http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/ Turn your passion into a paid membership site en-us Nucleus CMS v3.2 Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://membershipsiteadvisor.com//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/ http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=34
We interviewed Ralph to provide a real-life pattern you can follow when it comes to launching your own WordPress based membership site.

Ralph followed 5 basic steps...

1. Determined a specific topic
2. Installed WordPress
3. Installed MemberSmart Pro with WordPress Plugin
4. Started creating content
5. Brought in the traffic

These 5 steps turned this real estate investor into the proud owner of the membership site LearnANiche.com, which only launched last month (July 2008).

Advantages of using WordPress

Before we give you the breakdown behind LearnaNiche.com and the 6 steps above, let's look at some advantages of using WordPress.

1. The biggest attraction for WordPress is its ease of use. Within a few minutes of playing around in the admin, it's not hard to work out how to manage your site using it.

2. WordPress provides full content management and it's relatively flexible when it comes to making changes or adding additional pages.

3. With a well designed theme/template, WordPress sites can compete with high end corporate sites - at least as far as looks go.

4. The entire look of your site can be changed instantly simply by uploading a new theme/template.

5. It's easy to install. Most hosting companies have an auto-install option in their cpanel called Fantastico, which can automatically install WordPress on your site within a few seconds.

6. A vast library of software, plugins and widgets is available for WordPress - many of them for free.

Overall it removes a lot of the obstacles a beginner faces; such as site design, uploading pages to a server, etc. It lets you get down to the important stuff - adding content. It's probably the fastest way to take a blank website and slap up a professional looking membership site.

How the plugin words to convert your blog into a membership site



Step #1: Determining a topic for your WordPress Membership Site

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www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=34 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 12:03:29 -0400 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=33 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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Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=33 Mon, 18 Feb 2008 08:24:41 -0500 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=32
A viral mini-site is a website that is separate from your main site. It has its own domain name and is set up for one purpose – to build your list.

This article has been broken up into 2 sections. The first section will be a case study on the latest viral mini-site we just launched, with some factual stats to give you an idea how effective and how fast this concept can work for you. The second section will explain the mechanics behind the mini-sites and the rules we follow to make them go viral.

Section one: Viral mini-site case study

Site Summary

Viral mini-site: www.NoniMillionairesBook.com

Purpose: To generate leads for a new membership site targeted to the same market

Viral media used: Digital book (taken from our hard copy book).

Site design

To save you the trouble of going to the site and signing up to see how the process works. Below are the links to mini-site pages. This site has a total of only 4 pages.

Page 1: The mini-site home page

The home page is kept very simple. A headline, video and some simple graphics. You don't have to use video, but video helps to add credibility and the viral element to the site. Not to mention the video can be placed on YouTube and other video sites for instant SEO rankings. More on this in a minute.

> View viral mini-site home page

Page 2: The sign-up page

The sign-up form can also be placed directly on the home page.

> View viral mini-site sign-up page

Page 3: The referral page

Once a visitor has entered their details to download the book, they are given two choices. 1. they can skip directly to the download page, or they can refer 3 other people who they think might also like to download the book. We'll give you the stats on this in a minute, to show you how effective this technique is for snowballing your mini-site's traffic.

> View viral mini-site referral page

Page 4: The download page

We just used the default template that comes with WordPress as our download page. We wanted to provide a download page where visitors could leave comments.

> View viral mini-site download page

If you'd like to use the same referral script we used on this page, you can download it using the link below. You're free to use this script on your own viral mini-site.


> Download Referral Script (includes instructions. Right click to download the Word Doc to your computer)

Site statistics

Now that you have an understanding of the mini-site design, we can move into my favorite part – the statistical information. I'm a big fan of stats, because they let you know what's really working and how well it's working (or not working). It's the science behind the marketing. Here's what we learned:


* For every visitor who downloaded the book, 42% gave referrals. That's a lot of referrals!

* The average number of people referred by the 42% was 2.3 people. This means when someone accepts our invitation to give a referral, they are more inclined to send 3 of their friends to our site than just 1 of their friends.

* Now this is where the magic starts to happen...

