How To Sell A Recurring Membership Site Subscription

How do you sell a recurring membership online? Let’s dive underneath the usual quickie tactics and look at what TRULY makes your membership offer sell itself.

Membership sites are best known for the recurring monthly revenue. That recurring income gives you a compounding effect that allows your income to grow without having to put all your pressure onto constantly finding new subscribers.

Case in point, let’s look at the numbers of a mythical membership site. This site has the following numbers:

• It costs $20/month.
• It has 5% member churn (which means that, every month, about 5% of the members cancel)

If you enroll just 20 new members monthly (that would be roughly 1 member every 1.5 days), then here’s a rough schedule of your projected income in the first 12 months:

One sale every day and a half of $20, yet it compounds up to the point where you’re generating $3,665.74/month by the end of the first year. And it would just keep on going.

Now, we could talk for awhile on the topic of member retention and how to get members to stick around for as long as possible. But, none of that matters if they don’t sign up in the first place.

So, how do you get them started?

How do you go about selling a recurring subscription to your membership site?

It Is All About Your Offer

Some believe that selling a recurring subscription is just inherently harder than a one-time offer. I thought this for a long time. The idea was that people are hesitant to get into recurring subscriptions because of the commitment.

But, look at your monthly budget and look at the number of recurring bills you likely pay every month:

• Electric bill
• Your cell phone (and you actually get into a contract that requires you to continue paying for it)
• Your cable bill
• Netflix
• Your web host

You get the idea. It isn’t that we have an issue with recurring billing at all. In fact, we PREFER it. Most people would rather commit to paying that cell phone bill for 24 full months just to avoid the upfront costs of your cell phone.

When we think about our online memberships, it isn’t the recurring nature of it that is the big sticking point in selling it. It is the OFFER.

We will pay every month for something that we cannot do without. We will pay every month for something that is difficult to walk away from (it is called a pain of disconnect). But, at the core, we will gladly pay monthly for something which we SEE is giving us more VALUE each month than what we are being asked to pay.

So, it all starts with your offer.

• What are they going to get each and every month?
• What is the real-world value of the benefits they’re going to receive each month?
• What impact will it have in their daily lives?

This goes right to the heart of what you’re offering in your membership site. You have to give more value than what you’re asking them to pay. Furthermore, they need to see and know that what they are getting is worth more to them than what they’re paying each month.

Remember, too, that this value has to be based on real-world benefits, not just what you think the “stuff” you’re giving them is worth. Always remember, you’re not selling a bunch of videos. You’re selling the OUTCOME and the BENEFITS that come with having that outcome. And you price according to that. You also position your pricing around that.

Selling your recurring subscription isn’t really about fancy sales tactics. No tactics are going to outsmart a crappy offer for very long.

How To Enhance Your Offer

If the main way to sell a recurring subscription is to make the value of that subscription worth more than what you’re charging, then how can you do that?

Well, digital memberships like the kind we’re talking about around here could contain a number of things:

• Training and information. Are you going to be delivering something of high value to them each month?
• Access. People do place value in having access to an expert to help them. Perhaps you can build in a higher level of access to your program.
• Clarity and Speed. In many markets, there is a sense of confusion and overwhelm. If you can truthfully tell them that you’re going to provide a life raft and drastically speed up their progress, that’s real value.
• Done For You. Will your membership contain any kind of “done for you” service? This can be a demanding thing to offer, but it has an insane perceived value. 🙂 In fact, you could probably charge a lot more for your membership if it contained a “done for you” component.
• Status. Will your members get any cool status among their peers through your program? Bragging rights? A competitive advantage?
• Software. If you can couple software with your offer, that can really increase the value of your offer.
• A Sense of Belonging. Will your prospect feel like they’re missing out on the “cool kids club” if they’re not inside your program?

Taking all this into account, you need to design your membership program so that it practically sells itself. Make it clear that the value you’re providing is greater than what you’re asking.

You can also front-load the value by offering them large benefits to signing up. Taking into account all the stuff I said above, you could give them a huge influx of value right from Day 1 as an incentive to join. This front-loading of value puts the value exchange in their favor and helps entice the initial signup.

