Setting Up Your Membership Site

Setting Up Your Membership Site http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/igroops/msb/blog/VIEW+00000003 Before starting the marketing for your group, you need to have it setup, and you need to have a good understanding of your audience. This will help your site succeed from the start. en Copyright 2008, Membership Site Building Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:02:17 GMT Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:02:17 GMT Getting Desperate: Deceptive Membership Site Marketing Gimmicks http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/igroops/msb/blog/VIEW+00000003+00000034#00000034 <img src="http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/l1/msb/appdata/blog/00000034.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> Not too long ago I was surfing the web for some medicine for my dog (the lack of opposable thumbs prevents him from doing his own Net surfing).  I came across a website that looked professional and the product appeared to be just what I was searching for.  Then I got to the end of the page where there was a javascript "countdown" that said "order in the next XX:XX minutes and get 50% off!".  The "XX:XX" was a digital "clock" running backwards starting at 10 minutes.  Sure enough, I refreshed my page and the counter reset.  I was so turned off by this, I passed on their "amazing offer".Right now you are most likely thinking either a) "I don't get it..." b) "This sounds like a good marketing technique that has be proven in split testing to increase sales" or c) "How cheesy... I would have left the website as well". If you didn't get it:  There was no real time limit.  It is not like a telethon where lines close in 10 minutes.  It is a little script that runs a clock to give people a sense of urgency in ordering.  The "50% off" offer is ongoing, and if you check back in a week, a month, perhaps even a year, the offer will most likely still be there, along with the 10 minute countdown.  And if a browser refresh does not reset the clock, clear your cookies.If you are thinking this a solid marketing practice:  Just because something is proven to increase sales doesn't make it a good marketing technique.  Lies work too... make up some great benefits and your sales will increase... along with your returns, bad reputation, and lawsuits.  "But Bo, come on... this is a harmless technique!"  It is a deceptive technique.  What the marketer is essentially doing is tricking people by lying.  Deception, trickery, and lies are NOT qualities consumers look for in merchants.The running clock is just one example of such deception.  Some other examples I have come across:<ul><li>Blatant exaggeration... did you ever see that ad for the skin cream that turns a 60 year old granny into 30 year old hottie, right before your eyes? (if not, see below for the non-animated version)</li><li>False limits... "Act now because there are only 10 left!"</li><li>Winning something... telling people they are the 1,000,000th visitor, or "you have been chosen" despite that fact that everyone sees/is sent this message</li><li>Fake testimonials... do you know it is a violation of stock photo agreements to associate a testimonial with a stock photo of a person? </li><li>URLs designed to trick people... ironically, "www-scamalert.com" is one of them!  Did you notice the "-" instead of the "."? Most people don't.</li><li>Fake awards... this article is the winner of the 2008 best membership site deception prevention award</li><li>grossly exaggerated statistics</li><li>and the list goes on</li></ul><img src="http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/l1/msb/appdata/hp/admin/SP3220080322075643.jpg" border="0" alt="SP3220080322075643.jpg" title="SP3220080322075643.jpg" width="298" height="98" /> This is an example, NOT a product endorsement by any means!If you notice, none of these techniques are necessarily illegal.  Depending on degree, the chances are none of these would be classified as fraud.  But, all are deceptive techniques designed to trick you in giving up your money.If you want to build your membership site with a base of loyal members and avoid earning a bad reputation, ask yourself this question when implementing a new marketing technique: "Is this a technique I would use on my [family member, best friend, etc]"?  Also keep in mind that increased membership does not translate into more financial success.   What would you rather have, 100 new members that all cancel within the trial period or 1 member who stays subscribed for years?  Very often, use of these techniques is a result of desperation.  Don't be tempted to sacrifice your membership site's integrity because you are not satisfied with your current marketing efforts.  There are so many legitimate marketing techniques out there that do not deceive prospects, rather educate them and help them to associate their needs with what you have to offer.  Focus on these techniques.  Your membership site will be more successful as a result.Bo, this article was totally amazing!  You are brilliant in every way, and a very handsome fellow.  