006: Marketing, Entertainment, and Value (How to Blend It All Inside Your WordPress Membership Site)

Membership Site Podcast: Passive Income, Online Business

We talk on this program about how you can make money by selling things like your knowledge, your training courses, videos, written materials, software inside a thing called a membership site, which is powered by WordPress and by WishList Member. A membership site is a site where your customers can become members. It doesn’t necessarily mean you have to sell high ticket low ticket a month reoccurring forever. You can charge 1 singe payment, and that 1 payment give someone life time access to your membership site.

Today we’re going to talk about specifically making a training course, and how to do it without driving yourself crazy, how to do it so that you have a really good idea, and you get it knocked out as fast as possible, and it basically becomes the best possible version of that training course you wanted to create, and it becomes something that your buyers love and get to use and want to go through over and over again every time they want to get some kind of a repeatable result. Setting up an Amazon business, renting out a home, running a webinar, running a podcast, you will create a training course which …

When someone tells me they’re making a training course, what that says to me is that they’re recording a set of videos, preferably screen capture videos using a tool called Camtasia Recorder, so I can see a certain set of steps on a screen that tell me to use these tools in this order, and maybe use this template, maybe type in this text, click on these boxes, check these buttons, click these links. Then what it builds up to is a goal has been completed. You tell somebody how to get up to a certain goal, which is for example a highly ranked podcast as key state we’re going to be talking about today, where someone wants to know how to make a podcast at all.

We create a sales letter. We have maybe a video on a sales letter saying, “Here’s what you want, podcast is done, podcast is ranked highly.” Then they join and they click to get access to that course, pay us money, get in the membership site, and there are a set of modules. I don’t like to have a bunch of written stuff. I’m not going to give somebody a 300-page document and say, “Here, you go have fun.” I also don’t want to give someone a list of a hundred 5-minute videos. That’s not helpful either. What I’m talking about is a 4-module course. A module is about a 60 to 90-minute video where in the 60 to 90-minute video we show some PowerPoint slide, explain a little bit about what we’re about to do by taking the first step, setting up our podcast, show us some slides, speak out some bullet points, leave PowerPoint, go and click around, do a few things, and then switch back.

That’s all well and good to say, “Okay. Well, I have a podcast set up.” By the way, the course we’re talking about is a real course. You can go and get it at podcastcrusher.com. At the moment, it’s running on WordPress and WishList Member, just like we’re talking about. You can get your free copy of WishList Member in our training course. We buy a copy out of pocket for you at membershipcube.com.

Setting up a podcast. Whether you know how to do it or not, you can probably agree that, that’s a little bit of a technical activity to undertake. We don’t want it to be this kind of course where we say, “Well, I’m going to tell you everything you need to know about podcasting.” Let’s think about this too. If I gave you the restriction of saying, “You have to teach me podcasting, show me podcasting in 4 modules, and it have to be an hour or so each.” your tendency is to say “Aha. I know, the first module will be about how to get a microphone, and the second module would be about how to plan what to say, and the third module would be about how to record their podcast, and then the fourth and final module would be that now they’re podcast is set up and online.”

That sounds like a really boring course. What would be a lot more exciting is if somehow we could figure out a way to get your podcast online in the very first module. I know that another tendency is to say, “All right. I’m going to teach remote podcasting. What I’ll do is I’ll open up my browser and I’ll say, ‘Here’s the microphone to buy, go do that.’ Then I’ll tell them, ‘Here’s the WordPress plugin that get your podcast setup, go get that. Then I’ll tell them, ‘Here’s the website to submit your podcast to iTunes, go do that.’ Then I’ll say, “Here’s the guy to hire to get a cover and a theme song made, go do that.'”

You might think that’s helpful because technically you are pointing them in the right direction. Technically, someone could assemble that all together, but that’s not a very helpful kind of course for you to say, for just to say, “Go hear do that, go head do that.” I’d rather you show me every step of the way. Just because you might have seen it done 100 or 200 times, just because it’s easy for you, I don’t know what I’m even looking at because this is my very first time seeing anything podcast related. When we’re talking about a training course, you want to show people how to combine tools and websites with your templates and steps to get to a real goal, something that they have built like a podcast, a webinar, a website, a rental home, whatever applies for your niche.

Now, the other thing to keep in mind is that, and it sounds a little pessimistic, but a good chunk of won’t make it past that first module, past that first 60-minute video. That’s just a fact. We have to give them a big result, and that means that we can’t … If we’re teaching about membership sites, we can’t possibly wait until the very final module to show them how to have the membership site online. It needs to be the very first module, because a lot of people won’t get pass the first video, and it’s a lot easier to sell a course where we say, “Within X number of minutes, you’ll have a membership site, or a podcast online.” We want to give somebody a big result in that very first module.