But, then there comes the flip side of the coin…

How To Reduce Perceived Risk

As I talked about above, all of your prospects are already involved in several monthly subscriptions. Utilities, cell phones, etc. Those things offer us more value than we pay, so we pay it. When that stops, we cancel. Think about how more and more people are canceling their cable bill and that is only because cable TV is beginning to offer less value than what we pay.

The other thing about those services is that our prospects are more familiar with them. I mean, we get how cell phone accounts work. We’re not scared of them. We get how a Netflix subscription works. We know a lot of people have Netflix. We also know we can cancel whenever we want.

So, there is less perceived risk in those things.

When it comes to your online membership, chances are that your prospect isn’t all that familiar with you yet. You’re not a cell phone company. You’re a person who is selling something online. Furthermore, many people out there tend to distrust people who sell online just as a knee-jerk reaction. Sad, but true.

So, how can you reduce risk?

• Provide a guarantee. Obvious, and pretty much everybody offers some kind of money-back guarantee. But, can you really ramp it up so that your guarantee stands out from the pack and really makes it clear you stand behind the value of your offer?
• Don’t hide the cancellation option. You shouldn’t hope they forget that they can cancel. In fact, you should be open about it. Tell them they can cancel anytime. Even show them how to do it. By being that upfront about it, they realize that they’re not committing to some long-term thing and that they can back out if they don’t like it.

So, at this point, they will clearly see that you have a valuable offer, something that is worth more to them than you’re asking, AND you’ve made it safe for them by reducing risk.

THIS is how you sell a recurring subscription.

What About Trial Offers?

Some people try to reduce risk by offering trials. Perhaps a one dollar trial or even a free trial.

Generally speaking, I’m not a big fan.

Trial offers usually have a low “stick rate”. It makes perfect sense, too. Trial-takers have very little skin in the game, so they’re not invested in the outcome. You’re literally inviting “tire kickers” into your membership when you offer trials.

That isn’t to say there isn’t a time and place for a trial offer. If you have a truly good offer and your metrics clearly show that you’ve got a solid retention rate and customer satisfaction, then you could offer a trial in certain circumstances.

Personally, I would never offer a trial offer as my public-facing offer. I did it once. I regretted it. I think it harms perceived value drastically and it just throws open the door to tire kickers. Where I would look into using a trial offer would be:

• As a customer activation technique for people who have been offered other options to join and haven’t taken you up on it.
• Perhaps as an offer for retargeting traffic.

In other words, the trial should be for people who are already a warm lead and have already turned down other offers. Your offer of a trial would be a very low barrier to entry for them if they’re very risk averse. Once they’re in, wow them with the value and hope they’ll stick around.

Lastly, I wouldn’t offer a free trial. Charge at least a buck for it.

…

This post is a nice summary of some lessons I’ve learned about memberships – some of them hard-learned.

I’m a HUGE fan of the recurring model. I think it is better for you as the business owner, but it is also better for your customer. It helps give you predictable cash flow, and it actually reduces costs for your customer.

Good for everybody. 

If you want to get started to make money online, you can subscribe here, there are some tips will be given.
http://bit.ly/2H2Dbbr

souce: https://www.blogmarketingacademy.com/sell-recurring-membership/

20 Passive Income Ideas that Generate Money While You Sleep

Imagine setting up an income stream that makes money for you for years to come.

Or, let me do you one better:

What if you set up 25 different streams?

And every one of them pulled in a passive income for you month after month.

I’ve sat down and gathered 25 different passive income ideas that you can start implementing TODAY.

How to Make Passive Income Online

Everyone who wishes to be freed from the 9-to-5 job model should aim to receive passive income. Aside from starting a business, having multiple sources of passive income is one of the most realistic ways of becoming financially free.

Many freelancers have been openly supporting this “passive income” movement because it’s all about a workable solution to scalability. It’s no secret that freelancers have to work double the time to make up for any day that makes it unable for him/her to work.

Wouldn’t it be nice to sit back, relax and continue to earn (even measly cents at a time) even if we’re off on a sick day? 

20 Passive Income Ideas to Get You Started

I’ve researched 25 foolproof ways of making money in your sleep.

This list doesn’t include passive income examples of businesses in the real world, so real estate, vending machine business, or a laundromat, and other similar business ideas. Instead, we’re focusing on ONLINE money-making ideas that can generate a passive income for you and your family in years to come.

