I’m Robert Plank, and welcome to the Membership Site Podcast where we discuss everything you need to know to set up a passive income using membership site, using eLearning, using online training to generate this passive income. We’re going to talk about creating content, dealing with technical and WordPress set up, and bottom line, to get you having that passive income up and running. Today we’re going to talk about some mistakes and cop-outs a lot of people fall into. Now when people make membership sites, they get way too crazy and they psyched themselves out. I know because I do this all the time.
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I want to make a membership site. I want to teach somebody stock trading, real estate, something like that, and it’s really easy to lose sight of the fact that all you need to sell something on the internet is a webpage and a button, and a place for people to end up after they clicked the button and pay you money, even if that’s $10, even if that’s, heck, $1. I have some training at membershipcube.com that I want you to check out. If you happen to have an Amazon account and like to read Kindle books, I have a book for you, and that’s at membershipcube.com/book. That’s B-O-O-K. I’m going to talk to you about membership sites today, and I have 7 quick mistakes that you can avoid. The big lesson running through thread of everything today is to teach to your best customer who will use your training.
this really helps me. You might have heard of this silly and tired idea of having a customer avatar and decide whatever your perfect customer is, figure out where in the world they live, and what their name is, and what their age is. I think that’s kind of silly and even stupid, borderline stupid. What I would rather do is I would get even a handful of social media followers or people on your list, and figure out who is your guinea pig, or figure out if you have that one coaching client. There’s got to be someone who you know will actually make use out of the training that you have, whether it’s stock trading, real estate, internet marketing, how too program, how to knit, how to race a horse. Whatever that subject is, teach to your best customer who will use your training.
Now, 7 mistakes to unpack, and I’ll just give them to you, and we’ll unpack them. Number 1, they can figure out how to use it. Number 2, I don’t need to show a case study. Number 3, I’ll just wing it. Number 4, I’ll make lots of little videos to string them along. 5, I’ll make bonus videos if I leave something out. 6, instead of showing it, I’ll just say hire this guy, and then I’ll reteach and reuse the stuff I used to pitch the course. All right. We’re not going to drool on a lot of these. We’re just going to breeze right through them.
The first thing is if someone comes to you and whether we’re talking about your selling a course on Udemy, whether we’re talking about you’re hosting your own thousand-dollar membership course, people came to you because they’ve exhausted their other options. If they want to know … For example, we have a course called podcastcrusher.com. If someone finds us at Podcast Crusher, then maybe they’ve heard about this thing called a podcast, and they were discouraged just by thinking about it. Maybe they tried to make a podcast on their own. They tried to piece all the free information, free tools together. They probably bought some other competitor’s course.
It might have been a $10 course, it might have been a $2,000 course, but they probably bought something and tried it and threw up their hand sin frustration because they just couldn’t get it to work. It was either too many steps, too complicated, too confusing, or it didn’t go into enough details. You need to find that sweet spot. When we’re trying to find that sweet spot, just assume I know nothing. I’ll give you a couple of examples. In our course called Podcast Crusher, we showed people how to record an audio segment, and then how to set up a WordPress blog, and then how to submit that blog to iTunes.
We might have easily just said, “Oh, yeah. Here’s WordPress. Just don’t worry about it.” Well, no. We took the 5 minutes to show how to click the button and how to set up. We could’ve said, “Well, here’s iTunes. Just submit it.” Well, no. We took the 5 minutes to go and install iTunes and to submit that new blog or that new podcast to iTunes. We showed Skype, and we showed how to install Skype and how to record Skype. That’s where we approach the boundary of getting a little ridiculous. You might say, “Well, doesn’t everybody have Skype?” or you might be getting into that territory of, “Well, if I give a mouse a cookie, I have to give him this and explain this and explain this.”