The next thing to keep in mind with membership sites, training courses, with these 4 60-minute videos, is that each of these modules has to be build towards them, having something new built. That means that … Well, for example, in our Podcast Crusher Course, in the very first module, they have a podcast episode recorded, like you’re listening to right now. They have a podcast of their very own set up online on iTunes. Then the second module is about them then filling in a few of the gaps. They record episode number 2. They add in music. They add in graphics. We have them host their podcast on the proper place to host podcast episodes. The next module is about how to get a bunch of interview guest for their episode to turn out content. The fourth and final module is about how to use social media and Twitter to get all that traffic to their podcast.

It’s not like we have 1 module where we take a brake and talk about strategy. Every single module out of these 4, give someone something tangible that they have built, really, really important. The next thing to keep in mind is that most of your customers get tired after 4 modules or 4 weeks, however you want to do it. If you’re saying to yourself, “Well, I need to have an 8-module course. I need to have a 12-module course.” that’s not a good idea unless you really, really want to. It’s not a good idea unless you just happen to have so much stuff that it won’t fit, but have a 4-module course if you could help it. If there’s really tons and tons of stuff, then make it 8 modules, but it definitely shouldn’t be any larger than that, because we don’t want to overload people. We don’t have to tell them about every single nook and cranny when it comes to podcasting.

I don’t need to teach someone about video podcasting because, well, I don’t do it and it’s no not that big of a thing to do at the moment. We just have them do some basic podcasting, because that is what most people want. You have these 4 modules and you have this video recording and use a screen capture tool like Camtasia to capture your screen. People see your screen, they hear your voice, you save it in a video, you put it inside of that membership site. Within the 60 or so minute session, where you’re showing someone, for example, in that first module, how to record a podcast episode and the tools to combine to get it in online, we want to make sure that they wake up every 10 minutes. This is another big reason why we like to move to PowerPoint slides and then move off of PowerPoint slides.

Let’s face it, sitting in a computer is boring just like how sitting in a classroom at school is boring, so we want to be more like a TV show. We want to kind of mix things up. I like to make sure to have something fun and cool to say every 10 minutes. I like to repeat important points, but at the same time, I also want to make sure that if I’m going to tell someone, “Well, here’s how you record a podcast episode. We’re going to install this program. We’re going to go over here. We’re going to click the record button. We’re going to say these things I told you to say. We’re going to trim off the edges. We’re going to save this.” That’s a lot of steps. Right? If I zip around it quickly, I could show it all in 3 minutes, but then you wouldn’t explain it.

Then I could also talk for 20 minutes about what I’m going to do, show it for 20 minutes, and then spend 20 more minutes talking about what I just did, and then we would’ve wasted a whole hour just on literally clicking 3 buttons. We need to figure out whatever middle ground is right for you, where you need to repeat the things you’re doing, especially if it’s a brand new unfamiliar screen, especially keeping in mind that most people have never ever seen the screen you’re about to show. At the same time, we want to make sure to keep the length of 1 module under 90 minutes, and we want to make sure we don’t leave too much out.

I need to show people everything in that little video demonstration of how to record an audio file for their podcast and save it. If I find myself running out of time, then I might just skip the parts where I make it perfect. I might say, “Well, just don’t bother about trimming your audio file, if you know what that means. Just record it, save it, and that gets the job done.” We want to keep all those things in mind. Make sure that they stay away every 10 minutes, so repeat a lot to not zip around too fast, but also stay under 90 minutes, and also make sure that we include at least the bare essentials of what we have to click on and do. I guarantee, if you just tell someone, “Here’s Audacity, here’s the program to record audio.” most will just be completely lost. If there’s 1 popup or 1 button they don’t understand, they will be a deer in headlights. They won’t know what to do.

It’s easy for you to say, “Well, here’s WordPress. Go ahead and install it. Here’s how you go add a new posted WordPress. Go ahead and do it.” but they need to see exactly how you did it. We’ve been talking so far in this program about you make a 4-session format for your course. In our podcasting course, the first module is how to get that podcast set up, but let’s think about this now as well. You say … All right. The first module I’m going to show people how to get a podcast on line, and then that frees up a space for us, and maybe the last couple of modules can slow it down a little bit, and we can focus on things like making your podcast right on getting podcast traffic. Now, it’s a much more interesting course.

Even in a 60 to a 90-minute session, that might sound like a long-time. You might be telling yourself, “There’s no way I could talk for 60 minutes.” Well, you really only have room for about 6 steps. I might be talking about, “Well, here’s how to record your podcast. Here’s how to upload your podcast. Here’s how to install a WordPress blog. Here’s how to install this podcasting plugin. Here’s how to add your first podcast episode to your blog, and then finally, step number 6, submit it to iTunes.” That’s just off the top of my head.

