Creating and running a membership site is hard work.

And at times it can be overwhelming.

Especially if you're doing everything yourself.

Nobody to turn to for advice, for guidance, for feedback on ideas or even just confirmation that you're on track.

Frankly, going it alone kinda sucks!

Imagine being surrounded by like-minded people, all working together to make their memberships as awesome as possible.

That support can be the difference between success and failure.

As can having a proven path to follow, that eliminates the guesswork about what you should (and should NOT) be focusing on as you go through the journey of planning, creating, launching and growing your membership. 

You already have our free Membership Roadmap that gives you the outline of what that path is - but that's the "what" - wouldn't it be great to have help with the "how" too?

It's that combination of supportive community and comprehensive training that makes Member Site Academy the leading online community for anyone serious about building and growing a successful membership site.

After all...

It’s a membership about memberships!

And it’s packed with in-depth, practical training and resources - PLUS the community support you need to help you ensure that your membership achieves its full potential.

• Our extensive library of courses & training materials covering every aspect of planning, building and running your membership site. All tied into our interactive Membership Roadmap.
• Monthly live mastermind sessions to answer all your questions
• Community forums, where you can discuss any challenges you're having, get technical assistance, discuss strategy and receive advice, support and encouragement from ourselves and other members.
• Feedback from us and other members on any aspect of your membership site.
• A resources section with discounts, tools and exclusive plugins only for Academy members.

An effective sales funnel can put your business on autopilot, and consistently turn prospects into paying customer ... if you structure the right way.

The following best practices and strategies have proven successful for making sales funnels produce the intended result, lots of traffic, lots of prospects, and lots of sales.

The AIDA sales formula (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is a powerful top to bottom sales funnel.

• Make sure your opt-in bribe contains a quick win. Focus on one subject only, solving just one problem or answering one question.
• Keep your opt-in form simple and short. Don't ask for any more information than you absolutely must.
• Use videos throughout your sales funnel, especially when developing interest and building desire. The human brain processes video 60,000 times faster than text.
• Always write from the point of view of your prospect or customer. Your sales funnel will be more successful when you give your target market what it wants, rather than trying to achieve what you want.
• Test, test and then... test again. If you do not frequently try new things and tweak your sales funnel here and there, how do you know you are not leaving money on the table?
• Don't require your prospects to make too many decisions. The shortest, simplest, most basic sales funnel will keep your audience from opting out of your message.
• Don't be afraid to pay for traffic. Free search engine traffic is great. However, search engines change their algorithms all the time. When you pay for traffic, you guarantee a constant stream at the top of your funnel.
• Even if your business is entirely on the Internet, don't forget to advertise off-line, in the "real world".
• Don't forget to upsell. When someone buys something from you, they are at a high level of interest and desire. You should immediately follow up with a complementary offer with a higher price tag.
• Don't forget the simple
  1) landing page,
  2) opt-in freebie,
  3) autoresponder email sequence process is a tried and tested sales funnel that works regardless of the market you are in.
• Solo ads are good ways for you to target a known audience or prospect pool. You pay a blogger or Internet marketer to send an email out to their list, which drives targeted traffic to the top of your sales funnel.
• Social media is good for engaging in a sales funnel, but not for selling. Use social media sites to build interest and desire, sending it back to a landing page or blog post.

When looking for marketing tactics for your business we always recommend putting your consumers needs first. You must do market research, get consumer feedback and find what your customers are searching for online.

Without understanding the problem you need to solve, you can’t even begin to choose which technique will be the most effective or the most cost effective. And even then, to find the most effective low cost solution will require research, thought, experience, creativity, and intuition.

There is no magic marketing solution for all types of businesses, but the majority of situations content marketing and branding remains the best marketing tactic for your business.

Why consider Content Marketing?

• You become an expert in your own field
• You build trust and positive reputation and when someone needs to buy, she/he will be thinking to contact you
• Good articles attract customers even years after the publishing date
• Most content marketing tactics can be executed for free
• It helps you in customer retention

Here are some more tactics you can start implementing right away to help grow your brand and revenue for your business:

1. Social media marketing

Social media is a powerful tool today. Advertise on the different channels like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Once you figure out the formula that works for you, you will be able to target your ideal audience at a comfortable budget.