That’s around where I draw the line. I’ll show someone how to install Skype, but I’ll spend a maximum of 5 minutes there. I’ll just say, “If you’ve seen this thing called Skype, great. If not, go here. I’ll install it. Now it’s on there. Now we’re all caught up.” Likewise, if we’re, for example, showing a book publishing course that we’ll deliberately show somebody how to type up their book or type up a blog post on a free tool called Google Drive. Why would we do that? We would do that because we don’t want to have to … It’s fallen to the one trap of saying, “Well, here’s Microsoft Word. If you don’t have it, tough.” Then we also don’t want to fall into the trap of, “Well, here’s how you go to get Microsoft Word. Then you got to go pay for it, and figure out which package is right for you. Now we’ll just use the free tool. That way, everyone has caught up.” Assume I know nothing and give me the 5 minutes I need to get caught up to you.
Number 2, I don’t need to show a case study. The next frustration, the next roadblock you’re going to come across, if they’ve come to you … We’ll just stick to the example of the podcasting course. If I’m buying a podcasting course from you, I want to see you actually set up a podcast. If I’m buying an affiliate marketing course from you, I want to see you actually running an affiliate campaign. I get so frustrated when I watch a video like this. Some will say, “Let’s set up a podcast. I’m going to call my podcast Test Podcast.” They say, “Let’s make an episode. I’m going to call my podcast episode Test Episode 1, and I just say …” that doesn’t help me. I’ve seen what the box is and all that look like. I want to see you filling it in. Not only that, but I’d actually like to see you build something.
In the podcast example … Heck, the reason why this podcast exists, the one you’re listening to, is because as part of the course, we had to have a case study where we set up a podcast. Of course I made a new podcast. If you’re running course where you’re marketing affiliate products, well then, I want you to actually set up the account, set up the pay traffic account, set up the way of making money, you send some ads to it, and then show me what the results are. That’s a little bit of a risk to you, be maybe it might not work.
If this is something that you do every day every week, if this is your bread and butter, it should be easy to at least show me how to set up an episode of a podcast. It should be easy for you to show me how you made a sale, or even a quick $100 on Amazon, or on some affiliate network. It should be easy for you. Even though you might think that saying test product, test podcast, test video, test ad campaign, even you might think it’s the same thing as showing your real campaign, I guarantee you it’s not. I would like you to build something along with me, me being a student of your class.
Then number 3, you have the trap of saying, “I’ll just wing it.” The whole point of having a course is for me to, in a lot of ways, duplicate what it is that you’ve done. That’s why it helps for you to, first of all, catch me up in any area where I’m lacking, like if I haven’t seen Skype, or Google Drive, or Word Press before, so that’ll help. Then it also helps for you to show me what your building to. Show me the finish product the big picture, and maybe even show me the sales page or the pitch webinar, and then when I’m in your course, you can even remind me of what this is all leading to. It’s leading to a podcast with episodes, a blog that makes money, an affiliate campaign that runs on its own.
We have another membership site called profitdashboard.com, another course to teach people how to make money on Fiverr. Fiverr is a site where you can go and apply and do different quick small jobs like set up WordPress or record voiceovers, things like that. In this Profit Dashboard Fiverr Course, we make sure too at the beginning of each module, show what we have set up, and to show the money that we’ve made so far on Fiverr. That way, people know what we’re building to. I like to think of this as the 4-minute mile. The 4-minute mile means that before 1950-something no human being could run a mile in 4 minutes.
Then a runner named Roger Bannister broke that barrier, and then after that, so many more people have run a mile faster than Roger Bannister, but it just took that first person to show that it was possible. That’s the self-help motivational lesson there. Human being’s physiology didn’t change at all between 1940 and 1950, but one guy showed how to run a mile quickly, and then now all the mental barriers for everyone who came after him were gone.
Number 4 is that, “I’ll make lots of little videos to string them along.” You might get crazy and thing, “Man, okay, I’m going to teach affiliate marketing, and then I’m just going to make a hundred videos. I’ll make a 2-minute video showing how to register on this one ad network. I’ll make a 2-minute video showing how to register on another ad network. I’ll make a 2-minute video showing how to set up a Google AdWords campaign. I’ll make a 2-minute video showing how to make a Facebook Ad campaign.” Can you already tell how exhausting this is going to be? That only works for so long. You can only string me along in little 2-minute or little 5-minute increments until … I just want to know what the heck it is that we’re building, and I want it to all make sense.
