Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the education site benlcollins.com, is incredibly thankful for his membership company and the creator economy of digital media all over the world. "When you're creating something, whether it's creative or creating an instructional course, or even a building membership - when a random person opens their purse and hands the money to you, you realise how incredibly fortunate you are in this particular moment in time where you can accomplish this kind of thing and be able to reach a lot of people.
"If you're willing to firstly - take a look at my work and is impressed enough to pay for it, I want to do everything that I can to make it as good as possible for the person," he continues.
Ben enjoys the idea of membership as it's so much not just a one-time fee: "We're not talking about an agreement for consulting where someone hires you to do a piece of work that's written and structured and everyone is aware of the terms of service they're receiving. More of a relation where that person is saying"I'd like to join your orbit for the next year or month or quarter. I appreciate what you're doing and I'd like to help you as a part of that."
It is his belief that joining the club provides you with a strong incentive to do the best you can do as well as to strive to produce amazing material. "People are of course expecting me to create top-quality material and I do desire to - both to make it for them as well as for myself. "
Ben says that it is helpful in building a strong relationship you have with the group "I think I'm helping them rather than just this random person purchasing a course and you never be sure if they will even glance at it. It's more immediate when you join your membership or closer. It's about building a deeper connection that is more than transactional."
From "always on" to microdeliverables
In the time of the outbreak of covid-19, Ben had been delivering online courses on manipulating data, including Google Sheets for 10 years. "I taught around 15 different courses on Teachable possibly with up to 25 launch dates, as certain courses were relaunched. Doing the courses, you have to honestly invest as much - or even more effort into marketing than the actual course. The course is interesting, however I'm not a fan as it's not what I am good at."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had delivered e-courses for ten years, when she was struck by covid.
Ben realized that he liked to concentrate on spreadsheet technical information and also helping others. "People would come to me with questions like "How do I get that done?' and it could be fascinating to figure out.
"Membership is a concept I was thinking about two, perhaps even three years ago,"" Ben says. Ben. "I enjoyed the concept because it's recurring revenue. Membership isn't needing to launch things constantly for profit, where you have a big spike and then it's virtually nothing after that." The author explains it provides a more stable platform for creators that allow them to focus on the creating and establishing a relationship with their users, not having to manage marketing.
"For some time, I'd flirted with the notion of membership but never got past the initial research. I was afraid that it might feel as if I was 'always on' when I followed this approach where I had to be constantly doing things. I was always able to pull back and continued to follow the lessons." But he had finished what he set out to achieve.
"I'd basically covered all the different things to cover with full courses. It was difficult to find an alternative course that wasn't becoming more specialized, and there is a decrease in demand when you move to higher-end things," he continues. "There wasn't a good economic case to do some of the courses I might be interested in."
Ben adds that he had a feeling of burnout. "I was thinking 'I have to record 100 Teachable video tutorials that have to be one big cohesive thing.' I didn't have the energy to get down on the floor and make that in one big block. You don't even know if people are going to purchase the product. "
Ben explains that e-courses require the author to release their creation before trying to sell it. With this, there is no way to tell whether it will be a success. "It could take about three to six months to design the best course. If it doesn't land, you can't just resell the course in the future, " he adds. "I discovered that I required a longer-term relationship with my audience with microdeadlines and microdeliverables."
Chess Simulating a game of chess. Google Sheets
Membership was suddenly logical. "I'll sign up for a daily newsletter and we can have examples and guides However, they don't require to be part of one gigantic topic and all connected to one another. It could be bitesize which is more manageable for me - and more manageable for people to consume."
From a consumer standpoint, very few people take their courses online "It's daunting when you buy the course which has 10 hours of video. It's hard to squeeze in the 10 hours of video content, and therefore you stop and you never get around to doing it. However, if you get one email a week, it's possible to set aside 30 minutes over the course of a lunch break, and gain lots of value from this week. Then, you'll be able to forget about it until the following week," Ben explains.
In the spring of 2024, Ben began to contemplate about joining. Over the course of summer, he laid down and sketched out what it would look like when he launched the club in the month of September.
Email is still king
When he talks about his work, Ben is keen to be grateful to his co-worker. "I'm extremely fortunate to have a wife has accomplished everything I've mentioned prior to. She's run her own company; she's launched a number of products and she knew how to create an email list." Ben received a number of tips early in his membership career "that greatly helped" - One of them was to build an email list.
His wife, Ben's, was employed in the field of content marketing as Ben was beginning to establish his online community. "She had an agency who handled marketing for clients. They also wrote blog articles, SEO as well as social media. This was extremely helpful, evidently in the context of what I was trying to accomplish at the time," Ben adds.
"Emails are the primary method of interaction or connecting with your audience," he continues. The author admits that this may not be as relevant to younger people, but he says: "The problem with social media, especially modern platforms such as TikTok are that they create the disconnect between you and your followers.
You create a piece of content but the platform just shows whatever is viral as well as what's trending. no matter whether you have 10,000 or 100,000 fans, if the piece of content isn't viral according to the algorithm, then not all of them are likely to be able to view the content. It's a precarious relation. Your existence is governed by the rules of the platform. If they change their algorithm, or if they go from favor, there have been many social media platforms disappear, therefore, having an email list is vital.
Tips for those who want to become membership managers
"If somebody was starting an account right now, I would say 'Just get started!'" Ben smiles. "With hindsight, I wish I had done it two years ago. The things that take time. The sooner you get started, the more time you'll have."
Ben in Zoom Ben hosting an online session with his members
It's possible to perform a little additional research "You might convince yourself there's something missing, or you can find a different method of doing it. I've made that mistake in the past. But when you actually press "Go" and release an item in the universe and interact with real people, it becomes a whole new thing. Then you begin to solve issues you have to overcome, and not the abstract questions."
He urges people to not be too concerned: "If you're addressing someone's issue - and if they needs to solve a problem and you can do that, just go out! The ability to improve will come in time."
More information
To find out more and subscribe to Ben's weekly Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.