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Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=32 Mon, 21 Jan 2008 07:56:27 -0500 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=31
More and more companies will need to rely on viral marketing, in some form or another. Social media sites are becoming the new way to find out information about products and other sites. In fact, some have suggested they will supercede search engines as the preferred method of finding content. I disagree, but social sites, including niche blogs have become major sources of traffic.

Most of you will be familiar with viral marketing – we've even preached it in the past. But there are some new rules to add to the mix, and these rules will make your viral marketing content even more viral.

Back to our first problem – paid content can't be shared. There is a solution to this problem. Some of it (summaries) can be shared. In order to do this, the right vehicle has to be set up. That vehicle is called an “Authority Site.” You may have heard of this term before, however many people don't know how to set one up for the purpose of generating viral traffic. Secondly, they're not sure how to direct this traffic to another site or product (for example, a membership site.).

What is an Authority Site?

Ask different people and you'll get different answers. But in our example we've termed an “authority site” as a site that provides frequent high quality content within a specific niche or industry. Sounds a lot like a membership site, except this is a free site.

Why set up an Authority Site?

Below are the main reasons why it's so important to start using authority sites as part of your traffic generating strategy.

1. Make your authority site a blog: You'll want bloggers to link to your authority site. Bloggers are a powerful force... and guess what, they normally don't like to send their readers to a paid membership site (unless you've struck up a joint venture deal – even then it normally needs to be something free and not directly to your membership site). However, blog owners like to send their readers to other blogs. So step 1, make your authority site a blog/news site.


2. Create a following on other blogs and lead them back to your blog: You can create a following from other blogs and social sites and it's easier to get them onto your blog than it is a paid membership site. Having a blog isn't considered as “trying to sell” to other readers. However, you still need to use caution – you can't just advertise your blog on another blog. You have to participate and provide information of value on other blogs.


3. Content is more likely to go viral if it's not on a commerced based site: Why have a separate domain and not just make the authority site part of your membership site? Because people are less likely to pass something onto a friend if there is a sales pitch included (Entertainment products such as movies and video games are the exception to the rule). However, if a reader considers a site to be “sales pitch free” then the content is far more likely to go viral, which is why bloggers are happy to recommend other blogs. Thereby creating more dynamic traffic.


4. Higher search engine rankings and page ranks: Due to having a content rich site and other sites linking to your content, your authority site also has a high chance of ranking well in the search engines.


5. Create a community: Membership sites should have their own community, but once again – this is only open to paid members. What about non-members. Setting up your authority site allows you to create a community environment that's open to the public.

Will an authority site reduce your number of paid subscribers?

The above question is a common concern for many. But the interesting thing is, the reverse of this is true. When readers have the chance to sample your free content, and they're impressed by it, they're far more likely to perceive your paid content as even more valuable. As mentioned in one of our video podcasts “let your content do the selling – not you”

What kind of content should you provide on your authority site?

Obviously you can't provide the exact same content on your free site as you do in your paid members area. That wouldn't be fair to your paying subscribers and they probably wouldn't stay long once they find out they can get it for free on your other site. So what exactly should you provide? We've broken it down into 3 sections:

1. Provide summary content (or less in depth) information taken from your members area. Similar to what we provide on our blog at www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com/blog


2. Every now and then give some of your paid content away for free. We've done this with some of our videos and it's worked very well in bringing new traffic and paid subscribers. New visitors see the video, they like what they see and decide to sign up for our paid content.


3. Get personal. Your authority site allows you to be a little more casual. For example you can add “off track” (unrelated information) on your authority site. On our blog we added some of our vacation photos and it received more hits than some of our top articles. When you have a blog style authority site, it gives you much more freedom to play, and your audience usually loves it.

Finally, if you don't create an authority site, someone else is likely to do the job for you.

How to set up an authority site

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Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=31 Wed, 12 Dec 2007 10:23:57 -0500 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=30
So what's the problem? There are two problems actually.

1. If it's easy, everyone is going to be doing it.
2. He who makes the rules can change the rules.

Problem #1: Everybody's doing it

Because Adwords is so easy to set up, it allows anyone to slap together a product and start promoting it instantly in any niche market. Competition is going to continue to increase exponentially. I've already seen this in many of my niche markets.

