Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the educational website benlcollins.com Ben L Collins is extremely grateful for his membership company and the economy of creators generally. "When you're creating something - whether you're an artist, or you're designing the technical content of another building-related membership, and some random stranger opens their wallets and offers your money, you'll realize that you're extremely fortunate to be when you are able to accomplish this kind of thing and connect with so many individuals.
"If someone's spending the time to first of all - just take a look at my work, and they like it enough to spend the money, I want to do everything I can do to make it as good as possible for them," he continues.
Ben is a fan of membership, because it's much not just a one-time payment: "We're not talking about a consulting agreement where the person hires you to complete something that's written and structured and everybody knows exactly the terms of service they're receiving. It's more like a relationship with the individual who says"I'd like to join your bandwagon for the next calendar year, or for a month, or a quarter. I like what you're doing and I'd like to help you and be part of this."
He believes that membership can give you an incredibly compelling incentive to try the very best that you can and to create amazing content. "People will naturally expect me to create top-quality material however, I really would like to do it to make it for them as well as for myself. "
Ben explains that it helps to establish a great connection with your community "I feel like I'm helping people rather than an anonymous person buying a course and you never know whether they even look at the course. The experience is more tangible with your membership or closer. It's about creating a more intimate relationship that goes beyond being transactional."
From "always on" to microdeliverables
When the covid-19 pandemic struck, Ben had been delivering classes on manipulation of data using Google Sheets for 10 years. "I was delivering around 15 different courses on Teachable and perhaps 25 courses, since some of the courses were relaunched. When you teach the courses, you have to honestly invest as much - as much effort, if not more - to marketing the course. Although it's fascinating, I'm not passionate about it, and it's not something I enjoy."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had delivered e-courses for ten years, when she was struck by covid.
Ben knew he preferred to concentrate on spreadsheet technical information and also helping others. "People would come to me and say "How can I accomplish that?' and it would be a fascinating problem to work on.
"Membership is something I thought about maybe two or even three years ago," says Ben. "I really liked that model since it's a recurring income. By joining, you're not having to constantly launch something in order to earn money. You can see a massive spike in revenue but then you're left with nothing after that." He says it's a stable platform for creators that allow them to concentrate on creating and establishing a relationship with their users, not having to handle the marketing.
"For some time I'd thought about the concept of joining a club, but I'd never gotten past the process of research. I was afraid about feeling like that I was always on if I did this model in which I was continuously doing tasks. I was always able to pull back and was able to keep going through the courses." However, he was accomplished what he was trying to achieve.
"I'd basically completed all of the things to cover with full courses. It was difficult to find another course that wasn't just becoming increasingly specific and it becomes less popular as you get to more advanced techniques," he continues. "There wasn't a good economical reason to take one of the classes I could consider."
Ben is also adamant that he had a feeling of burnout. "I thought 'I have to record 100 Teachable videos that all have to be one big unit. I just didn't have enough energy to sit down and create the entire thing in one go. It's impossible to know for sure whether people will purchase the item. "
Ben explains that electronic courses need the creator to publish the work prior to trying to sell it. With this, you don't necessarily know whether it will be an success. "It may take, say, three to six months to create a really good course. If the course does not succeed in the market, you won't be able to sell the course tomorrow, " he adds. "I discovered that I required a longer-term relationship with my readers where I would have microdeadlines and microdeliverables."
Chess Simulation of a game of chess using Google Sheets
The idea of membership suddenly became clear. "I'll sign up for a daily newsletter. We can also have guidelines and templates However, they don't need to be the same topic or be linked to each other. It could be bitesize and easier for me to digest - and more manageable for readers to digest."
From a consumer perspective, not many people complete their online courses "It's intimidating to buy a course that has 10 hours of video. It's hard for people to squeeze in 10 hours of content therefore you stop and you never get around to doing it. Whereas, hopefully if you receive one email per week, you can plan 30 minutes of the course of a lunch break, and gain lots of value from this week. Then, you'll be able to forget about it until next week." Ben explains.
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 when he launched the club in September.
Email is king
When he talks about his work, Ben is keen to acknowledge his wife. "I'm very fortunate that my wife has been through everything prior to. She's run an own business, she's launched various products and was able to create an email list." Ben received a many tips and advice during his career in membership "that helped enormously" - and one of the lessons was how to create an email list.
Ben's wife worked in the field of content marketing as he was starting to build his network. "She had an agency which handled marketing for clients, writing blog articles, SEO as well as social media. This was extremely helpful, evidently for the work I was trying to accomplish at the time," Ben adds.
"Emails are the most important channel to interact or connect to your target audience," he continues. However, he admits that it is perhaps less relevant for younger people, but he says: "The problem with social media, especially more recent platforms, like TikTok are that they create this detachment between you and your followers.
It's your responsibility to create content, but the platform shows whatever is viral and trending. it doesn't matter if you have 10,000 or 100,000 fans, if the article isn't a viral hit as per the algorithm, it's unlikely that any of your followers ever going to see it. This is a tense connection. Your existence is governed by the rules of the platform. If they change their algorithms or fall out of favor - we've seen lots of social media networks disappear - thus establishing an email database is essential.
A few tips for members who are interested in becoming membership operators
"If someone were to start a new membership I'd say "You should just get started!" Ben smiles. "With the benefit of hindsight, I'd like I'd started this just two years ago. These things just take time. When you start sooner and get going, the longer time you'll can enjoy."
Ben in Zoom Ben hosting an online session with his clients
It's simple to conduct a bit more research "You can convince yourself that there's something wrong or you can find a different approach. I've done that previously. However, when you press "Go", and then put something into the world and interact with real people It becomes a whole new thing. You start to actually solve the things you need to overcome, and not the hypothetical questions."
The author advises members to not be too concerned: "If you're addressing someone's problem - or needs to solve a problem and you could help, then get out there! The ability to improve will come in time."
More details
For more information and to join Ben's daily Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.