Traits of a Membership Site Owner

There’s a couple of important traits that you have to have if you’re running a membership site that you don’t necessarily need as much when running a limited membership site or single sale, each one is of the highest importance if you want to keep your members.
 

First, you need to be technically minded or willing to learn. Unless you have a big budget, you’re going to be dealing with a lot on your own, and can’t always get freelancers at short notice to fix scripts.

At the very minimum I would suggest learning how to design and layout sites if you haven’t done so already, of course, this involves learning html at the very least and if you have time, dabbling in some simple PHP doesn’t hurt either, even if it’s just for your forms.

 

 To add to that list, make sure that you’re familiar with the scripts that you’re using, not just the ones you may be selling to your customers (again depending on the product itself) but also those that you’re using to run your site. Spend some time before launch testing and getting to know your affiliate script and handling live data with a few example cases.

The same goes for your membership script, keeping people in and out of the members’ area. Also make sure you’re familiar with any scripts you’re selling to your customers, both on the front end and in the admin area at the very least.

 

In addition, if you’re short on cash and can’t hire freelancers all that often, have a bit of a practice installing a few PHP and Perl scripts if you have them. As small as a simple installation might seem, it’s very handy for getting to know how the script works, especially when messing with the config files, which may indeed need changing or checking at a later date.

Don’t worry about programming or scripting, I’m not asking you to be able to write any programs as such, just get familiar with them before you launch, even if you only take a browse through those config files. Be sure to do this on a mock up and not live data when you’re practicing.
 

Often scripts will come with installation instructions anyway, which is a simple case of uploading the files to your server, setting the permissions for each file as outlined in the manual, and finally opening the config file and setting the options to dictate how the script functions.

If you can do this already great, if this sounds a little daunting to you don’t worry, in all honesty, simply through messing with scripts, mock ups and problem solving through my very first site, it’s become a breeze to maintain and fix problems with no real schooling or course taking or anything like that.

Once you’ve done two or three, you’ve done them all. Most importantly though, if you’re not prepared to do this, or in any doubt whatsoever, or even handling live data, backup before trying anything, and if all else fails, hire a freelancer, which is something you may prefer to do right off the bat. It’s all down to how much time you have and what you want to learn, and whether or not you have the funds to fix a problem. More on that in a moment.

 

Trait number two is you need to be quick to fix problems. If a problem arises with a long term membership site, especially if it’s with one of the primary tools, as we already discussed, you have to be fast to fix it, or the members, who are often using the tools either to run their business or an important aspect of their daily life, will understandably leave for a more reliable service.

 

Number three relates to the first trait. That’s have spare cash just in case. Never leave that pot empty, even if it’s just a few hundred dollars, there may come a time when a job arises that needs to be fixed through live data or something that you haven’t yet learned.

Sure it’s ok if you can build sites and web based scripts already, but for those of us (including me) who prefer to stick to marketing side of things, a few hundred dollars put aside in the pot as a backup fund can never hurt, and often it can help a heck of a lot.

 

Trait number four is communication. Good communication and lots of it. It totally depends on your product, but when running a membership site there’s many ways of building trust with your customers, keeping maintenance time down, and keeping members up to date without taking up a bunch of your time. Communication does all three.

For example, instead of just putting your contact details up (which is something I first did with my original site) take the plunge, put up faq’s or even short snappy step by step tutorials if you need to, especially when hosting scripts, and even a bit of guidance when hosting content in a membership site wouldn’t go amiss either.

It’s quick, it’s one off, finish it and it’s done, and it keeps customers in the know and severely cuts support requests, leaving you more time to work on your next project instead of answering e-mails all day.

Couple this cut in maintenance with a short note each week, site news, updates or additional info. This does three things; first it fills the membership area with your presence. The customers and members know you’re there, and the place doesn’t feel cut off and stagnant to them.

This alone was one of the prime aspects that doubled the length of time people were staying members and of course paying me also, and why many claim that memberships last a shorter time than they actually do. Five minutes of work per week to double your income? Not bad at all.

Be a good communicator, but at the same time, the key is to keep maintenance low with automated a pre written information for your members. It never hurts to pop up every now and then and enhance your customers’ experiences with a simple update on the entrance page. A paragraph is all it takes.

Finally, get it right and make it good. Make it the best. This is a combination of many aspects, from professionalism to problem solving, to quickly fixing anything that breaks, making your presence known, and above all, having a good worth while product.

Of course this goes without saying, but for a membership site, get it wrong, and you’ll lose more than a few sales as with single sale. You’ll lose members who may have been paying you for services for years to come. Thousands of dollars down the drain in one foul swoop.

Next

A Final Word;  Licensing