{"id":4698,"date":"2018-10-31T12:08:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-31T19:08:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/?p=4698"},"modified":"2021-04-27T13:14:27","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T20:14:27","slug":"experte-fur-mitgliederseiten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/entwickler-spotlight\/experte-fur-mitgliederseiten\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside The Mind Of A Membership Site Expert"},"content":{"rendered":"We\u2019re back with another edition of our Developer Spotlight series! In these posts we highlight people and companies from our community of developers who have experience building powerful and profitable membership sites using MemberMouse. In our third installment of Developer Spotlight, we feature membership site expert Vic Dorfman and his company <a href=\"https:\/\/memberfix.rocks\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MemberFix<\/a>.\r\n\r\nIn this post we\u2019ll cover:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>How Vic entered the world of membership sites<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The biggest challenge facing online entrepreneurs today (<em>and what to do about it<\/em>)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Vic\u2019s preferred tech stack for membership sites<\/li>\r\n \t<li><em>And more!<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div class=\"user user-feature\">\r\n<div class=\"user-avatar\"><img src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2019\/06\/4474fd95-membership-site-expert-vic-dorfman.jpg\" \/><\/div>\r\n<h2>Vic Dorfman<\/h2>\r\n<label class=\"color-blue\">MemberFix<\/label>\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<!--\/.user-->\r\n<h3><strong>Meet Vic Dorfman &amp; MemberFix<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nMeet Vic Dorfman. He\u2019s the founder of MemberFix \u2013 a digital agency that specializes in providing design, development, marketing and technical support to founders, solopreneurs, and small businesses. While Vic and his team do have special expertise in designing, building, and running membership sites, the scope of services they provide to their clients extends far beyond that.\r\n\r\nVic started working with online entrepreneurs in the membership space nearly 4 years ago when increasing numbers of people began reaching out to him for help configuring their membership sites. Soon after this, Vic formed his company MemberFix and converted his expertise and experience into the productized service he offers today. From there, he grew a team of developers who help him and his clients implement an array of design and development projects.\r\n\r\nVic and the team at MemberFix partner with entrepreneurs and small businesses to manage all of the technical aspects of operating an online business. They work with practically any technology or software that is useful in running a business online. Whether that means helping their clients with email marketing technology, WordPress theme design, lead generation implementation or membership technology, MemberFix can help.\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<img class=\"embed-center\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2018\/10\/ba6e0996-super-power.png\" alt=\"membership site expert\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong>What's Your Superpower?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nVic described MemberFix\u2019s superpower this way: <strong>We liberate time and energy for entrepreneurs<\/strong>.\r\n\r\nWhen founders and entrepreneurs no longer have to deal with all of the day-to-day tasks required to run their business, they can channel all of their energy and effort into the work that has the highest value and impact.\r\n\r\nFrom Vic: <em>\"As a founder, once your business has grown to a certain point, you're not going to be too involved with the operations side of things. Typically, someone comes to us when they are ready to stop working IN the business and start working ON their business. As an entrepreneur, this is when your role changes as someone who is the implementer, to someone who\u2019s primary function is to continue the growth of the business.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nVic is a big fan of the Dan Sullivan\/Strategic Coach <a href=\"http:\/\/uniqueability.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Unique Ability<\/a> framework and views his role as helping his clients have more time to operate within their own unique ability.\r\n\r\n<em>\"The common thread of all the different clients we work with is that they need help with the technical aspect of their business. But what it really comes down to is being more effective as a business owner. Whether you want to make a bigger impact, reach a wider audience, or make more money in your business, you serve that purpose more effectively the more that you can delegate tasks to a team you can trust. This is especially true when you can delegate things that don't fall within your \"Unique Ability\". For entrepreneurs and business owners, I can't think of a scenario where doing the tech tasks yourself is the highest use of your time.\"<\/em>\r\n\r\nVic typically has 1-on-1 strategy calls with his clients once per month. In these calls, Vic helps his clients clarify their goals, map out the steps required to achieve those goals and formulate an action plan. From there, Vic coordinates with his team to execute the various tasks required to help their clients achieve their objectives.\r\n<img class=\"embed-center\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2018\/10\/e27bc9d5-come-in-resize.png\" alt=\"Convert visitors into prospects on your membership site\" width=\"800\" height=\"628\"\/>\r\n<h3><strong>Case Study: How To Convert Visitors Into Prospects\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nLet\u2019s take a look at a concrete example of a situation where Vic and his team significantly grew a client\u2019s business. Part of what makes working with MemberFix so special is their ability to help their clients bridge the gap between marketing and technology. That\u2019s exactly what Vic did in the following example.\r\n\r\nOne of Vic\u2019s clients owns a site that gets a significant amount of traffic from what Vic refers to as a \u201csticky audience\u201d. The problem Vic\u2019s client faced was that she simply couldn\u2019t get her visitors to opt-in for her primary lead magnet. The fact that so many people were visiting her site but so few were becoming leads drove her nuts. So, she opened up a ticket with Vic and asked \u201c<em>What can we do about this?<\/em>\u201d\r\n\r\nFrom there, Vic took a look at the opt-in section on her website and immediately thought that he could come up with something more enticing for her visitors. Instead of trying to improve or optimize her current opt-in, Vic decided to take an entirely different approach. Rather than simply offering the lead-magnet in exchange for a visitor\u2019s name and email address, Vic dug into his arsenal of marketing strategies and recommended they try an <a href=\"https:\/\/askmethod.