Website Setup
Wow!
We've got a hungry market, we've got a winning concept, and we've got sizzling content. Now we need to get our website up and running.
This article is not a tutorial on how to setup a website or even how to install WordPress. I assume you know how to do that.
If you don't it's not tough to learn and there are plenty of tutorials available on the internet – in fact, I've included one as a resource to this article.
I will, however, provide a checklist – just to keep things moving forward this hour.
Step #1: Choose a name for your website.
Here you need to make a list of several different names that would describe what the main objective of your website and its theme is. Put the ones that have fewer than 20 letters in them at the top of your list.
Step#2: Find out what names are available.
Go to Godaddy.com or NameCheap.com and do a search beginning with the names you have chosen that have the fewest number of letters in them. Search until you find a suitable domain name.
Step #3: Register the domain name.
Godaddy.com or NameCheap.com are the two best. I use Godaddy.com but only because I've used them for years – starting when they were the unchallenged leader.
Step #4: Get a web hosting account.
Again, I use Godaddy because of my long relationship with them. But, HostGator.com is probably the industry leader for low-cost, quality hosting.
Step #5: Install WordPress on the web server.
You're going to use WordPress 'cause it is the simplest, most cost effective solution available.
Step #6: Set up payment processing.
Unless you have reason to do otherwise, go with Paypal or ClickBank. You need this
whether you are selling memberships, merchandise or both.
PayPal, of course, is free and all you really need to do is setup a Premium or Business account. ClickBank costs money ($49 for the first product) and requires you to setup products with product pages and “Thank You” pages. ClickBank, though, helps you recruit affiliates – which can greatly increase sales.
Showing posts with label membership site. Show all posts
Showing posts with label membership site. Show all posts
Friday, 26 March 2010
Friday, 5 March 2010
How to Setup a Membership Site That Makes Money
Currently in the online marketing world, if you have already done some of the research on this topic, you may have already heard about a kind of online business model called membership site. Membership sites are hot among online marketers because it is one of the best way to generate stable income online.
Membership site, in brief, works like this: site owner may be an expert in a topic (or called a niche) and he/she may have some valuable information on that topic that want to be shared to others. Then this person will set up a website, putting all quality contents in the site, and allow readers to access this site through becoming a member, and charge for certain amount of membership fee, or provide free membership and later on site owner will send out the information by postal mail or email.
Members of those website needs to pay a membership fee constantly on each month or each year in order to keep their member status. The key is that site owner should be able to provide high quality information or contents continuously in order to keep those members paying to you. To go one step further, you can also allow your members to promote your site and share the income they earned.
The Contents that Membership Sites Love
Believe it or not, everybody, including you, are specialized or an expert in certain area. Most of the time you may just show it off among your family and maybe your friends so that, they will be very surprise on your "Ocean of Knowledge" you have. However, you may also want to find some ways to turn those knowledge into some that is more valuable, like money. So for example, no matter what you are good at, like cooking, web programming or graphic design, it is no doubt that you can make a lot of money in those knowledge area by setting up a membership site and attract people who are in need of those information to pay you.
However, even if you are the most admirable expert in your area of knowledge, if you have no idea on the basic of online marketing, you must be failed at the very beginning, or you even cannot start due to the reason that you do not have basic understanding of marketing. Therefor it is highly recommended that you need to learn something about Internet Marketing (or called Online Marketing) before you launch your membership website.
How To Start a Membership Site?
The very first thing you need to do is to research and digest every piece of information regards to membership, such as membership site structure and how to run a membership site. Reference to the membership sites which have already been run successfully for a long period of time. Study the reason of their success, follow their steps and you will have a successful membership site also.
Actually, since you have already had the required expertise in your area, you have already overcome the most difficult part of the whole game. Now all you need to do is just familiarize yourself with the membership site knowledge you need, and learn how to market your expertise throughout the entire world. For example, you may never think of providing free report or ebook to your niche. You just want to keep the secret until they pay as a member. However, providing free and valuable information to attract people's eyeballs are one of the most critical part of marketing online. Only when you got people email you can use it to sell affiliate products or providing membership site update or special offer to your list, which in turn make more money.
The Secret behind Membership Site Model
Some simple mathematics here: imagine that you charge for $10 each month for a new member and you got 30 members at the first month, or 1 member per day. At the end of the first month you will have $300. Compounding continue and in the second month, you got $600 and the third month, you got $900! Now what do you think if you have two membership sites? How about Three? This magic is the real reason why internet marketer love membership site. Moreover, site owner can also sell affiliate products to their members and earn more. Only sky is the limit!
