I've seen too many people give up on their membership site dream due to tech and content overwhelm. When you are starting out and don't have an audience or don't have any experience creating/managing a membership site, start small!
Keep it simple.
Reduce the scope of what you are looking to do.
It'll automatically reduce the overwhelm and make the whole process a lot more fun and exciting.
Start With An Online Course
One of the least overwhelming and easiest ways to launch a membership site is by creating and launching a simple, short course from a membership site!
It'll help you get familiar with the process of setting up and managing a membership website. Your users will get familiar with the whole membership site experience - logging in, accessing course content, etc.
It'll give you the confidence you need when it's time to open the doors to your membership offer. Every piece of content you create for your course, you can make it part of your membership offer.
You'll already have an audience to sell it to!
Use your course to show what's possible and how it can be done. Use your membership offer to help your members implement it through your coaching, support, a done-for-you service and your guidance.
A Course Has A Specific Start And End Point
A course has a specific goal - a start and an end point so it's much easier to get started with a course.
Use your course to build your audience.
Get testimonials and publish it on your site.
Every mistake you make during the launch (and after), will help you avoid those mistakes when you launch your membership offer.
Continue to add more courses and other one-off products and then launch your membership offer.
Offer both monthly and annual membership options. Make the annual option more enticing by offering a discount on it. You want more people to signup for the annual option and make a long term commitment.
You can make all of your products/courses available to your monthly/annual members plus provide ongoing support via coaching/community.
The scope of a Membership Site is much Bigger
If you start directly with a membership site, the scope is so much bigger and also harder to define as it does not have a specific ending.
Even though a membership site is a LOT more than just content, when you don't have experience in the online space or don't have an audience, it can get quite overwhelming.
Keep it simple!
Start with a course.
Gain experience.
Build an audience.
Now you can confidently launch your membership offer!
DAP makes it EASY!
DigitalAccessPass (DAP) is one of the very few membership plugins that comes with an advanced built-in LMS for your courses. DAP makes it super easy to create/deliver all kinds of products/levels, in addition to courses.
DAP is an all-in-one membership and course solution. What this means is... you no longer have to pay for an external LMS plugin. Whether you want to sell memberships, one-off products, courses, digital downloads, you can do it all using DAP!
See this post to see how you can use DAP's course builder to quickly and easily create your courses!
Building a membership site using DAP is easier-than-ever!
My Presentation at the upcoming WordSesh event!
I'm honored to have been selected to present @ the upcoming WordSesh event for WordPress users!
The topic of my presentation is "Grow your Audience with Gamification"!
Please join me for my presentation on May 27th @ 12 PM Pacific.
The good news is... you can register for FREE!
I'll be sharing how to get your users to do EXACTLY what you want them to do using simple gamification strategies in your courses and membership site.
You may want to add my presentation to your calendar especially if you are a DAP user! It's on May 27th @ 12 Pacific!
My presentation this year is all about audience building using strategies that work and can actually be implemented! It's NOT one of the "looks nice on paper" strategies. I've shared the same strategies that I've used in my courses and membership sites with great success.
Get started with DAP today!
Whether it's building a rewards-based membership, pay-per-view content, advanced learning management features, converting from static content to interactive content, group management or just the core membership features, DAP is the only membership plugin that can do it all!
Don't have DAP? Don't wait!
Get started today!