Building Paid Membership Sites for Money: Teaching Sells Review
I recently wrote about a free report about making money online. If you haven’t read it, the 28 page eBook gave a general introduction on how teaching others and selling content or your expertise can lead to the development of an attractive and sustainable income.
While it didn’t go into great detail about the entire process, it hinted at a paid training program with step by step instructions on how to easily create your own profitable membership sites.
And now that training program is alive. Launched two days ago, Teaching Sells is an paid membership site that teaches you how to create successful multimedia membership sites from ground up, even if you don’t have any prior experience.
Currently, the membership price is set at a special offer rate of $97 for 3 months of in-depth training. This rate is only valid until the midnight of October 31, 2007.
Let me tell you why this is worth your time and money.
Paid Membership Sites Are Profitable Business Models
I don’t have much experience on the building of paid membership sites, although I can easily see how lucrative they can really be.
As informational hubs, paid membership sites can easily make a lot money by providing specialized and well packaged knowledge in the form of a paid membership website. Let’s consider a hypothetical but very possible scenario.
Say you were to set up a well designed membership site around a specific topic. If you were to charge $50 per head every month and manage to get 200 members, you’ll make $10K a month. Now let’s throw in a closed affiliate program for the 200 members and each of them manages to bring in around 5 members, which is really a very conservative estimate.
This would mean that you’ll get an extra 1000 members. Even if you offer a 50% commission rate, you’ll still stand to gain an extra $25K, which makes your income $35K a month. Now you can see where I’m going. The affiliate program will continuously bring in more paying customers who will in turn recruit more members.
If you’re really feeling adventurous, set up a public affiliate program and throw in some multi-tier commissions to encourage down-line building. Or create staggered membership programs, each with different levels of features and rates for customers with different skill levels or requirements.
And what’s the coolest thing of it all? You only have to create content for these paying customers and no one else. Every single word you write or video you create has an immediate return on investment (ROI).
This is the complete opposite of what most blogs do: they put up free content to attract search and referral traffic, in the hope of eventually getting some ad revenue.
From an entrepreneur’s perspective, paid membership sites have no meaningless movements. No useless gestures. I like the precision involved in providing content, while knowing that you’re getting paid for it instantly by people who are really interested in learning and acting upon your content.
Self-sustaining subscription-based revenue is a lovely thing, isn’t it?
Teaching Sells: Learn to Build a Membership Site that Works
Teaching Sells is a 12-Week training program that’s broken down into 5 main courses. Each of the courses is divided into various lessons which feature content in various formats: text articles, audio files, interactive diagrams and a link to a discussion forum specifically for each lesson.
Here are the descriptions for the five courses:
- How to Create Content that Sells. The Teaching Sells core course materials demonstrate the reasons why interactive learning environments create powerful and sustainable businesses, while providing detailed techniques for selecting profitable topics and objectives.
- How to Effectively Market Interactive Learning Environments. This in-depth marketing course shows you how to specifically attract and retain paid members for your training programs.
- How to Create Killer Multimedia Content with Quick and Easy Tools. This course is an extended set of screencast tutorials that show you exactly how to get the most out of old standards like PowerPoint, as well as demonstrate the powerful new tools that allow you to create stunning interactive elements. This teaches you to develop valuable teaching materials that sell.
- Seven Profitable Business Models for Interactive Content Developers. In this course, you’ll learn in detail about seven different strategies that will allow you to add significantly to your bottom line thanks to the value you’ve provided with your training materials.
- Building Membership Sites with Open Source and Low-Cost Software. While the content and marketing of your site is of vital importance, you absolutely must have an air-tight membership site in order to function as an online business. This course will take you though each and every step necessary to build a secure and user-friendly membership site.
I enrolled in the program yesterday and checked it out. Like most membership websites, there is a general discussion forum where members can pose questions on topics that are not related to a specific course or topic.
There’s also a joint venture forum, which encourages you to collaborate with other members on collective projects or team-based marketing. I think this would be a very useful section when more and more members come in; it won’t be difficult to find business partners of compatible interests, ambitions or skills.
I’ve been a member of paid membership sites before and there are three main reasons why I consider them to be useful:
- Expert Guidance and Personal Tutelage. A well maintained membership site allows you to have frequent direct contact with the instructor. This allows you to tap their expertise on specific topics and will also help to clarify any personal problems you may have with your online business or website.
- Beneficial Interaction with Other Members. This is the second best thing about membership sites. You get to learn together with other members and communicate with each other over each lesson. It’s like being back in college. Anyone who has went through training courses like this will tell you that they’ve easily made quite a few friends and business partners for life.
