• There's more value in memberships because new content is released every month 
• It’s easier to sell because The cost is typically “lower” than an online course
• We think we can serve more people with less work involved 
• && of course, the elusive "passive revenue" everyone and their mother is after...

The Downside of Running a Membership Site: 

• Let's start with everyone's favourite Passive Revenue. Essentially everyone wants a higher amount of MONTHLY RECURRING REVENUE but what most people don't consider before starting their memberships is Churn Rate 
  • Churn rate is how long on average a new client will stay inside your membership
  • The average time spent in a membership is 3-4 months on the high side. 
  • This essentially means that in order to maintain consistent revenue each month you need to have a high amount of NET NEW leads coming into your business && be constantly developing & testing new methods of keeping clients inside your offer LONGER.
  • Now you can mitigate some of these challenges by having minimum monthly commitment 3 months to a year... but then, doesn't that defeat the point of a membership you can cancel anytime & selling a lower cost offer?
• Speaking of price - Theres this belief that memberships are easier to sell because there is often a "lower" or more "accessible" price for people... But have you ever stopped to ask yourself what else in the world is priced "Low"? Commodities. Things that are literally available every where & in the online business space that tends to be information.
  • We have to remember that People are not hiring you as a coach, mentor, consultant or service provider in your online business for your information, they can find information literally ANYWHERE for free - they’re hiring to overcome a specific problem & the better you are at solving that problem —— the more people are willing to pay you 
  • Membership sites often solve too Broad a problem to be able to clearly articulate the problem solved & therefor end up marketing the INFORMATION received which leads to lower price points. &&  less “results”
  • We can also look at Online Newspaper subscriptions like the New York Times or the Globe & Mail... The price is so low because they realize that realistically you can get this information anywhere --- you're simply paying for the connivence of having it on one site with an angle you like more than others & at the end of the day while that is worth SOMETHING it's not worth a premium price.
  • && since we're in business to make $$ & help people lower price points mean more people required to hit your income goal, less buy in for people to USE the service… even with a membership that’s priced on the high end — let’s say $249 per month, you’d need to initially FIND 40 people meet a $10K revenue goal & attract a minimum of 8 NEW People every month to MAINTAIN that 10K goal & that's being conservative --- that's without growth!
  • Not to mention the fact that It’s harder to get someone to sign up for ANOTHER reoccurring monthly fee with no end in sight. I mean, do you get excited at the thought of ANOTHER subscription where you have to pay forever to get the result? Let me know in the comments below.
• Speaking of never ending payment plans... This also requires a never ending stream of new content from YOU weekly, biweekly, monthly or quarterly which poses a couple of challenges...
  • Think of Netflix (one of the largest subscriptions on the planet)- if they never released new movies eventually you’d stop paying for the service because you watched everything possible 
  • The same is true for your membership. No new content, no reason to stay on the platform & therefore higher churn rate. For some business owners this constant requirement of new content can be overwhelming & lead to burn out.
  • Let's come back and look at Netflix -- there's SO MUCH content that their biggest challenges is getting their members to actually PICK something to watch && the same can also be true in the coaching / course space.
  • Not only does new content all the dang time create decision fatigue for your clients, This can also make the information hard to navigate and at times confusing or “overwhelming” for your client to access because there’s just SO MUCH. 
  • You can mitigate these challenges by making content more searchable, & correctly sorting and categorizing content for your people to explore. If you like that type of thing DITTO.
    
    

Knowing the Challenges of Membership sites - Who is This Type of Offer Best For? 

• People who access to LARGE audiences that knows, likes & trusts so they can sell based on VOLUME & general outcomes vs a specific problem solved 
• Business owners who have a never ending stream of ideas & who have an abundance of time on their hands to constantly be creating & releasing new content 
• People who are excited to find new ways to keep clients staying longer & enjoy the challenge of making content more SEARCHABLE & Categorizing information
• Business owners who want to provide TRANSACTIONAL INFORMATION to people to do what they please with vs providing a SPECIFIC RESULT or TRANSFORMATION for your niche 
  
  

Let's Dive Into Courses

1. Let's start with everyones favourite here as well --- with "passive revenue" --- now remember that true passive revenue is when you make $$ while you're NOT working or when you're making $$ today off of work that you did YESTERDAY or in the PAST.
   1. Unlike membership sites where you’re creating new content every single month for your people to consume With courses you do the work once & Sell it multiple times… 
   2. Aside from the occasional course update to help improve the RESULTS in your course, you get to create the course ONCE and sell it forever. Meaning you're not spending your time every single month recreating the wheel or developing new content inside your course.
   3. This means that after that initial time running & creating your course you get to focus your efforts on perfecting & automating your MARKETING (required for passive $$) & generating sales. 
   4. Speaking of SALES --- literally the back bone of your online business....
2. The majority of my clients and community have found Courses are typically easier to sell & make it easer to generate high revenue consistently due to being able to charge MORE
   1. Really great online courses are ones that provide a specific transformation for a specific person. Instead of giving someone INFORMATION like most memberships— courses give people only the INFORMATION & ACTION needed to get the client to their desired state.
   2. For this reason most business owners have an easier time to selling courses because they're able to more clearly describe the OUTCOMES & PROMISES of the course (you can watch this video here to learn more about OUTCOME based marketing) —
   3. Since your focused on solving one specific problem for a specific person it's much easier to create RESULTS CONSISTENTLY for your audience--- those results that your course produced can then be SHARED with your audience or comminunity as SOCIAL PROOF which allows you to charge a higher PRICE POINT & Makes the TRUST factor required for sales that much easier.
   4. Higher price point Let’s say that your online course is $2,000 per month & your income goal is $10K months… you only need 5 new clients per month to reach your goal vs 40 in your membership ...
3. Not to mention the fact that courses are often sold for a one time fee OR a set number of payments. This makes it easier for the mind to understand the perceived VALUE exchange for the transformation & gives the client CERTAINTY & SAFETY to invest knowing they will eventually see a RETURN on their investment so long as they do the work.
   1. The "higher" join fee allows you to gain more CASH in hand each month & if you offer short term (3 - 6 months) payment plans allows you to STACK payments of a higher value to have more CONSISTENT cash flow monthly in your online business.
   2. When your revenue is CONSISTENT you're able to better invest in software, people & systems to double down on what is working in your online business so you can continue to OPTIMIZE your marketing, course & sales process to get BETTER over time. vs Memberships which have you spending a lot of your time CREATING new content vs OPTIMIZING your sales and marketing to drive new people.
      
      

Knowing the Benefits & Challenges of Courses Who is the Evergreen Course Model Best For?

Coaches, consultants & service providers who want to build a business that is centered around:

1. Business Owners who have access to SMALLER audience or COMMUNITIES (100 to 1000+ people) & desire to focus on RELATIONSHIPS & COMMUNITY vs building a massive AUDIENCE
2. Business owners who have a finite number of hours in the day to run their online business & do not wish to spend the majority of time creating EVEN MORE content then is already required to produce and share on social media
3. Business owners who are excited to have their business become easier and easier to run over time & who like have predictable and stable income while knowing EXACTLY what tasks are important to produce results
4. Business owners who want to provide LIFE CHANGING RESULTS & TRANSFORMATIONS for their communities & who desire to work with people who SHOW UP & DO THE WORK without needing to be handheld