2007 December | Social Networking Tips

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Dec 2007

Types of Membership Websites

This could have been a very short post if I only focused on
the payment type of membership websites. Which is, of course, paid and unpaid.

When you have a membership website you choose how members
will be able to access the “private” side or the “secret clubhouse side” of
your website. Will it be free or will it
cost them money?

Maybe a better way to say Type of Membership website would
be What is its Purpose? What causes the members to become members?

There are some major types of Membership Websites:

Social Networking
– we have seen this with sites such as LinkedIn.com, FastPitchNetworking.com,
FaceBook.com, Plaxo.com, Ryze.com, eCademy.com, MySpace.com, etc. In fact, there are literally hundreds of
social networking websites. It seems I
add a new one to my list everyday. The
purpose of these websites is to create an online community where members can
share their information and contacts.

eLearning – these
sites are designed to teach. Online
education or distance learning have become one of the fastest growing segments
on the Internet. You can earn a Masters,
become certified as an herbalist or gain continuing education classes all from
the privacy of your home.

Industry Specific
– here you can get connected with others in your industry to share thoughts,
ideas and information. M arketingSherpa.com is a membership website gives incredible information for people interested in
marketing and marketing trends.

Goal Specific –
eDiets.com, MyFoodJournal.com and BiggestLoser.com are all sites about connecting
people who have the goal to lose weight. There are also Stop Smoking membership websites.

Target Market
Specific – BabyCenter.com is a website geared toward pregnant women and new
moms.

When putting together your membership website, think about
what type of membership website you would like to build. The more you understand who your target
market is, how you help them and what they can gain, the easier it will be to
create a powerful membership website. Do
you have a favorite membership website you love? What membership websites do you use in your
business? Please hit the comment link
below and share.

You are invited to an online class for FREE (a $97 value) on how to build Strategies so you can leverage Social Networking to grow your business. http://www.SocialMaximizing.com/socialnetworking

Dec 2007

Dream of This

Sabrina Gibson

The human mind is such a powerful tool. It can be your best friend or your worst enemy. When I work with my clients, we spend a fair amount of time working on their dreams. We talk about “What is Stopping Them”. I am always surprised at the answers. So many times, super successful clients will have the simplest things stopping them. It sometimes will show up as procrastination or overwhelm. Once we get to the root of it, it seems to go away.

I watched the movie Akeelah and the Bee. This poem was in there. It made me realize how easy we forget our own power. We forget that we can do anything we put our minds to. I think about people who have made the possible, impossible. Against all odds, they have made it happen.

Dream of This….
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fea is that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our Light, not our darkness that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves — Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?
Actually, who are we not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people do not feel insecure around you.
We were born to manifest the Glory of God within us.
It is not just in some of us, it is in everyone.

And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our own fears, our presence automatically liberates others.

By Marianne Williamson

I would love to know what you do to let your light shine. What do you feel stops you? What do you find your inspiration? Please comment.

You are invited to an online class for FREE (a $97 value) on how to build Strategies so you can leverage Social Networking to grow your business. http://www.SocialMaximizing.com/socialnetworking

Category: Inspirational Tags: dream of this, Dreams, inspiration, Marianne Williamson, Membership Websites, Possibility, potential, Power, Profit Partners Unlimited, sabrina gibson, speaker, success Leave a Comment

Dec 2007

What are Email Capture Pages?

Sabrina Gibson

These pages have also been referred to as Landing Pages,
Squeeze Pages, Splash Pages, etc. The
main purpose of this page is to provide some compelling text that will entice a
person visiting to leave their information.

Here is how they work:
You create a page that has sales or marketing copy on
it. Of course, it is loaded with
benefits, benefits, benefits. To get
this beneficial information, the person would give their information. Sometimes it is just a name and email. Sometimes it is full name, full address,
phone number, email and answers to a couple of questions. The goal with this is to build a marketing
list that you can then sell to for life.

