Lessons, Tips and Tricks for Selling Online Content

Thanks to everyone who watched and participated in the Mixergy interview today. It was a lot of fun. I had no idea we went that long until I looked down at my laptop clock!

I hope I motivated a lot of people to get charging. If you missed it I will let you know when the recording has been posted.

To those folks who are new to our little “content selling paradise” here at MemberCon, I thought I would point to you to a few posts that will give you a feel for the site and what we’re all about.

I mentioned a few of these in the interview as well:

1. 10 Things I Learned About Growing a Membership Site This Summer

2. High Fives For Unsubscribes!

3. How To Start a Membership Site: Part 1 and Part 2

Don’t forget to subscribe to the RSS Feed and follow us on Twitter.

Tim starting a membership site

I’ve posted before about Andrew Warner and Mixergy previously. Andrew does terrific video interviews with entrepreneurs and start ups.

He’s decided to start charging for his archives and the whiners have come out in force to say how they would never pay for content since there is so much out there for free online.

It makes me gag to read some of the comments. As usual, the freebie-hounds are the most vocal and while I would love to reply to every single ridiculous comment, I don’t have the time and honestly it would be like talking to a wall.

I couldn’t help myself on one. To “can we pay you with links instead? That would get you a lot more traffic!” comment I replied, “Great idea! I’m calling my mortgage company right now to see if I can link to them from my blog instead of sending a check next month.”

Here’s the link. It’s exactly what to expect if you’ve been creating great content for free and then decide to charge. And it’s exactly what you’ll need to ignore. If you believe that paid content can be a viable business (if you’re reading this blog I hope you do), please go over and leave a few comments and replies.

Oh and by the way, he’s only charging for older interviews – all the new ones will still be free for a short time. The whiners are still whining…

Andrew will be interviewing me this week about taking a site from free to paid and I can’t wait. I’ll let you know if you’ll be able to watch it live or if the link to the recording when it is ready.

Tim starting a membership site

I say #2 because I think over-delivering on the value of the content is the #1 way to avoid refunds.

But if the #1 reason people request a refund for a membership site or subscription content is sub-standard content, a very close second is that they feel un-appreciated. It is very easy to feel like a number online. Even our email confirmations which include order # or member # make us feel like we’re just a number.

By the way, are you using the stock “thank you” email your membership site software sends to new members? If so, stop. Write the thank you email in your own voice and give your members your direct email address and phone number to call if they have any questions. That’s right – I said your direct phone number and email address.

I recently gave out my cell phone number in an email broadcast to our entire membership list. A few people asked if I was immediately overwhelmed with calls in the middle of the night. Of course not! Very few people actually called. But thousands felt pretty good about the fact that they could if they needed to.

Back to the #2 way to avoid requests for refunds. It’s simple and inexpensive: a handwritten thank you card. The great thing about so many people treating their members and online customers like numbers is that it is really easy to blow someone away with a little personalization. And I’m not talking about using their first name in the subject line or top line of an email. That worked for about 30 seconds until everyone figured out how to do that.

Everyone who becomes a Lifetime Member of our sites gets a handwritten thank you and my business card with my mobile phone number.

Now, I think our content is outstanding, so it’s hard to say the handwritten notes helped reduce refund requests. But I’ve had several people email me or call me the day they received it and tell me how much they appreciated it.

I can’t do it for every member, although I’d like to. The monthly members get an email from me thanking them. But we decided a while back that when someone spends at least $500 with us, they receive a personal note from us thanking them for joining the site.

It takes just a few minutes every day to do it but I think they are literally worth their weight in gold – and then some.

So get yourself down to the stationary store today and buy some thank you cards. It will be the best investment (and insurance) you buy this month, if not this year.

Tim starting a membership site

If the 2000s decade represented the decade where the idea of “everything on the Internet should be free,” was tried and failed, I believe this decade will be the one where the paid content model will be proven.

Just like it took over 10 years for media companies to realize that not all content should or needs to be free, this will take some time as well. But there are companies out there now that are already making it happen. While large media companies will operate differently than small businesses or individuals who own online properties, there is always something that can be learned from either group.

ESPN Insider is a great example of how a media company that offers a tremendous amount of free content can still have success charging for content.. They also have an interesting pricing model.

Have a look at how they are presenting their paid content. I’ll continue to highlight companies, big and small, who are blazing trails in this space for the “decade of paid.”

Tim starting a membership site

I want to update you on our latest experiment of selling individual pieces of content outside of the membership and subscription products we offer.

(Side note: I would have done so earlier, but I’ve been traveling to tradeshows and meetings over the past 8 days and didn’t get a chance to post. That’s something I need to work on, by the way. I have a tough time getting focused enough when I travel to write good blog posts. If you’ve found ways to write posts while on the road that are as high-quality as the ones you write from home or office, I’d love to hear them.)

Anyway, the experiment has gone well and we’ve decided to continue offering individual interviews for sale along with the subscription products.

The interesting thing has been that even though it’s less expensive to become a member than buying just two individual interviews, we’ve had quite a few visitors buy two and three interviews without becoming members. Interviews are $25 each and a monthly membership that includes all the new interviews is $39.

It seems that some folks have such an aversion to a subscription that they’d rather just pay more and not deal with having to cancel a recurring payment. That seems odd to me, because we make it so easy to cancel online. After logging in, it is just two clicks.

I was so curious I emailed three of the buyers and asked them about their decision. Only one replied, and he said he just didn’t feel like taking the time to signup and wanted the instant gratification of using PayPal to buy the content he wanted without having to fill out another form. Fair enough.

But it’s a good lesson to us all. Don’t make the buying decision for your customer. Even though YOU may think one way is better than another, let the buyer decide. I personally don’t think our one-year pass, priced at $399, is the best value, when a Lifetime Pass is just $100 more ($499). But many folks do take the one-year option for their own reasons, I’m sure.

For people who have been playing the pricing and option game forever, this isn’t new. In the comments of the previous post, Matt Petrowsky reminded me that a book we’ve read and refer to often, Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions contains a lot of this information. (The link is to the revised and expanded edition out on May 10)

I highly recommend it to anyone selling anything. There are some fascinating studies in it about what makes people choose certain pricing options.

Tim creating content, subscription pricing Predictably Irrational