The Marketing Educator Membership Site
It appears 2007 is the year of the membership site. I bet you’ve been blasted with hundreds of emails pushing this site and that site……….. Probably the last thing you want to hear about is another membership site - am I right?
Did you join any of those other sites?
Did you get the information you wanted?
Are you further ahead with your business because you joined?
Were they just full of downloads that are still sitting on your computer collecting cyberdust?
Did you learn anything?
I’m the same as you. I joined many membership sites this year. I’ve paid as little as $10.00 per month and as high as $397.00 per month. I even considered paying the $797.00 per month membership fee of StomperNet. I couldn’t do it — I couldn’t bring myself to pay almost $800.00 per month for that type of information.
I even joined their Simple program - thats $97.00 per month. They had some cool stuff and I am sure it helped many people get started but in the end it still wasn’t what I wanted or needed.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not bashing any of these membership sites. They all had their strong and weak points - my opinion of course but hey, I’m the one paying the fees.
Here is what I discovered.
- Not all memberships sites are created equal
- Many are just places to download information - not much different from buying an ebook or two once a month.
- Some have the steps laid out in an organized structure - thats what Simple was - others it’s a mish mash of information and downloads.
- Of those with structured steps, you couldn’t “jump” ahead. You had to wait until the next month to get the information. (they have to keep you there somehow)
- Most of these sites didn’t have good forums for peer to peer assistance.
- Forums were heavily moderated and your post had to be “approved”
- The “expert” of the site still wasn’t approachable.
- Most of these sites focused on only one facet or area of having an online business. Some were only about Adsense others were for blogging. Most of them only talked about selling information products. I have stores with physical products - I need to know the tips and tricks to shipping and selling physical products.
- I only saw one site that did their own demo - following their own steps and reporting back what was happening.
Here is what I think are key things every membership site should have. We have put them in The Marketing Educator.
- A site structured by topic. If I am currently working on research for a product, thats what I want to see. If I need help with copywriting, I want to be able to go to that section and get the info I need.
- Forums that are topic specific. I love to hear about other people’s experiences but I don’t want to sift through tons of forum posts to just find the topics I’m interested in.
- I want to receive email notices of the specific forums and subjects I’m interested in. When a new course is added or information is updated in my desired subject, I want to know about it.
- I’d like to be able to instant message (privately) the people I am working with, within the membership site. Not have to rely on yahoo, msn or the others.
- It’s nice to see blogs from other people who write about their experiences as they are happening.(all contained in a private setting)
- I want to be able to “speak” freely in the forums. People who pay to be part of a system or network should not have their forum posts censored. Nor should posts be “approved” before going live.
- I want my forum posts kept private and only accessible by those who are paying members. I don’t want my valuable tid bits of information scanned by others who didn’t pay.
- Members need a place where they can feel safe speaking about their ideas, successes and failures without worrying about having their ideas ripped off.
- I’d like access to experts but only pay for their services when I need them. Not have to pay a huge fee every month just because the experts are there.
- I like to learn with video - membership sites for me must have video and audio education.
- I don’t want to download, unzip and sort through information. I want information ready to read, view and listen to right on the site. I have enough junk on my hard drive.
Is this the type of stuff you are looking for as well?? If it is, The Marketing Educator membership site has all that and more.
There are articles for you to use. Graphics to help you jazz up your site. Videos on how to do things. Audios from the experts who tell it like it is. Forums to share your knowledge in and make new contacts.
This membership site is loaded with all kinds of material for the online business owner needing help with his or her site and the newbie who is still trying to figure out what to sell and how to do it.
Someone asked me the other day if TME was finished. The Marketing Educator will never be finished - the internet is always changing. The search engines are always changing how they index sites. How we do business online evolves and changes. A good membership site should add new content and keep you up to date on the latest news and information that could impact the way you do business online. People who are serious about running a business are also serious about keeping current.
Stop wasting your money on ebooks, software and programs that promise you tricks and secrets to making money online.
If you truely want to have an online business then you have to start thinking like a business owner. Formulate a plan, give yourself dates to accomplish your tasks and join The Marketing Educator. Let us help you put your plan in motion, accomplish the tasks, build the systems and support you through your online business.
