Did you catch the 3-part case study about Alexandria Brown’s information marketing money machine? The one where Ali provides 750 Silver Mastermind group members with exclusive access to monthly teleseminars at $47 per month?
The membership fees total $423,000 annually. Yup.
So anyway, this post is an extension of Part 1’s “Selling access to information”. If you missed the series or want a refresher, read: Making a Million With 1000 True Fans: Be a Toll Booth on the Information Highway.
Image credit: *** ___ The System ***
Yesterday I got the inside scoop on a new Ali Brown product. At least, it was new to the Scooper…Scoopee? Anyway…
A Silver Mastermind group member said Ali is offering CD recordings of their monthly teleseminars for $47.
This made no sense to me because the Silver membership already includes a CD-by-mail of that month’s teleseminar. Also, members can download the calls from their exclusive access area.
My question was, “If the members already get a CD by mail, and they can download the calls whenever they want, why would they buy another CD?”
And then Ms. Scoop clued me in—
Only the three most current teleseminars are available for download
in the members-only access area.
Take a moment to think on what that means.
…
…
It means that if the Silver members’ digital library held the entire collection of 18+ months of teleseminars, NEW members would have unlimited access to content that they, essentially, hadn’t paid for.
It means that unlimited access limits income potential. And based on what I’ve observed, limiting her income potential is not what Ali’s about.
That said, it is less expensive to purchase the content as a new member than to have paid for it monthly from the start. A single CD costs $47, but new members can also purchase 5 teleseminars for $199, or 10 for $347, choosing from a list of 18 topics.
Tenured Silver Mastermind members paid $47 each month without that quantity discount, and they couldn’t choose the content. Huh.
Which Is All To Say…
When we consider offering content in a paid subscription format, we need to think beyond what we’ll include and how we’ll make it available.
It pays (literally) to also consider what content we won’t include, and how we can make it unavailable. And then how we can make it available again to newcomers at a price.
Et tu? Would you be turned off by this as a new member, or welcome the opportunity to buy “back issues”? How about if you were an old member?
Ouch girlfriend that just hurt my brain. More coffee and I’ll think about all those numbers again.
And…I’ll bet you a lot of people DON’t ever think about them. They just blindly go along wtarting where thy are at. No one is going to listen to all that back log.
Recent blog post from Wendi Kelly: The Addiction of Conforming
@Wendi—Sorry! LoL Should I add a public service announcement: [Drink Coffee Before Reading] ?
You’re right, most new members wouldn’t bother with the backlog…may not even think to wonder where all that early content went to.
But I bet most of those who got that order form saw at least two titles that promised resolution to a current problem they’re having.
And the sales letter used words like “from the vault” and “for a limited time” to make the CDs that more precious. And at the same price as their monthly membership fee.
Who could resist?
I wouldn’t mind it as a new member, provided that I was told in advance that access is limited to a “current issue.”
One thing that you didn’t mention was whether you are allowed to download current content to make your own personal archives. If not, I’d much rather just pay for the archive CDs and skip the current content.
I don’t think I would like it because, from the way it sounded, it seemed way to convoluted to trust what I was getting.
To me if it were a simple ‘here’s what you pay, here’s what you get’ system then I could trust it better. It seemed like I was trying to be confused out of my money by thinking I was getting one thing but actually getting something else.
Maybe I just didn’t understand the system correctly though.
Recent blog post from Jeremy Davis: My Dream Is …
Hi Joshua and welcome
Good point! Having a heads up on the procedures/policies would make a significant difference.
As for downloads, I understand members can download the current teleseminar within a few days of the live call, as well as the past 3 calls, and are welcome and encouraged to do so.
Thanks!
Hi Jeremy, Thanks for your comment and I blame myself for the confusion.
It’s convoluted from the outside, but from the inside it’s straightforward: Subscribe anew, get immediate access to some content that you missed, this month’s teleseminar, and a letter with order form to order the older stuff. Lots of goodies…simple.
Trying to describe it from all sides is a little loopy though. Next time I’ll present the customer’s POV before I talk about ours!
hmmm, don’t think I would be turned on. I also would rather see this is what you pay and this is what you get.