Como criar um site de associação para obter sucesso a longo prazo

In this article, you’ll get to know a member of the MemberMouse community who is both a successful web developer e uma empreendedora que criou dois negócios bem-sucedidos de associação on-line. Seus sites de associação se tornaram fontes confiáveis de relativamente renda passiva que lhe dá a liberdade e a flexibilidade de trabalhar onde e quando quiser.

Pense nesta postagem como um híbrido entre uma de nossas Desenvolvedores em destaque e um História de sucesso do cliente.

So, if you’ve ever wondered what it takes to truly build a business that gives you the freedom and flexibility you’ve been looking for in your life, this post is for you!

Nesta postagem, você aprenderá:

Como Britt descobriu sua grande ideia para um negócio on-line

Estratégias para criar um site de associação bem-sucedido

🖍️ Practical membership site UX & design tips

🔑 Specific MemberMouse tips & tricks

💙 E muito mais...
 

Conheça Brittany Menard

Conheça Brittany Menard (ela atende pelo pseudônimo de Britt).

Ela é empresária e desenvolvedora/designer da Web de Chilliwack, British Columbia.

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Britt cresceu nas belas fazendas do noroeste do Pacífico e, sem dúvida, é uma garota do interior de coração. Para ela, a maior recompensa de criar negócios on-line bem-sucedidos é a liberdade de viver e trabalhar onde e quando quiser.

“I’m very grateful for where I live. we’re so close to so many different forestry roads, the mountains, lakes, and hot springs. It’s really fun to go out and adventure. We’re three hours away from world-class skiing at Whistler and three hours in the other direction to the desert. It’s a unique place to live and I really enjoy it. For me, life is all about balance. I love having the freedom to be able to go out and explore and obviously being able to work on the computer and do what I do, offers that freedom. It’s really fun.”

Os dois sites de associação que o Britt possui e opera são: O guia do corretor de ingressos & Bilheteria da Fox.

Ambos os sites ajudam os corretores de ingressos a ganhar dinheiro com a compra e venda on-line de ingressos para esportes, shows e eventos. Ela começou a trabalhar por conta própria como empresária em 2008 e, desde então, vem crescendo e desenvolvendo esses negócios.

Sentamos com Britt e tivemos uma conversa fantástica sobre empreendedorismo, administração de um negócio on-line e as especificidades da criação e do crescimento de sites de associação.
 

Começando com ela

Como você começou a trabalhar com web design e desenvolvimento?

"Bem, quando eu estava crescendo, minha família tinha um computador Tandy com o Microsoft Paint. Essa foi minha primeira experiência com design. Eu olhava as imagens e as pintava na tela com o mouse. Eu achava aquilo muito fascinante.

A partir daí, acabamos tendo acesso à Internet discada. Era muito divertido quando eu tinha permissão para acessar a Internet por uma hora de cada vez. Isso era uma grande coisa. Então, comecei a criar pequenos sites nos antigos construtores de arrastar e soltar, como Homestead, GeoCities e AngelFire. Sim... E eu tinha que ter um widget de previsão do tempo e um contador de visitantes. É claro! Isso era essencial."
 

“When I was around 13 years old, I would look at domain names to buy and sell. I was really intrigued by that. I’ve always had a natural entrepreneurial spirit. I don’t really fit into a box, per se. I always looked for business opportunities. So, I would create those websites and eventually transitioned into Microsoft Frontpage. I would design all the websites with the wysiwyg editor and then export it as a table-based website. That’s definitely dating myself, haha!

That’s how I got into all of this. I found it really fun to build these little websites. And then, I discovered WordPress in 2008. Once I found WordPress, I became fascinated by it. It was scalable and still not really that mainstream at the time. But, I saw the potential in it. Ever since then, I’ve built all of my websites on WordPress. I love the ability to add plugins and functionality to it and that it’s open source with a community around it.”

Quando você tentou iniciar um negócio on-line pela primeira vez?

"Eu escrevi O guia do corretor de ingressos quando eu estava na universidade, em 2008. Naquela época, eu tinha um emprego na faculdade. Trabalhávamos em um depósito de roupas e recebíamos pedidos para as lojas de varejo. Na verdade, era um trabalho bem divertido.

But one day, six of us all got laid off. They laid us off and a good friend of mine and I said to ourselves, ‘Wait a minute. We basically just got severance without pay. They can’t do that to us. That’s not right!’ So, we went in there and said ‘yeah, you can’t do that. We’d like our severance pay.’

For me, that was a major realization. When you’re working for somebody else, you don’t have control of how much money you can make or the hours you work. You don’t have that same freedom. I had that ‘aha moment’ at the time thinking, ‘I don’t want to work for somebody else. I want to do my own thing.’