People Love Membership Sites
Not only are membership sites the favorite of internet marketers, but it also holds true for consumers. Consumers saved a lot of time and resources on researching those information and when they join your membership, those information are ready for them! It is therefore much more convenience.
To conclude, membership are really the way to benefit both members and site owner. Site owner will get paid by their members, and consumers are happy to have the information they needed.
Did you find this article useful? Actually if you are serious in making money online through membership website, or just a normal ecommerce website, Turbo Membership is the only choice of you. Sign up and get this big yellow book about how to make real money online now.
Membership site, in brief, works like this: site owner may be an expert in a topic (or called a niche) and he/she may have some valuable information on that topic that want to be shared to others. Then this person will set up a website, putting all quality contents in the site, and allow readers to access this site through becoming a member, and charge for certain amount of membership fee, or provide free membership and later on site owner will send out the information by postal mail or email.
Members of those website needs to pay a membership fee constantly on each month or each year in order to keep their member status. The key is that site owner should be able to provide high quality information or contents continuously in order to keep those members paying to you. To go one step further, you can also allow your members to promote your site and share the income they earned.
The Contents that Membership Sites Love
Believe it or not, everybody, including you, are specialized or an expert in certain area. Most of the time you may just show it off among your family and maybe your friends so that, they will be very surprise on your "Ocean of Knowledge" you have. However, you may also want to find some ways to turn those knowledge into some that is more valuable, like money. So for example, no matter what you are good at, like cooking, web programming or graphic design, it is no doubt that you can make a lot of money in those knowledge area by setting up a membership site and attract people who are in need of those information to pay you.
However, even if you are the most admirable expert in your area of knowledge, if you have no idea on the basic of online marketing, you must be failed at the very beginning, or you even cannot start due to the reason that you do not have basic understanding of marketing. Therefor it is highly recommended that you need to learn something about Internet Marketing (or called Online Marketing) before you launch your membership website.
How To Start a Membership Site?
The very first thing you need to do is to research and digest every piece of information regards to membership, such as membership site structure and how to run a membership site. Reference to the membership sites which have already been run successfully for a long period of time. Study the reason of their success, follow their steps and you will have a successful membership site also.
Actually, since you have already had the required expertise in your area, you have already overcome the most difficult part of the whole game. Now all you need to do is just familiarize yourself with the membership site knowledge you need, and learn how to market your expertise throughout the entire world. For example, you may never think of providing free report or ebook to your niche. You just want to keep the secret until they pay as a member. However, providing free and valuable information to attract people's eyeballs are one of the most critical part of marketing online. Only when you got people email you can use it to sell affiliate products or providing membership site update or special offer to your list, which in turn make more money.
The Secret behind Membership Site Model
Some simple mathematics here: imagine that you charge for $10 each month for a new member and you got 30 members at the first month, or 1 member per day. At the end of the first month you will have $300. Compounding continue and in the second month, you got $600 and the third month, you got $900! Now what do you think if you have two membership sites? How about Three? This magic is the real reason why internet marketer love membership site. Moreover, site owner can also sell affiliate products to their members and earn more. Only sky is the limit!
People Love Membership Sites
Not only are membership sites the favorite of internet marketers, but it also holds true for consumers. Consumers saved a lot of time and resources on researching those information and when they join your membership, those information are ready for them! It is therefore much more convenience.
To conclude, membership are really the way to benefit both members and site owner. Site owner will get paid by their members, and consumers are happy to have the information they needed.
Did you find this article useful? Actually if you are serious in making money online through membership website, or just a normal ecommerce website, Turbo Membership is the only choice of you. Sign up and get this big yellow book about how to make real money online now.
WordPress Membership Site - The Easiest Way to Set Up a Membership Site With Wordpress
If you don't own a membership site you are more than likely missing out on a very profitable income stream. It's no accident that most Internet marketers have a membership site or more than one.
The great thing about a membership site is that if you sell a product you can offer a month free to your membership site as bonus therefore making your products more easy to sell and creating multiple streams of income from one customer.
Also people love to learn so if you have great content and you want to spread out in the form of an online course what better way than a membership site. Your course material i.e. module one is delivered on the day that they sign up and use sequential modules will all be available to them month after month.
The best thing about a membership site is that once it's in place and all the content or modules are in place and ready to be delivered you can leave it to start on your next project knowing that one site can generate a sizeable income for years to come.
WordPress the new Standard
WordPress with its easy-to-use plug-in architecture is fast becoming a standard on the web today, making it extremely easy for you to have a fully working website up and ready in a matter of hours.