Some key things you will want to know:

Autoresponders: An autoresponder is tied to your
email. They can be built right into
your email capture page. An autoresponder is exactly what it sounds like. It automatically responds to anyone sending you an email. EXAMPLE: A person signs up for a free report on your email capture page. An email is sent to your email address with a specific subject line. This triggers the autoresponder to send a message back to the person who signed up. It happens without you having to do anything.
Opt in: Refers to the legitimate way of gaining people in your list. It means the visitor has agreed to sign up for your information and is aware that you are going to be emailing them. The opposite of this would be spam.
Double Opt-in: This is identical to #2 except an email is sent to the email provided and a link is included. In order to receive the information they must click on the link. This prevents anyone from signing up other people who may not be interested. Once the link is clicked then they are added to your list.
Opt out: When a person chooses to discontinue receiving emails from you. It is important to make this easy for them.
Mailing List: Refers to the entire list of people requesting your information.

There are some keys to help you create a successful email
capture page:

Have the content be short and to the point. Include testimonials from others who have
already received the information.
Have pictures that really tell a good story.
Once the user has signed up be sure to have an
automatic way to deliver what you promised. You will want to let the visitor know to add your email to their safe
list. You might want to let them know
how often you will be sending them information. Example: Once a month, twice a
month, once a week, etc.
Make it easy for people to unsubscribe or
opt-out of your list.
Plan out the messages you will be sending to
them for 3 months prior to starting. Ongoing communication is key to getting a high conversion into sales.
What are you going to offer that is value added?
How are you going to earn their trust so that
you can then invite them to buy from you?
Think about adding audio and video to your pages. These make it more interesting.

Click
here to see an example of an email capture page

Do you have a great email capture
page you want to share? What successes
or challenges have you had with email capture pages. Please comment.

You are invited to an online class for FREE (a $97 value) on how to build Strategies so you can leverage Social Networking to grow your business. http://www.SocialMaximizing.com/socialnetworking

Dec 2007

How Do You Start A Membership Website?

Sabrina Gibson

There are a few things you will
want to do before you start your membership website.

Find a Niche Idea. A niche idea is a unique concept that fits a
very specific target. I like to call it
“What is Missing In the Marketplace”.

Research your Niche Idea. Find out what is currently being
offered. What is good? What could be better? What is missing?

Define your target market. Once you know your niche idea, then you can
begin to define your target market. How
old are they? Where would you find
them? What magazines do they read? What are their shopping habits? Where are the physically located? What is their marital status. The more specific you are, the easier it will
be to find them.

Determine what you are going to
offer. Will it be articles, videos,
interviews, access to databases, connections to other members. In other words, what are you going to give
your members? How are they going to
get? How often will they have it? What
ongoing information will you give them?

What are you going to charge? If
you are unclear about your niche idea, sometimes you can offer information that
is more general but still geared towards your target market. You can do a free membership website to start
and once you are able to find out from your community what they want, you can
then add on a paid section. Memberships
are any where from $0 – $300 per month depending on what you are offering. The harder your information is to find and
the more it is sought after, the more you can charge. Typically monthly memberships are between $19
and $49 a month. The other thing to
consider is are you going to offer different payment plans? (Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly)

How are you going to build
it? Are you going to build it yourself
or will you hire a pro? There are a ton
of membership website softwares that don’t require a lot of technical
skill. A lot of how you will build it
will be determined by how complex you want your website to be.

Create A Marketing Plan. As soon as you have an idea of the target
market you are going to reach, you will want to start marketing to them. It is important to have your marketing plan
written for before, during and after your website is live.

What are the biggest challenges you have in starting a membership website?

You are invited to an online class for FREE (a $97 value) on how to build Strategies so you can leverage Social Networking to grow your business. http://www.SocialMaximizing.com/socialnetworking

Category: Membership Websites Tags: business ideas, define your target market, free membership, marketing plan, Membership Websites, niche ideas, paid membership, research your idea, sabrina gibson, speaker, Start a membership website, target markets, unique ideas Leave a Comment

Dec 2007

Why Build a Membership Website?

Sabrina Gibson

About 10 years ago I had the opportunity to work for a large dot com company. I managed a $3 Million Marketing Budget. What this position really afforded me was the ability to learn about buying habits on the Internet. It was at this time I started to learn about people who were making millions of dollars a month selling information.