1. Blog and earn with AdSense

Many people began making money online through AdSense. It isn’t the highest-paying out of all passive income-generating models listed here, but it’s definitely one of the most reliable. If you crank content on your blog regularly and maintain focused on a specific niche (such as weight loss, parenting, beauty, etc.), ads can become highly targeted.

You earn cents from every click on the AdSense ads you post on your blog. It may seem small, but imagine having thousands of visitors clicking through your website day in, day out… those ‘measly’ cents would add up pretty quickly.

To join Google AdSense, the publisher must be 18 years old (or above) and has maintained the blog for at least 6 months with high-quality content that follows AdSense policies and terms. Once you’re approved, you’ll be given an AdSense dashboard, where you can see all the stats and create ads to suit your needs (banner ads, text ads, etc.).

Leave the ads alone and let it earn for you while you sleep; Google knows when you’re trying to game the system so don’t ever click your own ads.

2. Blog and earn with Affiliate Marketing

Technically, you don’t “set up and forget” a blog, but using affiliate marketing with a blog can be included in this list because you promote a product once, and you can receive commissions from this for months or years to come.

Blogging about a product or service is one of the most popular ways to earn. All you need is a blog, a niche you’re interested in, and dedication to put in the work to publish posts regularly and market the blog to achieve much-needed traffic.

You’ll need to join one or all affiliate marketing programs and find products that are related to your blog’s niche, and publish a review, informative piece, or any other promotion about that product with a link that redirects to that particular affiliate marketing program.

You can receive about 5 to 20% commissions every time a person clicks on your link and makes a purchase. The cool thing about affiliate marketing is that there’s wide time allotted to your readers, which mean they could click a link from any of your promoted products, forget about it after a couple of days, continue making their purchase after two weeks, and you’d still be receiving commissions.

3. Write an eBook 

If you are an expert in any given topic and have a knack for writing, you can craft an eBook and share your knowledge to anyone who wishes to read your ebook. This can be anything from fiction like E.L. James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey” series, to non-fiction topics such as a “Making Money Online” ebook.

Because you’d be in total control of the cover, number of pages, formatting, and everything in between, you’ll be spending much less than traditional publishing. You have several options once you’ve decided to “sell” your ebook – First, you can showcase it on your blog and let your readers have a go at it. Or second, submit the ebook to an online library along with other ebooks.

As an ebook author, you can even create an affiliate program and let your readers sell the ebook for you. You’ll be paying them a piece of the sales, but you’ll have an army to help you promote the book for you.

4. Create AudioBooks

If you published your own ebook, you can create another income stream by turning this ebook into an audible book. Yes, you heard it right. You’ll just have to expand your target audience and offer your ebook to a market that depends largely on hearing, whether they’re on-the-go folks or visually-impaired.

The coolest thing about turning an ebook into an audiobook? You’ll only be working for it once, and you get to double your earnings from the ebook sales.

Some people don’t even write an ebook anymore. They just skip the ebook publishing steps altogether and go straight to audiobooks. We don’t recommend this though, since you’ll be leaving out an entire marketplace for nothing.

When producing an audiobook, you can either use your own voice to record the narration, or hire someone to do it for you. You’d be amazed at the number of talent readily available in job boards like Fiverr.com.

5. Automate a Drop Shipping Online Store

Dropshipping is an amazing ecommerce business model that lets an online store owner sell products without an inventory or storage facility. In order to make this work, the owner sets up connections to merchants who will handle everything from processing the order to shipping them out.

In return, the dropshipping store owner either receives a cut from the sale, or is paid a referral fee by the merchant.

A dropshipping online store can become a lucrative business, but it still requires a ton of work after set-up. In order to really turn this into a passive income-generating business, you’ll have to automate the whole process (from forwarding an order to sending the customer an email about his/her order details).

Setting up the store is as easy as setting up any website or blog. If you really want the easy way, you can even check out ready-made stores from providers like Shopify. Do note that because you’ll be hosting your store on Shopify’s database, Shopify gets a cut off from every sale.

6. Sell an Online Course

Selling online courses is similar to ebook and audiobook production, except that your goal is to create a more streamlined outline of content that’s best for educational purposes. Note that you should only be thinking about creating an online course if you have valuable information to share, the demand for it is there, and that you know who your competitions are within that niche.

