18/02: Converted: Website Design Business to Automated Membership Site
Jonathan Beebe from Mony-Tree.com, took a service based business (designing websites) and turned it into a full-fledged and automated membership site. "I used my programming/web development experience to design a niche site builder that would allow clients with absolutely no web design experience, and many with very little internet/computer experience, to build the exact sites that was taking Will and Lynn days to make in only a few minutes time."
1. Jonathan, could you tell us a little bit about your background.
I'm just the "average" guy as anyone would say and have been using the Internet, casually for the most part for years. I have work experience in the military, and education/experience in law enforcement. I taught myself programming (various languages, C++, Visual Basic, Delphi, ColdFusion, PHP) over the course of about 9 years just by reading "teach yourself" books here and there, and online tutorials (never used anything BUT online tutorials to learn web development/php/coldfusion/mysql).
I realized that I enjoyed web development using PHP/HTML and MySQL the most so I decided to focus on that--and have since stopped using other languages--but don't consider learning them a waste of time because many of the "concepts" are the same across the board, no matter what language you use. With that I have also been involved in a lot of study involving Internet Marketing, on and off-page SEO, and other things related to making money online--which was my ultimate goal in the beginning, to be able to one-day make a living on the Internet.
2. Could you give our readers some background on what www.Mony-Tree.com is all about? Also, how did the idea for Mony-Tree.com come about?
Mony-Tree.com was started by my two partners that I currently work with on it now (Lynn Wier and Will Thompson). Back then it was just a web design/niche marketing consulting service. In a nutshell, the service focused on finding underexposed niches or keywords that lead to profitable niches, build a professional, search engine optimized, unique content-rich visitor-valuable (no blackhat) website around it and make money via products sold on the site, Affiliate Products, Adsense, etc. and repeat the process until you have many stores all making money (some more than others of course, but altogether amounting to a large monthly income)--and the one-on-one training per client to educate them on how this process is done.
So Lynn and Wier would train/teach their clients how to find good niches, or keywords that lead to good niches, and then build FOR them a professional website which would be everything that client needs to make money with. Training also went as far as what to do after their site was built (free/cost-effective promotion strategies, etc.). They would do the consultation and training, web design, etc. for a low monthly fee--and build new sites for their clients each for a small one-time fee per site. This was all working out well for their clients, as they were learning a lot, making money, and building their niche site "empires"; however, Will and Lynn were getting overloaded with work because of all the manual labor involved per client--in fact they had to STOP taking clients at one point.
I had known Will and Lynn before from other Internet Marketing ventures in the past, and to make a long story short I came into the partnership and we decided to turn the Mony-Tree service into a full-fledged membership website. The training would be handled via content in the form of articles, videos, and downloads posted regularly to the members area. I used my programming/web development experience to design a niche site builder that would allow clients with absolutely no web design experience, and many with very little internet/computer experience, to build the exact sites that was taking Will and Lynn days to make in only a few minutes time (with all SEO, design, and monetization applied). The sites are highly optimized for whatever keywords the client chooses in the building process, and have unique content so search engines love them. Because our clients are happily building their own websites now, we have plenty of time to focus on adding more content, improving the software, and continued one-on-one consultation with the clients that need it.
3. When did you launch the site and how many subscribers do you have?
The Mony-Tree.com membership site (as it is now, not the original service) was launched on the 13th of January and we currently have 61 members--we still consider the service to be in its infancy, but it is running very stable, and many members have already reported great results, although we stress to all members that niche marketing and getting search engine rankings is something that can take time to see results, it seems our websites and techniques we train our members on get their sites indexed very quickly and are performing a little better (quicker) than we initially expected.
4. You offer Silver, Gold and Platinum memberships. Has offering a choice of 3 different packages been effective for you? Which is the more successful package, in terms of revenue producing?