- Comprehensive Information Package. Most of what you want to learn can be found on the web or in books. The selling point of most membership sites (as you might learn yourself) is how the content is packaged and presented. Instead of compiling articles by surfing the web, you pay and get them served up to you in multiple formats.
From what I’ve seen and read so far, Teaching Sells is an excellent and legitimate training program for bloggers, consultants and entrepreneurs. If you’re hesitant about signing up for it, note that there’s a money back guarantee which allows you to quit within 30 days and get a complete refund.
If you are interested in learning how to build profitable membership sites, I would definitely recommend signing up for Teaching Sells. Keep in mind that you can always cancel your membership and get a refund when it doesn’t fit what you need.
And if you do sign up for it, make sure you really study the materials and interact with the other students. I highly recommend pestering the instructors (Brian Clark and Tony Clark) by contacting them with any queries you may have. After all, you’ve paid for their valuable time and expertise. 
Enjoy yourself and have fun learning this rewarding business model.
I’m really interested in this course. My only real hesitation at the moment is that I can’t think of a subject that I know well enough that I could teach and charge for. I have snippets of knowledge at the moment but I don’t feel it’s good enough to build a whole course around. I’m still mulling… but it’s really tempting because I read both Brian and Tony’s blogs and like them a lot.
It is look like a pyramid? Isn’t it?
Caroline,
I’ve joined the course above and was hesitant like you were. But, as I also read Brian’s and Tony’s blog too I knew their writing and opnions were trustworthy. Reading their teaching sells report didn’t reveal ‘ah ha that’s something new’ inspiration, but it did provide a different view, and that is what the course does for me. I think the price is cheap and 3 months for just under £50 (sterling) is a steal - they also have a joint venture forum, so you could find someone to ‘fill the gap’ on your knowledge with theirs.
What exactly do you get from the membership besides access to a forum? It sounds like some text/HTML files that are also read in audio, with diagrams?
Great info. as always
This does sound interesting but only if they also cover how to make money from free membership sites - and it doesn’t look like they do :(. Do you have any suggestions of where I can find that info. from a reliable source??
Thanks
I am all over this thing. Most programs of this type I would never trust, but because of Brian’s blogging, I have come to trust him and didn’t hesitate for a moment to plunk down my money to get into this program. I’ve already found it valuable and they’re still adding content to it.
Hey Caroline, that might not be a problem. Here are a couple of excerpts from Brian’s most recent email: “…you can simply borrow the expertise of others in ways that they will love you for.” See the full article here: http://teachingsells.com/artic.....an-expert/
Hey Maki, I’m with you! I’ve been considering a membership site for several months — for the reasons you so eloquently point out. Teaching Sells looks like the perfect model and learning program for me to discover the BEST way to make that happen. See ya there!
Working with direct ad selling & affiliates brings in money, but it’s nothing compared to your example Maki.
You need to use the authority you build online for new businesses, both online & offline.
I liked the Steve Pavlina example in Teaching Sells. Steve Pavlina has much less traffic than John Chow, however Pavlina makes at least 2x what Chow does.
Yes, paid memberships would be for making money. Kind of an oxymoron. And the idea of teaching really does sell.
Unfortunately, very few programs really teach anything.
It does get people excited though. The trick is to get people to part with a few bucks just beyond the 30 day money back guarantee. One of the oldest snake oil tricks in direct marketing.
This stuff was around way before the Internet.
I’m interested too but I’m not sure that my niches are something that people would be interested in. Who’s going to pay for a How To Make Compost course?
Seems like this would be better for people in the How To Make Money niche.
A website such as “teaching sells” can be risky since some people can scrap the whole site in a day after registering, then quit for a full refund. Then they make a website with the scrapped content for free (to get ad revenue)or for half the price. Since there is always a refund within 30 days the scrapper can rinse and repeat this tactic to get their latest content (using different credit cards or paypal accs). Same holds true for blogging as well but you get traffic from search engine so ad revenue doesn’t suffer. Blogging is indeed less risker than membership site.
Great information, thanks Caroline
@ Caroline
Picking a niche and topic to focus on is always the tricky part, even for a blog or affiliate site. I have considered hiring teachers instead of teaching myself, although that would mean I’m missing out on a huge opportunity to build my personal brand.
I guess you’ll want to figure it out gradually… actually, I may post this question in the members forum and see what response I actually get.
@Kopernick
Nah, it ain’t a pyramid at all.
