Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the educational website benlcollins.com, is incredibly thankful for his membership-based business as well as the economy of creators generally. "When you create something, whether it's creative or creating the technical content of a building membership - and a stranger walks up to you with their purse and hands you money, you realize the incredible privilege you have to be when you are able to create that type of product and be able to reach a lot of individuals.
"If somebody is spending the time to first of all - take a look at my work and is impressed enough that they're willing to spend the money I'd love to do everything that I can to make it as good as possible for them," he continues.
Ben is a fan of membership because it's not just a one-time fee: "We're not talking about"consulting agreements" wherein someone hires you to do something which is written down and everyone knows what they're getting. This is more of a partnership in which the person says"I'd like to be part of your bandwagon for the next year or month or quarter. I appreciate what you're doing and I'd like to help your efforts and join in that."
The membership program can give you an incredibly strong incentive to do your best as well as to strive to produce wonderful material. "People are of course expecting me to create top-quality material, but I also really desire to - both in their interest and mine. "
Ben explains that it helps to establish a great relationship you have with the group "I believe that I'm contributing to them rather than just this anonymous person buying a course and you never have any idea if anyone even looks at it. The experience is more tangible with the membership, or more intimate. It's about building a deeper relationship that goes beyond being transient."
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 taught around 15 different courses on Teachable possibly with up to 25 launches, because some of my classes had been revived. While teaching the course requires you to commit as much, as much effort, if not more - to marketing the course. The course is interesting, however I'm not a fan as it's not what I am good at."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had been teaching e-courses for the past 10 years when covid struck
Ben knew he preferred to focus on technical spreadsheet contents and assisting people. "People came to me asking "How do I get that done?', and the problem would be a fascinating problem to work on.
"Membership is something I thought about two, perhaps even three, years ago,"" Ben says. Ben. "I really liked that model because it's recurring revenue. By joining, you're not being forced to create something every single time for profit, where you get a huge spike, and then it's virtually no more." He explains that it's a stable platform that allows the creator to focus on the creating as well as the connection with the people who are using the platform, rather than to handle marketing.
"For several years, I'd flirted with the idea of membership, but I'd never gotten past the initial research. I was afraid about feeling like that I was always on when I followed this approach where I had to be continuously doing tasks. I was always able to pull back and was able to keep going through the classes." He had accomplished what he was trying to do.
"I'd basically done everything to cover with full courses. It was difficult to find other courses that weren't becoming increasingly specific and there is a decrease in demand with more advanced stuff," he continues. "There was not a viable economic case to do some of the courses I might be interested in."
Ben is also adamant that he felt burnt out. "I was thinking 'I have to record 100 Teachable videos, which need to be a single coherent thing. It was difficult for me to find enough energy to sit down and create the entire thing in one go. It's impossible to know for sure if people are going to buy it. "
Ben explains that online courses require the author to release the work prior to trying to sell it. With this, you don't necessarily know if it's going to be a success. "It may take, say, three to six months to design the best course. If it doesn't land it, it's not possible to resell it tomorrow, " he adds. "I realized that I needed a longer-term relationship with my audience where I would have Microdeliverables and microdeadlines."
Chess Simulation of a game of chess using Google Sheets
Membership was suddenly logical. "I'll sign up for a daily newsletter and we can have guidelines and templates however they don't have to be part of one gigantic topic and all tied into each other. The content could be smaller, and more manageable for me as well as easier for readers to digest."
Also, from a user standpoint, very few people finish their online courses "It's daunting when you buy the course which has more than 10 hours worth of videos. It's hard for people to fit in 10 hours of content so you give up and you never get around to doing it. If you only receive a single email each week, you can take 30 minutes during a lunch break and get a lot of value that week then you can forget about it until next week." Ben explains.
The spring of 2024, Ben started to think hard about joining. Through the summer, he sat down to draw out precisely what the membership would be when he launched the club in September.
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 all of this prior to. She's run an own business, she's created a variety of products, and she knew how to create an email database." Ben received a number of tips early when he began his membership journey "that helped enormously" - and one of the lessons was the need to establish an email list.
Ben's wife worked as a content marketer when he was starting to build his community. "She was part of an agency who handled marketing for clients, writing blog articles, SEO and social media. It was super-helpful, obviously in the context of the work I was trying to achieve at the time." Ben adds.
"Emails are by far the best way to connect with your customers," he continues. The author admits that this might not be the case for younger generations, but clarifies: "The problem with social media, especially newer platforms like TikTok has to do with this disconnect between you and your audience.
It's your responsibility to create content, but the platform displays what is popular as well as what's trending. regardless of whether you've got 100,000 or 10,000 fans, if the article isn't a viral hit per the algorithm, not all of them are likely to be able to view the content. It's a precarious relationship. Your existence is governed by the rules of the platform. If they modify their algorithms or fall out of fashion - we've seen lots of social media sites disappear - therefore, having an email list is essential.
Tips for those who want to become membership managers
"If somebody was starting a membership now I'd advise them to "Just start!" Ben smiles. "With the benefit of hindsight, I'd like I had done it in the past two years. It takes time to complete these tasks. As soon as you begin to get started, the more time you have."
Ben on Zoom Ben hosting an online session with his subscribers
It's possible to perform a little additional research "You may convince yourself that there's something wrong or you can find a different way of doing it. I've been guilty of that before. But when you actually press "Go" and release things out into the world, and interact with actual people, it becomes a whole new thing. It becomes a matter of actually solving issues you have to overcome, and not the imaginary questions."
He urges people to not overthink it: "If you're addressing someone's problem - or requires help to resolve a situation and you can do that, just get out there! The ability to improve will come as time goes by."
More information
To find out more and join Ben's daily Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.