Goal: 1000 members at $97/month

Why would you set a goal that you knew was impossible to reach?

It doesn't matter if everyone in the world thought it was either possible or impossible.

It's what you think and how you act upon the goal that matters.

It's my opinion that your goal needs to have a series of "sub goals" (some would call them benchmarks, stepping stones, actions, etc) that bring you to the greater goal.

First focus on getting one member, then a second, then a third. As you have often heard, "you eat an elephant one bite at a time."

Good luck on following through,

Steve

It's great that you have a goal...now what steps are you gonna take to make that happen?

Your biggest difficulty is going to be putting together information or services that are worth at least $100 per month to the subscriber. If they aren't getting their money's worth, they won't stick around (if you can get them to subscribe in the first place). So...What are you offering? Why should I hand you $100 per month? Sell me!

For $97 monthly you better make sure you have quality content lined up. Remember this is not a $7 WSO with info scraped from Google and combined into a PDF.

Setting a goal of that kind is somewhat like working with a trigonometry problem (old high school math) - you're trying to reach the question from the answer (the opposite side of the equation) .

If you already know how much your subscribers are going to pay and how many subscribers you would have, then you would already know what services you're going to sell, who would your target market consist of, how to reach out to them and what is the investment you would be having to put in. You could also do this backwards and see which path is easier for you to solve the equation.

Now, is it possible? Of course it is. There are services out there which people would pay hundreds or maybe thousands per month for. I would say your goal is pretty realistic (unless you want to make it by this time tomorrow ).

That's not a goal, that's a desire.

Your first challenge will be sitting down and organizing *real* goals.

That's not a goal, that's a desire.

Your first challenge will be sitting down and organizing *real* goals.

I have a membership site that I charge $197 a month for..

I do $19.99 for the first month and add a new training every week..

there are people who have been in for more more than 5 months so far....

Anything is possible

I was working on a membership site that charged a bit less.. to be real.. 1,000 is a pretty steep goal. Remember you can't just expect all of those people to stay on each month. However, 1,000 members in the course of a year, that's a goal I'd prefer to suggest.

Many of the people who sign up will only go on for a month, 2 months, maybe 3 months. Just remember you can't just control people and have them pay $97 a month forever unless it's a requirement or extreme want (like cable, netflix, phone bill, hosting, domain renewal, etc.)

Justin Lewis

I have the same goal although with a more concrete and practical business plan...lets put our heads together and do something about it!

It can definitely be done and as the old saying goes "where there's a will, there is a way". Good luck

To me, you are looking at it from completely the wrong angle.

I could sit here and say 'My goal is to get 10,000 members each paying $97 a month'.

Desires, dreams, goals. They are the easy part my friend.

What you need to asking yourself is this:

How can I create a membership site that people just cannot turn down, because of what I have created, the value I am giving them, and the goals that I am helping them achieve.

Until you have answered that question, then this thread may as well be asking the how long is a piece of string.

I admire your ambition for sure, but I agree with Romeo: you're looking at this thing backwards.

What you need to figure out now:

1) In which niche can you create something (or learn to create something) so valuable that 1,000 people will be glad to pay $97/month for it?

2) Will people be able to afford paying that price in that niche?

3) How will you create consistent value to keep and grow your membership?

4) How will you build your subscriber base? SEO? Paid Traffic? YouTube? Etc?

Answer those questions (and they're tough ones, I know!), take massive action to create that kind of value, and then you can worry about numbers

Good luck,

-Corey

Yeah putting together just "information" for $100 a month? That's going to be REAL tough - I have an SEO Moz Subscription at $100 a month and I barely think it's worth it and it provides a ton of services that I then resell to others in SEO Packs.

What're your plans at least?

Sure it's possible and yes people have done and are doing it.

The only limit is the one you put on yourself.

I wouldn't even ask the question you did because you're going to get a million different opinions. Honestly they don't matter. The only thing that matters is do you think you can do that?

Provide info/data businesses can leverage to make a lot of money.

One example is researching and condensing information professionals would find invaluable that saves them time and makes them money in some way or helps them perform their services better.

I used to be in a profession and paid quite a bit of money each month for this type of service. It was necessary in order to do the job and there were only 2 real providers. Of course the amount of work that went into the product was significant.

