Better late than never.

2011 was an amazing year. Here’s a quick look at what happened both personally and professionally in 2011, and where I’m going in 2012 with some goals and resolutions.

2011 Recap

1. Watched our sweet baby girl Avalon go from a tiny helpless newborn into a fast-walking, curious, and adventurous 13-month old. It was a luxury to be able to spend most of the year at home with both my wife and daughter.
2. Celebrated six years of marriage to my wife Heather.
3. Turned 31. No longer eligible to make the  ”top 30 under 30 lists.”
4. Spoke at a seminar held by the folks at WishList Member in conjunction with an event put on by Anne Holland of SubscriptionSiteInsider.com. This event was held on 5th Avenue in New York City where I met Jimmy Fallon outside on the street while waiting for the event to start.
5. Became the go-to guy on membership site retention for WishList Insider.
   
6. Conducted a Master Class on Membership & Subscription Retention with Andrew Warner of Mixergy.com
7. Created an online course with my friend Shawn Veltman on building successful online subscription sites around a topic you’re passionate about. One of our original members launched her first site and got over 100 members signed up!
8. Took on new local consulting clients. Watched numerous clients go on to have banner years. One client expressed their best year in over 20 years of business.
9. Took on new coaching clients. It’s always great to see people you’re working with make big steps and reap the rewards of taking those steps.
10. Had another great year with TheBrewersMarket.com – we had a fantastic Christmas processing hundreds of orders in just a few weeks. The business was featured on Etsy’s front page (again) and also featured in a Huffington Post gift guide.

And now… Let’s move on to 2012.

2012 is shaping up to be an exciting year. I’m working towards expanding my consultancy, specifically with regards to helping larger companies make use of the principles that have been so effective for my online clients in the areas of client retention, community development, and authentic communication.

1. Get back on the Paleo diet healthy eating train.
2. Attend the PGA Championship on Kiawah Island.
3. Take a 2-week vacation over the summer with Heather & Avalon.
4. Crossfit at least four times per week.
5. Spend time every single day playing and laughing with Heather & Avalon.
6. Blog at least twice per week.
7. Read at least one new book per week.
8. Continue to do more public speaking and live events. I’m scheduled to speak at another SubscriptionSiteInder.com event in San Francisco. You can read more about that here. And if you’re in the area, you should definitely check it out.
9. Join the Alan Weiss Mentorship Program.
10. Expand an exciting new consulting practice to work with larger companies and bigger brands. More on this to come….

Talk soon,

Noah

Hi again!

Last time, we introduced the idea of identifying who you do not want joining your site.  Today, I want to look at two methods of doing this, and ensure you use the right one.

Now, we all know that there are really sleazy ways to do this.  You see them being used in marketing all the time.  It looks like this:

“If you fit any of the criteria below, you should leave this page:

1.       You’re super lazy

2.       You hate everybody

3.       You’re looking for a way to scam people

4.       You want a magic wand that’ll make you rich

But if you recognize that the best way to be successful is to provide value for others, then you need to join our site!”

That is blatant manipulation, and it always makes me pretty mad when I see it.  I’m not recommending that.  What I am recommending is being clear with your prospective audience on who will get the most out of your community.  It might look something like this for a membership site dedicated to SEO and Internet Marketing:

“Now, this site isn’t for everybody.  We have a pretty close, tight-knit community of people helping each other out, and it’s very important to all of us to keep that spirit alive.  So, with that in mind, if two or any of the following describe you, then this might not be the best resource for you:

1.       You are looking for ‘Black Hat’ methods and ideas.  Look, I recognize that there are a lot of people who do that, but there is no place on this board for those kinds of tactics.  I monitor the boards closely to make sure that methods that are illegal or unethical aren’t part of the discussion list.

2.       You are only considering joining to try to sell your affiliate products.  I’m not saying that members here don’t enter into joint ventures with each other, but it’s a small perk of the board, not the primary focus.  If you’re hoping to find an easy list of people to hawk your affiliate products, this probably isn’t the site for you.

3.       You haven’t learned how to be civil in online communication.  For some reason, many people lose their ability to have reasoned and civil discourses online.  Granted, this is more true on free sites, but even in paid communities there are often malcontents who can’t seem to get along with anybody.  If you often find yourself in ‘Flame Wars’ online, please pass on by – I’ll only be deleting your account & refunding your outstanding membership fees after a few posts anyway.

The difference in the 2^nd version is that it legitimately excludes a portion of the population who may be looking at your site.  It then offers reasons why those people are being excluded.  Anybody who’s not in the groups described will feel better about being a part of the community, and be more likely to join when they get to the registration page.