For those who are known in their respective fields, selling an online course through their own website will do just fine. However, if you’re new to the online-course market, the best route is to join sites like udemy and let them handle marketing for you. These sites accept text-based, video-based or a mixed-media course, so you’ll be able to take advantage of different teaching techniques.

Selling courses on udemy does have its pros and cons, but since your courses that are hosted on udemy can be sold multiple times, you’ll have a continuous stream of income to enjoy even months after making your online course live.

7. Create YouTube videos

YouTube is a fascinating place wherein anyone can upload videos of themselves playing with their kids, doing makeup, sewing a dress, touring a place, and doing everything else under the sun. Some people upload videos just for fun, but the rest join YouTube to earn passive income. And why not? With 6-year-old kids reviewing toys on YouTube earning $11 million a year, why shouldn’t you take a slice of the YouTube pie too? 

The main source of YouTubers’ income comes from Google’s YouTube Partnership Program, which is made available for accountholders with about 10,000 views on their YouTube channels. Once your account gets approved for this program, every video you upload on YouTube is served with AdSense ads and you earn from them continuously.

There are other ways to take advantage of YouTube and earn from videos you’ve uploaded, but splashing ads on the videos is the most laidback approach and requires no additional effort.

8. Develop a Mobile App

Apps continue to be a hot market, even if the Android and Apple markets seem to be overloaded with games, tools and tons of other apps. If you wish to get into this lucrative market, but don’t have the programming skills necessary to turn your app idea into a reality, don’t fret. You can always outsource the work to a capable programmer and retain ownership of the app. Or learn to do it yourself using an app builder (there are dozens available both free and paid).

You can earn from mobile apps mainly through ads and in-app purchases, both of which provide passive income. The only problem you’d have to tackle after app development is how to promote the app to everyone you know, but once you’ve learned how to build an app that makes you money, you can earn plenty of cash even while you sleep.

9. Run a membership or subscription site

A subscription site is more like gym membership, wherein people pay a monthly fee voluntarily to access valuable information, programs or any other product. In the case of gyms, it’s access to exercise equipment. But when you’re offering digital products, you can build a site that focuses primarily on anything under the sun from industry news to white paper reports, video tutorials from authority figures, webinars, and a whole lot more.

People mostly join membership sites to learn something specific, so if you have an idea in mind that you think will have a good demand, this may be the passive income-generating business for you.

Aside from the membership fees you’ll collect monthly, you could also serve AdSense or other ads into your site.

10. License Your Photos

You don’t need to be a pro photographer to turn your creativity into a money-making machine. Even those without a pro camera can take stunning pictures and sell them in exchange for royalties. It’s the oldest trick in the book (check out Getty and other official media sources), but with the internet opening up opportunities, you don’t have to be a journalist or someone popular to join in.

Stock photography websites like Graphic River, iStockPhoto, Shutterstock and more welcome anyone willing to upload their photos and be paid a royalty every time another person buys a copy for digital use. The key here is to create photo sets with a specific theme that would be attractive to users, such as ‘Weight Loss’ sets or ‘Make Money Online’ set.

The best thing about this is that you don’t have to do it in one go. You can add one photo at a time to your library until you’re earning enough royalties to be able to quit your 9-to-5 job.

11. Get into Lead Generation

Business owners know the importance of continuous new leads, since they’re basically what make any business survive. Those with an internet marketing experience can take advantage of this need and create a website (or two) that captures uber-specific leads, pile up their data, and sell to relevant businesses.

For example, a wedding-related website that offers a free ‘Boho Chic Wedding Guide’ ebook can give out the book as a freebie in exchange for customer details that include a real name, e-mail address, or phone number. Once this website gathers enough customer information, the owner can contact wedding suppliers (wedding coordinators, photographers, etc.) who may be looking for new clients.

It’s an interesting concept that has worked for many sites in the past. You do need to be aware of the ethics behind lead generation and how to handle customer data responsibly.

12. Run a Unique Newsletter Campaign

Whether you have a website of your own or a huge list of email subscribers, running a newsletter campaign can be a success if you have the right idea. For example, sending out daily travel deals to people who love to travel will work wonders. You do have to find a unique twist or niche, such as that offered by Secret Flying (wherein deals are offered due to weird mistakes like long layovers.

