Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the education website benlcollins.com He is very grateful for his membership business and the digital creator economy in general. "When you create something - whether you're an artist or you're creating a technical course or another building-related membership, and some random stranger opens their wallets and offers you money, you realize how incredibly fortunate you are to be when you are able to accomplish this kind of thing and be able to reach a lot of people.
"If somebody is taking the time to - firstly - check out my products, and they like it enough that they're willing to spend the money, I want to do all I can to make this the best possible experience for them," he continues.
Ben is a fan of membership as it's so much more than a single cost: "We're not talking about"consulting agreements" wherein people hire you to perform a piece of work which is written down and everyone knows the terms of service they're receiving. More of a relation with the individual who says, 'I want to be part of your bandwagon for the next year, month or quarter. I love what you're up to and I'd like to help your efforts and join in that."
The membership program provides you with a powerful incentive to be the best you can do and to create great content. "People are of course expecting me to create top-quality material however, I really want to - to make it for them as well as for myself. "
Ben explains that it helps to establish a great connection with your group "I feel like I'm helping them rather than just this anonymous person buying an online course, and you don't be sure if they will even glance at it. The experience is more tangible with the membership, or more intimate. It's about building a deeper friendship that transcends transactional."
From 'always-on' to microdeliverables
When the covid-19 pandemic struck, Ben had been delivering e-courses on data manipulation including Google Sheets for 10 years. "I was delivering around 15 different courses on Teachable possibly with up to 25 courses, since some of the classes had been revived. While teaching the course, you have to honestly commit as much, as much effort, if not more - into marketing than the actual course. It's interesting, but I'm not a fan and it's not my strength."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had been teaching e-courses for the past 10 years, when she was struck by covid.
Ben was aware that he would rather concentrate on spreadsheet technical content and helping people. "People would come to me and say "How do I get that done?', and the problem would be really interesting to solve.
"Membership was something I had thought about probably two, maybe even three years ago," Ben says. Ben. "I really liked that model since it's a recurring income. Membership isn't being forced to create something every single time in order to earn money. You can have a big spike before it's almost nothing." He explains that it provides a more stable platform that allows the creator to concentrate on the creation and establishing a relationship with their users, not having to handle the marketing.
"For several years, I'd flirted with the notion of membership but never got past the process of research. I was afraid that it would feel like that I was always on in this kind of model that required me to be constantly doing things. I would always pull back, but continued to follow the courses." However, he was finished what he set out to do.
"I'd basically completed all of the things that I could have covered with my full-courses. It was difficult to locate an alternative course that wasn't becoming increasingly specific and it becomes less popular as you get to more sophisticated stuff," he continues. "There wasn't a good economic reason for me to pursue some of the classes I could be interested in."
Ben adds that he felt burnt out. "I was thinking "I've got to create 100 Teachable videos that all have to be one big coherent thing.' I didn't have enough energy to sit down and create this in a single block. There's no way to tell how many people will purchase the product. "
Ben explains that online courses require the creator to publish their work before they try to market it. However, you don't necessarily know whether it will be successful. "It might take you about three to six months to develop a really good course. If the course doesn't work, you can't just resell the course in the future, " he adds. "I realized that I needed a longer-term relationship with my readers with microdeadlines as well as microdeliverables."
Chess Simulating a game of chess with Google Sheets
Membership was suddenly logical. "I'll sign up for a daily newsletter. We can also have examples and guides however they don't require to be part of the same topic or be tied into each other. The information could be a bit smaller and more manageable for me which is also easier for others to read."
From a consumer viewpoint, a lot of people don't finish their online courses "It's intimidating to buy an online course with more than 10 hours worth of videos. It's hard to squeeze in 10 hours of content therefore you stop and never come back to doing it. Whereas, hopefully if you receive one email per week, you could plan 30 minutes of a lunch break and get lots of value from that week then you can put it aside until the following week," Ben explains.
In the spring of 2024, Ben began to contemplate about joining. In the course of summer, he laid down to draw out precisely what the membership would be - and he launched on September 1st.
Email remains the king of email
Talking about his career, Ben is keen to acknowledge his wife. "I'm really fortunate that my wife has done everything before. She's had her own company; she's launched a number of products and she knew how to set up an email list." Ben received a lot of advice early on during his career in membership "that was extremely helpful" - and one of the lessons was the need to establish an email list.
His wife, Ben's, was employed in content marketing when he was starting to build his network. "She was part of an agency which handled marketing for clients. They also wrote blog posts and SEO and social media. This was extremely helpful, evidently to what I was trying to accomplish at the time," Ben adds.
"Emails are the most important way to connect to your target audience," he continues. He admits that this might not be the case for younger generations, but clarifies: "The problem with social media, and especially the more recent platforms, like TikTok, is that there's the disconnect between your target audience and you.
You create a piece of content but the platform just showcases what's viral and trending. it doesn't matter if you have 10,000 or 100,000 fans, if the piece of content isn't viral per the algorithm, not any of your followers likely to be able to view the content. It's a precarious relationship. It's a matter of the discretion of this platform. Should they alter their algorithm, or if they go out of favor - there have been many social media networks disappear - so building an email list is essential.
A few tips for members who are interested in becoming membership operators
"If someone were to start an account right now, I would say "Just start!" Ben smiles. "With retrospectively, I'd rather I'd done this in the past two years. These things just take time. As soon as you begin and get going, the longer time you'll have."
Ben at Zoom Ben hosting the Zoom session of his clients
He acknowledges that it's easy to do a little further research "You may convince yourself that there's something you're missing or there's another way of doing it. I've done that before. However, when you press "Go" and release things out into the world, and start interacting with actual people, it becomes a whole new thing. It becomes a matter of actually solving issues you have to resolve, not just these abstract questions."
It is important to remember not to be too concerned: "If you're addressing someone's pain point - if someone is in need of solving a issue, and your membership can do that, just go out! It can be improved over time."
Additional information
For more information and to join Ben's daily Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.