Membership Geeks Podcast with Mike Morrison

It's easy to get carried away in those early days of planning and building a membership site. So many people get overexcited by their idea and a little too swept up in the process that they skip the first few fundamental steps. Most importantly: idea validation and research. And then when they launch their membership and it doesn't quite go to plan, they're left scratching their heads wondering where it all went wrong. In this episode, I highlight the 7 most important things that you need to validate BEFORE moving forward with your membership idea. Episode Summary: The important of solving problems for your members, and how to know which problems people will actually pay for a solution to. Why identifying a gap in the market is over-rated, and doesn't always mean there's an opportunity for you. How having the perfect product and a 'hungry' market is not enough. There's an important third ingredient... Why you need to seriously question your own long term objectives for your membership

We're celebrating a huge milestone for The Membership Guys Podcast as we hit our 200th episode! To mark the occasion, we thought we’d do something a little special... So both Callie and I opened the floor up to you, and invited our members and wider audience to ask us absolutely anything you wanted - about anything! We’ve picked the best questions and answered them together in this special 200th episode. Enjoy! Episode Summary: How we handle working together, and our top tips for running a business with your spouse If we could go back in time, what would we do differently with our membership? What were those early days like for us? What challenges did we have? Did we have any doubts or fears? PLUS we discuss everything from community engagement to videogames, movies to content strategy and more!  

Membership websites are a value exchange. As long as you keep delivering value to your members - in the form of content, resources and ongoing investment in your product - they'll keep giving value to you in the form of their continued subscription payments. So what content can you actually include in your membership in order to ensure you keep up your side of the bargain?

When publishing content online - whether freely or inside a membership - there's always the chance that someone will copy or steal your hard work. In truth the only way to guarantee that this won't happen is to not publish anything online. However this doesn't mean you should just roll over if it happens to you. In this episode I give my top tips for dealing with people stealing and copying your content, with specific examples of the process we use in our own business. Episode Summary: The two main types of content theft that membership owners are susceptible to, and what you can do about them. Why the worst type of theft is the one where the offender likely doesn't realise that they're doing something wrong! What copyright theft actually means, and how to identify and gather evidence on more nuanced cases The process (and exact wording) that we use for approaching people who have ripped off our content

Reducing the price of your membership might sound like the last thing you'd ever want to do. As time goes on and you add more content, the value of your membership increases - so surely you'd be considering putting your prices up, not down? Why would you want to go backwards? However there are some situations where lowering your price might make total sense. Maybe what you're offering has actually changed? Maybe you got your pricing wrong from the start? Maybe you started off very hands-on but now you want to remove yourself from the picture. These are just a few scenarios where a price decrease might be considered. In this episode I discuss the implications of reducing your price and how to navigate the change in a way that doesn't cause problems with your existing members. Episode Summary: Situations where you might need to consider reducing the price of your membership site Why it's more complicated than you might realise to reduce the price of existing subscriptions Our top tips for making pricing changes without losing your existing members An alternative to reducing your membership price that's a win-win for everyone

Whether you're teaching a specialist subject, or want to support others who share your interests; it's now easier than ever to reach a global audience and get paid for sharing your time, skills, experience and expertise. Two of the best models for doing so are online courses and paid membership websites. However with those terms often used loosely and interchangeably, it can be tricky figuring out which is best for you. In this episode, we discuss the differences between courses and membership sites, and talk through the key factors to consider when choosing which to create.

We can spend months creating content, writing workbooks, pulling our hair out, and spending a small fortune on promoting a new membership site and then when we finally launch it… nobody joins. We all dread this as membership owners; and when it happens, the panic sets in and we start scrambling to rearrange the website, add testimonials, and change prices. This is all completely irrelevant stuff and won’t turn things around. So what should you do if your new membership fails?

One of the best things about running a membership website is that we can market and position it in a way that we attract the sort of members that we most want to work with. However no matter hard you try to get only the “right type” of people in your membership, you will inevitably experience problem members. Sometimes it will be a personality clash, where certain members just rub you up the wrong way; however there will be instances where you need to deal with potentially toxic elements among your member base. So how do you deal with them? I address that question and more on the latest episode of The Membership Guys Podcast. Episode Summary: The questions you need to ask yourself before dealing a ‘problem’ member How to implement a two-tier “strike” based approach to dealing with issues When it’s the right time to kick out difficult members The process and steps to take when removing someone from your membership

Creating membership content can be one of the most time consuming parts of running a paid membership website. If you’re billing people on a recurring basis, you need to deliver value on a recurring basis; and often delivering that value involves some form of content. In this episode of The Membership Guys Podcast, I discuss how to approach content strategy for your membership, and the steps to take in order to ensure your production process is streamlined so you’re not constantly grinding to put out new content. Episode Summary: Two key mindset shifts to embrace that will change how you approach your membership content What content you should be creating, and how to deliver more while actually REDUCING your workload The steps you need to take before hiring someone to help you to produce content The one thing that will make a monumental difference to your content production process

Less than a month ago, Callie bought a book. Unbeknownst to her, that simple act would be the start of the single worst buyer experience she's ever encountered, as she found herself subscribed to a membership she never signed up for, with no clear way out. In the interests of seeing how far the rabbit hole of terrible business practices went, she decided to see it through... Join us on this rather unusual episode of The Membership Guys Podcast as we take a step by step tour through how NOT to run a membership (or any other business, for that matter!) Episode Summary: Why tricking people into joining your membership is a seriously dumb strategy! (And could land you in serious trouble) Ignoring support emails and deleting comments from your community will hurt your rep and cost you customers Trying to hold members hostage and making it impossible to cancel doesn't work Why seeing people who lack integrity and use bad practices motivate us to be better