One thing to remember when doing this model is whatever you provide, assuming it's high quality (it will need to be for $97/mo), you are committed once you have one customer. Assuming it takes you 100 hours to put the content together, you will be working for very little with no guarantee you ever make more.

On top of that you will need to market your service as well.

One suggestion would be have 6 months of product ready to go before you open your doors so you can put in a lot of marketing time during the first 6 months. That said, if your info content is current info, that's not possible (as was the case for the info I paid for when in a profession).

Real life example of an excellent service: Strength and Conditioning Research

Yet, they only charge $10. You can check out a sample issue and you can see the amount of work put into it is incredible. I have no idea how many subscribers they have, but it's a great service because subscribing to peer-reviewed journals and reading the full studies is very time-consuming. I'm sure it's a success. I'm also sure they could charge 3 to 5 times what they're charging and not lose customers.

It depends on what you're offering and what niche it is. Couldn't tell you if it's possible without knowing that. For $97/month, though, you'd better be offering me something really, really good.

People will gladly pay $97 a month if it will help them make more than that monthly.

I pay north of $300 a month for Aweber and I don't even think about it. I pay like $250 a month for a dedicated server to host my sites. Gotowebinar is $97 a month for just their low level accounts. Not to mention Nanacast, Infusionsoft and every other shopping cart you can think of.

Even in the Internet Marketing information niche people pay $97 a month. Ryan Deiss' Digital Marketer has over 1,000 members paying that. Jason Fladlien has fixed term memberships at $97 a month for 6 months. Ryan Lee charges $497 a month for his group coaching. I believe Mario Brown charges between $997 a month and $2500 a month for his coaching.

The point is, the $97 price point is not the question, the benefits of what you're offering is what you should be focusing on.

Nothing is impossible, the real question is are you ready to work 7 days a week and sleep only a couple hrs a night working your ass off to make this a reality in your life?

Answer that question first. If your answer is yes, now answer what can I bring to the table that is worth $97 a month? Then become a marketing genius because this can not be done with mediocre marketing knowledge.

You can do anything in life.

if you think it's possible so it is , good luck

Impossible .. actually means I'm Possible Good Luck

This will be highly dependent on the content that you are providing, and new info coming in to keep their members willing to continue their subscription.

I think the main difficulty is not to get 1000 people to join, but to get the people who join to stick around months after months.

As long as we're dreaming, how about a membership site with one member that pays 97,000 a month.

California dreamin'

George Wright

Here is some things to think about...

1. Make sure what ever you are providing is what someone (people) wants. Are they willing to pay for membership. Is it something that will benefit the members and are you constantly going to add new things to the membership. Sorry I don't know what your providing in the membership, just some ideas to think about.

2. How much money are you willing to put towards getting traffic, ads and marketing? Are you doing this yourself, or are you paying others to help you do the job etc. So investment is something to think about. Social media helps etc.

3. Customer support, people are going to have questions everyday and need support 24/7. Also you need to think about hiring a support chat team and email team. If you support other countries, you need to branch into other languages. Good English is a must for all online support chats.

There are some ideas to think about.

Sometimes I think maybe focusing on the $ is the wrong way.

Perhaps it makes more sense to think, "How can I provide enough value to 1,000 people per month so that they pay me $97 each?"

Go for 2,000 at $194 each per month. That way you make four times as much money!

There are tons of great advice and warnings on all the replies to this topic. Heed them all. Dream big, work hard, but give the people what they NEED. What people 'want' can be as fickle as fashion. To sustain regular payments it must be NEED satisfiable. Supply the need and they will feed you. Find the right offer, work it constantly and hone it until it is nearly impossible to refuse, because it satisfies the need of your niche. Then promote it until it gains acceptance by that niche. Just from the stated examples of Gurus kicking big numbers through their membership sites should be inspiration enough. If they can do it so can you, as long as you never ever give up and are willing to change anything, including yourself and your ideas, until you and your offer become exactly what that unknown group of members (yet to be found) find you and your offer and and decide to "show you the money". People will give you their money if you provide value for it and they will do it again and again as long as that value remains. Make your offer too good to refuse and they will flock to you. Sell the sizzle but make sure they get that thick steak and the utensil to eat and enjoy it, and never let them walk away from the table hungry. Feed the need and you will succeed.

Oh it can be done....

I recently signed up for Pure Leverage just bc I like their commission structure and made all my custom LP & videos. In 4 months I have over 1000 people in my downline. 140 of which I got myself.