@Brett
I guess what you are really paying for is someone to hold your hand and tell you what exactly you need to do from ground zero to eventually setting up a profitable paid membership site. This includes content, interaction with other students and personal contact with instructors/expects.
I would say its a little more than just a few pieces of text/audio files. Like I’ve mentioned, most of what’s out there can be studied by your own although I really do think one could benefit a lot from the integrated focus and learning schedule, which forces you to act on what you’ve learned by setting up and testing your own sites.
@digitalnomad
That’s essentially the business model for paid subscription websites: to lock you into a subscription plan for a product or service which you think is valuable for you. Calling it a snake oil trick is just cynicism talking…After all, not all subscription sites offer products which over-promise and under-deliver.
One will only pay for something which one deems as valuable and appropriate for its price. Time-pressed executives pay for audio-book library subscriptions, others pay to learn a language online through a multi-media website. It really just depends on your goals, needs and interests.
@Michael, Nick and Bonnie
Glad you guys are already enjoying the website.
@Crystal
Making money from free membership sites is pretty much similar to blogs. Pull in traffic and convert them into ad or affiliate revenue…I don’t know of any resource which focuses exclusively on this but this is basically the gist of it. ^_^
@david
You can scrap virtually anything on the internet if you really want to… but can you pull in a crowd and sell it en masse? I doubt so. Brands matter. Marketers are well aware that their content can be appropriated easily, thats why they focus a lot on list-building and personal branding.
I’ll really like how to see how a scrapper can get even 100 customers for their paid subscription site by using stolen content. Marketers who set up huge membership sites usually have an email list that numbers in the thousands and a brand that many recognizes as ‘expert’.
This is what makes them stand out from others and this is what reduces any possible risk element.
I said “very few” programs really “teach” anything.
I did not say anything about “products”, or anything about “over-promise” and “under-deliver”.
Don’t put words in my mouth. The “Trick” (and it is a business model) is to get people to pay a sum (the trial subscription) that is assumed by the marketer to be considered by the consumer less than what they are willing to attempt to recover within the money back guarantee period.
I was not passing judgment on this particular program. I have not even read or reviewed the materials, nor do I know about, or wish to comment on the quality of their teaching methodology.
And yes, the fact is, this marketing technique has been around ever since newspapers and periodicals have been around.
I also know that some people pay for audio books and language courses and consider such things to be of value. Thanks for pointing this out.
BTW, I have even bought subscriptions and memberships and considered them to be a value.
I was only making a general perception about the business model category. Who made you the great seer of everything and the final arbitrator, and last word anyway?
Anyone that does not commend you, or tell you how great you are and how swell each post is, does not necessarily take issue with you.
The comment was not cynical, and not even critical of your post. Get a little more thick skinned, and get a grip.
It sounds interesting however I think if people take the time to research it they can find the information for free. I guess it comes in handy if someone doesn’t feel like looking for it. LOL
digitalnomad.. you just left another snarky comment on another post 2 hours ago and I don’t know what you’re trying to achieve here. If you don’t like my site, don’t come over and start looking for a fight. There are other places where you can find great content.
You’re kicking up a big fuss over my comment. Seriously dude, read my comment and examine yours again. I’m just offering my opinion, as you did yours. I knew you were not talking about this specific program but the model in general.
If I misunderstood your intentions, my apologies. Anything you want to say, just email me. I don’t want to turn the comment section into a bitching/fighting arena.
Divergent viewpoints are always welcome. Proof?: I never did delete or censure any comment you ever left on Dosh Dosh. Go check. I’ll wait.
But when you’re just being a rude troll, that ain’t too cool. Go hang out somewhere else.
Brian and tony had a nice program coming up, i guess this is a worthy $97 spent for 3 months..anyway maki, congrats on your PAGERANK jumping to PR6..THE RECENT updates were out and still some are demoted, suspected text links. I compile a list for most of the sites that were recently updated.
Its great that you have multiple streams of income. The thing about paying for information is that on the one hand, if its a good site, it will provide readers indepth information. the bad thing is that if one did some searching you can probably find that same info for free somewhere. i think it works if you have a loyal readership and word of mouth spreads about the site or service. i think its an interesting venture nonetheless.
maki, big ups for how you handled digitalnomad. seems like digitalnomad has alot of time to write such a long comment. he should focus that type of energy and intensity on his blog. i do think tho that paying for anything related to a lesson online is usually not such a good idea. tons of free info floating about on the net. ebooks are usually lame and people who are still trying to sell ebooks should check back to 1992.