I will name my first born after you.  Thanks to your advice, I am now a billionaire and look 30 years younger.  Well done! - J. Smith ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Send to feedback @ igroops dot comAbout the Author: Bo Bennett is the Founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.igroops.com">iGrOOps, LLC</a>, an online group creation and hosting service.About MembershipSiteBuilding.com: MembershipSiteBuilding.com, is focused on helping those who currently run or are planning on starting a membership site maximize the sites potential through focused marketing strategies, membership building tips, member participation, and more.  Limited membership is FREE, join today at <a href="/">http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com</a> . scammembership sitedeceptive Sat, 22 Mar 2008 13:07:54 GMT The Big Move: Website to iGrOOp http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/igroops/msb/blog/VIEW+00000003+00000029#00000029 <img src="http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/l1/msb/appdata/blog/00000029.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> I started my first "membership site" / website back in 2003.  Then, in October of 2006, I started building what was to be the ideal membership site / online group platform (iGrOOps), and someday, the ultimate website platform.  It wasn't until today, that I finally completely moved my "old school" website to iGrOOps.  I would like to share my "move notes" with everyone out there in the same boat: moving a website to an iGrOOp.First let's ask and answer the question, "why move?".  OK, we asked it, now let's answer it.  My website was a simple site as far as membership sites go; I was not charging a fee for membership.  I had "integrated" some GNU public domain software and wrote most of the backend code myself.  It did it's job.  But as most of us know, staying dormant on the Internet is not the way to success; it is almost a sure way to obsolescence.  My members were asking for features I did not have.  I was not taking advantage of the membership base I had built and members were leaving faster than they were coming.  What had worked in 2003, was no longer working.I will admit, I created iGrOOps mainly for selfish reasons.  I wanted the ideal platform not only for my one current site, but for the many other sites for which I had ideas brewin'.  The construction of iGrOOps began in mid October 2006 with the first public release on February 16, 2007.  I was not even close to being ready to move my entire site over, but I did create a sister site -- it was my paid membership site.  As time passed, we have added more and more features to iGrOOps making it very tempting to move completely.  However, we sold many products on the site, and at the time, iGrOOps did not offer an e-commerce component.  Now that it does, I was ready to make the big move.Here are some notes that you just might find helpful if moving from an existing website to iGrOOps.<ul><li>SEO placement.  My site "YearToSuccess.com" is currently #7 in Google for the keyword "success".  This was no easy task to get it there.  It took years of content building and plenty of links and traffic.  In fact, I have many articles that are #1-5 for other keywords.  I did not want to lose these by changing the path.  So I created the mapping feature of iGrOOps that allows me to enter the old path and associate it with the new iGrOOps URL.  Now, old links will work and I should keep my place in the Search Engines.</li><li>E-mail.  I am still using my old server to process all email at that domain.  I found out that GoDaddy does not have an e-mail service.  When I moved my domain, I just moved the "A record" and left the MX records intact.</li><li>Forms.  I had a few forms on my old site.  These were simple form-to-email forms.  iGrOOps cannot handle custom forms like this so I had a choice: I could have used the iFrame option in iGrOOps to pull the forms in from another server or just convert the forms to an e-mail request.  Based on the activity of the forms (little activity) I chose the latter.</li><li>Existing Member Posts.  My site had many posts at one time, but I discontinued the boards because of excessive spam.  There is no way I wanted to sift through that garbage to get a handful of relative posts.  However, had it been worth it, I would have imported the content.  This is a custom service offered by iGrOOps.</li><li>Mailing lists.  Over the past 4+ years of running the site, I have created an active list of over 8000 addresses.  Keep in mind that my course WAS just a one year course, so after the year people would leave.  The 8000 were members who wanted to keep repeating the course -- or so I thought.  Now I had very good bounce rules and filters in place, so I know the 8000 addresses were not bouncing.  But what I did not realize is that they were mostly spam / junk accounts.  When I imported the list into the iGrOOps newsletter feature and send out confirmations of the addresses, only about 500 came back.  I thought the iGrOOps system was broken at first, until I started monitoring my new "subscribers".  