For many WordPress is just a blog, but it can be so much more with new plug-ins appearing every day!
The plug-in I'm talking about today will turn your WordPress blog into a fully functional membership site which will be fully incorporated into your autoresponder and shopping cart.
The best part is, it's easy to use. Just unzip, upload and within minutes you can have your own membership site up and running.
Types of Membership Site
When you hear "Membership Sites" it's likely you think about a site publishing ongoing content.
Am I right?
But what if I told you that there are many "types" of membership sites.
Take a look...
1) Ongoing Content - This is your traditional membership site. Essentially you provide fresh content on a regular basis and people pay monthly to access that content whenever they want.
2) Protected Download Area - If you sell any type of digital product, you'll want to protect it behind a membership.
Why?
Because that way you can prevent people from passing your info to others who haven't paid for it AND you can block their access should they ask for a refund.
3) UPS Method - This type of membership is used when you deliver a "package" of content to your members each month.
They belong to your membership so they can receive this "package" every month.
A good example would be a Private Label Rights membership. With those memberships they deliver a package of PLR content each month.
4) Course Materials - If you sell any type of course that has "Modules", then you should consider putting it into a membership site.
When you select the right membership software, you can automatically deliver each module at a predefined time so that everything is automated.
That way you can create the course once, but after that people can continue to sign up and receive the course one module at a time.
5) Micro Continuity - This membership was made popular by Russell Brunson and essentially it involves delivering content for a fixed period of time.
It's similar to running a "modular course" where you automatically deliver content but over a fixed period of time (3-6 months).
6) Project Management System - Running a virtual business often means you are working with vendors around the world.
With the right membership solution you can quickly create a "private membership" for YOUR company.
Just setup a membership level for each "position" in your company and then create a section of your site just for people who belong to that position (webmaster, designer, customer support etc.).
You can find out about my number 1 recommended way to set up a Wordpress Membership site with an easy to use plug-in by clicking here
Set Up Your Own Secure Member Area For FREEE
The great thing about a membership site is that if you sell a product you can offer a month free to your membership site as bonus therefore making your products more easy to sell and creating multiple streams of income from one customer.
Also people love to learn so if you have great content and you want to spread out in the form of an online course what better way than a membership site. Your course material i.e. module one is delivered on the day that they sign up and use sequential modules will all be available to them month after month.
The best thing about a membership site is that once it's in place and all the content or modules are in place and ready to be delivered you can leave it to start on your next project knowing that one site can generate a sizeable income for years to come.
WordPress the new Standard
WordPress with its easy-to-use plug-in architecture is fast becoming a standard on the web today, making it extremely easy for you to have a fully working website up and ready in a matter of hours.
For many WordPress is just a blog, but it can be so much more with new plug-ins appearing every day!
The plug-in I'm talking about today will turn your WordPress blog into a fully functional membership site which will be fully incorporated into your autoresponder and shopping cart.
The best part is, it's easy to use. Just unzip, upload and within minutes you can have your own membership site up and running.
Types of Membership Site
When you hear "Membership Sites" it's likely you think about a site publishing ongoing content.
Am I right?
But what if I told you that there are many "types" of membership sites.
Take a look...
1) Ongoing Content - This is your traditional membership site. Essentially you provide fresh content on a regular basis and people pay monthly to access that content whenever they want.
2) Protected Download Area - If you sell any type of digital product, you'll want to protect it behind a membership.
Why?
Because that way you can prevent people from passing your info to others who haven't paid for it AND you can block their access should they ask for a refund.
3) UPS Method - This type of membership is used when you deliver a "package" of content to your members each month.
They belong to your membership so they can receive this "package" every month.
A good example would be a Private Label Rights membership. With those memberships they deliver a package of PLR content each month.
4) Course Materials - If you sell any type of course that has "Modules", then you should consider putting it into a membership site.
When you select the right membership software, you can automatically deliver each module at a predefined time so that everything is automated.
That way you can create the course once, but after that people can continue to sign up and receive the course one module at a time.
5) Micro Continuity - This membership was made popular by Russell Brunson and essentially it involves delivering content for a fixed period of time.
It's similar to running a "modular course" where you automatically deliver content but over a fixed period of time (3-6 months).
6) Project Management System - Running a virtual business often means you are working with vendors around the world.
With the right membership solution you can quickly create a "private membership" for YOUR company.
Just setup a membership level for each "position" in your company and then create a section of your site just for people who belong to that position (webmaster, designer, customer support etc.).
