIP programs and VIP coaching packages. These offers are only available to a few ideal clients. They offer a high level of support and come with a high investment cost.
Are you offering a VIP service, or thinking about it? If so, I invite you to keep reading and see how you can easily add value to your VIP programs, at a small cost to you and make your VIP service stand out from all the others. Sound good?
I suggest you create a dedicated online area for each of your VIP clients. This can be as easy as setting up a WordPress “page” for each one of your VIP clients. On this page add one or more of the following:
- A “How to get the most out of your VIP Program” report
- Recordings of all of your coaching calls
- Valuable resources like templates, checklists and special reports
- Links to any resources you shared on your calls
- Transcripts of your calls
- Links to discounted products and services
- A link reschedule calls with you (or instructions on how to reschedule your calls)
- Information on how to contact your assistant
- Your “Terms of Service” and policies
- Create and protect the dedicated client pages. (Select “Yes, protect this content (members only)” at the bottom of the page).
- Create a new membership level for each of your clients. (“Membership Levels”)
- The “After Login” page for each level should be set up to point to the dedicated client page.
Example:
(1) WordPress Page title = “Mary B – VIP Page”
(2) Membership Level = “VIP – Mary B”
(3) After Login = “Mary B – VIP Page” page - Create a login for each member (Members -> add new member) and select the corresponding “Membership Level”
- Be sure to update the pages with new VIP content (like your coaching call recordings).
Customizing your WordPress sidebar
Widgets are sidebar and footer elements that you can add, remove, organize and customize. Some plugins include their own widgets in order to make it easier for you to display them in your sidebar and footer. You can use these widgets (and the pre-installed widgets) to customize the look and functionality of your sidebar and footer.
Here’s how to do it:
- Log into your WordPress account (www.OurWebsite.com/wp-login.php).
- Click “Appearance” in the top menu bar.
- Click “Widgets” in the sub-menu bar.
- On the right hand side, click the sidebar/footer you want to modify. This will expand your view to see the widgets that are already there.
NOTE: the footer is what appears at the bottom of your site near your copyright information. - From the left-hand side, choose the widget you want to add to this sidebar/footer and drag it to the widget area. You can “drop” it into any position you like, before or after any of the widgets that are there.
- To reposition the widget, just drag it to any position in your list of sidebar items.
- Click the dropdown arrow beside the widget name to view any required settings or options.
- Set the title that will appear above the widget and modify any other widget-specific settings.
- If you are viewing a “Text” widget, enter your text or html code into the empty box that appears. This is where you would add the code for your email subscription sign-up to a text widget.
- Click “Save.”
- View your website to see the changes you made. You can play around with these widgets as much as you like, until you get the look and functionality that you’re after. And you can always change them again later.
- To remove a widget from your list, click to expand the widget options and then click “Delete.”
Did you like this tip? It came right from my book “Does This Blogsite Make My Wallet Look Fat?”. Also available on Kindle!
Slug, a funny name for a useful tool
Slug is a funny name isn’t it? It always makes me smile. A slug is another neat WordPress tool for controlling the permalink (website address) of your blog posts. Here’s how it works in our example: http://wpblogsites.com/wordpress-
blogsite/dont-forget-that-blog-post-idea/
The section in bold is what’s called the slug, and you can change it to anything you like. If you don’t like the website address that WordPress came up with automatically, but you don’t want to change your overall permalink settings again, you can simply change the name of the slug for this one specific post.
- Save or publish the post that you’re working on.
- Under the post title you will see the permalink of your post, along with an “Edit” button on the right.
- Click “Edit.”
- Type in the permalink you want.
- Click “Update.”
Did you like this tip? It came right from my book “Does This Blogsite Make My Wallet Look Fat?”. Also available on Kindle!
Google +1, Add it To Your Blogsite
Recently Google released their own twist of Facebook’s “like”, that is “+1″. You may have noticed the “+1″ logo on blog posts and in Google searches, it looks like this 
What is a “+1″?
Clicking the “+1″ button on a blog post or search result means that you recommend it, you think it rocks and that you think your friends should check it out. You are basically giving it your approval much like you do when you click the Facebook “like” or retweet someone’s tweet.