As of right now the Silver (bottom) level is the most revenue producing, mainly because we lure them in with a $0.99c first month, and most of those members end up enjoying their membership and staying. The only difference in the membership levels as of right now is the amount of website "credits" they have in their account--we are thinking of more ways to add incentive to starting out at the higher levels but right now Silver is doing a great job--the other two higher price options just gives them more of an incentive to join at Silver for $0.99c because they get to see what they would be getting at the higher levels once they are in the Back Office.
5. Do you have many people upgrading from Silver to the other memberships?
We have many members in the Silver (bottom) level, and fewer in the other two packages; however, because the difference in membership levels is the amount of websites they are able to build/manage with our software, we understand that many want to start at the bottom level, and upgrade as their number of sites increase. We don't have a large number upgrading as of now--in fact nobody has upgraded as of yet, and we attribute that to the fact that we have been running only a little over a month and many members are still learning, taking things slow, and working on an amount of websites well within their 10 site quota at the Silver level. We look for the upgrade rate to increase as the service gets older, as the "older" members use up their website quota.
So until we start providing our Gold and Platinum members with even more, we don't expect a lot to join at those levels initially, but with their prices being listed on the packages page--it does add a higher perceived value, and thus increases the "join" rate--even it if it is only at Silver level for 99 cents the first month.
6. Who is your target market?
We have multiple target markets that show interest in our service, but I'd have to say that our main target market are those with minimal experience (or possibly a lot of experience) wanting to make an honest, stable income online. Nobody likes having to sell anything, make phone calls, or get people to "sign up" for anything--and really, most people are unable to do so because all of those things can be very difficult--so our service provides the people who don't want to do any of those things with an opportunity to make money online--not get rich quick, but a business may start out a little slow (depending on how much time they can put into it), but with time, patience, persistence, and research will grow at a steady rate.
7. How do you find and advertise to your target market?
We are experimenting with many different methods (such as classifieds, PPC, etc), but we have found that online forums work very well--especially if you take the time to build up your credibility. Our sales page converts pretty high to target markets (make mony online, niche marketing, site building), so a lot of our promotion is focused on getting our somewhat new website higher in the search engine rankings--which continues to increase at a decent rate. Many of our members come from word of mouth, other members who enjoy the service telling other members about it--and some from affiliates.
8. Where do most of your visitors come from? Search engines, pay-per-click, link exchanges, etc? List in order of importance.
Most of our visitors as of right now are coming from search engines, though not a huge amount because we are in a competitive market, the number is on the rise as we increase our rankings. We have received a few from PPC, and are beginning to get more and more from word-of-mouth and the occasional affiliate referral.
9. Are there any other promotions that you have found to be effective in bring you paid subscribers?
At one point we did offer the silver membership free for the first month, and while it did increase the sign-up rate, we noticed most of those sign-ups were people that would never consider continuing their paid subscription no matter how good the product was (they never planned to purchase a subscription was just in for the freebie, not to try it to see if they liked it). Since we have implemented a 0.99c first month, we noticed that while our join rate isn't quite as high, it is still high, and we are getting lots of people who are actually interested in trying the product, and consider staying if they like it. We have received many good testimonials from members who really enjoy their membership, who said they would have never joined if it weren't for one of these promotions we had going on so they are definitely a good way to open your doors to people who are too skeptical to pay full price the first month, but can be very valuable members in the long-run if given a first-month incentive.
10. What software do you use to manage your membership subscribers?
I designed the Mony-Tree.com membership from scratch to include the software, membership management, interface, etc. I do use a protected WordPress blog to manage members-only content that allows members to view training articles, videos, and downloads once they are logged into the system. The reason why I decided to design everything from scratch was to make it easier for me to have the system work exactly how I wanted it, to be able to add/remove anything in the future easily without having to consult a third-party plug-in, and also so it would implement seamlessly with the online niche site building software that is integrated into the membership system.
11. You offer a 99 cent trial. How effective have you found the 99 cent trial and what is your conversion rate after the trial?
