Your site content is the heart of your membership website - without it you don't have any value to deliver.
In this lesson we'll take a look at the various types of content you may want to include in your membership site as well as different way to deliver that content.
The 2 main area's we're going to cover in this lesson are:
- What types of content can you provide
- How will you deliver your content
What type of content will you provide?
Lets get started with the most basic type of content - Written.
Written Content
This covers any type of written content such as written lessons, forms, templates, flowcharts and more.
This type of content often forms the basis for many membership sites and can include both online and down-loadable content. It's often a good idea to mix the two together,that way your members can read information online as well download PDf versions.
Including forms, templates, flowcharts and mindmaps also helps make the learning easier as well as create a perception of greater value, since your members have something they can print out and 'hold'.
Forums
Many membership type models include a member forum where members can ask questions and receive help. Adding a forum to your membership site helps to increase perceived value as well as creates a 'hub' where members can communicate and receive help.
Forums are also a great way for you, as a membership site owner to get an idea of what your members need, by simply reading through the forums regularly you can get some fantastic content ideas as well as ideas for new services that you can provide for your members
Audio
Audio is another powerful addition to your site. Once again, adding audio gives that increased perception of value to you membership site. Options with Audio include live streaming audio directly from your website as well as providing a down-loadable mp3 for your members.
A simple strategy is to simply record yourself speaking the written content, then provide is as a download. With so many people using ipods and MP3 players these days it give your members a chance to download the lesson and listen to it in the car or on the way to work.
Teleconferences
Although teleconferences aren't usually offered directly through your website you may want to consider including these as part of your membership offering. You could hold a teleconference fortnightly or monthly and cover a new topic as well as provide some Q&A time for your members.
One of the benefits of running teleconferences is that you can record the call and then add it to your website, or offer it as a download. Essentially helping you create a constant stream of new content for your website.
Video
These days video is the "King" of content and also creates a extremely high perceived sense of value for your members. Creating video has become much easier and faster than in the past. Using readily available tools such as power point and camtasia you can create stunning screencast video's with your own voice narration over the top.
Camtasia video can be be both streamed directly from your website, OR offered as a download so that your members can view them offline, either on their computers or even on devices such as iphones.
Webinars
Webinars are a great tool to help you connect with your members and also provide the added benefit of being much more 'intereactive' than teleconferences, combining video, audio and attendee interaction creates a great learning experience.
once again, although webinars aren't generally run directly from your website, by recording them and adding the recordings to your website you're able to continue to build your website content while offering outstanding value to your members
Physical products
Last, but certainly not least come physical products, you'll often see these in the form of a CD, DVD, newsletter or magazine, that are shipped on a monthly basis. Once again although these aren't delivered through your website directly, they do create a sense of great value (as long as the content is useful and informative)
Delivering your content
While we covered the different types of content that you can offer your members we also covered many of the deliver methods as well. For the sake of simplicity, I'll summarise them here:
Written text - This include your web pages, pdf and word documents.
Audio - Either streamed from your website directly or offered as a down-loadable MP3
Video - Once again either streamed directly from your website or offered as a download (common formats are either MP4, MOV, or WMV files)
Teleconference - using a teleconference service
Webinar - Using a service such as gotowebinar
Natrually you'll also need some sort of content protection system, in otherwords some whay of restricting what content your paid members can access. You'll need to decide whether your membership site will have different membership levels eg. bronze, silver, gold etc that offer added access to content at different levels.
The joomlasubscriptionsites membership site software helps you create and manage all our content delivery whether it's written content, audio, video or even forums and blogs, joomlasubscription sites membership site software integrates directly with the joomla content management system to make it quick and easy to setup multiple individual subscription plans.
I hope this tips proves helpful and useful to you.
Get in on the conversation by leaving a comment below, we'd love to hear what you've got to say about it.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
