If you’re starting a membership site, using beta testers in the early stages is a great way to start building up a following.
Beta testers are usually users that have access to a pre-release testing platform of a membership site in return for helping you test it out. It’s usually something they do for free, hence the enticement.
Using beta testers for a new membership site can be dead useful. Not only does it help with ironing out any software issues, you also get the benefits of having a captive audience to keep you accountable.
Accountability of the owner can be the biggest downfall for a new site. Accepting responsibility for your site’s users means you’re literally obliged to continue with the project.
Stick To The Rules
If you do decide to go down the path of accepting beta testing users to your membership site, try to keep these simple rules in mind:
Be Honest About Your Intentions
If you plan to take money from people you need to tell them way in advance so they get used to the idea. It’s best to be upfront about these sorts of things so you don’t put anyone offside.
Let them know at the time of sign up what you are planning to do with the site. Thank them for their encouragement and time to help you test this new exciting site of yours.
Keep Beta Testers Up To Date
As well as giving them plenty of thanks and encouragement to continue testing your platform for free, you should keep free beta users up to date with expected pricing and dates.
This is only fair, so they have time to prepare for the decision to find the money to continue with the service or move on. (We’re obviously hoping for the former.)
Give Plenty Of Notice
Giving plenty of notice when the free period is coming to a close is a must. If you’re already keeping them up to date frequently this should just be another thing to check off that you’ve done.
As soon as you know, post on the system in a nice obvious place when the free service will stop and when users can expect to pull their wallets out.
Lifetime Discounts & Refer A Friend Marketing
As a thank you for being a loyal free beta testing member, some site owners elect to give out heavily discounted offers to gain subscriptions off these “warm leads”.
Another alternative to this model is to give away these memberships for a period of time, or even life, but get them to help you recruit new members into your paid system.
You can handle this second scenario by using a service such as HasOffers.com which is an affiliate management system. Essentially your beta testers become your marketers. This also helps strengthen the tribe as they will filter the users for you by only telling the people that will become strong advocates of the site as well.
Conclusion
Membership sites are fast becoming a great way to earn money online regardless of the business. They take their models from offline businesses such as subscription magazines, fitness clubs, and dieting programs.
If you’re considering starting a membership site, I encourage you to take a look at Yaro Starak’s free membership site masterplan report which goes into great details on membership site specifics. Fantastic information for a free resource!
