“What’s so funny?  What’s the heck is going on up there?” my wife yelled up to me.

You see, it’s not terribly odd for me to be laughing, it’s just rare for me to find something so humorous at the computer that I actually do LOL (laugh out loud, literally) that when it happens, my beautiful wife working in the room next door wants to know what the trigger was.

And to be clear, the reason I rarely find myself rolling on the floor laughing my ass off is simply because when I’m behind the computer, it’s mostly work related and rarely do web design, embedding videos or performing a software upgrade make me chuckle.

Do You Know Johnny B?

I really wish I kept track of how I first came across some of my favorite people online.

In any case, I’ve been following the work of Johnny B. Truant (greatest. name. ever.) for some time.

I’m on his list, I read his stuff, I like his photo.

If you’ve never read Johnny’s stuff, you are missing out on a voice that is smart, ironic, sarcastic, and powerfully humorous.
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Are you looking for SEO and keyword research directly from the horses mouth?

Whenever possible, I’m a big fan of getting input, guidance and direction from the highest person on the food chain.

If you want to learn about real estate, Donald Trump is your man. If worrying less while being happy is more your thing, than a chat with Bobby McFerrin is in order.

But what if your goal is to get a solid understanding of SEO and keyword research as it relates to building your membership website? In that case, get in touch immediately with Duane Forrester.

I had the great fortune recently to get on a recorded line with Duane [audio below.]

Not familiar with The Online Marketing Guy?

For those not familiar with Duane, let’s start with the way he describes his job title during our chat:

“Anytime someone does a search online at any of the major search engines, my job is to make sure that MSN.com ranks well. Much like anyone out there who has a blog and wants more traffic, my job is to get more traffic for this big website. No different at all than someone with a small website – exactly the same work, just on a different scale.”

In other words, Duane is employed at Microsoft as their Senior Program Manager responsible for running their internal SEO program for MSN.  (If that’s not the horse, I don’t know who is…)

In this solid 60-minute phone call, Duane reveals

• A ton of practical ways to start your keyword research process
• How to best implement your findings
• How to increase your “internet footprint”
• How to laser target a keyword for maximum results
• How to quickly establish your website as a hub and a trusted authority on your topic

[Read more...]

A successful membership site has more bells and whistles that you can shake a stick at.  But you need much more than pretty sounding noise makers and bright shiny elements to truly make your membership site work.

There are dozens of parts that all need to seamlessly work together in order to provide your user with a magnificent, top notch experience.  You know, the kind of experience that will keep your members around for a while grinning ear to ear.

A membership site is sort of like a puzzle, isn’t it?  Although, if this puzzle isn’t working like a well-oiled machine, it could cost you lots o’ money.

Some of your membership site puzzle pieces are:

• Technical (scripts that work quietly behind the scenes in the background)
• Flashy and exciting (elements that focus the user’s attention exactly where you want it)
• Psychological in nature (Not in the “you’re getting very sleepy…” way, but in your choice of color, images and content copy.)

No matter the role, start thinking of your membership site like the perfect Hollywood movie – you are the producer, the writer, the director and the casting agent.

Hire the right team (each element of your site) and you’ll have a box office hit.

Here are the pieces of your successful membership site:

The Front/Sales/Public Pages.

Call them what you will, but these are the pages that are accessible to the general public and help get your visitors to click the JOIN button (they sell your membership site).

This is where you want to present all the solid info as to exactly WHY your visitor should immediately sign up and join.

You spell out all the benefits they will receive (opposed to simply listing all the wonderful features your site offers) and you get them excited about the outcome (the success) once they join your site and go through your course, training, or otherwise use your product or service.

The Members Only Pages.

This is the meat and potatoes of your membership site.  It’s these very pages that your visitor became a member in the first place.

Your members-only pages can consist of:

• Written content – Articles, interviews, tutorial, how-to’s, blog posts, etc.
• Audio content – Teleseminars, recorded interviews, or case studies.
• Video content – Webinars, screencasts, question and answer sessions.

The Members Forums.

Your forums – or message boards – are where your community becomes, well, a community.  The software you choose should tie in with your membership management script so each member only has to log in once to gain access to both the private content and the message board.

Properly tied together, your membership management script will automatically create the same username and password to unify the login process.

Membership Management Software

Surely you need a solid way to manage all your excited members, right?  Well, scripts such as Amember, Wishlist for WordPress and Digital Access Pass (DAP) all get the job done with honors.

They all have their pros (and very few cons), and the choice usually comes down to personal preference, the other elements of your membership site and your specific needs.

Payment Processor

Cha-ching.

The payment processor you choose for your membership site usually comes down to personal preference.  You can go the easy, out of the box route and use Paypal (which I’ve seen many huge membership sites use) or you can get yourself a merchant account, install an SSL (secure socket layer) certificate on your server and call it a day.

Remember that both Paypal and a merchant account will take a small percentage just for the honor of providing the service. A merchant account, however, will usually require a set-up fee and a monthly service fee.

Affiliate Software

You may want to partner up with others to help promote your membership site to their audience.  This can be a quick and easy way to get the word out to a group that you otherwise may not have had access to.

A typical split can be anywhere between 30% – 50% of the membership fee.  Of course, this can vary greatly depending on your product or service, your price point and your market.

Some of the membership management software do have an affiliate system built right in.  Depending on your needs, however, you could choose a third party script such as idevaffiliate (for $99) that will offer a tremendous amount of additional features.  (For my money, well worth the price of admission.)

Email Newsletter Software

I’ve always wondered who coined the phrase “the money’s in the list” (there’s another nickel his way…) but that person is most likely retired rich today.

Place an opt-in box on your public pages and start building that money list.  Find something of value to exchange with your new fan in return for their email address and you’ll be on your way.

Whether it’s an auto-responder series or the occasional newsletter update, build a trusting relationship with your audience and establish yourself as the valuable resource you are.

Ethical Bribe (for list building)

Coined by Brian Clark and the Teaching Sells crew, your ethical bribe refers to the piece of valuable content you give to your users in exchange for adding themselves to your email list.

Placing a sign up box that simply reads “Join my newsletter” is so yesterday.

Don’t overthink this one.  Your ethical bribe can be anything from a PDF download report, a teleseminar recording or an audio interview to a training video, checklist or auto responder mini-course.