2. Search Engine Optimization

Optimize your website for keywords to help improve direct and organic search results for your website. This is very important to drive the right traffic to your website that could convert to qualified leads. Though it is time consuming and the results take some time to be noticeable, it is completely worth the effort.

3. Marketplace listings

Ensure your company is listed in relevant journals and resources so prospects looking for a product/service similar to yours can find you easily. Also you can submit your website in all search engine websites so it is indexed.

4. Referrals

This is the most effective way to market and drive qualified leads to your website. Reviews of happy customers who are using your product will help open many doors for your business.

5. Value Exchange

Once they are in your website motivate them to sign-up for your newsletters. Now you need to give them benefits for signing-up for your newsletter. For Example: You must have seen many eCommerce retailers providing discount coupons etc. When you’re able to give a value exchange for your customers contact information you’ll be able to continue following up and sending future promotions.

The Marketing Tactics Takeaway

Practicing the above steps will help you accomplish the following:

• Awareness
• Customers perceived value
• Quality/Hot leads (customers at a later stage)
• Higher rate of conversions
• More referrals

As far as our experience in online marketing is concerned, the best way to grab the market is by building your brand online so customers search for you when they’re ready to buy your product.

Your brand strategy should not be focused only on immediate tactics but on long-term goals and sustainable growth. Your strategy should always be flexible to cater for the ever changing market, consumers and competitors in order to succeed.

You’ve got the topics nailed down, the shiny new website, your fun new social media graphics picked out, and your adorable dog/cat/child is ready to play model for all the pictures you could possibly want to post… you’re almost ready to announce the launch of your brand-spankin’ new blog!

*This page contains affiliate links to products I recommend. If you purchase something from this page, I may receive a small percentage of the sale at no extra cost to you.

This guest post was written by Christina, founder of The Contract Shop. The contract shop sells legal templates and courses for creative entrepreneurs, online course creators, consultants, coaches and more. You can learn more about Christina at the bottom of this post.

But woah… hold up for just a minute, buckaroo!

Have you posted your Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions on your site yet?

Some of you are nodding along, and some of you are going, ‘Wait, what?! What the heck is that?’

There’s no need to get freaked out, these two bits of legal-ese aren’t hard to understand and use, but it is a good idea to have them displayed prominently on your blog. In fact, you could be violating federal law if you don’t.

So let’s talk about what they are, and what you need to do.

Privacy Policies

At their heart, Privacy Policies are intended to create transparency between users (in our case, readers) and yourself via your blog or website.

If you read blogs, then you may know that you leave little bits of your personal information behind when you visit. Things like your IP address, your name (or username), and email. If you make a purchase, there’s even more personal information that can be collected by the site selling you something.

A privacy policy informs your visitors what information is collected from them when they visit your site, how you use that information (i.e.: emails for your newsletter), and who else has access to the information (like your hosting company).

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requires that any web page collecting information from consumers and/or that uses cookies have a privacy policy available to visitors.

Not only is it legally required, but having one builds a greater sense of trust with your readers and makes you look more professional.

Where do I get one?

Creating and implementing a privacy policy doesn’t have to be hard. You can start with an attorney-approved template, and then customize it to your situation.

You can also take note of what other companies use for their privacy policy. While I’m not recommending that you simply copy/paste, you’ll likely run across a few things you haven’t thought of, and you’ll get a sense of how a Privacy Policy can be made to represent your brand. While this is the cheaper option, if you want to just get ‘er done and move on sans any worry or weird Frankenstein-ish policies you put together yourself, click here and snag your policies today.

Terms and Conditions

A basic Terms and Conditions policy tells people what they can and cannot do with your original content (like your photos, your content, or that cool idea you talked about in your last post.) If you also sell content, it can be extended to protect you in the event that someone wants a refund or shares your content illegally.

It’s not at all uncommon for photos and content to be shared — with or without the permission of the creator — and often without credit. If this happens to you, what recourse do you have?

ONE Post Per Day,  M O N D A Y – F R I D A Y

Week 1:

Monday: Share the space you work in and what inspires you about it.
Tuesday: Post a photo of a family member or pet and introduce them to your tribe!
Wednesday: Publish a photo of a trip you’ve been on and share an experience.
Thursday: Share a photo of your recent work and tell us the story behind it.
Friday: Post a photo of yourself and tell us three things we might not know about you!

