Archive for June, 2008
Last week I compared three revenue models for making money online and concluded that the membership site is the way to go if you want to generate a recurring revenue stream. In this post I present 6 concrete ideas for sites and services that fit this model.
1) Fresh Content For Consumption
Some people need fresh content on a regular basis and if you can provide that content then you can cater to your market for as long as you can come up with the content. Some examples:
- A PLR site that produces fresh PLR articles
- Graphics for use in computer games
- Music for use in all manner of projects
This kind of membership site may tend to generate a high turnover of members as people lose interest in the industry but there will always be other members to take their place. You’ll need to be constantly marketing this kind of site. However to offset this downside, if all of your content is always available to all members your site will become more and more valuable as time goes on and you produce more and more. You might also be able to generate stand-alone products with a sample of your work as an added income stream or as promotional material for the membership site itself.
2) Cutting Edge Information
In some industries, the latest information about how to get ahead is forever changing. A good example would be the Internet Marketing industry! How often do things change in this industry? Search engine algorithms, social media sites, pay per click tactics and so on. The Immediate Edge is an example of a membership site that caters exactly to this market. It is run by Ed Dale and Dan Raine, the two guys behind the Thirty Day Challenge.
In order to make this kind of membership site work it is imperative that you know your industry and you can deliver the goods month after month! It is not sufficient to just slap together a series of articles about a topic and call it a membership site. It needs to be constantly up-to-date, you can never take a few months off. Also, whatever you are teaching or reporting on needs to be accurate. If you feed your members a bunch of bull you will not keep them for long. On the other hand if you really can deliver true cutting edge information in your industry you will have some very loyal members! Examples of possible industries:
- Internet Marketing or one of the many sub-topics
- Investing, or other financial information
- Technology - computer programming, graphic design, digitial photography etc
3) Project Based Teaching
Some people like to learn a skill by example and there are lots of examples of skills that can be taught in projects or lessons that students are able to follow along with. In certain industries there is no limit to the number of projects that you could create and thus as long as your students continued to learn you would be able to keep them as members. For example:
- Art - drawing, painting, pottery etc
- Flower Arranging - floristry for weddings, holidays, birthdays etc
- Cookery - dishes for every occasion
- Computer Programming - game projects for example
That last example is one that I was going to try myself a few months ago. Like with the fresh content for consumption, with every new project you create you are increasing the value of your site if you make it all available. Alternatively you can package up previous projects and sell them as stand-alone products.
One of my readers runs a membership site along these lines - Banjo Expert which produces many lessons. There is no limit to the number of lessons that could be created for this site.
4) Matching Services
The world is based around supply and demand but very often the people who have the demand and the people who can supply it don’t know how to get together. A matching service brings these two groups of people together. There are lots of examples of this model already working well:
- Dating / friendship services
- Buying & Selling such as eBay, Auto Trader etc
- Recruitment Agencies - matching employees to employers
There are numerous ways in which you can generate an income from these sites. In the examples above dating sites usually charge a flat monthly fee to its members, eBay charges commissions on products sold and most recruitment agencies charge a finders fee to an employer when somebody is hired.
5) Online Tools & Services
With advances in web development technology, software that was previously only available on a desktop computer can now be brought to the web and this has opened up a whole new world of opportunities in web-based software. If you can create (or hire a programmer to create it for you) a tool that provides a valuable service you can charge a fee to use it and keep members for as long as they want to use the software. I use many of these myself, for example:
- Weight Loss Resources is a calorie database with a food planning element
- Allakhazam is a comprehensive database for the online game World of Warcraft
- Vitalist is a task management service based on GTD
The last two on the list have both a free and a premium (paid) version so of course the free version is used as a pre-seller for the premium version. If you have access to the skills required to produce this kind of service then you can be onto a winner because once the software is written, little maintenance is usually required. Of course, somebody else can just come along and copy your idea so you will also need to keep your software up-to-date and keep on top of your marketing efforts.