You can find out about my number 1 recommended way to set up a Wordpress Membership site with an easy to use plug-in by clicking here
Set Up Your Own Secure Member Area For FREEE
Thursday, 25 February 2010
Cementing The Ideas(Part 4)
Setting the “Table”
In this module you'll flesh out your membership site's content. We won't actually create the content... that'll come later. But we will create a framework that will make creating the content much easier and go much faster.
The simple (but not easy) solution to designing your membership site is to create a detailed outline to work from.
You'll actually create two outlines – a “Table of Contents” version and a “Detailed” version. Just one of these outlines alone won't quite do the trick. You'll need them both.
The “Table of Contents” is an organized summary of what you want your site to cover. With a micro-continuity membership site, you'll separate your content into modules. For my 15 week “Photography Studio Equipment” site my “Table of Contents” outline looks like this
Week #1: Intro and Overview
Week #2: Lighting – Studio Strobes
Week #3: Lighting – Small Flashes
Week #4: Light Stands
Week #5: Studio Furniture and Supports & Props
Week #6: Tripods
Week #7: Wireless Flash Controllers
Week #8: Backgrounds
Week #9: Modifiers – Umbrellas and SoftBoxes
Week #10: Modifiers – Reflectors and Diffusers
Week #11: Modifiers – Specialty Modifiers
Week #12: Viewing Output
Week #13: Lighting – Continuous
Week #14: “Surfaces”
Week #15: Software
Week #16: Bonus
Not only do you have the framework for your membership site “course”, you also have a filing system that we can use to better organize any research you may do.
Next, take the Table of Contents outline and add subheadings and additional points to each weekly module.
Now, here's my strategy and I know people will disagree, but...
I like to deliver at least 6 hours worth of “stuff” each week.
I know some people are content with delivering a 1 hour video each week for a continuity program. But when I get stuff like that, I begin to wonder why I'm paying for the program every month when I could probably finish the whole “course” in a day or two – if they'd just give me the content. I start to feel like I'm being strung along and when I start getting that feeling, I usually end up terminating my membership.
Understand, however, that 6 hours of “stuff” doesn't necessarily mean 6 hours of content. There's the a tool that every teacher uses to “augment” his or her in-class teaching. It's called “homework”.
You can create a 5 minute video that shows your members how to accomplish a task. Then, have them do it themselves. What took you 5 minutes to do on video could easily take them 2 hours or even 2 days to complete since:
• they're not familiar with the process
• they may need to do research to complete the task
• in your video, you may have “skipped over” certain parts of the process. I don't mean you leave out things, but you'll do like they do on cooking shows where they'll tell you to put the dish in the oven and bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then they put the dish in the oven and immediately take out one that's already done. They didn't leave out any part of the process – they just “skipped over” 45 minutes of the process that didn't add to your understanding the recipe.
So, if each module is a week and I want to deliver 6 hours of “stuff” to the members, I may divide it into 4-6 subheadings that will each take the member an hour or more to complete.
Here's an example of my “Photography Studio Equipment” site's detailed outline for the 1st week:
Week #1: Intro and Overview
I. Why a Studio?
A) Convenience
B) Professionalism
C) Opportunity to make money
D) Total Control
II. What Type of Photography (Portrait or Commercial)
A) Equipment for Portrait Studios
B) Equipment for Commercial/Product Studios
III. Cameras
A) Types
1. DSLR
a) Major Features / Requirements
b) Benefits
c) Concerns
2. Consumer DigiCam
a) Major Features / Requirements
b) Benefits
c) Concerns
3. Film
a) Major Features / Requirements
b) Benefits
c) Concerns
B) Accessories for Studio Work
1. Eyepieces and Viewers
2. Shutter releases
3. Storage and Packaging
IV. Lenses
A) Focal Lengths for Studio Work
1. “Normal” lens
2. Wide Angle
3. Telephoto
4. DOF Control
B) Other Lens Considerations
V. Equipment Your DON'T Need
Your turn!
In this module you'll flesh out your membership site's content. We won't actually create the content... that'll come later. But we will create a framework that will make creating the content much easier and go much faster.
The simple (but not easy) solution to designing your membership site is to create a detailed outline to work from.
You'll actually create two outlines – a “Table of Contents” version and a “Detailed” version. Just one of these outlines alone won't quite do the trick. You'll need them both.