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">ASK Method<\/a> style quiz.\r\n\r\nThis was a marketing strategy that Vic\u2019s client was vaguely familiar with, but that Vic has seen work time and time again. So, Vic designed something he thought would work and they replaced the main opt-in on her site with the newly designed quiz.\r\n\r\nThe outcome? Here\u2019s what Vic had to say about it:\r\n\r\n<em>\u201cLong story short, the quiz we made converted visitors into leads at 30%, which is insane! My client has a very sticky audience to begin with, but even I was surprised that the new opt-in converted at 30%. A percentage of the people who participated in the quiz then went on to become new customers for my client.\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nIn this case, Vic combined his own marketing expertise with the ability to utilize the relevant technology. As Vic puts it: \u201c<em>You have to know what to do, as well as how to do it.<\/em>\u201d\r\n\r\nFor membership and subscription sites specifically, Vic views the primary challenge simply as getting enough members to justify the time, energy, and monetary investments required to get something off the ground in the first place.\r\n<div class=\"quote\">\r\n<blockquote>\r\n<em>The biggest challenge facing online entrepreneurs today is not around tech, it\u2019s about getting traction.<\/em>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n<label>\u2013 Vic Dorfman<\/label>\r\n<\/div>\r\nOver the years, Vic has witnessed many different membership sites that unfortunately flop right out of the gate. In these instances, Vic\u2019s role is to step in and give as much advice and guidance to people who are in this early stage of their online business. When handled correctly, many of these sites that initially flopped eventually found success by retooling and repositioning their offering.\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<img class=\"embed-center\" src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/wpgcbucket\/wp\/2018\/10\/457bbcaf-mikito-tateisi-333584-unsplash.jpg\" alt=\"Biggest challenge facing online entrepreneurs today is about getting traction\" \/>\r\n&nbsp;\r\n<h3><strong>Black Belt Technique: Validate Your Idea<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<em>\u201cIt\u2019s hard to get members, but what\u2019s equally hard is knowing whether any given idea is going to validate.\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nVic emphasized that a major topic of concern for entrepreneurs is how, when, and why you should validate your idea for a business. Some people preach the \u201cLean Startup\u201d methodology, while others prefer to go \u201call-in\u201d on their business right out of the gate. How do you know if your idea will stick and catch on?\r\n\r\nHere\u2019s some insight straight from Vic:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Start a Facebook Group<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nIf you don\u2019t want to spend a lot of time or money testing your idea for a membership site, starting a Facebook group could be a good option for you.\r\n\r\n<em>\u201cOne of our clients started a Facebook group around the idea for her membership. She has a lot of conversations with the people in her Facebook group. She also has a YouTube channel. The YouTube videos drives traffic and members to her Facebook group. What she has done successfully are these sort of \u2018mini launches\u2019 to the Facebook group. This actually blew my mind when I saw that people were launching their membership to a Facebook group like they would to an email list.\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nStarting a Facebook group might be right for you if you are looking for a relatively easy, cost-effective way to validate your idea for a subscription site<\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Choose an Engaged Audience Over a Flawless Product<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nMembers of a Facebook group are often more engaged than people on an email list. In those cases, a Facebook group really acts like an email list on steroids.\r\n\r\n<em>\u201cAnother one of our clients had a really small Facebook group, maybe a few hundred members. After she launched her membership site to the Facebook group, she got around 90 paying members at $30 a month! That\u2019s an income!\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nWhile this may seem counterintuitive, when you are creating a new business \u2013 <em>whether it is a membership site or not<\/em> \u2013 starting with an engaged audience is oftentimes better than starting with a top-notch product.<\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Ask Your Audience What They Want<\/strong><\/h4>\r\nVic emphasized the importance of an engaged audience when it does come time for product creation:\r\n\r\n<em>\u201cIf you do have an engaged community or list of subscribers, rather than launching a product to them right away, run an \u201cASK Method\u201d survey with just two or three questions. Instead of trying to create a product or membership that you think your market will love, just ask them. This will be infinitely more helpful in putting you on the right track when it does come time to create a product or membership.\u201d<\/em>\r\n\r\nThe ability to determine exactly what someone in your audience wants and is willing to pay for can save you an immense amount of time, energy, and effort if and when you decide to create a product or membership.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n\r\n<h3><strong>The Value Of Cross-Market Expertise<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nVic gains a tremendous advantage by working with clients in differing markets &amp; niches. This exposure to a diverse mix of marketing and growth strategies shows Vic how, when &amp; why something works or fails. Vic and his team can then pass this knowledge and experience on to their own clients.\r\n\r\nFor example, if a MemberFix client launches their membership site and doesn\u2019t get very many customers right off the bat, Vic would look to what their other clients are doing successfully. From there, he would determine if it could be applied to his client who\u2019s struggling to acquire customers. Oftentimes he\u2019s able to recommend a strategy that someone may not have initially considered because it isn\u2019t a widespread practice in their industry or market.