Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the education website benlcollins.com Ben L Collins is extremely grateful for his membership business as well as the economics of creatives across the world. "When you're working on something, whether it's an artist, or you're creating an educational course or some other type of building-related membership, and some random stranger decides to give you the money to you, you'll be aware of that you're blessed to have a place that you can create this kind of product and interact with a lot of people.
"If somebody would like to, initially look at my stuff and like it enough to purchase it, I'd like to try my best in order to create the best possible experience for them,"" he adds.
Ben enjoys the idea of membership since it's not a single price: "We're not talking about"consulting contracts" in which people contract you to perform an assignment that is documented and everyone is aware of the conditions of service they're receiving. More of a relation in which the person says"I'd want to be a part of your club for the remainder of the year or month or quarter. I appreciate what you're doing; I want to support your efforts as part of that."
He believes that joining the club provides you with a a really compelling incentive to try the best you can do and also to work to create amazing content. "People believe that I will create high-quality content however, I'd like to do it so that I can do it for them as well as myself. "
Ben explains that it helps to build a wonderful connection with your community "I think I'm contributing to the community rather than just who buys the course. However, it's not clear if people even take a go through the course. The experience is more tangible through the community or more intimate. It's about creating an intimate relationship that goes beyond just exchange."
Beginning with "always-on" up to the microdeliverables
When the covid-19 virus struck, Ben was delivering courses about manipulating data with Google Sheets for 10 years. "I taught about 15 distinct courses on Teachable possible with as many as 25 launches, since some of the courses had been relaunched. When you teach the courses should be putting all of your effort or perhaps more effort - into marketing rather than actually teaching the lesson. Although it's fascinating but I'm not a fan and it's not my strength."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had taught e-courses for ten years before she was struck by covid.
Ben discovered that he enjoyed to work on the technical content of spreadsheets and also help others. "People would come to me and ask "How do I get it completed? The problem could be fascinating to solve.
"Membership is something I thought about, maybe two or three, years ago," Ben says. Ben. "I loved the idea because it's an ongoing source of revenue. When you join, you're not required to keep launching things continuously for the sake of earning income. You can see a massive rise in revenues, but after that it's almost nothing." He says it provides the stability needed for creators and allows creators to focus on creating and relationships with users and not having to do the selling.
"For a while, I've been thinking about membership but I had haven't done the initial study. I was concerned that I would feel as if that I was never off when I followed this method in which I was always performing things. I was always pulling back but I was able to keep going through the lessons." But, he had accomplished what he was trying to achieve.
"I'd nearly completed everything I needed to learn with complete courses. It was challenging to find an alternative course that wasn't getting more specific, and there an increase in demand as you get to more sophisticated techniques." He says. "There is no viable economical reason to take some of the courses that I'd like to take into consideration."
Ben adds that he's tired. "I considered "I've had to come up with 100 Teachable video tutorials that should be a cohesive thing. It was just that I didn't find the time to get my hands dirty and make this in a single block. It's impossible to know the number of people who will purchase this item. "
Ben clarifies that online courses must be published by the author of the work prior to trying to sell it, and there is no way to tell whether it is a success. "It may take anywhere three to six months to design a top-quality course. If the course doesn't work it's impossible to sell the course again in the future, " he adds. "I realized that I needed an ongoing relationship with my audience with Microdeadlines and microdeliverables."
Chess Playing an imitation of the game of chess. Google Sheets
Membership was suddenly logical. "I'll be signing up to receive a monthly newsletter with guidelines and templates, but they do not need to be part of the same subject or related to one another. Information could be small amount, making it easily digestible for me, and more manageable for people to consume."
Also, from a user perspective, there are a lot users don't get through their online courses "It's hard to buy an online course with 10 hours of video content. Students find it difficult to keep track of the ten hours of video content which is why you leave and never come back making it happen. But, if you receive one email every week, it's possible to spend 30 minutes on a lunch break and get plenty of information in the course of a week. Then, do nothing with it the following week." Ben explains.
The spring of 2024, Ben began to contemplate about joining. Through the summer, he took a seat down and mapped out exactly what membership was which he then launched the 1st of September.
Email is the new king
Talking about his career, Ben is keen to recognize his wife. "I'm extremely fortunate to have my wife is able to accomplish all of the things I've talked about before. She's run her own company; she's launched various products and knew how to build an electronic database." Ben was given a wealth of help early on, when he began his journey to join "that greatly helped" One of them was the need to establish an email database.
Ben's wife worked as the content marketer while the time came to start building his community on the internet. "She made up an agency that did marketing for customers. The agency also created blog posts as well as SEO, social media and blog articles. It was tremendously helpful clearly for what I was trying achieve at the time." Ben adds.
"Emails are the most important method of interaction or connecting to your target audience," he continues. He admits that it isn't as applicable to younger generations, but says: "The problem with social media, and especially the most modern ones like TikTok is an inconsistency between your audience and you.
If you write content, the site only shows what's popular and the latest trends. No matter if you've 10 or 100,000 fans however, if your piece of content isn't ranked according to the algorithm, then all of your fans are going to see the content. There's a risk of having a weak connection. Your online existence is determined by the guidelines of the platform. If they change their algorithms or fall from favor, we've seen lots of social media sites disappear and so creating an email database is essential.
A few tips for members who want to become members' operators
"If somebody was starting an entirely new club, I'd suggest them to 'Just get started and get started!'" Ben smiles. "With hindsight, I wish I'd begun this years ago. Things like this take time. The earlier you get started to begin and take your time, you will have more time that you'll have to spend enjoying."
Ben at Zoom Ben Hosting the Zoom session of his members
There is a way to conduct an additional bit of research "You may convince yourself that there's something wrong or you might discover a new way of doing it. I've tried it before. When you hit "Go" and then release an item in the universe and interact with people in real life it takes the form of a new concept. The focus shifts to finding the problems you need to solve and not these imaginary issues."
The author recommends that members not be too concerned: "If you're addressing someone's problem - and they requires help to resolve the issue and your group is in a position to assist them, reach out there! It's possible to make improvements take the course of time."
More information
For more information and to sign up to Ben's weekly Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.
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