Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the education site benlcollins.com, is incredibly thankful for his membership business and the digital creator economy in general. "When you're creating something, whether it's an artist or you're creating a technical course or a building membership - when a random person opens their purse and hands you money, you realize how incredibly fortunate you are to be when you are able to do that kind of work and reach so many people.
"If someone's spending the time to first of all - look at my stuff and is impressed enough to purchase it I'd like to do absolutely everything I can do to make it as perfect as it can be for the person," he continues.
Ben is a fan of membership as it's so much more than just a one-off cost: "We're not talking about"consulting agreements" wherein the person hires you to complete an assignment that's written and structured and everyone is aware of what they're getting. This is more of a partnership where that person is saying"I'd like to be part of your circle for the coming year, month or quarter. I love what you're up to and I'd like to help you as a part of this."
The membership program can give you an incredibly strong incentive to do the best you can do as well as to strive to produce wonderful quality content. "People expect me to create top-quality material however, I really want to - in their interest and mine. "
Ben states that it can help to build a wonderful connection with your community "I think I'm helping the community rather than being an random person purchasing a course and you never have any idea if anyone even looks at it. It feels more immediate with the membership or closer. It's about establishing a stronger relationship that goes beyond being transient."
From "always-on" to microdeliverables
In the time of the outbreak of covid-19, Ben had been delivering e-courses on data manipulation including Google Sheets for 10 years. "I taught about 15 courses through Teachable possibly with up to 25 launch dates, as some of my courses were relaunched. While teaching the course requires you to invest as much - or even more effort to marketing the course. It's interesting, but I'm not passionate about it, as it's not what I am good at."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had delivered e-courses for ten years before covid struck
Ben knew he preferred to work on the technical spreadsheet contents and assisting people. "People would come to me with questions like "How do I get that done?' and it could be really interesting to solve.
"Membership is a concept I was thinking about probably two, maybe even three years ago," says Ben. "I loved the idea because it's recurring revenue. With membership, you're not being forced to create something every single time to make money where you have a big spike before it's almost nothing." The author explains it provides a more stable platform for creators that allow them to concentrate on creating and establishing a relationship with their users, not having to handle marketing.
"For a few years I'd considered the notion of membership however, I never did the process of research. I was worried that it might feel as if I was 'always on' when I followed this approach in which I was continuously doing tasks. I always pulled back and kept on going with the classes." But he had finished what he set out to accomplish.
"I'd basically done everything to cover with full courses. It was difficult to locate other courses that weren't getting increasingly specialized and therefore there is a decrease in demand when you move to more advanced techniques," he continues. "There was not a viable economic case to do some of the courses that I would consider."
Ben is also adamant that he was exhausted. "I was thinking 'I have to record 100 Teachable video tutorials that need to be a single coherent thing. It was difficult for me to find the energy to sit down and create this in a single block. It's impossible to know for sure how many people will buy it. "
Ben explains that electronic courses need the creator to publish their creation before trying to sell it. With this, you don't necessarily know whether it will be an success. "It may take about three to six months to develop a really good course. If it doesn't land in the market, you won't be able to sell it tomorrow, " he adds. "I realized that I needed an ongoing connection with my customers that would include Microdeliverables and microdeadlines."
Chess Playing a simulation of chess. Google Sheets
Membership was suddenly logical. "I'll commit to a weekly newsletter, and there are guidelines and templates, but they don't all need to be one gigantic topic and all linked to each other. The content could be smaller, and easier for me to digest which is also easier for people to consume."
Also, from a user perspective, not many people take their courses online "It's intimidating to buy the course which has 10 hours of video. It's hard to fit in 10 hours of material, which is why you quit and don't get around to doing it. If you receive one email per week, it's possible to take 30 minutes during your lunch break to gain plenty of value during that week then you can forget about it for the next week." Ben explains.
At the beginning of spring 2024 Ben began to consider about joining. In the course of summer, he laid down and mapped out exactly what it would look like - and he launched on September 1st.
Email remains the king of email
In his interview about his professional life, Ben is keen to be grateful to his co-worker. "I'm very fortunate that my wife has accomplished everything I've mentioned before. She's had her own business; she's launched a number of products and knew how to create an email list." Ben received a lot of advice early on during his career in membership "that helped enormously" - and one of the lessons was to build an email list.
His wife, Ben's, was employed as a content marketer when he was starting to build his online community. "She had an agency who handled marketing for their clients, as well as writing blogs, SEO posts as well as social media. It was super-helpful, obviously for the work I was trying to achieve at the time." Ben adds.
"Emails are by far the best channel to interact or connect with your audience," he continues. The author admits that this may not be as relevant to the younger generation, but says: "The problem with social media, especially modern platforms such as TikTok, is that there's this disconnect between your target audience and you.
It's your responsibility to create content and the platform shows whatever is viral and trending. it doesn't matter if you've got 10,000 or 100,000 followers. If your piece of content doesn't rank as per the algorithm, it's unlikely that many of those followers are ever going to see it. There's a risk of a weak connection. Your existence is governed by the rules of this platform. Should they alter their algorithm, or if they go out of favor - we've seen a lot of social media sites disappear - therefore, having an email list is crucial.
Tips for those who want to become membership managers
"If anyone were starting a membership now, I would say "Just start!" Ben smiles. "With retrospectively, I'd rather I'd started this in the past two years. It takes time to complete these tasks. The sooner you get started and get going, the longer time you'll will have."
Ben in Zoom Ben hosting a Zoom session for his members
He acknowledges that it's simple to conduct a bit further research "You may convince yourself that there's something wrong or that there's a better way of doing it. I've done that in the past. But when you actually press 'Go' and put something into the world and interact with actual people It begins to take on new meaning. Then you begin to solve issues you have to overcome, and not the hypothetical issues."
The author advises members to not be too concerned: "If you're addressing someone's problem - or needs to solve a problem, and your membership could help, then go out! The ability to improve will come over time."
More information
For more details and to join Ben's daily Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.