The “Table of Contents” is an organized summary of what you want your site to cover. With a micro-continuity membership site, you'll separate your content into modules. For my 15 week “Photography Studio Equipment” site my “Table of Contents” outline looks like this
Week #1: Intro and Overview
Week #2: Lighting – Studio Strobes
Week #3: Lighting – Small Flashes
Week #4: Light Stands
Week #5: Studio Furniture and Supports & Props
Week #6: Tripods
Week #7: Wireless Flash Controllers
Week #8: Backgrounds
Week #9: Modifiers – Umbrellas and SoftBoxes
Week #10: Modifiers – Reflectors and Diffusers
Week #11: Modifiers – Specialty Modifiers
Week #12: Viewing Output
Week #13: Lighting – Continuous
Week #14: “Surfaces”
Week #15: Software
Week #16: Bonus
Not only do you have the framework for your membership site “course”, you also have a filing system that we can use to better organize any research you may do.
Next, take the Table of Contents outline and add subheadings and additional points to each weekly module.
Now, here's my strategy and I know people will disagree, but...
I like to deliver at least 6 hours worth of “stuff” each week.
I know some people are content with delivering a 1 hour video each week for a continuity program. But when I get stuff like that, I begin to wonder why I'm paying for the program every month when I could probably finish the whole “course” in a day or two – if they'd just give me the content. I start to feel like I'm being strung along and when I start getting that feeling, I usually end up terminating my membership.
Understand, however, that 6 hours of “stuff” doesn't necessarily mean 6 hours of content. There's the a tool that every teacher uses to “augment” his or her in-class teaching. It's called “homework”.
You can create a 5 minute video that shows your members how to accomplish a task. Then, have them do it themselves. What took you 5 minutes to do on video could easily take them 2 hours or even 2 days to complete since:
• they're not familiar with the process
• they may need to do research to complete the task
• in your video, you may have “skipped over” certain parts of the process. I don't mean you leave out things, but you'll do like they do on cooking shows where they'll tell you to put the dish in the oven and bake for 45 minutes at 400 degrees. Then they put the dish in the oven and immediately take out one that's already done. They didn't leave out any part of the process – they just “skipped over” 45 minutes of the process that didn't add to your understanding the recipe.
So, if each module is a week and I want to deliver 6 hours of “stuff” to the members, I may divide it into 4-6 subheadings that will each take the member an hour or more to complete.
Here's an example of my “Photography Studio Equipment” site's detailed outline for the 1st week:
Week #1: Intro and Overview
I. Why a Studio?
A) Convenience
B) Professionalism
C) Opportunity to make money
D) Total Control
II. What Type of Photography (Portrait or Commercial)
A) Equipment for Portrait Studios
B) Equipment for Commercial/Product Studios
III. Cameras
A) Types
1. DSLR
a) Major Features / Requirements
b) Benefits
c) Concerns
2. Consumer DigiCam
a) Major Features / Requirements
b) Benefits
c) Concerns
3. Film
a) Major Features / Requirements
b) Benefits
c) Concerns
B) Accessories for Studio Work
1. Eyepieces and Viewers
2. Shutter releases
3. Storage and Packaging
IV. Lenses
A) Focal Lengths for Studio Work
1. “Normal” lens
2. Wide Angle
3. Telephoto
4. DOF Control
B) Other Lens Considerations
V. Equipment Your DON'T Need
Your turn!
Monday, 15 February 2010
Collecting Ideas (Part 3)
EzineArticles (and other article directories)
I bet you'd like know the secret to creating content for your own membership site super fast, right? Then, how about a bit of really good news...
ALL THE RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE FOR YOU!
You just need to know where to find it and the first place I go looking is EzineArticles.
http://www.ezinearticles.com
EzineArticles has thousands of articles that can provide content for your product.
We're not talking about copying other people's work (that's illegal) but you can by all means take the main points from an article and re-work them as you create your own content.
Lets start out with the EzineArticles homepage. Scroll down to the bottom of the left sidebar until you find the search box with “Advanced Search” link.
I'm certain that, to boost revenue, EzineArticles wants people to use the Google search box that is strategically placed at top center of the page. Unfortunately, that's not the search box we need. To use EzineArticles' Advanced Search, you'll have to scroll about halfway down the page.
Once you're there, you should see a box on the side of the page about halfway down that has a search feature.
Click on the “Advanced Search” feature and it will take you to a screen like this:
All you have to do then is type in your search term in the box and it will return all the articles in the EzineArtcles database.
Try to use the exact phrase of your main keyword for instance I typed in “photography studio equipment” and received 286 results.
Now, you don't have to read every article, but here's what you're looking for:
1. an interesting headline – I found one that read “Photography Equipment – Five Key Pieces You Can't Do Without”. That sounds like a headline I can use with modifications
2. an effective headline – What's the difference? #1 is what's interesting to ME. An effective headline is one that's interesting to EzineArticle readers. You can tell what headlines interest viewers by scrolling down to the bottom of any article and you'll find: “This article has been viewed XXX time(s).”