I’ve noticed a lot of interest in paid membership sites lately. Could this be because ad blocking is so prevalent that it is putting a huge dent in site revenues?
this sounds like a good deal.Let me take a look at it before deciding if to join it.97 for 3 months is not that expensive though
I think this is a great idea if you have content that you know will generate more income potential for the subscriber than the cost of the subscription. I can see that as an important part of marketing and selling the subscription.
Is it solely up to the content provider to drive traffic, or does Teaching Sells also promote the paid membership sites of its subscribers?
Time for a Reality Check, maki. I have to quibble about your numbers.
Granted, most every Tom, Dick, and Harry sees value in running a membership site because it promises regular recurring income. But, unless Tom (or a buddy) already has a sizeable customer list or some serious bucks to spend on PPC, how is he going to generate that first 200 customers?
And how many people will spend $50 a month *forever* on a training course? Come on! Five bucks, maybe, or even ten; most people could let that roll on without much pain. But fifty?
Don’t get me wrong: I signed up for Teaching Sells. I like the concept, but I am asking myself serious questions about the monetization…
@John Matenkosky
I’m just crunching numbers as an example for the article but obviously you can run a low-risk high-volume setup (low membership fees and large number of paid subscribers) instead of a high-risk low-volume game (premium rates for a smaller circle of players).
It doesn’t have to be $50 although if you look at sites like Stompernet, the rates can go above 100 per month and yes.. people STILL pay for it. Like Christine said, if the income potential exceeds the initial investment… people will run with your idea. They will give it a shot.
You can start with a low-risk offer like what Brian did with his special 3 month charter discount to pull in a larger crowd.. heck, you can even go much lower if you want. The most important point here is to build up a core level of affiliates who will do the recommending/selling for you.
Take Teaching Sells. Granted Brian already has a popular blog and a large number of subscribers, he still JV-ed with several other bloggers (myself included) to push the free report.
Retention for any membership program is always a challenge, but when you can pull in a large mass of interested visitors from the onset, it makes it so much easier later on when you have a solid affiliate program in place.
I too signed up for this course on the 24th. It looks like it is something they put a lot of thought into, hoping to make it easy enough for anyone to do. Per usual, there will be some dropouts (and I hope I am not one of them), or there may be some to lag behind. Let me just make a point here about who will pay how much for something. Take a gander at QVC sometime when they are selling something that you wouldn’t wear to a dog fight. Amazingly enough, things like costume jewelry half the size of a dinner plate and costing $75 bucks sells out in no time flat. In the case of Teaching Sells, I believe that if you build a site with worthy material, “they will come”.
Maki,
Thanks for this write-up and for your balamced opinion. One thing which has puzzled me over the past few eeks since Teaching Sells has started being publically available is their affiliate program.
I see a number of high-power sites, like yours, revieing and recommending the prpgram, with affiliate links, yet there doesn’t seem to be any place on the Teaching sells site itself to sign up as an affiliate.
I wrote directly to Brian Clark on this issue and haven’t received any response. I’d like to write more on this subject and offer my views and recommendations as well … but why not as an affiliate? Was this some sort of private, invitation only scheme … and if so, why? Eeven if my tiny bog only wakes afew sales, wouldn’t Brian still be ahead of the game? Anyway, I know it’s not your issue but it might make some blog fodder.
A great piece Maki. I think that crucially memberships only work as part of an integrated content monetization plan. When put together with advertising, ecommerce and affiliate revenue subscription payments make an attractive revenue source. In our experience at SubHub for a website to work with only subscriptions the site needs to hit the ground running with a critical mass of subscribers. If not then it makes sense to build up the audience over time and generate revenue from other streams in the meantime such as advertising.
Even if it was a Pyramid type scheme, there is nobody better than Brian Clark teaching you to write effectively.
Signed up for the “Teaching Sells” course from your reccomendation and like what I have seen so far. I have a small blog, in scope and readership(very small) and never thought of monetizing it. But creating an educational portal sounds really cool…thanks for the info.
Just a heads up for those looking to purchase a membership site… stay clear of Andy’s new site at http://www.membershipsitescript.com the guy is a crook and refuses to give refunds, not only that, but all members sites are diectly tied to the owners site, and if his site goes down so does yours!!!! I requested a refund in December and the owner is simply ignoring me and refusing to refund my $97 even though he has a full 30day no questions asked guarantee.
Don’t waste your money, you won’t get it back and be equally disappointed in the hijacked script.
Great information, thanks