Busting Some Membership Myths

Some people, maybe even you, think that a membership won’t work in their business. When I ask on my Facebook page and in my groups “what’s stopping you adding a membership to your business?” the same answers crop up over and over again. And do you know what? Most of those beliefs and blocks are either wrong or easy to overcome.

The Monthly Content Myth

One of the myths I often see is that you MUST have monthly content in a membership. This is not true. There are lots of membership models that do not involve new content each month. Many of them have no content at all - they are still successful and their members love them. In fact, I wrote a whole blog about no-content memberships here.

The Tons of Time Membership Myth

You probably think running a membership would be too time-consuming and you’re just too busy. I get that. But, what if you designed a membership that DIDN’T take much time to set up and run? Like a no-content membership or a light-touch™ membership that might take a couple of hours a month, doing stuff you enjoy. And honestly why would you design a membership that’s big and complicated and not fun to run? Don’t do that!

The Energy-Sucking Membership Myth

See above. If you think a membership would suck the life out of you and take over your life for hardly any return, design a membership that doesn’t!

The Hundreds of Members Mean Success Myth

Many people believe that to have a successful membership you need hundreds of members. You don’t. At least not in the beginning. My philosophy is that you grow a membership one member at a time, and focus on getting a new member each week and then each day. It soon adds up. Remember, your members are paying you every month like clockwork for very little work on your part, so if you ‘only’ have 10 or 20, you’re still bringing in a nice chunk of money each month that you otherwise would not have had. What’s not to love?

Also, just think about this. You create a brand new membership and you’re finding your feet, seeing what works, getting to know your new members and all of a sudden 100 new members join. You’d probably get overwhelmed fast, or at least have a bit of a panic. Later on, when you’re used to running your membership and know it all works smoothly, 100 new members would be easy to manage. In the early days, it’s much better to start small, get it working and then grow it gradually.

The Fancy Software Myth

Did you think you need fancy, expensive software to run a membership? Nope. You can if you want, and using membership software will probably make your life easier but you can start by bootstrapping your membership OR using something like Payhip, where you’re not charged until someone joins. Lots of my Recurring Income Academy members start with Payhip and then move if they need to. It doesn’t suit everyone but it’s a good place to start.

Bootstrapping your membership might look like taking payment via a Stripe or Paypal link and hosting your videos in a Facebook group and (because Facebook doesn’t allow you to charge for a Facebook group) using emails to tell your members what’s coming up, and how to access their resources. That way you’re covered AND if anything happened to your group then you can use emails to get everyone set up elsewhere.

You could host videos in a Google Drive or Dropbox BUT remember you need a way to remove access from those who leave - yes you can manage sharing to individuals but this is not a scalable option. Something like Payhip will restrict access to people who have left the membership, which is a huge time saver and ensures your valuable content is only seen by your members. I use Simplero, which is a higher-priced open but I LOVE IT because it not only handles all my payments and content, it also handles my emails, customer service, automations and more.

The Big Audience Myth

You don’t need a big audience, you can create and grow a membership with a small audience of THE RIGHT PEOPLE. Remember, you grow a successful membership one member at a time so focus on attracting ideal member ‘candidates’ to your audience. Start building an email list of ideal members and make sure your content on social media speaks to them too. A small audience of the right people is enough to let you test out your membership idea and get your first members. What more do you need?

None of these beliefs and myths are enough to stop you adding a membership to your business. Hopefully you can see there is nothing to worry about - and now is a great time to get stuck in and make it happen.