There are lots of strategies on using membership sites (can be added to product sales for example), but I wanted to point that if you are just selling memberships you are missing out on potential sales. Here’s why I say this (using real experiences). I try to base my opinions on reality and actual test results as much as possible.

Recently I was working on selling a guitar lesson on using diminished scales for a local jazz guitar teacher. I wanted to try out Extreme Member’s product sales feature (which uses a membership to sell products – not ideal in my opinion). So I created a new membership for this product and the related pages (thank you page, product page, etc). As you create these pages they can show up in the sidebar under the Pages widget. During this process someone who was a already member of my guitar coaching program purchased the diminished scale lesson! They had a problem since it wasn’t fully integrated, but that made me realize that these customers will buy other things as well. Very interesting!

I also got an email from someone who recently canceled their subscription, saying they didn’t have enough time to practice guitar and didn’t want to pay monthly. So you need to offer your membership content as downloadable products for those who don’t want to join. It’s about offering a variety of options for your content. The great thing about these two points is that I received real feedback from taking real action. Now I just need time to get it all done!