Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

We often talk about how crucial community is to long term membership success. In many memberships, even though members join for the content it's actually the community that they stick around for. However that's not always the case, and in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I dig into ways in which adding a community to your membership may not be all it's cracked up to be. In this episode you'll learn: Why having a community is generally better for engagement and long term member retention. The downsides of having a community that most people usually don't tell you. Specific situations and scenarios where having a community might actually be a BAD thing! Ideas for keeping members engaged if you don't have an online forum or member group.

Trying to pick the right WordPress membership plugin can be a painstaking process. It's harder still if your expectations and understanding of what a membership plugin will and won't do are unrealistic. Too many people expect their membership plugin to check off every single requirement they have, without understanding that they're simply one piece of the puzzle when it comes to building a membership site. In this episode I go through the 5 things you need to understand before you even start shopping for a membership plugin, in the hopes that it will make the whole process easier and save you some frustration. In this episode you'll learn: Why it's so important to have realistic expectations from your WordPress membership plugin How WordPress plugins work in tandem with themes, and how this affects your membership The challenges of changing your mind on which membership plugin to use What functionality won't typically be included with most membership plugins and what you'll need to do instead.

Sales and marketing are crucial parts of your role as a membership site owner. Even the best membership website in the world will fade away into obscurity if you’re not doing anything to attract new members. However when selling your membership offering, there are certain tropes and cliches that you want to avoid to ensure you’re not lumped in with the sleazier elements of online businesses. Here are our top tips for attracting new members without feeling like a scumbag…

Producing membership content can be taxing. Especially if your members expect something fresh on an ongoing basis. And if you’re also creating free content as part of your marketing strategy you can quickly find yourself buried in writing articles and recording videos day in, day out. They key is working smarter with your content strategy. In this podcast, I dive into 9 simple tactics for leveraging the things you’re already doing in your business as a way to more effectively create new content for your members. In this episode you’ll learn: The difference between creating content and delivering value How to add massive value to your members by selling them your other products and services Best ways to leverage your blog, podcast and even live events Why you might already be sitting on a wealth of potential member content

There's a single, absolute truth of memberships, and indeed business in general: there is no 'one size fits all' approach. What works like gangbusters for one membership, can end up completely flopping for another. However it’s hard to deny that there are certain norms when it comes to memberships; conventional wisdom that extols the importance of community, retention being more important than acquisition, memberships being a value exchange and so on. If you've been following us for a while then you’ve heard us bang those drums on numerous occasions. So in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast I wanted to talk about doing things differently - things that go against the grain, break the norms and in some cases contradict what is typically considered best practice in the membership space. In this episode you'll learn: Why a "one size fits all" approach is a fallacy. Scenarios in which it makes sense to not charge a recurring fee. Whether you actually need an online community, and situations where it could actually be a bad thing. The importance of context when it comes to how you position and run your membership.

Choosing which domain name to host your membership site on should be a simple decision. But it’s easier said than done – as evidenced by the fact that this question comes up perhaps more than any other in both our free Facebook group and our own paid membership. Essentially it comes down to hosting your members: On your main domain name On a separate website On a subdomain And when you dig into it, it’s understandable why people struggle with this choice – as where your membership lives has greater implications than you might realise. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast – I drill down into the pros and cons of each of these choices and give you all of the info you need to make your decision. In this episode you’ll learn: The main implications of where you choose to house your membership site Pros and cons of hosting on your main domain name vs a separate site vs a subdomain Example situations that will affect your choice of where to host your membership How this applies if using a hosted third-party platform like Thinkific or Kajabi

Keeping your members engaged and happy is key to maximizing your member lifecycle and, as a result, ensuring the long-term success of your membership site. When members aren't engaged, that's when they'll start to question whether it's worth sticking with your site and whether they're getting what they're paying for. Ultimately that path leads to only one place - cancellation. Fortunately there are a variety of things that you can do in order to encourage your members to stick around.  Here we identify 4 key ones.     

One of the biggest reasons memberships never get off the ground is that the initial idea for the product just wasn’t right. While you can research the market and survey your audience until the cows come home, it’s extremely easy to allow your bias towards what you think is a winning concept to sway your analysis of that research or - even worse - to ignore warning signs that you’re heading down the wrong path. If you want to be successful, you need to truly test and validate that your idea is worth pursuing, and one of the best ways to do this is with an MVP. Join me for the latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, where I deep dive into what an MVP is, why they're important and how to go about actually creating one. In this episode you'll learn: What is an MVP and why creating one is the best way to test whether your idea will work Characteristics of an effective MVP specific to membership sites 6 core types of MVP that you can create, with examples and tips for each Why it doesn't matter that you're already selling services and products

Just like that, another year is over. As we reach the 2nd anniversary of Member Site Academy, we have some insights and lessons to share from the past 12 months. In what is sure to become a tradition, I’m joined on this very special episode of the podcast by the real brains behind The Membership Guys, the one and only Callie Willows, to discuss year two of running the Academy. In this episode, Callie and I discuss: Picking up where we left off on last year’s episode and looking at where things went from there. Changes we’ve made to our strategy and the reasons and circumstances behind those decisions Our highlights from the past 12 months, what’s worked, what hasn’t and what challenges we’ve faced A sneak peek at our future plans for the Member Site Academy and the business in general

So you've toiled for weeks and months - planning the perfect membership, wrestling with tech to turn those plans into reality; and now that you've finally opened the doors you can take a big sigh of relief that the hard work and headaches are over. Right? Wrong! Once your membership is up and running, that's when the real work begins! And during those initial few months as a new membership owner, you'll have a whole mess of new challenges to deal with. Fortunately, those challenges are pretty common across the board, so we can help you prepare to tackle them. In the latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I dive into the 6 most common challenges that every new membership site owner faces; and give you my insight and advice so that you don't have to face them alone. In this episode you'll learn: How to control your start-up costs and avoid paying for stuff you really don't need Solving the "chicken and egg" problem when starting a new community My recommendation to avoiding early tech headaches Why the post-launch "hangover" can drain your motivation (and what to do about it)