MembershipSiteAdvisor.com

23/09: Industry Specific Membership Sites

ASGI - founded by industry professionals, has become a major resource for installing artificial grass. Founder Annie Costa, turned her knowledge into an industry specific membership site. Can the industry you're currently working in be turned into a resource based member site?

1. Annie, could you tell us a little bit about your background (work, studies, etc).

I "grew up" i the computer industry until the early 1990s when we moved to the country where my husband and I started our construction company; designing and installing synthetic grass for lawn, landscape and leisure sports projects (mostly residential and commercial properties).

We've been building our company and market in Northern California for since 1999 (now, about 9+ years).

2. Could you give our readers some background on what www.asgi.us is all about?

The Association of Synthetic Grass Installers (ASGi) serves as our market's trade association and our site focus' upon consumer awareness; bringing the consumer up close and personal with our industry's products and capabilities. The site is content rich; full of case studies and galleries of design ideas and how to implement them to current events, news, installation and buyer's guides.

Before you buy, this is the place to learn all you'd ever want to know about artificial grass and synthetic turf. An "A-List" resource guide for buyer, designer & builder.

3. How did the idea for www.asgi.us come about?

A group of like-minded builder/dealers, located across North America have been discussing the merits of starting a group, such as ASGi, to help embrace our fledgling industry for several years. We, as most founders of organizations such as this, are running our own businesses while attempting to devote energy to building the foundation of the association. We wanted to deliver what we developed, as quickly, as easily, as timely, as possible; without spending a lot of money! Digital delivery is the key to that set of objectives. To meet our goals we began to develop the site and have gone through several concepts, rebuilds and restructuring exercises along the way.

4. You offer a number of different membership package. Can you discuss those and why you created them?

We have 4 active member products; from a F.R.E.E. t.r.i.a.l subscription to three that are on re-curring, monthly installment programs with PayPal.

We decided to use MemberSmart Pro (MANAGER edition). MemberSmart is very elegant in it's management process. It took 2 seconds to set up our account and the first test of one of the memberships took us directly to PayPal and the expected checkout choices a PayPal member expects. It was seamless.

Asgi's site is here to provide market/industry information of the wonderful features and the benefits of synthetic grass materials - from photos & guides of what is possible. It showcases what's possible and how it can be done.

A high percentage of the home improvement buyers shop for solutions on the internet. It's a natural to provide memberships so that we can serve a very broad audience of information seekers.

Our free trial subscriptions give the casual user a chance to browse, at no charge. They can look through design ideas, get tips on selecting products, builders, and even download installation guides for the do-it-your-selfer. Our service to the market!

For the designer, developer and specifiers; especially communities, home owner ssociations and groups that need to know a bit more about the uses of faux grass and perhaps the interaction of an association that could answer their questions in support of their efforts - we developed ASGi ONLiNE. A monthly subscription that helps keep online subscribers abreast of what's news and what is new in the market of artificial turf and synthetic grass. Links to resources such as product research & development,environmental impact studies, use and safety, MSDS, ASTM Testing, Case Studies of Real-World Projects; grants,rebate programs; all vital and important details for the community, association or professional builder to have access to and keep in front of.

As a trade association, our full memberships include access to ASGi ONLiNE and our ASGi Associate and General Members have access to their own membership levels. Instead of allocating any of our membership funds to the high costs of printing, postage and the potential waste of a lot of trees; our goal is to deliver 100% of our major publications, periodicals, studies and information online; digitally.

A membership site was the natural answer.

5. Who is your main target market?

Our primary target markets include:

* home and property owners
* designers
* architects
* builders
* developers
* public-works specifiers
* estimators
* current installers


6. How do you find and advertise to your target market?

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Best regards,
Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com