Week 2:

Monday: Post a photo of the last book you read and tell us why you loved it!
Tuesday: Share a photo of the city/town you live in and tell us why you live there.
Wednesday: Publish a photo of your newest purchase and share why you bought it!
Thursday: Share a photo of your work caption with kind words from a recent client.
Friday: Post a photo of you and tell us why you do what you do!

Week 3:

Monday: Post a photo of the best gift you’ve ever gotten and tell us about it.
Tuesday: Style a few things on your desk and talk about what you’re working on.
Wednesday: Share a photo from a past project and give followers a tip they can apply.
Thursday: Post a photo of something that is currently inspiring your work this week.
Friday: Share a photo of you with people you love and let us in to that moment.

Week 4:

Monday: Take a photo of your favorite space in your home and share it!
Tuesday: Post a photo of your child/ren or family pet and tell us a story about them.
Wednesday: Go on a walk and snap a photo of something that jumps out at you!
Thursday: Show us your all time favorite piece of work and tell us about it.
Friday: Share a photo of you doing your job and tell us what your everyday looks like.

Pro Tip: Spend one day each week planning and preparing your content!
Prep the photo, caption and hashtags, then you can just log in, post, and sign off!

Membership websites, which began several years back, have grown in their popularity. They've undergone various phases and improved along the way. Membership sites these days are said to be the largest income-producing portals for the Internet, with nearly every market and niche having a membership site.

This means you can find a membership site for credit monitoring, forex trading, exercise and workouts and so much more.

Why Is So Imperative To Have A Membership Site?

Do you have an Internet business but no membership site? If so, then itís about time you start looking at the option. If not, you could be missing out on even more income than you thought was possible.

With a membership site, you have the opportunity to increase your network. This means more people are signing up for a membership on your site. This also to grow your business and earn more money. By appealing to the human nature ñ by giving prospects something as well ñ your business will grow.

What Do You Need To Create A Successful Membership Site?

Do you lack the confidence of getting members to sign up at your membership site? Stop thinking negatively and think positive! What you need to be mindful of is that everything ñ big or small ñ can be wrapped into a package and sold. A membership site business model means you can make the most of your profits and earn more money. This is especially true if you have people signing up for recurring monthly memberships.

Consider a membership site like a club. You want to provide advice, services and products that your ìclubî will be interested in. If your site is about exercise, provide them with tips to improve their workout routine. You can also add in a few tips on nutrition that correlates with their workout routine. This will help to boost the number of people who sign up on your membership site.

This will help to become even more successful than just having a business site.

Is There A Secret To Successful Membership Sites?

The reality is that there is no hidden formula behind the development of a membership site. By offering what people are looking for and tapping into their interests, you can rest assured that your Internet marketing efforts will pay off.

I was super excited. I booked the babysitter to go see movie recently because the trailer looked amazing.

Let me tell you if I am going to get a babysitter, it’s for something I’m super excited about.

But I left the theater disappointed. It really wasn’t all that great. Sure we got to relax in those big fancy recliner chairs but I was ready to be whisked away and well, I was let down.

I bet you can relate.

Well, I don’t want you have that kind of let down experience when it comes to creating your own course or membership program.

If I could create an anti-trailer for membership sites, this is what it would say…

1. Membership sites are not for everyone.

There, I said it. Some people are just not cut out to run a membership site or sell courses online.

There’s a lot involved, from setting up the site, creating the content, doing the marketing necessary to get students signed up, and teaching or delivering on your promises.

If you want to start a membership site because you think that’s what “you’re supposed to do”… find a better reason.

2. Membership sites are not the only scalable business model.

A lot of people are banging this drum, and many of them have a course teaching you how to create courses and membership programs…

But the truth is that there are plenty of scalable business models outside of membership sites.

3. Membership sites are not a magic “ATM” that spit out cash with no effort on your part.

If you’re looking to get something for nothing, I’m afraid that’s just not how the world works.

The best membership sites are those that are built by passionate entrepreneurs who care about their members and their success. That usually involves doing the work to get people the results, and showing up on a regular basis.

Now if you read this and you know that you have what it takes to make a membership site successful… (hint: perseverance, a love of learning, and taking action)

Music instructors, Life coaches, Financial advisors, Business consultants, Nutritionists.

The list goes on when it comes to business owners who provide one-to-one services to a client. Despite their variety in offerings, they all have one thing in common: They’re passionate experts in their field.

