[Kajabi How To] Set Up a Membership Site
*Image courtesy of Pixabay.com
If you've been in the online business world for a while, you've noticed there are trends. Well, what's HOT these days are MEMBERSHIP SITES 🔥.
What is a Membership Site?
To learn about membership sites, check out Kajabi's blog post, "How to create a successful membership site". In that article, they explain what kinds of things you might include in a membership, whether you should start one, and all the benefits to running a membership site.
Kajabi Has 2 Ways to Set Up and Host a Membership Site
There are 2 basic ways to set up a membership site in Kajabi and it's a BIG decision. It will take more research that just this article, but I'll give you a brief look at both so you can start the decision-making process of how YOU will structure your membership site in Kajabi.
Links in blog posts may be affiliate links. At no extra cost to you, if you click one and make a purchase, we may receive a commission for having referred you.
Note: Please keep in mind that Kajabi is primarily built to host courses not memberships. However, you can set up a membership site with Kajabi. Just study the options and their Help files before you commit to it, if a membership site is your primary goal with Kajabi and if you have specific needs about how it operates.
Option #1: Make a Membership with Offers
The first way is outlined in this help file from Kajabi, "How to Build a Membership Site in Kajabi." First, you create the things you'll include in your membership like Products (e.g., courses, mini courses, Community forum, etc.) and Offers (e.g., coaching package).
Then you create Offers for each package level (for example, bronze, silver, gold) or payment option (e.g., full payment, subscription, etc.). In each membership Offer, you then attach the Products/Offers a customer has access to when they purchase that specific Offer.
Note: A bit of a subset of this membership model is called Monthly Enrolling Memberships. It takes a bit of a workaround but it allows you restrict membership content, when a new member joins, to the current month's content plus future months. In other words, if someone joins in April, they'll have access to content from April on, as long as they remain a member.
Making a Membership with Offers: Pro vs. Con
Pro: This way has the most flexibility because you can configure different aspects of your membership into various Offers. For instance, your Bronze membership includes 2 mini courses, a Facebook Group, and a 60-minute weekly group coaching session while Silver contains all of that plus your signature course, and the Gold granddaddy has all of THAT plus five 1:1 coaching sessions with you. It's also easy to add or change the components you include in your membership.
Con: Using this model can use up a lot of your Products allowance. So take a look at the plan you're on, how many Products you're allowed, etc. and make sure this setup will work for you.
If you want to do Option #1, you may need to upgrade your Kajabi plan which can seem daunting. But on the other hand, one of the main benefits of having a membership site is so you can bring in a nice consistent income. Therefore, the increase could be offset by the fact that you expect to have more $$ coming in 🙌🏼.
Option #2: Make a Membership with a Product
The other option is to put all your membership content within one Product, and then sell it the same way as above, with however many Offers you'd like. If you go this route, you'll likely need to be very organized in how you set up the Product so draw that out and think ahead to the future before you choose this option.
For instance, you could use the Categories in your membership Product to divide content by Month/Year, by Topic, or by Format (post, PDF, workbook, video, audio, etc.). Think ahead about how you'll release new content, who has access to past/current/future content, etc.
This option works best if you plan to grant every member access to all content no matter when they join. You can drip new content but there would be no way to restrict them from accessing past content (before they joined) using only one Product.
Making a Membership with a Product: Pro vs. Con
Pro: The upside to this option is that it cuts down on the number of Products you need to use up from your allotment, mainly a concern only if you have the Basic plan with 3 Products.
Con: You could lose some of the flexibility you need to structure your membership the way you want to.
Offers and Products, Wait What?
If you got lost at the Offers vs. Products part, please see our other post called "Offers vs. Products ... Let's Clear Up Something Important". Then come back to this post and it'll make more sense :)
See? There's lot to consider when you decide which way to go with your membership in Kajabi. But it's great to know there are options and you get to choose!