Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the education site benlcollins.com, is incredibly thankful for his membership business and the creator economy of digital media around the world. "When you're making something, regardless of whether you're creative or creating an educational course or a building membership when a random individual opens their wallet and hand over the money the creator, you are able to see that you're extremely fortunate in this particular moment when you are able to do this and be able to reach out to a wide range of people.
"If you're ready to check out my work, and are sufficiently impressed to buy it, I'll take every step to make it as good as I can for you," he continues.
Ben is a fan of membership as it's so far more than a single payment: "We're not talking about the contract for consultation in which someone has you do a piece of work that's written and structured and everyone is aware of the service terms they're getting. A more formal relationship in which the person saying"I'd like to join your team for the remainder of the calendar year, or for a month, or a quarter. I'm grateful for the work you've done and would be happy to assist to contribute to this."
He believes that joining the club provides an incentive to do the best you can do and to try to create amazing materials. "People will naturally expect that I create high-end materials and I certainly want to create it for them, as also to make it for me. "
Ben says that it is beneficial in establishing a solid relationships with the community "I think I'm helping them instead of just an individual buying the course but you cannot think you'll even take a look. It's more immediate after you sign up to your membership or are a bit closer. It's about creating a stronger relationship that goes beyond transactions."
From "always always" to microdeliverables
In the time of the covid-19 outbreak, Ben was delivering online classes about manipulating data using Google Sheets for 10 years. "I taught around 15 different courses on Teachable which could have as many as 25 dates for launch, as some courses were revived. In order to teach the courses require you to spend as much, or more - effort in marketing, rather than actually teaching the course. The course is interesting but I'm not a fan as it's not something I'm skilled at."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had delivered e-courses for ten years when she was stricken by a covid.
Ben realized that he liked working on spreadsheets that contained technical information and also helping others. "People would come to me asking questions such as "How do I go about getting this done?' and it could be fascinating to figure out.
"Membership is something I thought about for a while maybe even three years ago."" Ben says. Ben. "I liked the idea since it's recurring income. Members don't have to be launching things constantly for profit which can cause an enormous spike, and it's virtually nothing after that." The author explains it provides a more stable platform for creatives, allowing users to concentrate on creating and establishing a relationship with their customers, without needing to handle marketing.
"For some period of time, I've considered membership, but didn't get beyond the initial study. I feared that it would be as if I was 'always active', when I was following this approach where I had to keep doing the same thing. It was easy to relax and follow the lessons." However, he was done with his goal. achieve.
"I'd basically covered all the different aspects of my job in my full-length classes. It was a challenge to find another course that was not becoming more specialized in the same way, and there's a decrease in demand when you move to higher-end things," he continues. "There wasn't a good economical reason to take one of the classes I could be interested in."
Ben says he was feeling an uneasy feeling that he was burning out. "I was thinking, 'I've got to make 100 Teachable videos that need to be one big cohesive thing.' I didn't have the energy to stand on the ground and create this in one huge block. You don't even know how many people are likely to buy the item. "
Ben says that e-courses need authors to publish their work prior to trying to sell the course. This means that there's no way of knowing if the course will succeed. "It can take anywhere from three to six months to create the most effective course. If it fails to be successful it, you cannot simply sell the course again later on, " he adds. "I realized that I needed long-term relationships with my students through microdeadlines as well as microdeliverables."
Chess Simulating a game of Chess. Google Sheets
The idea of joining a club was logical. "I'll sign up for an everyday newsletter, and we could have guides and examples but they don't have to be part of one massive topic, and they are all linked with one another. They could be concise, which is more manageable for me and also more manageable for people to digest."
From a consumer standpoint From a consumer perspective, very few students enroll in online courses "It's intimidating to buy the course that includes the video for 10 hours. It's hard to squeeze in the 10 hours of video content which is why you put it off but never actually get to doing it. But, if you only receive one email a week, you can take 30 minutes during the course of a lunch break, and gain plenty of benefits in this week's. Then, you'll be able to put it aside it for the next week." Ben explains.
In 2024's spring, Ben started to think about joining. In the summer, he wrote down and sketched out what it could look like once he launched the club in the month of September.
Email remains the most powerful
In his discussions about his job, Ben is keen to be grateful to his co-worker. "I'm very fortunate to have a wife can do all the things I've spoken about in the past. She's started her own business and has launched a variety of items and was able to build an email list." Ben has received several tips early in his journey into membership "that greatly contributed" One of them was to build the email lists.
His wife, Ben's, was working in the area of content marketing as Ben began to create his own online community. "She was a part of an agency that was responsible for marketing to customers. They also wrote blog content SEO, blog articles and social media. It was extremely useful obviously in light of what I was trying to do at the time," Ben adds.
"Emails are the primary method of communication or engaging with your target audience," he continues. The author admits that this may not be as relevant for younger generations, however the author declares: "The problem with social media, and especially the newer platforms such as TikTok are that they create the gap between you and your followers.
It's your idea to create content, but the platform showcases what's popular along with what's hot. No matter if you have 10 or 100,000 people following you If the material isn't considered to be viral by the algorithm, not every single one of them is likely to to see the material. This is a risky relationship. Your life is controlled by the rules for the particular platform. Should they alter their algorithm, or if they go from favor, there have been many social media sites that have gone under, consequently, maintaining an email address is essential.
Strategies for members who wish to be membership managers
"If anyone were starting an account right now, I would say 'Just get started!'" Ben smiles. "With the benefit of hindsight, I would have liked I'd had it done in the past two years. The things that take long. The sooner you get started and the faster you'll be able to enjoy."
Ben on Zoom Ben hosting an online session together with his colleagues
It's possible to perform a little additional research "You might convince yourself you're missing something You can also discover a new method for doing this. I've made that mistake in the past. However, when you hit "Go" and let go of any object in the universe and interact with real people It's a completely different experience. You then begin to address problems you need to solve instead of the abstract questions."
He urges people to not be too concerned: "If you're addressing someone's concern - or need to resolve a issue and you're able to do it, just go out! Improvement will come in time."
Additional information
For more information and to sign up to Ben's weekly Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.
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