At the time, I was still in university. I was taking business and computer courses. I remember sitting in an advertising class and I wasn’t paying attention and I would just sit there and write what eventually became O guia do corretor de ingressos."
 

“I had become fascinated by that industry because at the time, the Vancouver Canucks NHL team was in the playoffs. I remember looking on eBay and seeing how much their playoff tickets were selling for. And I thought, ‘Holy crap, that’s pretty impressive! There’s gotta be more to this story.’

So I started digging in and learning about ticket brokers and understanding the ticket industry. I signed up for a popular ticket broker message board at the time and couldn’t get enough. I wanted to research all the inner workings of the business and really found it fascinating. I bought and resold tickets myself at that time to help put myself through university.

A partir daí, percebi que não havia um recurso real disponível para ensinar outras pessoas a fazer isso. Então, acabei assumindo a responsabilidade e escrevendo O guia do corretor de ingressos."

Você planejou desde o início iniciar um negócio de associação?

"Tive a ideia de criar um site de associação em 2010. Eu escrevi O guia do corretor de ingressos em 2008 e sempre quis que ele fosse mais do que um livro. Percebi que havia uma oportunidade de ter um site de associação e ajudar os corretores de ingressos a prever eventos lucrativos e encontrar ingressos que seriam vendidos em breve. Eu queria criar um recurso para corretores de ingressos de todos os níveis de habilidade. Na verdade, demorou alguns anos para começar a funcionar. Foi apenas uma ideia por um tempo".
 

“In 2013 we started Box Office Fox, which is the membership site. We used MemberMouse to build this site and still use MemberMouse today on it. So yeah, that’s been about six years and running. Box Office Fox is a little more advanced. It’s a ticket-on-sale database.”

Qual é a principal diferença entre o Ticket Broker Guide e o Box Office Fox?

“The Ticket Broker Guide is for people who are curious about learning how to become a ticket broker. It’s geared more towards beginner to intermediate brokers. Once you’ve got a grasp on the ticket industry and how to buy and sell tickets online, your next step is Box Office Fox where you use that tool for your daily research and finding profitable tickets.”

Como estão as coisas com seus dois sites de associação?

“It’s been going really well. We’ve definitely learned a lot. We ended up using MemberMouse from the start on that site and I’ve been involved with other projects since then that have used MemberMouse as well. I’ve also worked on projects that have used other membership plugins and I’ve always come back to MemberMouse. It’s the most comprehensive, feature-rich plugin out there, I believe.”

Para você, qual é o principal benefício de criar um negócio on-line bem-sucedido?

“Oh, definitely the freedom. If I did want to pick up and move to Thailand or Eastern Europe, I could. If I want to work from home, I can. I can work when creativity is sparked. I don’t have to be productive from nine to five, Monday through Friday, from my office desk. I can work anywhere.”
 

“That’s obviously what’s so attractive about this kind of lifestyle, it’s the freedom – financially and time-wise. That’s what everybody’s after. Having a skill set with website development and marketing and design can certainly offer that. I saw that from a relatively young age. I really believe in this.

Obviously, there are many jobs where you do have to be at a physical location to get the job done, I understand that. But as far as running a membership site or really doing anything with computers, you don’t have to be stuck in that mindset that you need to be working from an office.”

O que você adora no modelo de associação e receita recorrente?

“Well, I think an ‘autopilot income’ is attractive to anybody, right? You know, that’s the dream. To have your website working for you while you’re on the beach in Hawaii. Obviously, that’s very attractive.

But, that comes with challenges too. And being able to provide ongoing value is probably the biggest challenge. There are days when you’re feeling creative and it’s very easy to come up with new content. Then there are days where you’re thinking, ‘I don’t feel like doing this. I don’t want to have to create something new continually.'”

Que conselho você daria para as pessoas que desejam iniciar um site de associação?

"Pensando no futuro, se você tiver uma ideia para um site de associação, tenha esta pergunta em mente: Como você poderá fornecer valor contínuo aos seus membros? É muito importante ter um plano para isso desde o início. É aqui que o fornecimento de recursos dinâmicos em seu site o ajudará a fazer isso."

O que você quer dizer com "recursos dinâmicos"?

“For example, with Box Office Fox we programmed a database to aggregate information for our members. So, we’re not having to constantly write new content for that specific site. We aggregate all of the tickets going on sale soon across North America and we put them all in a database with on sale dates, pre-sale passwords to get early access to tickets, face value ticket prices, venue capacities, etc.

We put all of that information in one place and it’s searchable. So, brokers use that on a daily basis as part of their daily research. It kind of does run itself, which is great. And obviously we had this in mind from the start. Remember, your website should be able to work for you.”
 

Como criar um site de associação bem-sucedido

What is the most important thing to consider when you’re building a website? Você se concentra na aparência e na sensação do site? Ou é tudo uma questão de velocidade? Quais são as caixas de seleção que você considera absolutamente necessárias?