\r\n<h3><strong>Insider Tips &amp; Tricks<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nWhile marketing expertise is one half of Vic\u2019s business, he and his team have years of experience working with the full spectrum of online business tools. We asked Vic what his preferred \u201ctech stack\u201d was for running membership sites. He listed out 11 of his favorite tools:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Forms, User registration, Quizzes<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/gravity-forms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">GravityForms<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cThis tool is universally useful for so many things. I highly recommend it.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Site Performance &amp; Caching<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/wp-rocket\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">WP-Rocket<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cIn my opinion, WP-Rocket is hands down the best caching plugin on the market. But, one thing to be careful with is caching on membership sites.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>SEO Plugin<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/fv-all-in-one-seo-pack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">FV Simpler SEO<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cI like this SEO plugin because it is lean, effective, and has up-to-date keyword recommendations. Some of the other plugins out there are bloated and anachronistic.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Email Marketing<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.activecampaign.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">ActiveCampaign<\/a> &amp; <a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/drip\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Drip<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cEmail Marketing tools are a divisive topic because it really comes down to the fit for your business. For me, Active Campaign and Drip are both fantastic tools.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Lead Capture<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/thrive-leads\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">ThriveLeads<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cThis tool is fantastic for any kind of lead generation on your site.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>WordPress Theme<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/divi\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Divi<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cI\u2019m a huge fan of the Divi Theme. Whatever look or feel you are going for, you can build it with Divi. It\u2019s extremely well developed and well supported, and they\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d<\/em>\r\n&nbsp;\r\nIn fact, Vic has written an entire blog post explaining why he prefers to use Divi when he\u2019s building a site. You can check out his post here: <a href=\"https:\/\/memberfix.rocks\/why-divi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Why Divi?<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Hosting<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cloudways.com\/en\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">CloudWays<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.siteground.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Siteground<\/a> \u2013 <em><em>\u201cCloudWays is my preferred hosting provider. If you are not a very technical person, Siteground may be a better fit for you.\u201d<\/em><\/em>\r\n&nbsp;\r\nFor more information, you can check out Vic\u2019s post on WordPress hosting: <a href=\"https:\/\/memberfix.rocks\/best-hosting-wordpress-membership-site\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">What is the Best Hosting for WordPress Membership Sites?<\/a>\r\n\r\nVic also runs his own boutique hosting provider. It originally started as a \u201cvalue add\u201d for his clients but has since extended beyond that. If you\u2019re interested in learning more about Vic\u2019s hosting service, you can check it out here: <a href=\"https:\/\/speedkills.io\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SpeedKills.io<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Security<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.wordfence.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">WordFence<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cA great plugin for WordPress security.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Application Connection &amp; Integration<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/zapier.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Zapier<\/a><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Payment Provider<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/stripe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Stripe<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/us\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paypal<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cDepending on what country you are in, Stripe and Paypal are both good options.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n \t<li><h4><strong>Membership Plugin<\/strong><\/h4>\r\n<a href=\"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MemberMouse<\/a> \u2013 <em>\u201cOut of all the WordPress membership plugins, MemberMouse has one of the best combinations of functionality, ease of use, a great look and feel, solid support and price.\u201d<\/em><\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<h3><strong>Wrapping Up<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThat just about wraps it up for our third Developer Spotlight installment. We hope you enjoyed this post and found Vic\u2019s insights helpful. If you are interested in learning more about Vic and his team at MemberFix you can check out his site here. Vic is an active blogger himself and posts regularly about topics that are helpful to online business owners and subscription entrepreneurs. You can get more tips, tricks and strategies at his blog here.\r\n\r\nWhen he\u2019s not helping entrepreneurs build and run profitable online businesses, Vic enjoys songwriting and training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. He currently resides in Thailand.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In unserer dritten Ausgabe von Developer Spotlight teilt der Mitgliedschaftsseiten-Experte Vic Dorfman seine Tipps, Strategien und bevorzugten Technologien f\u00fcr den Aufbau leistungsstarker und profitabler Mitgliedschaftsseiten.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":20918,"featured_media":4716,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_strive_editorial_status":"not-started","_strive_copy_of":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_strive_checklists":"\"\"","_strive_active_checklist":"","_strive_post_notes":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[109,117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-developer-spotlight","category-mm-dash"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/membermouse.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}