http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com Practical content and design tips for membership site owners Fri, 20 Jun 2008 17:55:07 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yesterday, Mindjet's new website went live, containing details and pricing for Mindjet Connect, a new hosted service that permits collaborative online map creation and editing. This announcement has important implications for information marketers in general, and membership site owners in particular. Mindjet Connect offers a way for membership site owners ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/06/mindjet-connect-pricing-annoucement-opens-door-to-creating-premium-pricing-opportunities-based-on-new-interactive-membership-levels/ Sometimes the most powerful ideas are the least expensive, even--in these Internet days--free! For example, Google's online calendar. Google's online calendar permits you to schedule your membership site content updates and upcoming promotions and access your calendar from any computer with Internet access. Google's online calender makes it easy for you ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/06/googles-online-calendar-simplifies-scheduling-membership-site-content-updates-and-promotions/ During the past 20+ years, I've been fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to create design, writing, and marketing workshops and webinars for hundreds of associations and firms like the American Writers and Artists Institute, the International Consumer Electronics Show, Bang & Olufsen, Yamaha, Microsoft, Mindjet, and other, including ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/06/audio-conference-roger-c-parkers-redefining-newsletter-marketing-for-the-internet-age/ 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 ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/when-should-authors-coaches-and-consultants-start-a-membership-site/ Normally, WordPress, like many blogging programs, arranges blog categories alphabetically. However, the latest versions of WordPress, i.e., WordPress 2.5 and following, have a nifty feature that displays categories in order of usage. Simply click the "Most used" text link next to categories, and categories are displayed in descending order based ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/often-over-looked-wordpress-feature-helps-you-deliver-balanced-content/ Although postcards are usually thought of as lead generators, postcards also offer membership site owners an efficient way to reward their members at frequent intervals. Postcards attract attention because they enjoy great "surprise" value. In an age of e-mail, RSS feeds, and instant messaging, postcards stand out in the morning ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/new-folded-postcard-formats-make-it-easy-to-reward-your-members/ Tonight, on behalf of the Guerrilla Marketing Association, I'm inviting my membership site owner friends to attend a special teleseminar interview I'm conducting with Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth and Awakening the Entrepreneur Within. Michael’s “systems-based” messages have profound relevance for membership site owners interested in maximizing their site's ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/invitation-for-membership-site-owners-to-attend-michael-gerber-teleseminar-interview-tonight/ Many membership site owners conduct teleseminar interviews of experts in their field. These interviews not only provide great content for your members, but you can use these calls to introduce your site to your guests' prospects and clients. One of the best ways you can promote upcoming interviews and increase the ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/guest-profiles-can-help-membership-site-owners-increase-the-perceived-value-of-your-sites-obvious-expert-teleseminar-interviews/ I'm impressed with my first experiences with Peter Shankman's Help a Reporter Out, (HARO),  www.helpareporterout.com. Sign up as a resource and receive a few "compendium" e-mails a day containing the names and e-mail addresses of journalists looking for subject area experts for upcoming articles. HARO works both ways, of course. As ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/help-a-reporter-out-offers-free-promotional-and-research-resources-for-membership-site-owners/ I always wait before upgrading anything. If Windows comes out with updates, I always wait and see if they are working correctly. Sometimes, you just never know if all the kinks have been worked out. Well, I recently upgraded to WordPress 2.5 and absolutely loved it. A short time later, I saw that ... http://www.membershipsiteplanner.com/2008/05/when-i-upgraded-to-wordpress-251-my-rss-feeds-were-gone/