Now That You've Joined a Membership Site, What Do You Do To Get The Most From Your Membership?

You will get the most benefit from any membership site you join when you do the following five activities...

1. Make the membership site a favorite. Bookmark it on your computer so that you do not have to remember where it is, or what it's called. Bookmark it! In fact, I would suggest that you make a special folder or a special spot just for the site(s) where you have a membership(s). Make it a favorite. Use a program like Roboform to help you remember all those passwords. Not just to help to remember all those passwords, but Roboform will also auto fill and login for you. Avoid that awful feeling of knowing you have the information "Somewhere!", but just can't find it.

2. Participate. Join the forum if there is one and be sure to complete your profile, adding your picture is a MUST. Comment on the posts, videos and articles. If they've something for you to rate, then do it! Answer questions, ask questions, just get involved. It will really help your learning, and it will also really help you get that information planted in your brain. Remember you have to make the membership site valuable to you and the only way to do that is to get in there and do the work.

3. Label the e-mail addresses from the admin group of the membership site. I use Gmail, my preferred -- I'm amazed at how much more organized I am with Gmail rather than Outlook, which I used to use. When you label that person's e-mail with the name of your membership site, it stands out in your inbox. You'll know that maybe something new has been posted, a new call has been scheduled, or perhaps a new video has been added. By labeling the e-mail address from the admin group you'll be able to quickly and easily find and use that membership site. As you get to know others in the group you can add their email address to the label you have for the membership site.

4. Do the homework. Get in there. Watch the videos. Create the web pages. Do the blog posts. Create your profiles on all the social media platforms. Do whatever it is you joined the site to learn. Do that homework, consistently! When you start to practice what has been delivered within the site, you will be amazed at how quickly you can become proficient. So get in there and do the homework.

5. Use the tools and the techniques provided within the site. I have met people at different events and have discovered we are members of the same site. When we discuss the membership site that we both belong to I find that they never went in and used the tools that were provided. I belong to a Web Graphics Explained membership site and Frank provided a ton of different graphics. When I was talking about how I had used them the other person said they didn't even know they were there! Click on all of the buttons, investigate the posts, the videos. Be sure to learn your way around.

Join a Membership Site, Get Engaged

When you join a membership site for the most part, you're there to learn, But one of the great resources that a lot of people don't take advantage of is also learning from the other members within that site.

Before you get in there and start making comments and asking and answering questions, you want to decide what exactly it is you want to share. Take a look at the content that you have in your business. Do you want to share all of that, and my advice is always give away your best stuff, and do you want to share your experiences?

How many times have you yourself learned from the experience of others? I know I have learned many lessons that way in my lifetime. Decide what kinds of content and kinds of experience that you want to share with other members of that site.

Depending on how big the membership site is, there may be individual groups within the site. An example is I belong to a group to learn how to better utilize Infusionsoft, a customer relations management program. Within the group, there are some of us that are intermediate, and we have some specific need that we want to address and learn to grow our business. There are others who are just learning and others who are advanced, and they are interested in different groups, different topics. Get into your membership site, join some groups, and make sure that you are active.

Decide what is your purpose, what are you there for, what do you yourself want to get out of the membership site? Is this something that you just are interested in learning about really quick, is this a static membership site where there isn't a lot of interaction, or is it one of great big membership sites where there are people talking to each other all the time. Decide what is your purpose, because you're not going to spend as much time engaging, growing and learning from others if it is not a site that you plan to stay with for quite a while. My Infusionsoft membership site, I plan on staying with that group for a long time. I help lots of other members in my area of expertise, pay it forward.

Participate in the activities. If they're asking questions, answer them. Give your honest opinion. If there is a contest, throw your hat in the ring. If there is a promotion of some sort, assist the people who are operating your membership site by sharing to your friends and family or letting other people know in your social media that "hey, I belong to this site for learning how to use social media marketing or use Facebook for business, and it's great, come and join me."

Are You Afraid to Spend the Money on a Membership Site?

When I first started my journey online, I was afraid to join a membership site. I really didn't think it was going to be worth it. I thought they were people just out there to get my $27 a month.

Well guess what? It really is important that you get out there and invest in the tools that you need in order to take your business to the next level. Whether you belong to a site that is technical, personal, personal development or business, when you use it you will definitely reap the benefits.

When you invest in the tools you need to move your business forward, you shorten your own learning curve and you reduce your own frustration levels. It really does make a difference.

Many people have said that -- or have questioned that a membership site is really not worth the money. Once I got over that myself, I realized," Oh my gosh, most of the membership sites that I have joined have been worth their weight in gold." You are going to have access to that information for as long as you are a member and if you need to go back and review something or look at something again, it's there for you.

PLUS you 'll be able to value your own time. When you invest time in your own learning and use that time to find the tools you need, you are allowing yourself to learn that piece easily and efficiently. You can then spend and invest your time on the other things that take your business forward that are more critical in your business.

How many times have you spent hours doing research or looking for something? How frustrating was that?? Being a member of the most effective membership site for you will drastically reduce the amount of time you spend hunting for something!

The one thing you really need to do is do your research! You can research a membership site by seeing whether or not there are any comments about it, who are the people behind it, are they known out there other than the membership site for that particular topic.

Do your research, do your Google searches, find out who the people are. If you can, go on forums or other blogs, you might ask whether or not anyone has heard of this person, do they know what they are doing, have they heard of this company.

Do your research. Not only will it help you have the confidence in the decision you make, it will also help you a great deal in understanding how much is available to help you grow your business.