Are you interested in creating a membership business model? Its a great way of building a strong relationship with your customers and securing a recurring revenue stream. Many think of a membership business as a great route to passive income. Our Guest Mike Morrison is an expert on the membership business model and tells us it can be very rewarding, but to do it well there's very little thats passive about it.

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Introducing Mike Morrison
Mike Morrison and his partner Callie Willow run The Membership Guys. They are fast becoming the de facto standard in all things how to plan, create and grow amazing membership websites.

Mike originally ran a digital marketing agency 10 years ago. Past the formative years, he started to only take on clients with projects that he enjoyed. He found himself drawn towards e-learning and online community. By the time Callie joined Mike and they went into business they started to laser focus on this section of the market.

This focus proved to them one thing at least. They were the type of projects where they were getting their clients the best results. He moved away from the slightly repetitive vanilla website for solicitors, all having the same look, to membership sites.

Mike Morrison - One half of The Membership Guys
Why did they adopt a membership business model?
They reached a point where they had more buyers for their services than they could realistically provide, given they preferred not to build a huge team. But, they wanted to expand their reach and how many people they could help.

They started blogging more, they started a podcast, a Facebook group and opened their own membership site. 100% of their business serves the members of their membership group. No projects.

Mike and Callie had a passion and interest in communities and membership. They created the place to hang out. They kept being asked for guides and courses on membership. There wasn’t a place to send people to, so they become ‘those guys’. Their Facebook group contains members who advocate for them. They don’t need to sell themselves, their members do it for them.
Why do I need a membership site?
Is it obvious? These are the circumstances. The starting point is about taking a step back. You are not an online marketer, solicitor, Mike says you are simply a problem solver. What is keeping people awake at night. What are people struggling with? are there gaps in their knowledge?

For some people, you might just sit down face to face. It might not be a membership site.

Most membership sites are about getting people from point A to point B. There are all sorts of milestones around getting people along their journey. The membership site provides help at each stage along the journey. It’s about a journey towards a transformation.

Some people need support, accountability, someone to ask questions of, people in the same business, it is a resource, a community to tap into. Online business, entrepreneurship. These are constantly changing and people need to research new things. A membership site collates this information and delivers a setting, a community to consume it from within.

Quite often there is a coaching element aspect. You can teach others, how to grow their business. Look for opportunities for one to many solutions. Not one to one.
Aren’t people acting as individuals on Membership sites?
The community aspect is probably more than it has ever been. It is just any site where you login to an account where otherwise the information would not be available to you. E-learning. Yes, you are there to row their own boat, but if they are on a similar journey, so people share their journey, ask questions and help each group.

Within any community you get power users, they are the most active users. They take it upon themselves to help and advise other members. Clusters of helpers. A lot of connections emerge from within membership...

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