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May
21
More and more authors, coaches, consultants, and self-employed professionals are recognizing the value of offering their market information distributed online on a subscription basis. But, many unnecessarily delay the creation of their first membership site. Their thinking is that they’ll wait until after they have established a web presence for themselves before converting their site to a subscription basis or starting a new membership site.
There are several things wrong with this “later” thinking:
- Advantages of a content management system. To their frustration, many authors, coaches, and consultants pay web designers thousands of dollars to design “hostage” sites that cannot be quickly and easily updated. The same amount of money invested in a membership site software program, like MemberGate, however, permits the creation of a web presence that you can easily update yourself without incurring additional costs and delays. And, when you’re ready, you can put the software’s membership billing and management features to work.
- Learning curve. All software involves a learning curve, and all websites have their procedures and idiosyncrasies. Mastering a membership site software program now, instead of later, saves you time and duplicate effort down the road.
- Premium content doesn’t have to be “sold.” As I described in my Streetwise Guide to Relationship Marketing on the Internet book, which included a Foreword by Seth (”Mr. Permission Marketing” Godin), the web excels at customer retention. Websites based on membership site software make it easy for authors, coaches, and consultants to distribute Premium Content which can solidify content with current clients and A-list prospects. This Premium Content makes it easy to reward your clients and best prospects with valuable information that others cannot access–giving them tangible reasons to remain loyal to you (and refer you to others).
It simply doesn’t make sense to create two websites, often a “hostage” site now that you cannot update yourself, and a membership site later, when you can do the job once, and simply turn on additional capabilities as needed.