Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the educational website benlcollins.com, is incredibly thankful for his membership company and the digital creator economy all over the world. "When you've created something, whether it's an artist or you're creating a technical course or a building membership - and a stranger walks up to you with their wallet and gives you money, you realize how incredibly fortunate you are to exist at this moment at a time when you're able to do that kind of work and reach so many people.
"If somebody is spending the time to first of all - just check out my products and like it enough that they're willing to pay for it I'd love to do all I can do to make it as good as possible for the person," he continues.
Ben enjoys the idea of membership as it's so much more than just a one-off cost: "We're not talking about"consulting agreements" wherein the person hires you to complete a piece of work which is written down and everybody knows exactly what they're getting. This is more of a partnership where that person is saying, 'I want to join your orbit for the next year or month or quarter. I appreciate what you're doing I'd like to be a part of you as a part of the group."
He believes that membership provides you with a compelling incentive to try the best you can do and to create great quality content. "People expect me to create top-quality material however, I really want to - for them and for me. "
Ben says that it is helpful to establish a great connection with your community "I believe that I'm helping them rather than just this unidentified person who buys an online course, and you don't be sure if they will even glance at it. The experience is more tangible with the membership or closer. It's about creating a more intimate connection that is more than transient."
From "always on" to microdeliverables
In the time of the outbreak of covid-19, Ben had been delivering e-courses on data manipulation including Google Sheets for 10 years. "I taught about 15 courses through Teachable, perhaps with 25 launch dates, as certain courses were relaunched. Doing the courses requires you to put as much effort - if not more effort - to marketing the course. It's interesting, but I don't love it and it's not my strength."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had been delivering e-courses for 10 years when covid struck
Ben knew he preferred to focus on technical spreadsheet contents and assisting people. "People would come to me asking 'How do I do that?', and the problem would be a fascinating problem to work on.
"Membership was something I had thought about maybe two or even three times in the past," Ben says. Ben. "I really liked that model since it's a recurring income. With membership, you're not being forced to create something every single time to make money where you see a massive spike in revenue but then you're left with nothing." He says it's a stable platform, which allows the creator to concentrate on the creation and establishing a relationship with their audience, more than having to do marketing.
"For a few years, I'd flirted with the idea of membership, however, I never did the research. I was worried that it would feel like that I was always on if I did this model that required me to be constantly doing things. I would always pull back, but continued to follow the classes." However, he was finished what he set out to accomplish.
"I'd almost done everything to be covered in full courses. It was difficult to find other courses that weren't becoming more specialized, and it becomes less popular when you move to more sophisticated things," he continues. "There was not a viable economic reason for me to pursue some of the classes I could be interested in."
Ben adds that he felt burnt out. "I was thinking "I've got to create 100 Teachable videos, which must be one unit. It was difficult for me to find the motivation to create that in one big block. There's no way to tell whether people will purchase it. "
Ben explains that e-courses require the creator to publish their creation before trying to market it. However, there is no way to tell whether it will be an success. "It could take about three to six months to develop the best course. If the course does not succeed in the market, you won't be able to sell the course in the future, " he adds. "I realized that I needed a more ongoing relationship with my audience where I would have microdeadlines as well as microdeliverables."
Chess Simulation of a game of chess with Google Sheets
Membership was suddenly logical. "I'll commit to a weekly newsletter. We can also have examples and guides, but they don't all need to be an entire topic, and tied into each other. It could be bitesize which is more manageable for me as well as easier for others to read."
Also, from a user standpoint, very few people complete their online courses "It's difficult to purchase a course that has more than 10 hours worth of videos. It's hard for people to manage 10 hours of material, therefore you stop and never come back getting it done. If you receive one email per week, you could plan 30 minutes of the course of a lunch break, and gain lots of value from that week then you can put it aside until next week." Ben explains.
The spring of 2024 Ben started to think hard about joining. Over the summer, he sat down and mapped out exactly the kind of membership he wanted when he launched the club on September 1st.
Email remains the king of email
When he talks about his work, Ben is keen to acknowledge his wife. "I'm really fortunate that my wife has accomplished everything I've mentioned prior to. She has had her own business; she's launched various products and knew how to build an email list." Ben received a many tips and advice in his membership career "that was extremely helpful" - and one of those lessons was to build an email list.
Ben's wife worked in content marketing when Ben was beginning to establish his online community. "She owned an agency who handled marketing for clients. They also wrote blog posts and SEO and social media. It was super-helpful, obviously to what I was trying accomplish at the time," Ben adds.
"Emails are the most important method of interaction or connecting with your audience," he continues. However, he admits that it might not be the case for the younger generation, but says: "The problem with social media, and especially the newer platforms like TikTok are that they create this disconnect between you and your followers.
It's your responsibility to create content, but the platform showcases what's viral and what is trending - regardless of whether you've got 10,000 or 100,000 followers. If your piece of content doesn't rank per the algorithm, not any of your followers likely to be able to view it. It's a precarious relation. Your existence is governed by the rules of that platform. If they modify their algorithm, or if they go out of favor - we've seen lots of social media sites disappear - so building an email list is crucial.
Advice for aspiring membership operators
"If someone were to start a membership now I'd say "You should just get started!" Ben smiles. "With retrospectively, I'd rather I'd done this in the past two years. The things that take time. The sooner you get started to get started, the more time you will have."
Ben in Zoom Ben hosting the Zoom session of his members
It's simple to conduct a bit additional research "You may convince yourself that there's something wrong or there's another way of doing it. I've been guilty of that before. When you finally click 'Go' and put an item in the universe and start interacting with real people, it takes on a new life. You start to actually solve the things you need to solve and not these abstract issues."
It is important to remember not to think too much about it: "If you're addressing someone's pain point - if someone needs to solve a problem that you're able to help them solve, and your group is able to do so, get out there! It can be improved over time."
More details
To find out more and sign up to Ben's weekly Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.