As one of those experts, you likely started your business because you’re passionate about sharing your knowledge with others to improve their lives. As you’ve grown, you’ve likely also realised that there are only so many hours in a day, which means there are only so many clients you can handle and only so much money you can make.

That’s where membership sites can come into play. They’re a way of sharing your knowledge — the same knowledge you repeatedly share on a one-to-one basis — with a broader audience. With a membership site, you can take your knowledge and package it into bite-sized pieces such as videos, articles, podcasts, webinars and more. Because they run all the time, without you needing to personally deliver your services, they provide major opportunities to scale and grow your revenues.

Your members still feel like they are getting one-to-one treatment and are part of a special, supportive community.

Later, I’ll walk you through the key components of a profitable membership site so you can tailor one that’s right for you.

So today I wanted to address the "leaky bucket" effect that keeps membership site owners and course creators stuck treading water without reaching their income goals.

There are 5 ongoing challenges that can keep you from reaching your business goals with your online courses and membership offering.

Ongoing Challenge 1: Attracting Leads and Getting People to Opt-In

In order to sustain your membership site and sell your courses, you need people who are interested enough to actually consider your offers.

Building an engaged list of subscribers is the key here... but did you know there's a way your membership site can help you with that?

Ongoing Challenge 2: Converting Leads into Happy Paying Customers

Once you've figured out a way to get more people to join your email list, you need to tell them about your paid courses and offerings in a way that converts.

The standard email marketing funnel works... but if they don't buy, there are more organic ways to get them to purchase your paid offerings right inside your membership site.

Ongoing Challenge 3: Having a Leaky Checkout Experience & Losing Out On Sales

Once you've done all of the hard work of getting people to say yes to your paid offerings... you definitely don't want to lose out on sales by having a leaky checkout experience.

Statistics show that 77% of people who click the “Buy Now” button never complete their order, but there's a way to recoup these sales.

Ongoing Challenge 4: Increasing Return Customers and Recurring Revenue

Once you've got customers... your job is done, right? Not so fast!

You can offer more solutions, courses, and ongoing membership access to these same customers over time... because the probability of selling to a new prospect is 5-20% and the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70%.

Ongoing Challenge 5: Customers Who Fall Off The Wagon and Cancel

Member retention is key to the long term success of your membership site. But it's normal for members to fall off the wagon, get busy, and stop logging into your membership site.

Or is it?

If you use smart nurturing strategies, you can keep your members engaged and actively benefitting from their membership and course access to reduce drop offs and refunds.

Having a successful Facebook advert campaign can become the toughest task, if it is done without testing each and every element that’s going to be posted and can affect your success. Facebook advertising is one of the advertising type that enables advertisers to do split testing to have best options for the advertising campaign.

What is A/B split testing?

Also known as split test or bucket testing. It helps in selecting the best elements for your campaign by comparing two versions, A and B, of same thing and are tested against each other. A/ B split testing is done to identify variable changes that can bring in improvements in results that can drive ROI of the campaign to a higher level. 

Why Split Test Facebook Posts and Ads?

Split testing can be considered as the tool for shaping your marketing tactics that can give desired results for the campaign. In case of Facebook advert campaign, it can be Facebook post or ad, landing page design, etc. Once both the version are published, track performance of each of the versions and opt for the one which generate best results which are according to your objectives for the campaign.

How to A/B test Facebook Ads for getting maximum ROI?

Here are the major target areas of Facebook ads where even a slight change can create a big difference in ROI.

A/ B testing for images:

Images are inevitable part of Facebook ads as they catch user attention as soon the ad is seen on users news feed. Select the images that best defines your product or services that you want to deliver to users. Create two Facebook ads with same ad text and headline and have different images for both the ads. Publish them and track the results of both the adverts and keep the one which generate desired results.

A/ B testing for title:

If you have the best image but still not getting expected result, then try experimenting with the tile of ad as it’s the second most important thing after the ad image. Your title text should be catchy, for this you can make use of value proposition title. You can also use logo of your company in place of title.

A/ B testing for Ad body copy:

Ad body copy is the way of telling ‘why’ one should click on your ad. Ad body copy helps you in telling features and in promoting features of your product/ services / business in limited word count. Make the copy which is crafted perfectly to match up the need of an ad. 

P.S Once you are done with the A/B split testing analysis the ROI and CTR received from both A and B option for your Facebook ad. Continue with the one which is driving best results for your Facebook advert campaign.