The “Photography Equipment – Five Key Pieces You Can't Do Without” article was posted on December 10, 2008 and has been viewed 333 times (as of this writing). Which means this headline is interesting enough to draw viewers in at a rate of roughly 1 a day – pretty good in my book.
When I'm using this method, what I'll do is:
1. click on an interesting headline
2. skim through the article
3. if I like the content, I'll print the article (or bookmark it in a special folder)
4. if the content doesn't excite me, I'll just copy the headline and paste it into a word document that will become my “headline swipe file”
If you want more ideas than you get from EzineArticles, you can do the same research using other article directories like:
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.articledashboard.com
http://www.searchwarp.com
I bet you'd like know the secret to creating content for your own membership site super fast, right? Then, how about a bit of really good news...
ALL THE RESEARCH HAS BEEN DONE FOR YOU!
You just need to know where to find it and the first place I go looking is EzineArticles.
http://www.ezinearticles.com
EzineArticles has thousands of articles that can provide content for your product.
We're not talking about copying other people's work (that's illegal) but you can by all means take the main points from an article and re-work them as you create your own content.
Lets start out with the EzineArticles homepage. Scroll down to the bottom of the left sidebar until you find the search box with “Advanced Search” link.
Once you're there, you should see a box on the side of the page about halfway down that has a search feature.
Click on the “Advanced Search” feature and it will take you to a screen like this:
All you have to do then is type in your search term in the box and it will return all the articles in the EzineArtcles database.
Try to use the exact phrase of your main keyword for instance I typed in “photography studio equipment” and received 286 results.
Now, you don't have to read every article, but here's what you're looking for:
1. an interesting headline – I found one that read “Photography Equipment – Five Key Pieces You Can't Do Without”. That sounds like a headline I can use with modifications
2. an effective headline – What's the difference? #1 is what's interesting to ME. An effective headline is one that's interesting to EzineArticle readers. You can tell what headlines interest viewers by scrolling down to the bottom of any article and you'll find: “This article has been viewed XXX time(s).”
The “Photography Equipment – Five Key Pieces You Can't Do Without” article was posted on December 10, 2008 and has been viewed 333 times (as of this writing). Which means this headline is interesting enough to draw viewers in at a rate of roughly 1 a day – pretty good in my book.
When I'm using this method, what I'll do is:
1. click on an interesting headline
2. skim through the article
3. if I like the content, I'll print the article (or bookmark it in a special folder)
4. if the content doesn't excite me, I'll just copy the headline and paste it into a word document that will become my “headline swipe file”
If you want more ideas than you get from EzineArticles, you can do the same research using other article directories like:
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.articledashboard.com
http://www.searchwarp.com
Collecting Ideas (Part 3)
ClickBank
The ClickBank Marketplace is the last of the 3 places you'll go to find out if people are buying the kind of information you're planning for your membership site. What's great about ClickBank is that it deals only in digital products – products that are delivered electronically. So, if ClickBank products are being sold for your topic, it's a good indicator that your membership site will sell as well.
http://www.ClickBank.com/marketplace.html
Here's the downside of using ClickBank – since it's a resource created primarily for people to RESELL digital products, the results you'll find often reflect the current digital product “fads”. Take for example Magniwork. It's a “free energy” device that seems to be selling like hotcakes. It's also a SCAM – the thing doesn't work – but affiliates are selling it like it's the solution to global warming.
On the other end of the scale is a book you'll find on Amazon titled “How to Shit in the Woods”. It's a very specific title that you'd think only a small number of people would be interested in. Check it's Amazon.com Sales Rank, though, and you'll find it's at 33,250 (very good) and has sold over 1.5 Million copies (a number I uncovered elsewhere). This is obviously information people are interested in and paying for – but you won't find anything like it on ClickBank.
So, if you find products in your topic area on ClickBank with good numbers – that's great. If you don't find many products on ClickBank or the ones that are there have less than stellar numbers – that's not necessarily an indicator that your product won't succeed. If the information from Google, Yahoo, and Amazon is favorable, that overrides any disappointing ClickBank results.
NOTE: The numbers for my “photography studio equipment” topic that we uncovered this hours are just Ok. They're not bad... but they are not stellar either.
I would be much happier if the SpyFu Clicks/Day figure was higher and there were more varied questions in Yahoo Answers. And, of course, there wasn't much in ClickBank
So, if I were doing this for real (instead of as an illustration) and I wanted to make sure my topic would be an instant money maker, I might consider ditching the “photography studio equipment” for one with stronger numbers.
