$2000/mo Membership Site Using Offline Marketing

Glad to see that some of you are taking action...

Looking forward to hearing about your success

AboutBizz said:

I have found if I offer the manager of owner a complimentary membership it goes a long way toward persuading them... if they DONT keep the cards on the counter then I ask if it was misplaced...but if indeed it was discarded or put away I just ask for it back and cancel their membership.

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Interesting....

I have never found a manager or owner ever show any interest in anything on this level. They get inundated with this type of requests. They're usually tired and overworked and just point to the counter and say, "Yeah, go ahead..."

They don't even bother to look at it.

Tell me a little more about your experience with managers and what places your posting your business cards. If managers are joining your membership I'd be interested in learning more about what you're doing that would be of interest to them.

Once a manager or owner gives permission I've never had any problems with the cards being discarded. Which is why I use FC instead of bw. Once in awhile they'll be misplaced or get broken but so far no discards.

AboutBizz said:

For those on a cash light budget -- instead of the acrylic card holders you can go with a product called Card Cues http://www.cardcues.com/ . You can customize them yourselves (as we did-- that way we could again test the offer). They are priced at 10 holders for 12 bucks total.

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Hey AboutBizz thats a cool little lead you gave out - ive sent you a PM as i have a couple of questions for you and didnt want to hijack boseys thread

So anyone working on this at the moment?

I've just designed my business cards, and got the sales page done (which is very short and basic with a 7 day free trial through paypal then automated recurring subscription).

I'm working on this right now... Got my domain registered and working on the landing page etc - been off work for a week but had to go back today which has slowed me down a bit but I'm getting there....

As far as getting any managers to allow you to leave your cards on their checkout it will be all about the managers perception of you...

I'm a salesman by trade in the uk... My day involves going into every type of business and getting the managers permission to sell to the staff...

It may be different in other countries but here getting the manager to listen to you comes down to the following:

Dress smart (When else are you going to wear that suit from the wedding/funeral/interview!?)
Be confident, come across as a successful person and he will want to know what you are about.. If you are not confident in your business how will he be!?
Make him/her feel important..
Be polite, always maintain eye contact & smile...
Most importantly be enthusiastic about what you are doing... Transfer that enthusiasm to him and he/she will literally not know what hit them...

Also I think offering a free membership would be the clincher, but I'm only using this as a last resort in really busy places...

Hope this helps anyone concerned about getting there cards placed

grafxextreme said:

The site is created to funnel sales to you. I have complete control over what content, the order of the content and the frequency of the content. This isn't accomplished with either membership or WP or Joombla.

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Grafxextreme:
What I have underlined in bold is exactly what I struggle to find out!
How do you do this?
I'm about to launch a membership site and this is the core of the problem.
How could I limit/narrow down the content a user would get access to when joining?
This way I could prevent a user from joining --> Downloading all the good stuff --> ..then quit my membership site.

You can either set up a course that is sent manually or automatically by e-mail that they get each week or use an advanced script to make access staggered. WPWishlist does this.

Very good thread grafxextreme.. and you summed the whole process up best with these two words. taking action...

norway000x said:

Grafxextreme:
What I have underlined in bold is exactly what I struggle to find out!
How do you do this?
I'm about to launch a membership site and this is the core of the problem.
How could I limit/narrow down the content a user would get access to when joining?
This way I could prevent a user from joining --> Downloading all the good stuff --> ..then quit my membership site.

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Yes, this is why it's important to control the flow. PM what you're doing and I'll see if I can shed some light for you. If you have the website set up that would be helpful.

It may take a day or two. I have a few websites to customize for those who have licensed my membership website and the marketing. But I'll get to you as quickly as I can.

JayMartins has a good idea and that may work. However, from what I am reading on the posting so far is that people are still over thinking and making this more complicated than it has to be. In the process they're leaving a lot of money on the table.

I'm not quite sure how JayMartins has this set up so that those who are joining at different times can have access to specific information using WP but it sounds like an interesting idea. Good work - Jay!

The most important thing of all is TAKE ACTION!

I suppose the business card without price will get there interest.

Then 5 day trial followed by automated recurring billing subscription on PayPal will get them signed up (hopefully monthly notification e-mails can be turned off?).

A price of $9.99 should make them think 'I might as well not cancel'.

If they cancel state that they won't be allowed to sign back up again at that price as the price is now $29.99 (or something along those lines).

And anyone that cancels, send them another offer in about 2 months but try and greatly improve content by then (perhaps have a very BUSY forum happening).

good ideas jaymartins. you should answer my pm.

Thank you.

Don't have any PM's from you though.

sent you one like 2 days ago or so. ill send again

Hey, put an advert in a newspaper!! it might cost u few hundred $$ but , you could get a massive return.

Well, thats what i want to try ....

jaymartins said:

A price of $9.99 should make them think 'I might as well not cancel'.