6) Access to an Expert
This is often presented in the form of coaching around a particular topic. Usually there is a sense of community built into it. This kind of membership site is tricky to pull off unless you have already established yourself as an expert in your particular niche but if you have already done that with a successful info product perhaps, then this is a good way of converting your expertise into an ongoing income stream. Some example of people who have done this:
- Tom Venuto released a book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle and later released the Burn the Fat Inner Circle
- Jeff Walker released his Product Launch Formula and now has the PLF Inner Sanctum
Any Others?
I’m sure there are lots more ideas that I haven’t thought of. Can you think of any? I would also be interested to hear from those of you who currently run a membership site. Does it fit into one of the models above or is it something else?
In lesson #2 of my Traffic Rush course I talk about how to create content that gets stumbled but earlier this week I came across something that goes far beyond just good stumble-worthy content, this is what I would consider to be Stumble-Bait!
What is Stumble Bait?
Stumble Bait is content that is specifically designed to go viral on StumbleUpon and bring in thousands of visitors. Think of link-bait. Some people say that any good post that tends to attract links is link-bait but I disagree. If you think of the word ‘bait’ you are deliberating enticing people in and trying to hook them into performing a particular action.
Before I examine this example, let me just pause for a moment and talk about the concept of going viral. What does it mean when something goes viral? It spreads at an exponential rate. Recent development in social media have caused web content to go viral more than ever before because it is so easy for people to share content that they like with their friends. In the case of StumbleUpon, the viral nature is built in because the more people give a thumbs up to a page the more new people will be shown that page.
Let’s have a look:
Why Is This Stumble Bait?
First of all it’s funny and humor always does well on StumbleUpon so it naturally encourages the thumbs up. This alone can cause a piece of content to go viral but where this particular image really excells is in the call the action “Send this to someone Gorgeous”. It actively encourages you to forward it to somebody else which spreads the impact even further. But it doesn’t stop there! It doesn’t just ask you to send it to your friends, it particularly says “someone Gorgeous” so how do you think the recipient will feel when they get it?
They think “aww how sweet, this person thinks I’m gorgeous!” and that evokes the natural human desire to reciprocate in some way so they feel as if the very least they can do is give it a thumbs up. And of course, whilst in this positive vibe they are likely to want to make somebody else feel good and so they may also send it on to one or more of their friends too. This seriously, is genius Stumble Bait in my opinion!
I didn’t just ’stumble’ on this whilst using the toolbar - it was sent to me via the “send to a friend” feature which is why it was so powerful. Had I just stumbled across it I probably still would have liked it but I wouldn’t have felt quite so obligated to thumb it up. Maybe I’m just too mushy for my own good :-)
Accidental Hero?
It was the actual image, the JPG file itself that got stumbled. Check out the reviews page here - over 30 reviews. From the image itself there is no where to go, nothing to do other than just click the Stumble button again and move on so I don’t think this particular image was designed as Stumble Bait as I can’t see how it benefits the creator in any way. Plus, it’s on a Tumblr blog which is similar to Twitter so it does not even drive traffic to a main website.
However, still a great lesson that we can learn from! Anybody else have any good examples of stumble bait?
If you are interested in learning how StumbleUpon can be used to drive traffic to your website then check out my course, Traffic Rush. You can enroll now to receive 10 completely free lessons.
I’ve developed a home study course on the usage of StumbleUpon to drive traffic to your website. This project is the account of my progress in developing and marketing that course. The course is now LIVE, is called Traffic Rush and you can enroll right now at http://www.traffic-rush.net/.
How to Ask For Stumbles Without Being a Jerk!
I’ve been working on part #14 of Traffic Rush which is probably my favourite lesson of all - “How to Build a Massive, Loyal Fan Base” and that was supposed to include a section about asking your friends for stumbles but the original lesson is already too big and I found some more I wanted to say about it so I decided to split it out into it’s own lesson.
However, I didn’t really want to extend the course so I have merged two of the other lessons into a single one. I have merged “Using Web 2.0 to Virally Increase Your StumbleUpon Exposure” and “Power Tools for Getting the Edge in StumbleUpon” into a single lesson which I’ve called “Viral Web 2.0 Integration & Cutting Edge Power Tools”. I have adjusted the curriculum accordingly.