You can earn through newsletters by going the affiliate marketing route, opening up a lead generation business, or serving ads throughout your email campaign. If you have connections with businesses, you can even offer up ad slots and feature them on your newsletter in exchange for a fee.

13. Master the Art of Domain Flipping

Buying domain names and flipping them continue to be a great business model even in 2018. There are people like Matt Stevens who are making a killing on flipping 10-dollar-domain names into $100 or $1000 worth domains, and it’s nothing but fascinating. Unfortunately, like those involved in real estate, you’d have to have a reasonable amount of experience flipping domain names in order to reach that level of success. 

There’s no huge secret when it comes to buying and selling domain names for huge profit. The key here involves brainstorming and presentation.

What makes many domain flippers succeed in this business is that they focus on specific industries or go local. For example, these flippers make up domain ideas for local wedding business, and then present the domain to the targeted businesses after a couple of months. If the business owners bite, the flippers quickly earn double (or even triple) their investment.

14. Sell Your Creative Web Design Elements and other Digital Goods

Creatives also have a chance to earn passive income through their artwork. If you’ve been working on web design elements like logos and banners for years, it would be easy to sell your work through sites like Icon Finder, Creative Market and Envato Market. If you offer freelance creative services to clients, your web design library you upload on these marketplaces can also serve as your portfolio.

The cool thing about selling your digital goods is that you can do this on the side of a full-time job. It’s completely possible to host these digital goods on your own website, but since many of the marketplaces available handle the promotion side of things, you can just focus on creating your digital content and not worry about how to market your products to the world.

Aside from selling digital products, one of the most common ways creatives earn passive income is through reselling hosting packages, WordPress elements (themes/plugins), or other products that will be used for web design and development. Commissions from these affiliate commissions can pile up pretty quick and add into a surprising source of passive income.

15. Design Shirts and Get Royalties

The world of dropshipping has expanded to industries not related to ecommerce. For example, t-shirt designers can now offer their designs to customers, even without a factory to have t-shirts printed or process shipments.

With Print-On-Demand websites, anyone with creative juice can post their designs on the website like Threadless, Design by Humans and other PoD sites, wait for people to order a custom item, and get paid royalties for your design.

The best thing about this business model is that once you’ve created the design, it is offered as a calendar, notebook, tshirt, hoodie, and a whole lot more. You wouldn’t even have to know how these products are manufactured, or how your customer will receive the item. This is because the PoD site will handle everything for you. You’ll just sit back, focus on crafting your art, and wait for checks to arrive.

Of course, the PoD site does get a huge chunk of the sale, and your “store” will be hosted on their website forever, but if you’re OK with these two downsides, then you can pretty much make a killing earning passively as a PoD designer.

16. How to Create Passive Income with no Money: Write for Revenue-Sharing Sites

People who love to get paid to write can still earn passive income, even without maintaining their own blogs. If you’re someone who wishes to earn from writing, but don’t know where to start, all you have to do is join revenue-sharing sites. These sites are made specifically to provide a community of authors a place to share their knowledge and earn passively through ads posted on your work.

There are several benefits to joining revenue-sharing sites like HubPages, InfoBarrel, Snipsly, Daily Two Cents, or Seekyt (among others). These include:

• No domain name or hosting expenses – Because you didn’t choose to set-up a blog, it also means you’re free from the monthly or annual fees associated with maintaining a self-hosted website.
• No need to think about traffic – The revenue-sharing sites will technically handle most of the traffic-generating tasks for you. This could mean paying for traffic, or performing search engine optimization (SEO) techniques continuously. It’s great if you’re just starting out with no funds for ads, or if you find internet marketing complicated.
• Earn passively – As long as the website is live and offering shared revenue to authors, you’ll be paid every month for every article that gets published on the site.

Revenue-sharing sites have different policies. For example, InfoBarrel used to require authors to have Google AdSense accounts (wherein 75% goes to the author and 25% stays with InfoBarrel). As of 2018, InfoBarrel now pays authors directly thanks to IB Ads system and PayPal. Others have 20/80 payment ratios.