No doubt, Facebook is a great platform for advertising and promoting any brand, business, product, services or event. A slight unrelated content, images, headline, Text copy in your advertising campaign can become the reason of loss of money. But if all the right steps taken you can reach the height of success.

Are you paying too much for your Facebook ad campaign?

If yes, then play wisely by using below given tips and arm your money without compromising with the ad quality.

Here are the tips that can help you in saving money that are spent on Facebook Advertising:

• Facebook Ad targeting:
  Facebook targeting allows you to target people with specific interest or the one’s which fits a certain demographics. Once you are done with targeting, save these target groups for future use. Facebook targeting helps you to search look alike audience and you can even do this by searching profiles of people already in your email list.
  
  
• Don’t run for wrong targets:
  Wrong targets can create problems for your Facebook ad campaign and can also affect results of the campaign. Target only those audience which fits precisely in your campaign. 
  
  
• Know what you are paying for:
  For getting ad space for publishing your ad on Facebook you have to go through a small bidding process.
  
  Following are the 2 different bidding process: 
  
  CPC/ PPC (Pay Per Click): in this you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. This process is best for the people who are at the beginner’s level of using Facebook ads.  
  
  CMC/ PPM (Cost Per impressions): In this you have to pay once you receive 1000 views. Here you pay little for more views but you don’t receive clicks in this. These type of Ads are useful when you want create brand awareness.
  
• Don’t advertise if they’ve already bought:
  Nobody likes to receive same ad, if they had already bought it. If you are advertising on which action can be taken just once, then there is no intelligence in showing the same ad again and again to the people who have already taken your desired action on that ad.
  
  Facebook charges for showing your ad and would keep on showing advert to the people who have already purchased it but it can be avoided by updating your list of buyers and target audience.
  
  
• Split test everything:
  One of the best thing about Facebook advertising is that you can test everything here and choose best one for your campaign. You can do split test for audiences, Location, Ad Headline, Ad Picture, Ad Copy / Call To Action, Desktop versus Mobile, News Feed versus Right Hand Column and choose best option from the result of test.

Branding on Facebook is not a secret tactic anymore. Almost every business is using Facebook to reach wider audience and bring in conversions. Facebook is not a place of sharing things and getting connected with others but it also acts as advertising platform that allows you to target ads.

An out of sort planned campaign can prove to be costly to your brand’s reputation. Whether you are a beginner or a pro in the stream of Facebook ads, try n practice following Do’s and Don’ts to achieve desired success from the Facebook ads campaign of your brands. Here are certain Do’s and Don’ts associated with Facebook ads.

Do’s:

• Be genuine:
  When it comes to marketing on Facebook, it is always recommended that you stay genuine. Ad posted on Facebook should always redirect the visitors to your genuine page or profile. 
• Research your Target audience:
  Targeting weighs more when it comes to Facebook ads. Even before you get started with your ad campaign research about who your target customers are and how will they provide benefits to you.
  
  
• Have clear CTA:
  Having a clear and concise Call to Action helps in motivating user to take action and implement techniques like buying, increasing sales or bringing new leads in.
  
  
• Monitor your campaigns:
  One of the efficient way of determining success and failure of your ad campaign. Facebook ad manager and its tool will help you in monitoring your Ad campaign.
  
  
• Have relevant ad text and image:
  Use text and images that justify your motive of advertising on Facebook and is clear to your audience so that they can take action by viewing your ad.

Don’ts:

• Confuse your audience with complex content:
  A creative concept works out for other advertising methods but in case of facebook advertising try to avoid complex content, so that user takes immediate action, instead of thinking and understanding your CTA, content and text. 
  
  
• Neglect mobile users:
  Today most of the traffic comes from mobile in such situation excluding mobile users by not publishing ads for mobile visitors can lessen the visitors coming to your ads.
  
  
• Use image which is more than 20% of text:
  Try to keep ad image less than 20% of the text space in order to attract viewers. Use the relevant images that goes with your brand and text of the ad.
  
  
• Just make it and forget it:
  Don’t ever set your Facebook ads on Autopilot modes and forget it. For driving desired results and conversions.
  
  
• Be tricky with your audience:
  Don’t play tricky with your audience by writing complex content for your ad. Use content that is easy to understand and best defines your brand and offers.