The Dangers of Writing As You Go Along
I’ve been working on this course for a long time (mainly due to procrastination on my part!) and a few people have suggested to me that instead of developing the whole thing up front, that I should simply write one or two lessons and release them and then continue to work on it while the earlier lessons are released.
While this sounds like a good idea in principal, the downside is that it does not allow for later editing. I find that I am constantly going back and editing the lessons I have already written as I write the new material and of course I wouldn’t be able to just add entire lessons and shuffle things around like I just have if I was just releasing the content one step at a time.
I do wonder if that is just me though? I know several other people who have released courses, coaching programs etc on an on-going basis without having much material up front and they simply write it as they go along. I like to keep fiddling with things! Shame I don’t spot more of my typos when I fiddle :-)
I know some of you have been waiting for this course for ages but the end result will be much better this way and it really isn’t far off now!
You have a truckload of ideas for content that you can produce in your area of expertise. You’re at the stage where you want to use it to develop an income-generating asset rather than just build exposure. What is the best way of packaging that content? In this post I will compare three popular models - an Ebook, a Home Study Course and a Membership Site.
The Humble Ebook
Producing an ebook is no doubt the easiest of the three models to produce and you can do so with a relatively small amount of content because most people will not read an ebook that is hundreds of pages long and the shorter ones (sub 100 pages) are more likely to be read and put to use.
There are two primary ways to monetize an ebook. The most obvious is to simply charge for it but ebooks have a low perceived value so the price usually has to match. I have seen a few ebooks with a price tag of $97 but of the ones that I know have sold well, the price has usually ranged between $10 and $50.
The other way to monetize ebook (this is the approach that I used with my own ebook project) is to give away the ebook free but insert affiliate links in it. This method makes it much easier to distribute the book but if your conversion rate is low it might not bring in very much money. I have made approximately $5,000 from my ebook about developing niche sites with WordPress.
The Home Study Course
This is the approach that I am using on my latest project - StumbleRush. When I think of the phrase ‘home study course’ I think of something far more substantial than just an ebook. A course implies that you are giving students material in a more structured way to work through and have some kind of outcome at the end of it. Also, in this day and age I would expect a course to produce content in a variety of formats - not just text.
I modelled my own course on Blog Mastermind by Yaro Starak. That is actually a membership site (though I don’t think it should be!!) but he produces the content in weekly lessons with each lesson covering a specific topic, often having additional media such as a video, audio interview etc, and each lesson ends with some action items. The idea is that if the student diligently works through the lessons and implements the action items then he will achieve the objectives set out in the course.
In that sense a course should aim to be more engaging than an ebook. Ebooks tend to be skimmed lightly and then quickly forgotten. Of course you could produce an ebook with embedded media which is as content-rich as a course but with the low perceived value of the ebook you would be better packaging it as a course so that you can charge more money :-)
Membership Sites
First I want to clarify what I mean by a membership site. The way I see it, a membership site should provide some kind of on-going value to the member for as long as they remain a member. The reason I say that Blog Mastermind shouldn’t be a membership site is because it has been produced as a six-month course. What happens after six months? I just received my final lesson last week and now there is no more value for me so I have cancelled my membership.
Incidentally I spoke with Yaro about this issue recently and he tells me that when he re-opens the doors he will be offering it in several formats including an all-in-one course format, yay!
Back to the topic… as a marketer the true value of a membership site is in the recurring membership fees. Even if you have a low priced site at say $20 a month, and you only find 50 members you have a regular income of $1,000 a month. Play with the numbers a bit and you can see why this option is so lucrative.
However, for a membership site to work as intended, you need a way of keeping those members month after month after month and this is where many of those that I have seen fall down. If you have a limited amount of content on a topic then a membership site model will not work. What happens when you have provided all of your content?
Which Model is Best?
This depends entirely on the content you have available. To start with, if it is limited in nature and you don’t think that you can continue to produce more over time then an ebook or course is best. If you want something that you can produce quickly and sell cheaply then an ebook is ideal. If you are prepared to spend more time beefing out the content and think you might be able to produce additional materials then a course might warrant a higher price tag.