4 months ago I thought that I could live decent off IM, but now that I have honed in my skills and stuck with one thing that has a great paying program I realize that I can live "Quite Nice"

Granted most of my customers are at the price of $24.95 not the $97.95 but hey 1000x12.50 every month is a really nice check

There are quite a few businesses, that charge $97 - $300 or more per month. It all depends on the value for that product. The higher the value, the more people will pay for.

I feel that if you work hard enough you can achieve it. Best of luck to you on this. I suggest that you get testimonials of those that have been doing it with you for 5 months and that may help to boost your sales.

You have gotten a lot of very solid advice in this thread. I'll add my two cents, as someone who does exactly what you are asking about.

In my opinion, a newcomer is not going to find a realistic base trying to be any kind of a "marketing guru".

You need to do some research, and combine something you are passionate about with a hungry and stable marketplace. Once you find it, you'll have to provide extraordinary value to that market. Just information won't be enough. Information plus a service, preferably something that can be leveraged so you are not doing the work over and over again. Like timely and useful data.

And of course, a lot of marketing. It will be very helpful to already have some experience and credibility in that marketplace.

Think about your experience, your skill sets, and the kinds of things you could see yourself doing for a long, long time. Because once you commit and start getting customers, you are married to this. And you have to keep delivering forever.

Persistence, tenacity and consistency are traits that will serve you well.

Thanks everyone...I do have very solid advice here. I will consider the pros and cons and plan on how to overcome them. But hey, as the saying goes, once you have a WHY, the HOW will fall into place.

The 1000 members at $97 a month is definitely possible. I have seen at least 2 people to it personally.

Things to keep in mind:

- choose a group of people who currently invest in their business (they will see the $97/mo as a business expense rather than just a retail purchase)
- services can be more easily seen as a higher value rather than just content (just my opinion - the 2 huys I saw do it had both services and content built into their membership)
- keep in mind your turnover ratio. Even the best membership sites have varying degrees of being unsubscribing each month
- set benchmark goals and reward yourself as you accomplish them (10 members, 50 members, 100 members, and so on).

Your question isn't IF it's possible (obviously it is). It's HOW is it possible.

The Warrior Forum is packed with incredibly valuable info on running a profitable membership site. Go to the Advanced search on the WF. Type in "membership" and set it for "Find word in post TITLE. You will have a TON of info that can help you get closer to your goal.

Best wishes,

KateD

It is definitely possible.

I don't know if you have heard of "Six Sigma", but, right now the gentleman who runs the program online through his MindPro website. Through his program you can go through one (or more, if you choose) of his training programs for everything from Six Sigma green belt to black belt.

He charges $97/month for access to training programs and tools that, per his website, generally take a user about 6 months to work through. Currently, I'm on my 3rd month, of paying that. Not only that, but he has an evaluation center--a separate complementary website--where a trainee can complete knowledge examinations....at a cost, of course. Sitting for the black belt examination is $100, green belt=$80, etc.

This guy offers enormous value in his online training....training that I can't even find for free on youtube. Few can taught that they have worked hand in hand with company's like Motorola, so he pretty much has a business set up for life here.

When I work through his program each day, I can't help but wondering how much the guy is raking in....simply from an online system, with videos that he created quite some time ago. He has serious authority in the field, and people flock to him because he HAS had results. I won't guess at how many members he has, but I imagine he's not suffering, if you know what I mean.

That's not a goal...it's a damned pipe dream. Would you pay $97/month for anything that came out of your disposable income? If you even have disposable income? Probably not. You guys crack me up! L-O-L

Lot of important advises. Doesnt the OP needs to be good in traffic, conversions? Everybody is saying find a niche, check ifyour content is good. But, what about traffic and conversions?

It's definitely possible. There would be many membership sites out there with far more than 1,000 per month.

i think a SAAS model is much easier than a content model though. SAAS means software as a service. So creating a tool that people will happily pay for month after month. If you can automate a task or make something easier that saves business owners time then they will happily pay a monthly fee like that.

Do your research and try to create a membership site that offers something which people really need.

If you come up with something unique, you can do it. Take safeswaps, for instance. As far as I know there weren't any websites like that before (no competition), so it was pretty easy for it to succeed.