It got me to ask the question “How can I make millions on the Internet”. The more I learned the more I realized how much money you could make. Today, the Internet is growing exponentially. In this post we will talk about a few reasons to build a membership website.

The demand for online information is huge
The Internet is just getting started. WHAT? Yes….it is true. Only 1/3 of the world population is using the Internet. People are feeling more comfortable buying things on the Internet. I can remember how scary it was the first time I bought something. I was thinking things like “Is this some sort of a scam?”, “Is my information safe?”, “This seems unusual and awkward”. Now I am buying everything from toilet paper to cars on the Internet.

The Internet is just starting to get organize
Do you remember the first time you tried to find something on the Internet. Thank you MSN, Yahoo, Google, ASK and all the other Search Engines for making our lives easier. Today, people want to get targeted information and fast. They want a reliable source to learn new information. By creating a membership website, you can build a community of fans wanting the information you are teaching.

eLearning is HOT HOT HOT
eLearning, also known as Online Learning, is one of the fastest growing areas on the Internet. People are wanting to learn and learn it right now. Patrick McClure, a friend of mine, calls this time period the “Instant Messaging Era”. It is true, we want our information coming as fast as possible from many sources. This means there is an opportunity for you to teach people online and make a nice income from doing so.

It is easier to sell someone you have already sold
When you think about a membership website. It really is a group of people who love your information and are willing to pay you for it. It is easy to sell them over and over again.

Residual Income is the Name of the Game
I don’t know about you, but the idea of making $20 per person over and over again each month is pretty exciting. Think about it, if you could get 100 people to pay you $20 a month, you would be making $2000 a month. 500 people is $10,000 per month. It doesn’t take much to make it happen. It is a fantastic way to get paid over and over again for building information one time.

Time is a Resource that eventually runs out
This is the main reason I got into the business of creating, building and marketing membership websites. I wanted more time with my 5 year old daughter. I could either sell over and over again to new people or I could build something once and sell it online over and over again. Which takes less time? The second one.

As a single mom, I want to have the luxury of spending as much time as I want with my family. I would love to hear what you think are good and bad reasons to start a membership website. Please comment.

You are invited to an online class for FREE (a $97 value) on how to build Strategies so you can leverage Social Networking to grow your business. http://www.SocialMaximizing.com/socialnetworking

Dec 2007

What is a Membership Website?

Sabrina Gibson

A membership website is a website that builds a community of
users. As a member you are provided
specific information or “member only” privileges. Privileges can include: access to lists of people or companies,
articles, reports, industry surveys, videos, training, forms, photos, tools,
etc. Membership into these websites can be free or for a monthly or yearly
fee. It is having the right to peak behind the curtain. You get to see what is going on in the “private club”. Once you know the secret handshake (username and password) into the club, you can enjoy the goodies for the members.

Membership websites have also
been called Subscription Websites, Mentor Websites and member-Only Websites. Here are 3 examples of Membership Websites:

MySpace.com – free to be a member. By being a member you can create your own
profile page and then be able to connect with other members in MySpace.com.

eDiets.com – $4.95 per month. As a member you can choose from several
different diet programs such as South Beach Diet, The Zone, Body For Life,
Adkins, etc. You then have access to
menu plans, charts and can connect with other members.

Elvisinsider.com – HUBBA CHUGGA Baby. This is an amazing example of residual
income. Supposedly he died. He is no longer doing public
appearances. Right? He is still making hundreds of millions of
dollars. In fact, he has a membership
website. For the low price of either $19.95 or $39.95 yearly you have exclusive
access to Elvis photos, pictures and discounts. He is generating money and he isn’t even
there.

Each membership website connects a group of people for a common purpose. Could be to socialize, to learn from each other, to learn about a specific topic, etc. Membership websites can be about
anything…unusual business ideas, making teddy bears, repairing guns, working
out, specific car models, moms clubs, moms of Multiples, etc.
Do you have a favorite membership website you
want to share? Please Comment.

You are invited to an online class for FREE (a $97 value) on how to build Strategies so you can leverage Social Networking to grow your business. http://www.SocialMaximizing.com/socialnetworking

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