Experiência do usuário (UX)

“I think all those things are important when you’re building a website. But for me, it’s user experience. How does the user feel when they’re on the site? That includes everything from what graphics you’re using, the photos to your sales copy, and your call-to-actions. It should be very clear what the user is supposed to do. They shouldn’t have to think and fumble around with your website. It should be intuitive.

Há muitas partes móveis em um site que são necessárias para criar uma boa experiência para o usuário. Gosto de usar muitos gráficos personalizados e escrever um texto de vendas atraente. Meu objetivo é sempre fazer com que o site funcione muito bem para o usuário e deixar bem claro o que ele precisa fazer."

Data & Analytics

“There are times when you’ll live in Google Analytics and see how people are interacting with your pages. Then, you can make tweaks based on that. It’s important to always revisit your work and improve it based on how users are interacting with your website.”

E há também o Registro de atividades dos membros:

“Definitely, with the information available from the activity log, you can pick a direction a lot easier and see what’s working and what’s not. Obviously, if a few users are highly engaged with a page, that’s great. And if you did launch a feature of the site and then nobody’s really using it or they’re bouncing, you know that needs your attention.”
 

“The Member Activity Log is also very useful for seeing if a user is really engaged. That’s a good opportunity to reach out to them and just say, ‘Hey, thank you so much for using our service. If you have any feedback, please let us know about what you love, what you don’t love, etc.’ There are some talking points there.

Again, with users who may have signed up for your service and aren’t engaged, well that’s also an opportunity. You can reach out to them and just, and not be creepy about it, and say, ‘Hey, is there anything I can help you with?’ That provides some great talking points. And this is information that MemberMouse provides, that you can’t always get from Google Analytics. That’s definitely very valuable.”

Otimização de mecanismos de busca (SEO)

“I feel very strongly about search engine optimization. That’s my background in writing good copy. I want users to land on my site organically. Because that’s a qualified lead. They’re searching for a solution to their problem and if they land on your site, you can provide that solution for them. With SEO, a visitor is already engaged with you as opposed to paid ads.

Content is the biggest thing that Google is looking for when it comes to SEO. You have to have good content. That’s going to allow Google to search your site and pick up what you’re talking about. You’re basically just giving Google hints for what your site is about. Then it can rank you appropriately in the search results.

Obviously, there’s more to it than just writing good content. Having unique images or graphics on your site as well as also important. Google doesn’t want to see the same recycled stock images. I recommend taking a stock image and Photoshop it and add some value to that image. Also, make sure your website loads responsively on all devices. Google is looking at that.

Something else to consider is your page load speed. And yes, Google is looking at whether people are bouncing from your website. So, having some elements on the page as well to get your visitors engaged with your page, whether that’s embedding a YouTube video, or having some call to action buttons, or filling out a form. There are so many different things you can do to enhance the page.

O SEO leva muito mais tempo do que o caminho dos anúncios pagos. Mas acredito firmemente que o SEO é o caminho a ser seguido. Se você tiver um produto sólido e escrever um texto atraente, as pessoas o encontrarão. E o Google vai adorar você! O Google adora conteúdo exclusivo. Crie um site que o Google adore e que seus usuários adorem.

With SEO, if you’re okay with playing the long game, you can write some really compelling content that can work for you for years to come.”

Marketing de afiliados

“Affiliate marketing as well is really valuable. If you have an army of affiliates promoting your product, you’re only paying them if they make a sale. In my opinion, that’s a much better approach than dumping a bunch of money into paid ads. I’ve done both. I’ve worked on projects where we have had a sizable ad budget and it’s just not for me.

When we first started The Ticket Broker Guide, we got involved with ClickBank. We would split the commission with our affiliates 50/50. We did use ClickBank for a long time because they handle all of the payment processing for affiliates. This is very useful. We don’t have to touch the money or anything and split it up manually. ClickBank just does that for us.

A única coisa que eu sugeriria a qualquer pessoa que esteja pensando em usar o marketing de afiliados para expandir seus negócios on-line é manter algum controle sobre seus afiliados e fornecer a eles ferramentas e recursos para promover seus produtos.

Otherwise, you’re going to have a bunch of hooligans putting out a bunch of your regurgitated information that’s not helpful. It ends up looking very cookie cutter. It’s not professional. So, you want to provide your affiliates with some valuable resources like sales copy and graphics or whatever you can, so they can promote your product properly.”

Plug-in de associação do WordPress

“When picking a membership plugin, you’ve got to have your login page functionality. You also need to have a page where members can go in and edit their own accounts. For example, members need to be able to cancel their accounts on their own if they want to.

