Like absolute laws of nature, some rules are ironclad. Follow these directives and you can expect to succeed. Ignore even one of them and your business and personal achievements will be considerably diminished.
1. You shall believe.
The first step in accomplishing anything is embracing the belief that it is possible.
You must believe in the viability of your project and you must believe in yourself. If you don't, stop right now.
You simply cannot succeed without the firm prospect that your idea is sound, that you have all the resources necessary to succeed, and that you deserve success!
2. You shall find your passion!
If your sole motivation for starting an online newsletter is to make money, you'll probably soon tire of the topic. Making money seldom gets boring, but profit alone usually is not enough to stir your mind and creative juices.
Find your passion and turn it into your online newsletter. Stake out your niche topic and prepare to dominate and defend it. Establish yourself as the authority on your topic and become a subject matter expert.
3. You shall become a marketer!
Don't get into the information product development business if your only care about your niche topic and have no eagerness for learning how to sell.
If you're not committed to learning everything that you possibly can about this aspect of the business, you'd better marry someone who is!
4. You shall be unique!
One of the first rules of marketing: Establish your unique selling proposition (USP).
Define the reasons why he or she will join or subscribe. How will you measure these assumptions, prove or disprove them, and refine them?
Try to answer these questions before you develop your information product.
5. You shall create value!
When you develop your marketing message, how will you capture your subscriber's attention and interest?
Make certain your subscription website addresses your member's heartfelt desires. Remember that customers buy what they want, not essentially what they need.
6. You shall over-deliver!
Make it a bedrock principle of your business to keep and exceed your promises.
You must create value by giving some of your content away before you can reasonably expect subscribers to pay for more. And after you create a customer for the members-only, premium content, reward her with unanticipated bonuses of additional value.
7. You shall not deceive!
Creating and selling an information product is fundamentally about trust. If your readers don't feel you are treating them fairly, your information products will have no credibility.
From your very first day in business, you must be scrupulously honest with your subscribers. If you're not professed as being 100 percent trustworthy, ultimately you will have no customers and no business.
Consider, for instance, your own membership website refund policy. Perhaps you state in some obscure region of your site that there are no refunds of payment fees. But your customer assumes that you offer at least a 30-day, money-back guarantee.
Do you really want an unhappy, former subscriber bad-mouthing you to other potential subscribers? Of course not.
It's better not to hide your refund policy or be deceptive about any part of your offer.
It's best to offer a longer, even a lifetime satisfaction guarantee. Very few people will ever exercise the longer guarantee, but it will go a long way toward giving forthcoming subscribers confidence in your offer.
8. You shall test!
Test everything that you can measure!
Don't assume. Don't guess. Test, measure and know for certain.
This is basic to all direct response marketing campaigns. You must test lists, headlines, copywriting styles, offers, prices, even envelop colors.
Learn to love testing or, as previously suggested, marry someone who does!
9. You shall profit!
There are many reasons why you must charge a sufficiently high price for your products and services.
First, the apparent value of your information is directly reflected in your prices. That means you're very likely to sign up more subscribers at a higher price than you will at a modest price. And those subscribers are more likely to be happier, more loyal and require less maintenance than those who join at a lower price point.
10. You shall adjust!
The online marketing business is in a constant state of flux. Learn to be flexible.
Expect to make adjustments to your business model after you set your objectives. Resist the urge to dig in your heels and be foolishly inflexible about your initial assumptions, or about changes that loom on the horizon.
Online publishers survive and succeed because they are nimble and quick to adjust to changes in market conditions. Try to be objective about your business plan, making necessary course corrections as you proceed.
11. You shall embrace humility!
The world is full of people who, upon achieving a certain level of success, begin to believe in their own infallibility. This kind of arrogance is not only unwise from a human and spiritual perspective, it's simply bad business.
If you're not genuinely interested in your members, it will come across in the tone of your written as well as spoken voice. Your subscribers will sense it, and they will ultimately abandon you for another guide.
But if you're humble and loyal, and continue to deliver quality content, you can expect members to renew for several cycles. Some will even make an apology to you for not renewing when they lose interest and move on to other pursuits and interests.
12. You shall give back.
Nobody achieves much in life without getting some help along the way, or without having some "lucky" breaks created by others.
There are many people who will help you succeed, either through advice, by example, or with encouragement.
http://www.awesome-membership-riches.com
http://www.membershipsites.infozabout.com
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Giving back will keep you grounded, help keep you from outgrowing your hat, and provide you invaluable perspectives.
