Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

While running a membership site can highly profitable on its own, it doesn't have to be the only piece of your business puzzle. Complementing your membership website with a diverse range of products and offerings can not only give you increased income from multiple revenue streams but also enable you to better serve a greater proportion of your audience. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I discuss ways in which you can add multiple revenue streams to an existing membership business. In this episode, I discuss: 7 ways you can add additional revenue streams to your existing membership Why you should be careful about affiliate commissions and joint ventures The importance of clarity when you have multiple product offerings How to leverage your other revenue streams to add value to your membership

This past year has been an exciting one for us, and as we reach the 12 month anniversary of the opening of the Member Site Academy we're feeling a little reflective. To celebrate this milestone I'm joined once again on the podcast by the other (some say better) half of The Membership Guys, the one and only Callie Willows, to discuss our first year of running the Academy. In this episode, Callie and I discuss: What aspects of running the Academy we each found to be most surprising or unexpected Changes we've made to our strategy and the reasons and circumstances behind those decisions What we each enjoy most about running the membership What the future holds for Member Site Academy

When you're running an online business like a membership website, the idea of going to live events as a way of growing that business may be counterintuitive when you're spending so much time behind your computer screen. However for membership site owners; conferences, workshops, mastermind days and other such events hold potentially even greater opportunities than for other kinds of businesses; and in this episode I talk a little more about how you can extract huge value from regularly attending live events. In this episode, I discuss: - The main reasons for attending live events that you may not have thought of - How networking and meeting new people can open doors that will add value to your membership offering - Why meeting up with your members and peers at events is a game changer - Creating your own opportunities you simply won't get when you're in front of the screen

When trying to attract new people to your membership site, giving potential members a taste of what's on offer before asking them to part with their cash and invest in your product is a great way of overcoming any doubts they may have about joining. With this in mind it stands to reason that hosting free webinars can be a fantastic way of winning new members by demonstrating your expertise, proving your credibility and showing why joining your membership is worthwhile. When it comes to using webinars to sell digital products, there are few people quite as knowledgeable as Amy Porterfield. Webinars are fundamental to Amy's success, and in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, she shares with us her top tips and insight on how you could use webinars to promote and grow your membership site.

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 of additional value 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 content yourself. In this episode, I discuss: The benefits of inviting other experts to contribute to your membership How best to approach your guests and convince them to get involved Examples of the types of content you might ask a guest to contribute How to make it easier for your potential guest to say "yes"

I regularly talk about how your members will join for the content, but they'll STAY for the community; and that's something we see reflected in every successful membership site we've been part of. But what options do you actually have for creating your community from a technical standpoint? How do you add an online forum to your membership? In this episode I talk more about the importance of community, forums in particular, and discuss the various routes you can go down to add one to your website. In this episode, I discuss: How adding a forum gives your passionate members a space to engage with others Why community is a vital asset for membership sites Examples of Wordpress plugins and stand-alone software you can use to set up your forum Why a Facebook group isn't an adequate replacement for building your own community

As membership site owner, the ability to protect our premium content is at the heart of how your business functions. And when that protection is threatened you, naturally, start to panic. So it stands to reason that you'd want to take action to prevent "hit and run" members who sign up, download everything you have to offer, and then cancel straight away. However before you batten down the hatches, make sure you listen to our advice on how to handle this sort of situation... In this episode, I discuss: Preventing the fear of temporary members discouraging you from providing your best experience Pros and Cons of limiting your membership-only content as online only Examples for how to keep your subscribed members engaged over time Why you shouldn't focus your energies on preventing piracy

It's easy to see why the strategy of offering lifetime memberships is a divisive one. Unquestionably the biggest benefit of the membership model lies in recurring revenue, so the notion of providing unlimited access to your site for a single one-off fee may seem counter-intuitive; however as we discuss in this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast there are definite pros and cons to this strategy... In this episode, I discuss: Pros and Cons of offering a lifetime membership option Examples of the type of sites or situations where a lifetime option could work very well Why it's important to define what a lifetime membership actually is How to decide on what to charge for lifetime access

Most memberships will consist of two things - premium content (such as courses and tutorials) as well as community. While the quality and depth of those elements will vary greatly from site to site; it does mean that when your potential member is considering several options for sites to join it can be hard to tell the difference between memberships which appear to essentially be offering the same thing. This is where going that extra mile to provide added value to members is key to standing out from your competition - and one of our favourite ways of doing this is to offer exclusive member-only perks and offers. In this episode I discuss this further as well as provide my tips on how to approach vendors to negotiate deals for your membership.

It's easy to assume that mainstream media coverage is the domain of celebrities, huge businesses and crazies claiming to know where the aliens took Elvis. As such, most membership site owners don't even think about trying to use PR to get their story out there, as they see traditional media as out of their reach. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I'm joined by Janet Murray who not only explains why this isn't the case but also gives advice and tips from her 15+ years in journalism on how you can attract media attention for your membership site. Many membership sites revolve around their founder or founders positioning themselves as an authority on a given topic or in a specific market; and attracting media coverage can be invaluable to establishing and strengthening that credibility. Even if you're not running an authority-based membership, chances are you have a story to tell that it would benefit you to share with the world. This interview is packed with actionable advice and tips that work, from someone who not only has been in the industry for a decade and a half, but also helps countless businesses and individuals to get media attention too. If your business would benefit in any way from media coverage, then this really is a can't-miss episode.