Terms
Ben L Collins, the Google Sheets expert behind the education site benlcollins.com Ben L Collins is extremely grateful for his membership company as well as the economy of creators in general. "When you're working on something, whether it's creative or creating the technical content for a different building-related membership when a random person opens their wallet and gives you money, you realize that you're extremely fortunate to have a moment where you can do the kind of work you want to do and connect with so many individuals.
"If you're taking the time to - firstly - examine my products and like it enough that they're ready to invest the cash, I'd love to do everything that I can to make it as perfect as I can for them," he continues.
Ben is a fan of membership since it's more than a one-time cost "We're not talking about an agreement for consulting where clients employ you to complete the task that's structured and written out and everybody knows what terms of the services they're acquiring. More of a relation to the person who says"I'd like to be part of your bandwagon in the coming calendar year or even for one month or quarter. I'm impressed by what you're doing. I'd like to become a part of the group and to be part of the team."
He believes that membership provides an incentive to do the best that you can as well as to create amazing material. "People are naturally inclined to believe from me to create top-quality content, but I also really want to create it for them and for me. "
Ben states that it can help to establish a great connection with the group "I feel that I'm doing something for them rather than just this anonymous person buying a course and having no idea if anyone even looks at it. The experience is more tangible to the group or with the member. It's about creating a more intimate relationship that goes beyond being transient."
Beginning with "always on" to microdeliverables
The epidemic of covid-19 hit. Ben had been delivering classes on manipulation of data using Google Sheets for 10 years. "I was able to teach more than 15 courses on Teachable which could have up to 25 dates for launch, when certain courses were renewed. When teaching a course, you have to really put in as much - if not more effort - into marketing than actually teaching the course. While it's interesting however, I'm not an avid fan and it's not something I like."
Ben L Collins Ben L Collins had taught e-courses for 10 years prior to when the covid strike.
Ben realized that he liked to work on the technical spreadsheet and also help other people. "People were coming to me asking questions such as "How can I accomplish this?' It would make for an interesting problem to work on.
"Membership is an idea I was thinking about probably at least two years ago."" says Ben. "I loved the idea due to the fact that it's a regular source of revenue. Members don't have to introduce something new to generate revenue where you have a big spike but then you're without a profit after." It's a safer platform that lets the creator focus on their creation as well as the connection with users instead of having to handle the marketing.
"For some time I'd considered the idea of membership, but I'd never gotten past my initial research. I was afraid that it could feel as if I was always on when I followed this kind of model that I was constantly doing something. I would always pull back however, I would continue to pursue the courses." He had achieved what he wanted to achieve.
"I'd basically completed all of the subjects I could have learned from my complete-courses. It was difficult to locate other courses that weren't becoming more specialized, and consequently the course is less popular among higher-end things," he continues. "There was no viable economical reason to run certain courses I would think about."
Ben insists that he felt a sense of burnout. "I was thinking 'I need to create 100 Teachable videos' which need to come together as one piece of work. It was a challenge to come up with an incentive to get my hands on and make it all in one big block. It's difficult to be certain how many people are going to purchase the product. "
Ben explains that e-courses require authors to publish their course prior to attempting to market it. Moreover, it is impossible to tell whether it will be an success. "It may take 3 to 6 months to design an excellent course. If the course does not work on the market, you won't be able to sell your course later on, " he adds. "I knew that I wanted an ongoing connection with my students that could be based on microdeadlines and microdeliverables."
Chess Playing a simulation of chess using Google Sheets
It was logical to join. "I'll commit to the weekly newsletter, and we can have templates and tutorials however they aren't required to be part of one massive topic, and they can be related to one another. Content could be shorter and easier to manage for me as well as easy for readers to digest."
From a consumer standpoint, many users don't take the time to finish their online courses "It's difficult to purchase the course with 10 hours of video content. It's tough to fit in videos for 10 hours which is why you give up and don't get around to doing it. However, if you get one email a week, you can plan an hour of lunch breaks, as well as gain a wealth of benefits throughout the week, before having to set it aside for the next week." Ben explains.
The spring of 2024 was when Ben began to contemplate the possibility of joining. Through the summer, he wrote down the exact details of the type of membership when he launched the club in the month of September.
Email is still the most powerful
In his interview regarding his professional career, Ben is keen to thank his colleague. "I'm very fortunate to have a wife who has done everything prior to. She's had an own business, she's launched a number of items and managed to establish the database of email addresses." Ben has received several tips early during his career in the field of membership "that proved extremely useful" - and one of those lessons was the necessity of establishing an email database.
His wife, Ben's, worked as a content marketer at the time he decided to build his networks. "She was in an agency that handled marketing for clients, as well as creating blog posts, SEO as well as social media. It was extremely useful in the context of the things I was trying accomplish at the time." Ben adds.
"Emails are the primary channel for connecting with or interacting with your target audience," he continues. He admits this may not be true for people younger than his age, but He says: "The problem with social media and particularly modern platforms such as TikTok are that they create the illusion of separation between you and your fans.
You create content, and the platform displays it, you can see what is most popular and trending. No matter whether you have 10,000 or 100,000 followers, if your piece of content doesn't rank according to an algorithm, then just a small portion of these followers are seeing the post. It's possible to have having a weak connection. Your existence is governed by the guidelines of the platform. If they change their algorithms or go out of style - we've witnessed a lot of social media sites disappear, therefore, having an email list is crucial.
A few tips for members who are interested in becoming membership operators
"If someone were to open an account now, I'd suggest to them "You must just start!" Ben smiles. "With retrospectively, I'd rather had started it two years earlier. It's the things that take longer. Once you start and get going more time you be able to enjoy."
Ben at Zoom Ben hosting the Zoom session of his customers
It's not difficult to do some more investigation "You might convince yourself there's something missing, or that there's an easier way to accomplish this. I've been there many times. If you do click "Go" and you release something in the universe and interact with people in real life the item takes on new meaning. You then begin to address problems you need to resolve rather than these abstract issues."
The author advises members to not think too much: "If you're addressing someone's need for help to resolve a situation and you can do that begin to talk with them! Your ability to make improvements will come in time."
More details
To find out more and join Ben's daily Google Sheets tips, go to benlcollins.com.
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