That alone will easily, easily fill 60 to 90 minutes, especially because we’re going to have a slide in PowerPoint that says, “Here are the steps I’m going to click on.” Then we go back and we click on those steps, making sure that we’re super slow and we’re not moving the mouse pointed all around. We click on of what needs to be clicked on, then we switch back to PowerPoint slide and explain what it is that we just did. You tell them what you’re going to look for and what you’re going to click, then you leave your PowerPoint slides that you’re recording, and do those steps, and then you recap. You can do the recap much more quickly than when you’re telling them what you’re about to do, but recap what you just did. That way, it really sinks in.

The next thing as we’re talking about PowerPoint slides is I like to have a slide, and I put at the title of the slide, the word today. Then I list about 6 or so bullet points of what we’re going to cover in that 60 or so, or 90-minute or so module. That way they know, just right at the very beginning, the things we’re going to do. Then I make sure to copy this slide throughout my various other slides in my training. That way maybe we’re halfway through, and we can go and say, “Okay. Remember how in the beginning we said we’re going to do these 6 things? Well, now we’re on step number 3 recording your podcast.” That ways, it’s very clear what we’ve done so far, and how far long we are, and where we’re going.

Then we keep calling back to that today’s slide as we call it, so that way, we’re not just running around without a structure without a plan. Then at the end of whatever it is we’re showing, we have an item called a challenge. These are just 4 quick questions detailing a small action they’ll take. That means that in our podcasting course, for example, where I show them in the very first module how to get everything set up, the basic set up, then at the very end we say, “Now that we’ve shown you this, we have 4 quick questions for you.” Those questions are number 1, what will your iTunes podcast be named? Number 2, what will you name the first episode of your podcast? Number 3, what URL will you set up your podcast blog? Number 5, what time will your podcast be submitted to iTunes.

That is what a challenge is. That way, the pieces are kind of coming together, because we have an idea for a scope of a whole podcasting course, but then we say, “Okay, well, here’s the very first module.” We get your podcast set up, and then we break that down and say, “Well, today, in the 5-minute podcast module of Podcast Crusher, we’re going to cover the tools and our recording process, the workflow on how to record, save, upload, and publish, the case study where we record our first 5-minute episode right in front of you. Then the setup, we’ll reinstall WordPress, the PowerPress plugin, and then submit to iTunes.”

That’s an example of just doing it a training on how to set up a podcast. By the way, that is in podcastcrusher.com. A lot of little piece to put together there, but I hope that a few of these things sink in, that having a lot of written stuff is okay if it’s, for example, the transcript from a video you created. That way, you don’t have to write a lot of stuff. People only have to read things if they chose to. I honestly think that the most fun way for someone to take in information to see it on video. That way, there’s no confusion about what to do. Don’t just list some websites, don’t just say, “Here go over … Here’s how to record and good luck.” Actually, have a real case study in your membership training and set something up in the most simple way possible. That way, they will actually see it done.

We can’t have just the set up part. We can’t have just the demonstration part. We have to give them some kind of context. We have to tell them how it’s going to fit in. That’s where PowerPoint slides come into play. We can’t teach people everything in PowerPoint slides, but PowerPoint slides kind of tell them what we’re about to do, then we go and do it, then switch back to PowerPoint, and explain to them what it is that we just did. Have a 4-module course where a module is 60 to 90-minute session where you record your screen, so people see exactly what’s on your computer screen, and then you speak it out, and you can use the PowerPoint to say, “Today, we’ll cover these 6 things. Now let me unpack the first thing. Let me tell you what we’re about to do, why it’s important and what we’re going to click. I’ll go leave the PowerPoint area, click on those things, recap it, and then move on to the next module, next module, next module.”

By switching back and forth out of that, it’ll keep it interesting. At the end, we ask for 4 quick questions on how they will then implement what it is we just showed, where we just ask them 4 question where if they answer those 4 questions, they won’t have, for example, the podcast self-setup just yet, but they’ll have most of the decisions that they would’ve had to make in order to set up that podcast.

A lot of stuff to throw in at you. To see it all happen, to see the tools we use, to see how we setup a course on all those fun things, go right now to membershipcube.com. We have a training course for you there, and we buy a lot of different plugins out of pocket for you, like WishList Member, like Paper Templates, like WP Drip to drip your content, like WP notepad to add a checklist to your membership site, and so much more. Go to membershipcube.com. While you’re at it, while you’re going to websites, make sure to go to membershipcube/blog/iTunes. Rate and review the podcast. That helps encourages us to make more, and I’ll see you on the very next episode of the Membership Site Podcast. Thanks for tuning in, and bye for now.