There definitely is something to having these longer videos, these 30, 60, 90-minute videos where you can tell me the big picture of this 60-minute session, list me the steps we’re about to take, and then start taking the steps in showing me, and then keep switching back and saying, “Okay. Out of the 6 steps we’re going to tackle today, here are the first 3.” and then go back and keep going, “Well, here’s the next few.” Now keep going, “Now here’s everything we did.” Even thought it might seem like more work for you, first of all, it’s not. Second, it’s so easy for you to just knock out a 1-hour session to plan all these little 2-minute, 5-minute sessions. Then guess what? Now I have some scope, I have a bigger picture, and it’s easier for me to wrap my head around 4 modules, 4 milestones as opposed to 100 little 5-minute videos. Okay.
Next, this leads us to number 5 where we say, “Well, I’ll make some bonus videos if I leave something out.” I’m going to teach affiliate marketing, and if … What’s it called? … Amazon March comes out and they have new way of coming out with T-shirt, or if Teesprings updates their interface, or if whatever ad network I grab my links from, if they go and change things up, I’ll just be able to say, “I’ll make a bonus video.” The problem though is, okay, I’m sold on the idea of I just have to watch these 4 things to get an affiliate’s income set up.
Then part way though, you’ll say, “Okay. Well, go and sign up for this ad network, but I’ll I’m not going to do it right no. I’ll just make another video.” I have to stop the video I’m on. I have to go and find the other webpage where you stashed some bonus video about how to sign up on eBay or how to set up on Amazon. I have to watch that, and then come back to your video. It’s just like, “I don’t even know what the heck I’m supposed to do.” If you wanted to do that, I would rather you splice in that little 5 minutes here you sign up. Just show me the 5 minutes, you don’t have to drool on it for the whole time, but just tell me …
If you’re going to show me Neverblue ads, if you’re going to show me Facebook ads, and part of those steps require you making an account, then just cut to you making the account, and then move one, but don’t get lazy and don’t just say, “Well, go find the extra video. I’ll put it up somewhere.” That’s not a very good experience for me as a buyer.
Next is the cop-out of saying, “Well, you have to complete these steps. You have to do these tasks, but just go hire someone to do it. I’ve seen this a few times. I bought a book publishing course once. This was years ago, and it was how to get a book created. The teacher, he blew past a lot of steps. He blew past the step of making the book. First, I was already stuck there, but luckily I know how to write a little bit. Then he blew past the step of making the cover, but I guess I can go and find the cover. Then when it came time to actually take the book and get a print version made, get a cover and all that made, he said, “Well, go to a freelance site called Fiverr.com and search for this specific username, and just hire this guy and he’ll do it for you.” I’m thinking I could’ve gone on Fiverr myself and search for that.
If someone is buying a course from you, give them at least the steps to do it themselves 100% if they had to. I know that if you look at what people are doing, you say, “Okay. I want to teach somebody how to book online.” They very well might go and hire someone to do it. I’m kind of this way too, and I also know people like this where even if I plan on hiring someone to take some steps for me, I still want to see all the steps, and I still want to see what is involved, because maybe I only want to outsource 1 section of it, or maybe I want to do it myself the first time, the hard way, and then I want to outsource sections of it after that.
What if the person you’re recommending quits, and then what stop you from making a course about publishing a book on Amazon and you say, “All right. Step 1, get the book made, go on the site, hire this guy. Just have him do it. Okay. Then getting the cover made, go on this site, hire this guy. Then getting all the margins made, hire this guys.” Next thing I know, you’re just giving me a Rolodex, you’re just giving me a directory, which could be a nice bonus, but just show me, in as simplest steps as possible, how the heck it’s done.
There’s definitely a little bit of … You need to think about it, not for too long, but maybe spend a day or 2 thinking about “How do I present the thing that need to get covered?” without going too far down the rabbit hole, without telling someone how to install Microsoft Word. If someone hasn’t heard of Skype, maybe I’ll show them how to install that really quickly, and then I’ll give them the big picture, and I’ll do this as possible with as many free tools as I can. If I’m using a tool that’s only available on PC, also have a Mac version. Then just make it so that in any 60-minute session, for example, we’re only going through 6 steps. We do a lot of recapping. That way, the very first time they go to publish that book, set up affiliate income, whatever, the first time, even though they might want to hire someone else in the future, that first time they can stumble around and they can follow your instructions, and they can do it. It’s all about step by step.