It appears it is very possible as many state, however if you look at Ron Douglas comment he mentions the names of many recognised marketers who do just this and more.......but for them they already are credible in the market place, have a good reputation........hence they can achieve these numbers as people know the offer quality etc........

Of course it's possible. You have to start thinking how exactly you are going to accomplish this goal. It probably won't be an easy task and will require a lot of time and effort.

As for the challenges you will face?

Creating content worth $97/month
Getting members to sign up
Marketing the site

These are just some of the challenges you will face, so you will need to be prepared.

"FOCUS ON DELIVERING VALUE AND THE MONEY WILL SURELY FOLLOW"

Anything is possible, but first take on the tasks that are the most probable and scale from there. At $97 dollars a month you have to have built a name up for yourself or do heavy marketing to prove to people that you are as credible as you say you are unless you're offering something that's simply amazing.

Let me know what you're doing and I'll evaluate it.

wow this post is really good thanks for the info guys

This is a pointless question. You want to create a membership site for 1K members paying $97 a month. Is it possible?

See whats missing in the question? Here let me reiterate the question.

I want to sell a thing for $97 a month to 1000 people. Is it possible?

Kind of hard to answer intelligently when we dont know what the thing is. (Ie whats the point of the membership site)

all in the m.m.o. niche where $10 is like gold dust. Selling to the broke and desperate isn't a good module.

if I set that goal, I would work in reverse after setting it. How many people sign up per how many visitors? ... for example, 2 out of 100?

Lets say it is 2 out of 100, to get 1000 members then you know you need ...
50,000 visitors to your site to meet your goal

now you need to work on getting 50k targeted visitors with your best method, will it be media buying? ppc? youtube marketing? etc ... thousands of choices to get your targeted visitors.

what ever it takes you to get what you need to accomplish your goal will now be realistic and measurable ... you need to make your goals measurable IMO in order to know if your goal is possible and what challenges you need to overcome to reach the goals.

The only challenge I could really think of is finding something that people are so hungry for that they would be willing to pay $97 / month to have access to.

There's an internet marketer from Texas (his name escapes me) who talked about how he use to do paper trading on a forum. His trades were so good that they beat the top trading experts. When someone asked if he could hold an online seminar to teach people how he figures out his trades, the people GLADLY paid him over $300 to do it, and he got several hundred people to sign up.

THAT is the kind of thing that you could easily get people to pay you $97 / month (or more) to be a member of.

There isn't anything impossible to do. It is your believe and determination that keeps dragging in places where your strength have failed you.

All you need do is craft out the exact plan to that effect. Work on publicity, whether offline or online, work social media meet ups to getting members and an autoresponder service to keep marketing on them all. The workflow is in you. Just think it out and I wish you all the best.

Everything is possible... but having 1000 recurring payments... that requires some serious commercial (to drag people), announcements (to keep them warm), and great tips and possibilities (to make them stay and pay).

But... why not?

If you want people to pay $97 per month you will have to offer something that is both unique and valuable. There is so much free and low cost information on the web, what could you offer that would make such a membership site worth that price? It's certainly possible, but it would take some planning.

If you provided quality SEO services, a steady supply of good PLR material, niche blogs or another such service it might be worth it for people who could afford it. Even then you'd have to differentiate yourself from similar services or membership sites.

I have had considerable success with a membership site in the IM niche, albeit I was only charging $20 a month for the membership, but it only took me a couple of months to get to 200 members. If I were you I'd think about having a few tiers:

A free tier to get people in, followed by a basic membership of maybe $20 a month. a $47 membership and lastly the $97 all bells and whistles tier. That's the model I'm going for next. Once you are making reasonable money get good outsourcers working for you to provide the content, I think using a strategy like this could get you to where you need to be.

However do you really need to make $97K a month? I'm happy with what I do, I make enough money online to get me all the toys and holidays that I want. I'm financially independent and I can't say I want for anything.

it's not impossible but i have found it's easier to create smaller goals along the way rather than one big goal

for instance i have my own membership site and currently have just over 50 paying members all paying $17 per month

i got to this stage by first only have a target of 5 people, then 10 then 20 then 30 then 40 then 50 and my next target is 75

1000 members at $97 per month will be very tough to get to

you are far better off starting off small and make small progressions just like what i have done

you will find it much easier and you will keep motivated much easier

I have trouble with people giving me $10 per year. Maybe I should charge $3.65 one penny per day, but that is even less money. Also, pay pal is not good for tiny transactions as you will soon see. Still, we need to find a way. The only service that I could see charging $100 a month would be one sending leads that generate thousand of dollars in profit every month for the consumer. I know one person who has a web site that delivers leads to home and building appraisers. He has thousands of clients and even he cannot charge that much money.