Most of the time the new competitors don't last, but then the next one pops up. This process repeats itself sometimes weekly. Many new to the business, suddenly realize they can't even break-even – they suffer a loss due to the high cost per click. They look at it as a one shot deal. In a minute, I'll share the good news (you don't have to break-even. This works especially well for a membership site).

Problem #2: Changing rules

It's no secret that Google likes to do a shake up every now and then and change the rules or adds rules. They took some heat from the online business community lately when they changed page ranking rules. If your business only relies on Google for traffic then you're giving Google the power to make or break your business. It doesn't have to be this way.

Generating traffic without Google

For most of us, Google is still one of the most valuable channels to market our products. Personally I've made a lot of income from Google. But it's not as easy as it use to be. Just in the last few months my Adwords budget has increased by over 80%. And that's not all, ROI per keyword has decreased. This means on average, keywords are costing a lot more and returning less.

Am I concerned? Not at all. Below you'll see some of the strategies I use to counter the increasingly high cost of Adwords. But these strategies don't stop me from continuing to pursue other methods of generating traffic.

The bottom line is this: Google will still bring highly qualified traffic – by using simple strategies, you can still make it profitable even when others can't. I'm not talking about better sales copy or higher conversion rates (although that certainly helps). I'm talking about other strategies that you can use without changing any of your ads or sales copy. More on this in a minute.

Here's my philosophy:

“Work Google like there's no other source of traffic and work other sources of traffic like there is no Google.”

Social media marketing Vs Google

In a previous article we talked about marketing to communities. Social media marketing is perhaps one of the most effective ways to generate a lot of traffic. It's free and it will continue to grow dramatically in 2008 – and guess what, it will be fueled even more by high priced pay-per-click advertising.

What is Social media marketing? Social media marketing is simply promoting your site using social channels. This can be anything from forums to blogs to FaceBook and Youtube. It's any site that has an interactive community, or a network of people interested in a specific topic.

7 steps to developing your own “social media marketing” strategy

For starters, don't feel overwhelmed by the term or name. This is not another high tech thing to learn, or something only the Internet gurus can use. In fact, you're probably already on at least one social network site. All you need is a few simple strategies to ramp up your online networking skills and place your site within a social media network.


1. Identify the main influences on social media sites. Sites like Digg.com are entirely based on content submissions from people like you, the community (just like YouTube). As Digg.com states “If your submission rocks and receives enough Diggs, it is promoted to the front page for the millions of our visitors to see.”


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Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=30 Wed, 14 Nov 2007 23:56:49 -0500 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=29
Niche Market

What is a niche market? It's simple, locate a market and narrow down a particular group within the mainstream market. That's niche marketing. "A niche market may be thought of as a narrowly defined group of potential customers," as defined by Wikipedia.

Community Market

What is a community market? A community market is also a niche market, however this market talks (communicates) with one another. They especially like to discuss and share new products and information related to their topic of interest.

Community Market Vs Niche Market

Now here's the big difference - a niche market doesn't always mean a market that shares information. To a degree they will, but not to the extent a community market will. Often you will be the one that approaches the market as individuals. One by one (normally via advertising) they will see the promotional material you place in front of them. Not so with a community market.

A community market doesn't require you to attract your markets attention one by one. Conversely it will normally be members of the community that place your product in front of other community members. For example, YouTube and FaceBook became massive successes based on members talking (sharing) with members.

Large community markets can even become a "movement" - such as those actively involved in global warming awareness. But your membership site doesn't have to target such a large market. Millionaires of smaller communities are constantly emerging. These topics develop a following. Any quality product that enters that following, is usually snapped up.

So how does this apply to creating a new membership site?

Let's say 2 membership sites are released. The first membership site focuses on a selected niche. Once the site is created, the site owner then begins to run paid ads to reach his market. And there's nothing wrong with this model. But there is another way. Now we jump to the second site...

