10 Types of Membership You Need to Know

In my Profitable Membership Bootcamp I teach that there are 10 types of membership structure and they are all different in the way they are launched and run.⁠
⁠
With all these options there is bound to be one that works for your business.⁠
⁠
1. 'Library/Wiki' membership⁠.

This type of membership is perfect if you have lots of existing content you can repurpose. A library membership is really a vault of classes, courses and other resources your members can dip into whenever they like. Two of my memberships are variations on this type of membership. My Dream Business Academy contains over 70 marketing and business classes and courses that were previously sold separately in my business. I wanted to simplify, so decided to put them all together in one place and offer an annual membership of £99 per year, which is a no-brainer price. We also have a monthly Q&A/Coaching call which allows me to regularly connect with my lovely members and ensure nobody is stuck - the replays are added to the Dream Business Academy vault. The fact that it’s an annual membership means nobody is under pressure to binge-watch and leave.

2. 'New content each month' membership⁠
This is the type of membership that most people think of when you mention the word ‘membership.’ It’s where each month new training or content is added. Many of my previous memberships started out this way but I made a classic mistake with a few of them - watch my short videos and I’ll explain why Another question I often get is about whether it’s fair that a member who was with you at the beginning and has paid for several months of membership (and content) should get the same access to a new member who joins at month 10, for example. I recorded a little video here to tell you my thoughts on this.


3. 'Start at step one' membership⁠
This type of membership has each new member starting at the same point. With the ‘new content each month’ membership, every member has the same new content each month. With ‘start at step one’ memberships, everyone starts at the beginning and gets the following modules in order. This means you will have members at different stages at any given time. This type of membership works well if, in order to learn better, individuals need to follow certain steps and build on them each time. An example might be a quilting membership for beginners where the first lessons are about basic techniques, tools and equipment and then later lessons cover mini-projects that get increasingly more advanced.

4. 'Build as you go' membership⁠
This one gives you LOADS of flexibility because you literally build it as you go. You can start with just a calendar and decide what you want to add, as you go. That might be videos and classes, Q&A calls, templates, bundles or whatever else your members need at the time.

5. 'Course into a membership' membership⁠
Have you ever considered taking a longer course and turning it into a membership instead, so the only way people can access it is via their ongoing subscription? It means you forfeit any ‘pay in full’ payments you might have got but otherwise, it can be an amazing way to continue to give ongoing support even when the course is officially over. I’ve seen this done really successfully in several businesses.

6. 'Calls-only' membership⁠
This is where there is no content, just one or more Zoom calls or Facebook live group calls with your members. It can work brilliantly when your members don’t want training, but instead they want access to you and your knowledge. This way, instead of people picking your brains for free you can direct them to your membership instead. I share an example in this blog of one of my clients, Anne, who has a successful calls-only membership for her riding clients.

7. 'Emails-only' membership⁠
Yes, you can have a membership where members get weekly or monthly emails as their subscription content. A few years ago I joined a membership like this to help me with PR. Every week we would get some links to journalists looking for contributors plus some PR tips.

8. 'Downloads-only' membership⁠
I’m in a membership now where I pay for stock photographs - new ones are added each month. You could also do this with Canva templates, email campaign templates, recipes or patterns. Think about what your audience would love to get their hands on and how you could turn it into monthly download bundles.

9. 'Community-only' membership⁠

This works well with networking groups. The members are paying their subscription so that you can bring them together online for networking events. Could this model work for you?

10. 'Guest-content' membership⁠

You don’t create the content, you curate it instead. This membership involves you finding fabulous guest speakers and teachers to either pre-record your monthly content or run live teaching with/for you.
⁠
You can even create a hybrid mix 'n' match membership as long as it works for you and your members.⁠
⁠
There is a membership to suit every business - which you choose depends on who you're targeting, what you teach or sell, what content you already have and how much time you want to spend each month.⁠
⁠
Decide which you think might work for you and then make it happen!⁠
⁠
Love, Claire xx⁠