18/02: Converted: Website Design Business to Automated Membership Site
Jonathan Beebe from Mony-Tree.com, took a service based business (designing websites) and turned it into a full-fledged and automated membership site. "I used my programming/web development experience to design a niche site builder that would allow clients with absolutely no web design experience, and many with very little internet/computer experience, to build the exact sites that was taking Will and Lynn days to make in only a few minutes time."1. Jonathan, could you tell us a little bit about your background.
I'm just the "average" guy as anyone would say and have been using the Internet, casually for the most part for years. I have work experience in the military, and education/experience in law enforcement. I taught myself programming (various languages, C++, Visual Basic, Delphi, ColdFusion, PHP) over the course of about 9 years just by reading "teach yourself" books here and there, and online tutorials (never used anything BUT online tutorials to learn web development/php/coldfusion/mysql).
I realized that I enjoyed web development using PHP/HTML and MySQL the most so I decided to focus on that--and have since stopped using other languages--but don't consider learning them a waste of time because many of the "concepts" are the same across the board, no matter what language you use. With that I have also been involved in a lot of study involving Internet Marketing, on and off-page SEO, and other things related to making money online--which was my ultimate goal in the beginning, to be able to one-day make a living on the Internet.
2. Could you give our readers some background on what www.Mony-Tree.com is all about? Also, how did the idea for Mony-Tree.com come about?
Mony-Tree.com was started by my two partners that I currently work with on it now (Lynn Wier and Will Thompson). Back then it was just a web design/niche marketing consulting service. In a nutshell, the service focused on finding underexposed niches or keywords that lead to profitable niches, build a professional, search engine optimized, unique content-rich visitor-valuable (no blackhat) website around it and make money via products sold on the site, Affiliate Products, Adsense, etc. and repeat the process until you have many stores all making money (some more than others of course, but altogether amounting to a large monthly income)--and the one-on-one training per client to educate them on how this process is done.
So Lynn and Wier would train/teach their clients how to find good niches, or keywords that lead to good niches, and then build FOR them a professional website which would be everything that client needs to make money with. Training also went as far as what to do after their site was built (free/cost-effective promotion strategies, etc.). They would do the consultation and training, web design, etc. for a low monthly fee--and build new sites for their clients each for a small one-time fee per site. This was all working out well for their clients, as they were learning a lot, making money, and building their niche site "empires"; however, Will and Lynn were getting overloaded with work because of all the manual labor involved per client--in fact they had to STOP taking clients at one point.
I had known Will and Lynn before from other Internet Marketing ventures in the past, and to make a long story short I came into the partnership and we decided to turn the Mony-Tree service into a full-fledged membership website. The training would be handled via content in the form of articles, videos, and downloads posted regularly to the members area. I used my programming/web development experience to design a niche site builder that would allow clients with absolutely no web design experience, and many with very little internet/computer experience, to build the exact sites that was taking Will and Lynn days to make in only a few minutes time (with all SEO, design, and monetization applied). The sites are highly optimized for whatever keywords the client chooses in the building process, and have unique content so search engines love them. Because our clients are happily building their own websites now, we have plenty of time to focus on adding more content, improving the software, and continued one-on-one consultation with the clients that need it.
3. When did you launch the site and how many subscribers do you have?
The Mony-Tree.com membership site (as it is now, not the original service) was launched on the 13th of January and we currently have 61 members--we still consider the service to be in its infancy, but it is running very stable, and many members have already reported great results, although we stress to all members that niche marketing and getting search engine rankings is something that can take time to see results, it seems our websites and techniques we train our members on get their sites indexed very quickly and are performing a little better (quicker) than we initially expected.
4. You offer Silver, Gold and Platinum memberships. Has offering a choice of 3 different packages been effective for you? Which is the more successful package, in terms of revenue producing?