Get Your Free Secure Membership Site For FREE!
The ClickBank Marketplace is the last of the 3 places you'll go to find out if people are buying the kind of information you're planning for your membership site. What's great about ClickBank is that it deals only in digital products – products that are delivered electronically. So, if ClickBank products are being sold for your topic, it's a good indicator that your membership site will sell as well.
http://www.ClickBank.com/marketplace.html
Here's the downside of using ClickBank – since it's a resource created primarily for people to RESELL digital products, the results you'll find often reflect the current digital product “fads”. Take for example Magniwork. It's a “free energy” device that seems to be selling like hotcakes. It's also a SCAM – the thing doesn't work – but affiliates are selling it like it's the solution to global warming.
On the other end of the scale is a book you'll find on Amazon titled “How to Shit in the Woods”. It's a very specific title that you'd think only a small number of people would be interested in. Check it's Amazon.com Sales Rank, though, and you'll find it's at 33,250 (very good) and has sold over 1.5 Million copies (a number I uncovered elsewhere). This is obviously information people are interested in and paying for – but you won't find anything like it on ClickBank.
So, if you find products in your topic area on ClickBank with good numbers – that's great. If you don't find many products on ClickBank or the ones that are there have less than stellar numbers – that's not necessarily an indicator that your product won't succeed. If the information from Google, Yahoo, and Amazon is favorable, that overrides any disappointing ClickBank results.
NOTE: The numbers for my “photography studio equipment” topic that we uncovered this hours are just Ok. They're not bad... but they are not stellar either.
I would be much happier if the SpyFu Clicks/Day figure was higher and there were more varied questions in Yahoo Answers. And, of course, there wasn't much in ClickBank
So, if I were doing this for real (instead of as an illustration) and I wanted to make sure my topic would be an instant money maker, I might consider ditching the “photography studio equipment” for one with stronger numbers.
Get Your Free Secure Membership Site For FREE!
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
How to Start a Membership Site In 24 Hours (Part 2)
Give Your Site the Best Chance to Make Money
Ok, so you have your 15 potential topics that people are searching the internet to find information about and solutions for.The next thing we need to find out is if any of the topics will make money! Will this process guarantee that you'll make money with your product? Nope. But, if you follow this step you'll know for sure that there is a market for the taking!
It'll help you keep things in order if you make a folder on your Desktop to keep all your work together. Just call it your “topic name” product for example “Photography Studio Product”.
How do you find out if you will make money from your product? Easy. We just need to figure out if the people searching for your topics are buying “stuff” as well.
There are many different ways to do this but this is the way I like best:
First of all go to http://www.google.com and type in your top phrase (the one with the most searches) for instance I would type in “photography studio lighting”.
This is what Google bought up for me:
Look at your results and take note of the number of search results the query has.
In the example above I have highlighted the search results and there are 15,800,000 results for the phrase “photography studio equipment”.
This is a lot of results and that normally means there is a market there.
The next thing you should note is the number of adwords advertisements the phrase has.
I have highlighted the Adwords on the page. Adwords are small advertisements people place on Google for certain phrases. What we're interested in is how many advertisers there are and what sort of price they are paying to be there because the more profitable a market is the more people will bid to place their ads.
So all you need to do now is type each one of the five phrases you picked earlier and make a note of:
1. The number of search results
2. How many people are paying to be their on Google Adwords
Next we need to get a rough idea of how much people are willing to pay to be there on Google Adwords as this is a good indicator of how much money is in a niche.
Also make a note of what the Adwords are selling as this is a good indicator of WHAT people are buying in the niche and this can help you with your product creation.
For instance what is the top Adword Ad? For the photography studio topic it is “Product Photography Kits”. This isn't necessarily the best product to copy but it will give you an idea of what people are selling for that topic.
When you're finished checking out the search results for each one of your phrases and the competing ads, we next need to know how much people are paying for those ads. For this we'll use Spyfu.
Spyfu lets you see what people are spending on Google Adwords for specific phrases.
Type your main phrase into the Spyfu search bar, click search, and Spyfu will display the information we want. You will need to do this with each of your phrases but first, I'll go through the process with my example phrase “photography studio equipment”.
This is the info that SpyFu bought up for the phrase “photography studio equipment”:
Let me explain what this data means and how it is relevant:
Cost/Click: This tells us the average cost to the advertiser per click, so you can see that the average advertiser is spending between $0.98 and $5.10 per each click. The higher the number the better. $5.10 per click is a pretty good figure since if an advertiser is spending $5 per click they're probably making sales.
Clicks/Day: This shows us the average amount of clicks per day an advertiser is getting for that phrase. Again, higher is better.