Now if you can come up with an idea for producing some kind of content in a way that provides value indefinately then you can consider starting a membership site. Next week I will publish a follow up with several specific ideas of content models for membership sites. Stay tuned…
In my last post I suggested that it is possible to make money online in any niche and that you don’t have to be the next ‘guru’ with a money making product to generate income. However, the conversation continued in the comments again and it would seem that the general consensus is that you can only make the really BIG BUCKS if you do that. I still disagree with that, but I also ask the question, does it matter anyway?
What Others Are Saying
First I’d like to point out some of the great comments that have been left by my readers, there are quite a range of varied opinions and experiences:
Mark Mason says:
if you look at people like Ryan Deiss you can see that you can make MORE money in traditional markets (via membership sites) than in information marketing
Rick Butts says:
The folks making the cake in niche markets are smart NOT to divulge what they are doing - as there are a lot of parasites just waiting to leap in and duplicate their efforts with 2 dozen outsourcers in Pakistan.
Ruchir Chawdhry says:
Actually, the biggest money is in the IM industry. You can’t really expect to make 6 figures in the green tea niche, can you?
Badrulnazar says:
I mean, can I be a millionaire like them by selling ebooks in say.. “Tips on Maintaining Your Car”.
If I have to make a guess, I think the possibility to become a millionaire in non MMO niches is less than 1% of MMO niche.
Nick Stewart says:
I also believe that the biggest money may not be in the IM industry but rather is in things like Real Estate, Travel, and Web Hosting.
Imagine if you had the #1 spot on Google for cheap airfare, or cheap apartments in LA. What would that be worth???
Where Is The Big Money?
There is no doubt that some people are making some very large sums of money by teaching others their money making system. Many of the big products in the IM industry have been priced at around $2,000 and there have now been many documented cases of ‘million dollar launches’ where a new product has generated in excess of a million dollars in revenue during the launch phase.
However, I think Nick Stewart has a very good point and suggests that real money is to be made in industries such as real estate. Now I don’t know much money is to be made in those industries but it’s easy enough to have a look at the demand. Have a look at this data from google trends:
That chart shows that real estate is being searched for 89 times more often than internet marketing.
Big Business v Little Niches
Of course I also suspect that many people reading this are not likely to be able to compete very effectively in the real estate market. Nick says that he made his first money online in the genealogy, baby & new mom, and web hosting niches. Meg Meyer has clients that include artists, pastors, moms, and retired seniors.
Going back to the Product Launch Formula again, Jeff was extremely keen to point out that his techniques can be used in any niche and he showed us loads of case studies of people making serious money in all sorts of niches such as edible herbs and dressage.
Let’s not also forget the Thirty Day Challenge. The idea behind the challenge (read more about it in an earlier post I made) is to make your first $10 online in a non-mainstream niche. Since its inception in 2005, the challenge has produced at least 5 millionaires. Dan Raine, one of the guys behind the challenge did his own little challenge a couple of years back. He said he could make $15k in a single month. He failed the challenge by just a few hundred dollars. The niche? Scrapbooking!
I’m sure I could go on to find many more examples of people who are making a good living working in some obscure little niche. Whether or not that can pull in six or seven figures a year is another matter but that brings me to my next question…
How Much Money Do You REALLY Want To Make?
Before that little voice in your head blurts out “millions!!” or something similar, think about the answer seriously. How much money do you make right now? How would $1000 extra income a month feel? For me personally, I now have a very specific goal. Because I want to buy a home (and afford the monthly payments!) and with the UK/US exchange rates I estimate that I need to be earning a regular income of $6k a month.
That figure would provide me with a decent living and I’d be extremely happy with that. I don’t need millions, do you?
I mean seriously, what does it mean to be a millionaire? In the UK the average yearly wage works out to the equivalent of roughly $50k. It would take somebody on that salary twenty years just to earn a million dollars and of course that wouldn’t make them any where near a millionaire because most people barely live within their means!
To those people who say that you can’t earn millions with small niches, my question is, so what? Do you really care? I know I don’t!