Finally, the biggest cop-out of them all is that, “I’ll reteach and then I’ll reuse the stuff I use to pitch the course.” This happens a lot too. I haven’t made any of these up. These are all things that I’ve come across when buying membership sites, but now you can learn from all their past mistakes. Let’s say I’m buying a membership course about copywriting for example. Copywriting is basically you add a persuasive language to a webpage to make some sales. One thing that I’ve seen happen on more than 1 occasion, for more than 1 person is they’ll make a PowerPoint presentation, and they’ll make a free one, and they’ll present it on a Google Hangout or on a GoToWebinar if you’ve ever attended a webinar before.
They’ll teach all kinds of awesome copywriting knowledge. I’m like, “Oh great. He’s got stuff about how to write headlines, how to craft a hook, little tweaks to improve conversions, lots of awesome stuff.” They buy the course, and then this person reuses all of their slides to sell me the course to make the content of the course. I’m just thinking like, “Something just doesn’t seem quite right there.” I sat through a free 1-hour presentation, and they shared all kinds of stuff that blew me away actually with the quality of what they shared for free. Then when I bought it, it was almost the same thing.
I’m totally fine with a quick recap, and it’s totally fine to overlap somewhat in your free content, in your free pitch, well, because you’re getting them a sneak peek about what they get once they pay you money. To just reuse all those slides and then charge money for it, something isn’t quite right. A recap is okay, but think about any kind of free content you’re giving away. That’s like module 0. That’s like all the little stuff to getting caught up, to hit the ground running with your copywriting course, affiliate course, Fiverr course, whatever else examples we talked about, podcasting course.
The bottom line, everything we covered today is that it doesn’t take any extra time or work to create a great course, compared to a mediocre course. Maybe like an extra 20 minutes, but it’s not like it’ll take you any extra days or weeks to just think about these 7 things. If your membership site is going to hit any of these boxes, then readjust. The cop-outs were that they can figure out how to use it, so their solution is just give me the 5-minute recap of how to use Google Drive, how to use Skype. I don’t need to show a case study. You think they’ll be able to figure it out. Well, they won’t. Actually, you build something along with me, and make it as close as possible, so that I can just watch your video. You say, “Go here, click that.” I can pause. Go there and I click that as well.
Don’t just wing it. Have somewhat of a structure, a plan, PowerPoint slides. Show me what you’re building up to. Don’t make little 2-minute, 5-minute videos. Make a full on 60-minute module that tells me, “Here’s what we’re building. Here’s the goal. Here are the steps.” and then take me through the steps. That way when you recap, it’s a lot easier than trying to click through all these 5-minute videos. Next, if you leave things out, don’t just send them off to a bonus video, either explain it real quick, or splice in a little extra bonus. Don’t tell me just to go hire someone, show me the basic way on how to do it. If I need to make a book cover for an Amazon book, show me how to do it using free tools, or give me some templates to do it, or just give me something to get me by tonight so that I can have a book published tonight.
If you want to say as a bonus, hire this person for a book cover, well then great. Show me how to make the bad looking book cover, so I can get at least the book online, and then afterwards, I can go hire the person to update the cover to be better. Then don’t use your pitch materials to teach your course. Treat that pitch as module 0. It’s okay to put little bits and pieces in there, but don’t be lazy. Don’t reuse the free stuff to make the paid stuff. Teach to your best customer. It doesn’t take any extra time.
I know we went over a lot of different ideas and concepts, but the way for you to actually see this in action, for me to take you by the hand and say, “Here’s the software I use. Here are the steps I take.” Join us in our membershipcube.com course where I will literally set up a site alongside with you. We’ll set up WordPress. We’ll set up WishList member. We’ll get a sales letter in place. We’ll get a pan button. We’ll set up everything you need, and that’s at M-E-M-B-E-R-S-H-I-P-C-U-B-E.com. Be sure to also rate and review us in the iTunes store by going to membershipcube.com/blog/iTunes.
I’m Robert Plank from the Membership Site Podcast, go out there and make some money, and we’ll talk to you next time. Thanks for listening.
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