This is awesome. I am really learning alot on this

IMO 1000 is tough. Expertise, competition, support, an attrition all make it difficult. However, someone like fitzstock.com got 800 members in 6mo through twitter and stock twits. Because he makes 100x that for his clients.

It doesn't matter if we think its possible, it is up to you. Plus I think the price should be in the 57-67 range, 97 is a little too high.

They should rename this place to the Whiners Forum.

I'm part of a membership now that charges that and the owner has just hit 900 members.

Stop talking and start doing.

If you say it is not possible: then it is not possible.

If you say it is possible: then it is possible.

Mechanically it is possible. No problem.
Whether you achieve it or not is only up to you.

I ain't forking over a hundred bucks a month...

...especially when there's the WF for FREE!

You will never get rich with that attitude. It's not about 'setting goals'. It's about executing well. And you have nothing to execute.

Yes, it's possible as long as you can provide great value for $97 for your members.

Set up a affiliate program so you can spend less on advertising and at the same time get more members.

I like how many people here think 'audacious' means 'impossible.'

Some people need dictionaries.

It's possible. But can YOU do it?

Some great info for you! It's been a few months, can you fill us in on what you've been doing since placing this thread? Are you getting closer to your goal of 1000 members?

Perhaps my membership journey helps some too.

I started an International community in the field of spirituality just about 2 years ago. My eventual goal, or shall I say dream, was to have 1 million members, of which 10% would pay $1 per month (that's $100K a month). So parts of the forum is free and the 10% would invest in more in-depth conversation (much like the WF does here).

My forum doesn't sell anything other than spiritual talks, camaraderie, companionship, and insights into the unseen world and relationships) and lots of coaching from me for the broken hearted.

The first year I planned to go based on donations only. Not a good idea! Don't waste your time. Bills need to get paid and no one can be the perpetual free therapist or a charity case.

Then I implemented a $7 a month charge but after doing some research found out that the average monthly membership lasts at the most 2-3 years (on the high end). While the $7 a month worked, members saw no end in sight for paying for a membership. So I tested a life time membership that was one time payment of $48 and I would only offer it ever few weeks for a few days here and there. It worked.

I have eliminated the $7 a month fee and now only offer the one time $48 a month fee (4 years at $1 per month). :-) Recently I have expanded and created a new area which will have a $47 a month fee, for more content, courses, teleseminars, etc. It is not open to the public yet but people are inquiring about it already.

I just deleted 400 members and am down to 600+. I do this from time to time to weed out the non-active members. My community is a private community, one has to apply for membership.

What has happened with this community is what I had envisioned (in terms of its quality and content) but not what I envisioned number-wise. And that's okay because other things have come as a result.

I also have a Wishlist Member site in the front for my digital content, and as a result of the combination my site became a PR3 site in just a few months. Getting traffic then resulted in high-profile one-on-one coaching clients. My digital products are getting sold as a result of the traffic and my Youtube videos have been viewed over 740,000 times, all funneling through to my lists or community. My site has over 55,000 backlinks, adding to other goodies and the joint ventures that are percolating as a result from it all are absolutely priceless. And all of this with zero Adwords and virtually no marketing. If I were to embark on this learning curve I would probably be well on my way to having a million members, and one day I will. Clients and joint ventures are fun too! The important thing for me is freedom, to live where I want, work when I want (or not) and not turn on my computer and see Paypal transactions that make me realize I just made money in my sleep. :-)

ANYTHING is possible and you might be surprised to see where this will get you. If there is only one piece of advice I can give you it is this: Market YOU and YOUR passions - people who resonate will come to you because they believe the same things you believe. The world has enough inauthentic people who are prostituting their own magnificence to chase after the almighty dollar. Don't miss your most amazing message that only you can share with the world. Forget chasing the niche or the money - you will run yourself raggedy doing it that way. Instead, CREATE a niche by being YOU, honest and authentic, draw from that source and you will have energy to help you define the perfect message that will bring a lasting membership!

Wishing you much success, you can totally do this!!

Any thing is possible, go for it.