Your members also need to be able to update their billing information. All of these things are very important. I found that a lot of the other plugins, with even offering something simple like coupon codes, not every membership plugin offers that. There’s just a lot of things that I find with other plugins that you end up just piecing things together. MemberMouse has those features already in place and they just work.”

Ferramentas técnicas adicionais recomendadas

• Hospedagem WordPress – Motor WP
• Criador de formulários – Formulários de gravidade
• Tema para WordPress – Tema Avada ou Estrutura de Gênesis
• Ferramenta de SEO – Yoast SEO
• WordPress Dashboard & Management – ManageWP
• Marketing por e-mail – MailChimp
• Ferramentas de desenvolvimento do WordPress – Conjunto de ferramentas WP
• Gateways de pagamento – Listrado & PayPal

 

Britt’s Top MemberMouse Tips & Tricks

1. Níveis de associação:

 

“When you’re building a membership site, I think the first thing to figure out is the membership levels you’re going to have. Each membership level obviously comes with different permissions for that user. So, figuring that out, is the number one step. Then, once you’ve dealt with that, you can really start customizing your users’ experience by using MemberMouse SmartTags.”

2. SmartTags:

 

“Whether that be as simple as showing the member’s name on their account page and personalizing it or using some conditional logic and saying, show this content if the user has this membership level. You can really tweak those SmartTags and get them working for you and guide members in a certain direction that you want them to go because you can show them different information based on their membership level.”

3. Prorrogação da assinatura:

 

“There are also MemberMouse features that allow you to prorate subscriptions. It’s very powerful stuff and it saves a lot of admin work. You can have all of this stuff already set up in place. You don’t have to have members emailing you and saying, ‘Hey, I’d like to upgrade or downgrade,’ and then you’re having to manually go in and adjust all that stuff.

What’s nice is that you don’t need to do that with MemberMouse. You can have it already all set up. And basically, any use case scenario that you can think of, MemberMouse is capable of handling. MemberMouse is a true all-in-one solution.”

4. Upsells:

“We have one upsell because we have two membership levels. So obviously, if a member signs up for the lower membership level, we use SmartTags to show them information, like snippets of your upgraded membership level, and say, ‘Hey, this is what you’re missing out on.’

For example, we can tell our lower tier members something like, ‘we have a private ticket broker chat going on over here. Come check us out!’ And even when they are on the top membership level, we can engage with them further by using SmartTags to show them different information It’s really powerful. This is a whole rabbit hole of information here.”

5. Gerenciar membros:

 

"Eu sei que disse que tentamos automatizar muitas coisas com o MemberMouse e dar aos usuários o controle para atualizar suas contas ou alterar o nível de associação, as informações de cobrança, tudo isso. Mas, obviamente, sempre há cenários de casos de uso em que precisamos entrar e alterar manualmente algumas informações de um membro.

Adoro o painel de administração porque ele é muito intuitivo e direto. Acho que qualquer pessoa pode ser treinada para gerenciar esse aspecto do MemberMouse. Gosto muito dos recursos de administração do MemberMouse em comparação com outros plug-ins."

6. Funcionalidade All-In-One:

“MemberMouse is truly an all-in-one solution. It’s very scalable. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out with your membership site or if you’re already up at enterprise level where you’ve got thousands of members. Just like WordPress, it’s very scalable and there’s lots of support for it. You guys have a very comprehensive knowledge base. Basically, anything that you get stuck on or want to customize, the answers are already there in the knowledge base. It’s very well documented. That’s really important.

With other plugins, oh my goodness, you end up having to buy all these different extensions. And it’s just like, okay, so this $29 plugin turned into $300, and I think, ‘well geez, why doesn’t it just come with that in the first place?’ I don’t want to have to guess whether I need this extension or that extension…

Sim, há algum tempo de configuração inicial para que todas as páginas principais sejam configuradas corretamente e para que funcionem bem com o Seu tema and everything. But at the end of the day, MemberMouse is very enterprise-level software that’s also suitable for someone just starting out. It’s pretty powerful stuff! And I really like the fact that when you go into the member logs you can see how members are interacting with your site. That’s super powerful information. And again, that’s something that a lot of other membership plugins don’t have or don’t do well.”
 

Concluindo

Ufa! Cobrimos muitos assuntos nesta postagem. Obrigado por continuar conosco.

Esperamos que você tenha gostado de conhecer a Britt e de aprender com a perspectiva dela sobre como projetar e criar um site de associação para o sucesso.

Que perguntas você tem para nós sobre a criação de sites de associação?

Você gostaria de saber mais sobre a experiência do usuário do site de associação ou sobre os processos de fluxo de vendas adicionais?

Let us know in the comments below! We’d love to hear from you.

Até a próxima vez, mantenha-se atualizado com o Blog do MemberMouse e sintonize-se com Nosso podcast!

Em breve, teremos muitos artigos e convidados excelentes para você.

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