Shouldn't number 10 be "Just stay ahead of your first subscriber" ? Assuming you are dripping out content, your first subscriber would run into empty space first.

Plus they're never ending because they don't expect anyone to finish and give you no real "This is what you can expect to learn"

And I got stung on a rule #10 by a big big named 'ethical marketer' who took this to the extreme. My $97 membership was 9 weeks behind in information. I cancelled and with hindsight should've kicked up a real stink. I guess that tells you something about refunds and people (most are too polite to ask for them).

Too many people charge ahead and get their membership plugin first without thinking through exactly HOW they are going to deliver and monetize their content. They often end up with a product that lacks something the require bet it drip feeding, auto responding, handling cancellations, protecting content or lacking the right payment gateways. Following your rules first would have saved so many people setting up poor or unprofitable sites.

I actually put my best stuff near the end of the month... which is a shame since it seems a lot of the commenters who started at the beginning of the month are getting tired.

Which might be good news since it leaves room for new commenters...

When are you going to post 30 posts in 30 days? You're a writer, you could do it.

Nice to see you're hanging in there with quality daily posts..... impressive!

Rules #3, #7, #11 & #12 are my favorites and I also like your idea of not putting six grueling months into creating a site when you don't know if it'll 'fly' or not.

Always enjoy reading your posts...

Donna

If you only want a 2% retention rate, then a $1 trial is perfect for you.

On the other hand, if you want 50% or higher... then sell the membership site as it is... no trial.

Think about it, if you "discount" to $1 for the half of the first month, and it's $100/month afterwards... then you have to convince people that the membership is now 50 times worth the price. It's hard enough keeping people in a membership month after month even WITHOUT a trial. Don't add to your problems.

Great tips. I have an affiliate marketing membership site, but your rule #7 and #12 really brand new for me.

Robert what you think about free /$1 type trial? is not rule #13 ?

anyway thanks

Good thing too... I hid it in the middle just to see if you were paying atttention.

Here's the arguments FOR keeping them in after they cancel...

1. It "seems like" the right thing to do.
2. They've already paid for that content. (David Burch)
3. You can tease them with the content they missed and hopefully get them back in. (Mark Acutt)

And here are the AGAINST reasons... in other words, kick people out entirely if they cancel...

1. The industry standard is to shut them out, plus they've had a chance to consume the content. (Michelle Shoen)
2. It can be a pain to figure out what they "still" should and should not have access to, not including the autoresponder. (Adam Porter)
4. It's only fair to affiliates to motivate people to stay until the end. (Henrik Blunck)

I agree with Mark, that if you are dripping out content and people have paid for that content, they should retain the level of access they had when they cancelled and not receive new content.

$297 is not that expensive as long as you plan on making more than $297 over the course of the next year, from one of your membership sites. Even though DAP is new, Wishlist is way better, has been around longer, and has a bigger (and faster) support staff.