When your friends, contacts and others see that you have “+1′d” something they see that it has been recommended and approved by others. Knowing that other’s “+1′d” something tells them that it’s popular, worth a read and valuable. Social proof is a big thing lately eh?
Why you should pay attention to +1′s
When you see +1′s in search results you may find yourself gravitating to the results with the most “+1s” as those have been read and recommended by others in your network (be sure to be logged into your Google account to see all the “+1′s”
Add it to your blogsite!
Use the “Google +1 Button” WordPress Plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-1/) to add a “+1″ button to your blog posts, pages and on your home page so that others can “+1″ your site.
If you want more control over where the “+1″ appears on your site use the “Google +1 Button Advanced” plugin (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-plus1-button/)
What do you think of the “+1″? Let us know by adding a comment.
Take Your Appointment Scheduling Online and Save Your Inbox
There is never enough time in the day to do what you want to do. Your inbox just gets bigger and bigger. Your “to do” list gets longer and longer. Your brain feels like it’s about to explode. Grrr!
When this happens the best thing to do is spot the one thing that is taking up most of your time, or better yet, what is taking up most of your inbox? In some cases you will want to delegate that to a virtual assistant in other cases you may find that a great online tool can automate a process for you.
When I found that a good chunk of my emails were requests for coaching, meetings and discovery sessions (where the potential client and I (or my OBM) speak to see if there is a connection and how we can help them), I knew I had to automate this process. My clients and potential clients live all around the world and so time zones become a factor when lining up appointments. Instead of analyzing my calendar, writing out the days and times I am available, then calculating the time in their particular time zone, sending that off in an email to the client, then they have to analyze their calendar and get back to me. Unfortunately there have been times when the client replies with a time and date that works for them, but by that time another client has claimed that appointment time, so we have to start all over again! Has this happened to you? It’s kind of embarrassing!
So in comes my superhero www.timetrade.com! Just create an account with TimeTrade, set up an appointment type, tell TimeTrade what days and times you will accept appointments, then send your clients the link to your TimeTrade calendar for that specific appointment type.
I suggest you connect your Google or Outlook calendar to your TimeTrade account. TimeTrade will add any new appointments to your calendar and if your calendar states you are “busy” during any of the times you claimed you were available for appointments it doesn’t allow clients to book appointments at that time. This prevents overbooking!
Once an appointment is made an email is sent to you and your client confirming the appointment. It’s pretty sweet!
So instead of asking your clients to book a time with you “manually” over an email exchange, send them a link to your TimeTrade account and decrease the number of emails swelling up your inbox.
You can also use this tool to allow potential program participants connect with you by providing a link within your sales copy. I am currently using TimeTrade to book discovery calls with those interested in my “Fat Blogsite Profits” program starting June 1st. Interested but wonder if this program is for you? Schedule a 15 minute discovery call with Sandra to ask questions and get clarity: Book your discovery call here. 
Increase Traffic and Buzz for Your Media
Are you using AudioAcrobat to record your teleclasses, interviews and blog posts etc? If you aren’t, take a good look at it as it allows you to record audio three different ways and gives you a number of options to publish your audio such as a link to download the mp3, audio play buttons to put on your site and more!
Recently AudioAcrobat has added a new option that generates a fully optimized link to increase traffic and buzz for your media. If you want to share your media file on social networking sites and blog platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Diigo and more, and who doesn’t? Take a look at their “Campaign Link” when you are ready to publish your audio. See the screenshot below to see what the option looks like in your account and check out the what the link looks like.
Why would you want to share your media anyway? I wondered this myself, the first time I saw this option, as I always use AudioAcrobat to record my client calls and paid for teleclasses. I definitely don’t want those special calls to be shared and downloaded on the web as they are private and paid for by my clients.
However, when I recorded my complimentary call earlier this week, “8 Core Superhero Web Strategies”, which promotes my upcoming program “Phat Blogsite Strategies – 8 Core Foundational Steps“, I wanted the audio to be listened to by as many people as possible. It made sense to make use of this option!
So when you have a free audio that you are recording that promotes your expertise, why not give your fans the opportunity to share it with as many people as possible? I’m sure they would be happy to!