The second site owner instead targets a community market - a market that is actively engaged in discussions about their topic. The only thing the creator of the membership site now has to do, is release the site (using some strategies) into the community. If even one of the 'devotees' becomes excited, this will spread throughout to group.... even if some group members don't like it.

A real-life example of a membership site that targets a community market

Image We've released two community centered membership sites in the past and both continue to generate recurring income even though we've never paid for a single ad. In fact, we've never run or created an ad for the membership sites.

NoniTrainer.com is a membership site that continues to get new subscribers. I've done no paid advertising and very little marketing of any kind. The strategies were put in place - and now the site continues to build on its own.

Because it's based on a community market it continues to generate paid subscribers. That's the power of focusing on community markets rather than just niche markets in general. It can be a success even if you're bad at it. The community drives the marketing efforts.

How do you find a community market?

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www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=29 Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:20:08 -0400 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=28 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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www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=28 Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:33:10 -0400 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=27
In the coming week we'll be announcing the launch date. But prior to this announcement we've planned special member's only gives-always (cups, caps, etc.), and competitions to celebrate the launch of MemberSmart Pro. One lucky winner will also receive a free copy of MemberSmart Manager (MemberSmart Pro's little brother).

Click the link below to watch this private tour...

> Watch video

Would you like to access our members only area? Click here to sign up


Best regards,
Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=27 Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:11:12 -0400 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=26
If you're already a subscriber this video will show you some of the new features included in our members only area.




Would you like to access our members only area? Click here to sign up


Best regards,
Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=26 Wed, 01 Aug 2007 10:30:20 -0400 http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=25 1. Patrick, could you tell us a little bit about your background (work,
studies, etc).

I have always felt that in my studies as a computer scientist there was not enough emphasis on business related issues. Well, I am sure the University curriculums have changed in the past 10 years, but being able to use our own products to broaden my horizon on business related issues has been very important to me.

I am one of three co-founders of getAbstract.com, responsible for operational and technology related issues. It would take me months to summarize just a single book, so I am very happy that we have hundreds of talented journalists and editors who know how to do this so that I can read and learn from what they produce.


2. We are impressed with the design and layout of your membership site. Can you give our readers some background on what GetAbstract.com is all about?

Our company is built upon four values: We want to be world-class in what we do with respect to editorial quality, to customer service, and ease of use of the product (which includes the web-site). Second, we want to be fair: treat your customers, partners, employees the way you would like to be treated. Third, since there are only about 25000 days to live, it should be fun. And lastly, we need to earn our living and thus make a profit.

To be a little bit more explicit about the company, here are some facts. getAbstract was founded in 1998, and provides summaries in English and German to many of the world's largest companies, drawing titles from a broad network of 300 publishing partners. Our editors examine 10,000 business books each year and then summarize the best ones down to five pages. Our English and German library includes more than 4,000 titles, in some 90 business categories, all formatted for PC or Palm downloads. MP3 format is also available for selected titles so that you can listen to the summaries on your iPod on the go.


3. How did the idea for GetAbstract.com come about?

I suppose pretty much everyone who has been a student has produced summaries of his own in one way or another. We did the same thing of course. Later, as executives and researchers in different companies, we expected to find summaries of the best business books relevant to our jobs. However, we were surprised not to find such a product. Hence the idea to do it ourselves.

4. How many subscribers do you have?

Our largest customers include Microsoft, UBS, DaimlerChrysler, PriceWaterHouse Coopers, Boeing, and many more. We have sold several million licenses. Since launching our service in 1999, getAbstract.com has become the world's largest provider of business book summaries and has built up a base of more than four million customers.

5. You offer a Gold and Silver subscription. Has offering a choice of 2 different packages been effective for you? Which is the more successful package, in terms of producing revenue ?

Yes, this strategy has been effective for us as it gives our customers a choice. They feel more comfortable in their buying decision when the can choose from different products.

More than 90% of our subscribers, however, opt for the Gold subscription.

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


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Best regards,
Ansel Gough
www.MembershipSiteAdvisor.com]]> General http://membershipsiteadvisor.com/index.php?itemid=25 Sun, 01 Jul 2007 23:41:49 -0400