17. Buy an Existing Site & Flip for Income

If you really want to build a portfolio of digital assets, but have no time for actual web development, content writing, and internet marketing, your best bet is to buy an existing blog and go from there. The main disadvantage of this “short cut” is you’ll be investing quite a lot of money, starting from $1,000 to $500,000.

What’s great about going this route is that you can compare niches, income, level of work involved, and other details before you buy a blog. Website brokers like Flippa.com and Empire Flippers list sites for sale every day. These brokers vet the seller’s proof of income, traffic details, and other important information before adding his/her site to the marketplace. Of course, as part of making sure you’re not scammed throughout the process, these website brokers take 12% to 15% in commissions upon successful sale.

If you’ve made the right choice, buying a blog with existing income ensures that you’ll be able to earn money in the long run. In most cases, the seller also provides additional training or guidance as part of the sale, so you’ll be able to maintain (or even expand) the site’s monthly income. You do have to take the buying decision seriously, since most site brokers don’t offer a refund.

18. Invest Your Money

For those who are good with numbers and finance, investing your money may be the solution you’re looking for. This route isn’t for everyone, but if you’re really interested in passive income, you have to check these out:

• Personal Investing – Betterment provides “optimized investment returns” for IRA, 401k and rollover accounts. What’s great about it is that you can start investing any amount, and Betterment would auto “rebalance” your account for you. If you have $50,000 or more to invest, you can take advantage of having your own financial advisor at Vanguard. The wealth management tools offered by Personal Capital are exceptionally impressive, but it does require a minimum of $100k to invest.
• Peer-to-Peer Lending – If you want to lend other people money to earn interest over time, but is scared of not being able to get the money back, peer-to-peer lending can be the solution you’re looking for. Check out Prosper, Lending Club, or other similar sites if you’re interested in becoming a legit loan shark, but lesser risks associated with traditional loans.
• Real estate lending – This type of investment is similar to peer-to-peer lending, except you’ll be lending your money to companies and entrepreneurs who need extra financing for real estate projects. Awesome examples of this are PeerStreet (that lets you join for only $1k to start) and RealtyShares (with $5k minimum investment).

What’s great about these investment opportunities is that you don’t have to visit the bank or company to invest your money – everything can be done online.

19. Publish an Extensive Guide on a Very Specific Niche

If you’re scared of the commitment level involved in maintaining a blog, or have no extra funds yet to buy an existing website, you still have another option: create an extensive guide on something you already know and mix several passive income-generating techniques into that single website.

You may want to check out internet marketing guru Pat Flynn and his niche project SecurityGuardTrainingHQ.com for this. The website is all about security guard training in the United States. The site greets you with a map, which you can click by state to learn about all details you need for security training in Texas or California, and so on.

This route has a ton of benefits for the passive-income hunter, since it’s a set-and-forget kind of business. Meaning,

• You write the content once
• You set-up the website layout once
• You add affiliate links and AdSense ad codes once
• You convert all website content into a downloadable eBook (and sell it for a fee, or give it away in exchange for customer information)

Other applicable sub-niche topics include travel guides to a specific city (not country), how-to home improvement guides for plumbing, electrical, etc., a review site that showcases or compares various products similar to Miss Mamie’s Cupcakes and a whole lot more. When you’re done with the content and set-up, the comprehensive guide can generate income on its own. You can add videos, pictures, articles to bump up monthly earnings in the future, or you can leave it earning cash while you sleep. It’s totally up to you.

20. Become a Podcast Star

Podcasting is the recording of digital audio made available for live broadcast or for downloading to a mobile device or computer. It is similar to radio shows, except that podcasts use the internet instead of going through the air waves.

Podcasting has plenty of money-making potential, from selling your coaching services to seeking sponsorships, but for those focusing on passive income, here’s how a successful podcast could give you a never-ending income stream:

• Turn the podcasts into ebooks (earn from ebook sales for as long as you wish)
• Squeeze in affiliate links everywhere (when you recommend a product on your show, it would automatically be translated into written form. Make sure your transcriber includes hyperlinks to redirect your “listeners” to the affiliate merchant.
• If you’re hosting a podcast on your blog, serve AdSense ads as well.

Unfortunately, earning passively from podcasting won’t happen just to anyone. You should have at least a significant amount of followers to be able to earn month after month from podcasts you’ve done in the past.

source: https://ivetriedthat.com/passive-income-ideas/