Daniel Scocco, Brazilian home professional blogger, blog owner and the famous DailyBlogTips.com OnlineProfits.com paid membership site. DailyBlogTips.com own ever nominated for “Best Web Development Blog” award at the Weblog Awards in 2007. When this entry in the series DailyBlogtips.com 100 most popular blogs in the world (based on Technorati).
In addition to diligent in blogging activities, Daniel is also known as online marketing consultants say that it seems paid $ 200 per hour. Daniel is one of the examples of successful bloggers who blog and also to develop the site membership program. How do potential membership site program, and what must be learned if you want to build a paid membership site?
So this is the Interviews :
(T): I notice that recently you’ve launched a membership site program, OnlineProfits.com. Could you tell us what is actually OnlineProfits.com?
(J): OnlineProfits.com is an online marketing and business training program. It is targeted at people who want to learn all the angles of online marketing and start a business on the Internet. The program itself is made of lessons, case studies, exclusive interviews and video tutorials. Members also have access to a private forum and a private area with tools and resources.
(T): How did you finally come up with this membership site program?
(J): Once I had the idea, I spent five months or so working on it before the actual launch. This involved securing the domain name, setting up the server, hiring a designer, putting the membership site together (the technical bits), creating a lineup of mentors to produce the content, structuring the content of the program in a logical fashion, integrating the payment processor, testing everything, doing some market research and so on.
(T): Do you think that blogging and membership program are complementary?
(J): I think a blog can be a launch pad for any project. For example, there are cases of bloggers who landed dream jobs inside large corporations, cases where bloggers landed book publishing deals, cases where bloggers launched membership sites following the success of their blogs and so on.
(T): Can we just create membership site program without even have a blog?
(J): In theory you could, but as I answered above, a blog can be a great launch pad, and it could dramatically increase your chances of success. This is the case because a blog is an excellent tool to demonstrate your expertise, attract an audience of prospects, network with fellow bloggers who might become your JV partners and so on.
(T): What kind of special skills that bloggers should learn before they launch their membership site program?
(J): It depends on the kind of membership site that you want to launch, and whether or not you will hire professional help. Here are some of the skills needed to launch a successful membership site:
- web design skills (graphic design, CSS, XHTML)
- web development skills (PHP, Javascript, payment integration, etc)
- marketing skills (copywriting, market research, traffic generation, etc)
- content production skills (text, audio, video)
- business skills (strategy, administration, finance)
If you want to do everything yourself, therefore, you would need to have most of those skills. The alternative is to hire professionals who will bring these skills to your project.
(T): From your own experience, which one is more profitable? Blog or membership site?
(J): I think we can’t generalize. There are blogs that are very profitable, as there are blogs that don’t make a dime. Similarly, there are membership sites that are profitable, and there are membership sites that don’t make a dime. In the end, I believe that you make a website popular and profitable – be it a blog, a membership site, a forum or an online store – if you have a passion for it. You need to love what you doing to be able to do excellet work. Once you have that ingredient, any type of website can become hugely profitable. So don’t follow the money, follow your passion.
(T): What is your advice for bloggers who want to start their own membership site program?
(J): First of all keep working on your blog. Try to grow its audience as much as possible, and try to establish it as an authority inside its niche. This will help tremendously on the launch of a membership site. Secondly, do proper market research. You should launch a membership site only if you identify a real need on the market that is not being adequately addressed by current competitors. Once again, the membership site must be rooted on a topic that you are passionate about, else it will flop.
(T): Last question: Do you have any future project that you want to share with us?
(J): OnlineProfits.com will be my only project for a while now. I have a vision of what I want to accomplish with it, and we are just 5% there, if that. And I am not only talking about the financial aspect, but also about the service quality, the features, the products offered and so on. I am taking one step at a time, though, so it is a fun project to be involved with. Probably in October of 2009 we will be opening it for new members again (first time was in January), so keep an eye for it.
Don’t follow the money, follow your passion.
source : medhy on blogguebo.com