And anyone that cancels, send them another offer in about 2 months but try and greatly improve content by then (perhaps have a very BUSY forum happening).

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Actually the price should not be a consideration. As long as you're providing them high quality information, ebooks, software, etc... they won't leave. It would cost them more to buy the same stuff from others.

People tend to be creatures of habit. If you can get them beyond the magical three months of membership they pretty much continue to be members. Where many membership owners fail is that they start inundating their members with 3rd party offers and other crap and people simply get tired of getting so much email and cancel.

I know they say that the more often you contact someone the more likely they are to purchase. HOWEVER this applies to the first purchase. Once you're a client you don't have to contact them so often.

Think of it this way...

You only need to change your oil once every three months or so. But if a shop you use was to call and write you on a daily basis with other offers -- after awhile you would simply become annoyed and not only wouldn't you return to them but you would warn your friends not to go to them

HOWEVER, a well spaced promotion offering products and services of quality rather than big commissions for you -- will give you higher conversion rates. Once you stop thinking about how much money you can make off of them and start working on giving your members high value for their membership you'll find you have higher and higher conversion rates.

In other words quit thinking short term. Think long term. Back in the early 80's I JV'd with five people and showed them how to make a lot of money publishing a very simple and almost amateurish newsletter. I am still receiving residual income from them 25 years later simply because I implement long term strategies instead of short term.

In other words I could have charged them $5000 for the consultation 25 years ago and walked away. Instead, I charged them $2500 and 10% gross sales. I've made much more money over the last 25 years than I would have by taking my fee up front.

Forums: I find they're difficult to initiate especially at the beginning stages of your website. If you don't have the traffic then it looks like a deserted ghost town when they go to your forum. I recently visited VSA's forum and no postings at all after two years.


As far as cancellations -- what I do is simple. I contact them and ask them to sign up again and I'll give them two FREE months to think about it. In two months they're back in the habit and I saved my self a member who was going to quit anyway. This is more effective than telling them that you're going to charge them $29.xx if they cancel.

Just some things to think about...

Hope this helps...

ATTN: Norway -- I haven't forgotten about you buddy. PM me Thursday and remind me. Thanks!

I love reading your posts - some great points!

The forum bit; I know it's wrong but what I've done in the past is create fake persona's just to get the forum going - although this is damn time consuming! Probably not worth it!

The cancellation idea you mentioned is great - if PayPal do a 2 month free trial I'm definitely stealing that idea!

If anyone wants to do a JV on this. I have some ideas that will really bring in the members.

For those of you who are PM'ing me about licensing the website. I've decided not to do that any more. One, it's too time consuming to customize it. Two, it's distracting for those of you who are interested. This isn't really about the website itself. It's about HOW TO market it. That's where the money is.

For those interested I will still provide a detailed consultation if you're interested. I think from the postings here you have an idea that I do know what I'm talking about and can steer you in the right direction. At the moment I'm not sure if there would be more interest in one-on-one or a group consultation. A one hour group consultation would be faster and more profitable for me. However, some of you would rather have one hour to have me answer your specific questions.

Before you PM me, please ask yourself, "Can I set aside my preconceived ideas of what will work and how it work to understand what actually does work?" If you can't then you'd be just wasting your money.

I hadn't really intended to license or do anything but to provide the information I gave in the original posting. However, I see there are quite a few people who have a sincere interest in making this work for them and are struggling. Make no mistake about it this can be an extremely powerful money maker if you consider $2000 to $5000 a month as being profitable. More importantly this has evergreen which means it can continue for as long as you're willing to maintain it.

Is there anyone in Boston that would want to get in on this together? If not I will probably do it alone, however I feel that if it's not just me it'll feel more like a legitimate company.

Also if they are getting updates from two people they will feel like they are being offered more. For example, one person concentrates on sending ways to make money in blog/website advertising and the other on affiliate and more direct ways.

Anyways I'd prefer someone else in my Boston so we could possibly do seminars if needed, however I might consider someone in another city for an even wider market

griffco said:

Is there anyone in Boston that would want to get in on this together? If not I will probably do it alone, however I feel that if it's not just me it'll feel more like a legitimate company.

Also if they are getting updates from two people they will feel like they are being offered more. For example, one person concentrates on sending ways to make money in blog/website advertising and the other on affiliate and more direct ways.

Anyways I'd prefer someone else in my Boston so we could possibly do seminars if needed, however I might consider someone in another city for an even wider market

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That's an excellent idea. If you can't find anyone here you might try other forums. Perhaps forums with some noobs on them who want to learn how to earn money on the Internet and this would be a good experience for them.

How about placing an ad in CL for someone locally to JV with? Tell them you're looking for someone who is wanting to learn the ropes. Have them email you and you send them what you expect of them and what you'll pay them. This way you have someone out there pounding the pavement while you work on setting up the site.

You could offer them 100% of the membership fees for six month and you would get to keep 100% of the affiliate commissions. Or structure any way you want to. There are endless possibilities, here.