Advertisers: This shows the number of advertisers bidding on this phrase. This number will never go above 21 because SpyFu doesn't drill down past the second page of ads.
Cost/Day: This reflects the total daily cost to all advertisers that bought this keyword/phrase this just shows you how much an advertiser is prepared to pay to stay at the top. Normally the more the better, as if the advertiser is willing to pay more than they must think the keyword is profitable!
Search Results/Search Volume: These both come directly from Google. The Search Results number is the total number of pages that satisfy the search criteria. The Search Volume is the number of searches for the particular phrase in the last month. Ideally, you're looking for a high Search Volume with a low number of Search Results. But, at this point in the game, the Search Results aren't too relevant.
So all you need to do is go through each of your 5 keywords and see the results using this tool.
Ideally you will be looking for all the figures to be high and the competition low (lower than 10 competing ads can be a goldmine!). However as long as people are spending money and there is a market there you will make money 99% of the time.
You should find a niche this way that tells people how to solve a problem or offer some solution.
Now, don't get too caught up on analyzing the numbers. Just take each of your topics, type them into Spyfu and note the results and see how much people are spending to be there.
The next step will show you how to get started creating your product.
Tuesday, 9 February 2010
How to Start a Membership Site In 24 Hours (Part 1)
Choosing a Topic for Your Membership Site
The driest tinder, the thirsty crowd, the hungry niche. No matter what you call it, this is one of the most talked about subjects in marketing. Find the driest tinder, the thirsty crowd, or the hungry niche – provide them with a spark, a glass of water, or the right nourishment, and you've got a sale and a happy customer.
The good news is it's not that difficult to find hungry niches. You've just got to think creatively. This step is the exact method I – and many other online marketers – use to find hungry niches.
The best way to start out is to begin with you.
Just think of things that you enjoy doing like cooking, playing computer games, fishing, DIY home improvement, Ebay-ing, collecting stamps, etc...
Can't think of anything? Here's a trick... grab a note pad and make five (5) lists:
1. 5 or more Things I'm Passionate About
2. My hobbies
3. 5 or more Skills I've Developed
4. 5 or more Things I Do Better than most people I know
5. 5 or more Things I Know More About than most people I know
Now, take the lists and cross off anything that you just can't see yourself spending the time and effort to create a product around.
Next, look over the list and place a check mark next to the three topics that jump off the page – that give you a little jolt when you think about them. Those are the 3 we'll start with.
Take these three topics and head over to the Google Keyword Tool just to see if people are looking for that subject online.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
One of my hobbies is photography. So I placed that in the “Enter one keyword or phrase per line” box (see above), keyed the CAPTCHA letters, and pressed the “Get keyword ideas” button which gave me:
Here's what you'll be looking for:
· whether or not the topic has results
· whether or not the topic has a number of valid “sub topics” with more than 10,000 searches per month
So, “photography” has potential. This is a VERY popular topic with lots of people typing in some very profitable search phrases. If your topic is similar, give the topic a check.
While you're here, look for 5-10 phrases that you think you could provide information and training about. You want the phrases to be as specific as possible but still have a monthly search volume greater than 5,000.
From “photography” I chose (in no special order):
· photography studio
· photography prints
· black and white photography
· interior photography
· model photography
If your topics have are only 1 or 2 word phrases – like 4 of my photography ones are – then enter the phrase into the “Enter one keyword or phrase per line” box. Select a new topic from the resulting list that interests you, that you think you could teach a “course” on, that has at least 3 words, and that has a Search Volume of at least 5,000.
In my photography example, I took my terms and ran a second search on each :
· photography studio becomes photography studio lighting
· photography prints fell off the list (no interesting phrases with enough searches)
· black and white photography already 3 words
· interior photography fell off the list (no interesting phrases with enough searches)
· model photography fell off the list (no interesting phrases with enough searches)
· photography studio becomes photography studio equipment
· photography studio becomes professional photography studio
· photography studio becomes home photography studio (this one doesn't quite meet the 5,000 search volume number but I know from personal experience that there's plenty of interest among amateur photographers)
Notice that I “lost” 3 phrases (photography prints, interior photography, and model photography) so I added 3 phrases from “photography studio” that met the criteria.
Once you've got your five, 3+ word topics, write them down and move on. Do this for each of the three “finalist” topics on your list.
Once you've got them all, let's see if the topics you've picked are qualify as truly “dry tender”, the stuff that will really catch fire – the online clientele that will make you money.
Discover How To Set Up A Membership Site For Free
Discover How To Set Up A Membership Site For Free
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