As of right now the Silver (bottom) level is the most revenue producing, mainly because we lure them in with a $0.99c first month, and most of those members end up enjoying their membership and staying. The only difference in the membership levels as of right now is the amount of website "credits" they have in their account--we are thinking of more ways to add incentive to starting out at the higher levels but right now Silver is doing a great job--the other two higher price options just gives them more of an incentive to join at Silver for $0.99c because they get to see what they would be getting at the higher levels once they are in the Back Office.
5. Do you have many people upgrading from Silver to the other memberships?
We have many members in the Silver (bottom) level, and fewer in the other two packages; however, because the difference in membership levels is the amount of websites they are able to build/manage with our software, we understand that many want to start at the bottom level, and upgrade as their number of sites increase. We don't have a large number upgrading as of now--in fact nobody has upgraded as of yet, and we attribute that to the fact that we have been running only a little over a month and many members are still learning, taking things slow, and working on an amount of websites well within their 10 site quota at the Silver level. We look for the upgrade rate to increase as the service gets older, as the "older" members use up their website quota.
So until we start providing our Gold and Platinum members with even more, we don't expect a lot to join at those levels initially, but with their prices being listed on the packages page--it does add a higher perceived value, and thus increases the "join" rate--even it if it is only at Silver level for 99 cents the first month.
6. Who is your target market?
We have multiple target markets that show interest in our service, but I'd have to say that our main target market are those with minimal experience (or possibly a lot of experience) wanting to make an honest, stable income online. Nobody likes having to sell anything, make phone calls, or get people to "sign up" for anything--and really, most people are unable to do so because all of those things can be very difficult--so our service provides the people who don't want to do any of those things with an opportunity to make money online--not get rich quick, but a business may start out a little slow (depending on how much time they can put into it), but with time, patience, persistence, and research will grow at a steady rate.
7. How do you find and advertise to your target market?
We are experimenting with many different methods (such as classifieds, PPC, etc), but we have found that online forums work very well--especially if you take the time to build up your credibility. Our sales page converts pretty high to target markets (make mony online, niche marketing, site building), so a lot of our promotion is focused on getting our somewhat new website higher in the search engine rankings--which continues to increase at a decent rate. Many of our members come from word of mouth, other members who enjoy the service telling other members about it--and some from affiliates.
8. Where do most of your visitors come from? Search engines, pay-per-click, link exchanges, etc? List in order of importance.
Most of our visitors as of right now are coming from search engines, though not a huge amount because we are in a competitive market, the number is on the rise as we increase our rankings. We have received a few from PPC, and are beginning to get more and more from word-of-mouth and the occasional affiliate referral.
9. Are there any other promotions that you have found to be effective in bring you paid subscribers?
At one point we did offer the silver membership free for the first month, and while it did increase the sign-up rate, we noticed most of those sign-ups were people that would never consider continuing their paid subscription no matter how good the product was (they never planned to purchase a subscription was just in for the freebie, not to try it to see if they liked it). Since we have implemented a 0.99c first month, we noticed that while our join rate isn't quite as high, it is still high, and we are getting lots of people who are actually interested in trying the product, and consider staying if they like it. We have received many good testimonials from members who really enjoy their membership, who said they would have never joined if it weren't for one of these promotions we had going on so they are definitely a good way to open your doors to people who are too skeptical to pay full price the first month, but can be very valuable members in the long-run if given a first-month incentive.
10. What software do you use to manage your membership subscribers?
I designed the Mony-Tree.com membership from scratch to include the software, membership management, interface, etc. I do use a protected WordPress blog to manage members-only content that allows members to view training articles, videos, and downloads once they are logged into the system. The reason why I decided to design everything from scratch was to make it easier for me to have the system work exactly how I wanted it, to be able to add/remove anything in the future easily without having to consult a third-party plug-in, and also so it would implement seamlessly with the online niche site building software that is integrated into the membership system.
11. You offer a 99 cent trial. How effective have you found the 99 cent trial and what is your conversion rate after the trial?
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Best regards,
Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com