About 90% of my "subscribers" were spambots!  These are scripts that insert spam e-mail addresses (mostly .ru and .cn addresses) that are used to collect information such as URLs and other e-mail addresses from your mailings.  Thanks to the iGrOOps double-optin requirement, these spambots are no longer making it into my list and thanks to the reconfirmation procedure my list is lean and mean, and just as effective. </li></ul>Ironically, I had to follow the same advice I have been giving all customers that move to an iGrOOps system. "iGrOOps can do about 95% of everything you want.  As long as you are a little flexible, moving will not be a problem."  I had to rethink the way I did some things, like displaying my articles, removing quizzes, etc. but it wasn't a sacrifice, it was just a different way of presenting the information -- often better and more effective.Moving <a href="http://www.yeartosuccess.com">YearToSuccess.com</a> completely on the iGrOOps platform was like giving the site a virtual enema.  My links are all valid and up to date, all the old, useless content has been removed, photos have been updated -- if the site had feelings, I bet it would feel fantastic!  More important, I have the web 2.0 tools and applications that I never had on the old website.  My members can now communicate and share ideas like never before, and my ability to share multimedia information with my members has added a fresh new twist to our former learning environment.  The future is looking bright! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Send to feedback @ igroops dot comAbout the Author: Bo Bennett is the Founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.igroops.com">iGrOOps, LLC</a>, an online group creation and hosting service.About MembershipSiteBuilding.com: MembershipSiteBuilding.com, is focused on helping those who currently run or are planning on starting a membership site maximize the sites potential through focused marketing strategies, membership building tips, member participation, and more.  Limited membership is FREE, join today at <a href="/">http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com</a> . Tue, 22 Jan 2008 12:30:59 GMT Content Driven or Communication Driven? http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/igroops/msb/blog/VIEW+00000003+00000003#00000003 <img src="http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com/l1/msb/appdata/blog/00000003.jpg" border=0 vspace=5 hspace=5 align=left> Think about an online group to which you belong. Now ask your self why you joined.  Was it primarily because of the content available in the group provided by the author or the contributors?  Or was it primarily because of the association with the other members of the group and your ability to communicate with them?Content driven groups attract members by offering content written by experts on the subject.  Good examples of content driven online groups (or membership sites) might be online magazines, author sites, or "how to" sites.  These groups attract members by including many "teasers" on their homepage with links to full articles only available to members.  Content driven group sites can attract paying members from day one, providing there is enough content.  The number of members who belong to these groups are usually irrelevant to the member.  What is important, is the information they get from the site.Communication driven groups on the other hand have a different marketing approach, because the members are not necessarily looking for "authoritative information", but they are looking to communicate with others with the same interest.  These sites tend to be more social where entertainment plays a more important role.  The sites are about connecting people with similar interests.  Good examples might be enthusiast sites, reunion sites, community groups, etc.  The key strategy for groups like these to attract members is encouraging members participation, and marketing features that allow for ease of communication, such as online chats, private messaging, and teleconferences.  With communication driven groups, the number of members is very important to the member, so these groups are usually more difficult to launch unless you are starting with decent sized list.So which type of group is yours?  The answer is probably somewhere in the middle.  Most groups are a little of both.  But think about what your group is most like, and create your marketing strategy appropriately.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Comments? Suggestions? Questions? Send to feedback @ igroops dot comAbout the Author: Bo Bennett is the Founder and CEO of <a href="http://www.igroops.com">iGrOOps, LLC</a>, an online group creation and hosting service.About MembershipSiteBuilding.com: MembershipSiteBuilding.com, is focused on helping those who currently run or are planning on starting a membership site maximize the sites potential through focused marketing strategies, membership building tips, member participation, and more.  Limited membership is FREE, join today at <a href="/">http://www.membershipsitebuilding.com</a> . Sat, 22 Sep 2007 13:29:02 GMT