Let me know what you think…

Shawn is  one of my secret weapons when it comes to business. I’ve tapped his brain to super-charge pieces of copywriting, to brainstorm tactics for a number of businesses, and to help shape overarching strategic goals. Shawn has agreed to work with me on MembershipBlackBox.com and for that I’m grateful. He has finally started writing a blog at NoBSstrategy.com which I highly suggest you check out  & bookmark now.

Enter Shawn Veltman…

Hi all,

As most of you probably know, Noah is getting ready to launch MembershipBlackBox.com,  a pretty exciting new product aimed at developing super high-quality membership sites from start to finish.  He’s too modest to say so on here, but this course is going to be incredible – Noah really, really knows his material when it comes to creating membership sites that people just don’t want to leave.

One of the secrets to doing that, as Noah has illustrated so well about in his Mixergy interview (among others), is in creating your site in a way that lets you take advantage of your individual strengths, interests, and idiosyncrasies.  Or, to put it in his terms, really embracing the importance of character and community in addition to content.

One of the things that we really dive into in the Membership Black Box is the idea of identifying your audience (or tribe, or speck).  I want to riff on that idea a bit here and extend it by sharing a tactic that is extremely powerful in helping your audience find you.

Identify the Chaff

We’re all familiar with the idiom that you need to separate the wheat from the chaff, right?  Well, when it comes to setting up your membership site, you need to identify what both look like.  What does your ideal member look like?  What’s their experience with your speck been to this point?  How are they going to benefit from being part of your online community centered around that speck?  What kind of community architecture will they feel most comfortable with?

These are all questions that Noah and I are going to go over in great detail in the Membership Black Box, and it’s easy to see why – identifying these things makes it much easier to determine what kind of content you create for your site, but also how to distribute it, how to market it, and how to build your community.

The flip side of the coin is valuable too, though.  In some cases, it might be even more useful.  And that flip side is identifying who you DON’T want.  Who is antithetical to your site’s values, vision, or community?  Who will disrupt the community that you’ve set up, or bristle against the character that you inject into the site?

This isn’t simply a matter of identifying “good guys” and “bad guys.”  Instead, it’s about figuring out early on who won’t benefit from what you’re building, and helping steer them away from your offerings.

There are obvious advantages to utilizing your separation criteria in your marketing.  First, it helps establish a sense of community before they even get to your registration page – if they see who is NOT suitable as a member, and they know that they don’t fit that description, then they’ve automatically self-selected as good fits.  In other words, they’ve already engaged with you, agreed with you, and will be much more likely to fit in well with the community you’ve built or are trying to build.  They’ve done this by essentially saying to themselves “I don’t fit the description of people who shouldn’t join – in fact, I can’t stand people like that.  If they’re not allowed in, this should be a great fit!”

Now, you have to do this with caution – there are some traps that are easy to fall into when using this strategy, but it is undoubtedly powerful.

Tomorrow, we’ll look at the wrong way and the right way to put this to use.

Shawn

Sometimes we struggle. We could waiver and tinker and edit forever, and we’d never actually be able to hit the launch or publish button. Projects would be sidelined, scrapped, and given up on. It’s the single biggest trap for entrepreneurs to fall into – the endless pursuit of perfection.

Reading the Steve Job’s autobiography, it becomes quickly apparent that “good enough” was never an option for Steve. Steve was only interested in perfect. Even the internal components of a computer that most people would never see were meticulously refined over and over. You might even say that Steve was a little crazy when you read that out of 800 shades of beige, he couldn’t find the perfect one, so he had them develop an 801st shade.

The question we have to ask is, Do we have the determination, willingness and persistence to push beyond what’s “good enough” and still get our product, service, book, or blog post, etc. out the door?

To make a dent in the universe, it seems that “good enough” might not be good enough.

Here’s to the crazy ones.

P.S. The “Here’s to the crazy ones” commercial above is usually heard with Richard Dreyfuss as the narrator. Steve had done a few takes but they originally went with the Dreyfuss version. It seems now, this one with Steve narrating is more appropriate.

I’m guessing you’ve ended up here today as a result of the Mixergy Master Class on improving Membership Site Retention I recently did with Andrew Warner.

If you enjoyed the class and want to learn more about creating online membership communities with rock-solid retention, then here are a few suggested next steps:

• Check out my posts on The Speck - I truly believe that anyone can find, cultivate & retain a “speck.” An online community with bullet-proof member retention is one of the, if not the, best online business models in the world.
• Subscribe to this blog via RSS, or drop your email in the box on the right below my photo.
• Definitely check out MembershipBlackBox.com – This is a new membership training program I’m working on that should be ready within the month.
• Visit this page if you already own or operate an online membership and are looking to decrease your attrition and increase your membership retention rates.
• Join me in New York City on Sunday, October 23, 2011, where I’ll be speaking and taking part in this session on member retention with Stu McLaren of WishList Member.
• Drop me an email regarding anything else, and let me know what you thought of the class.

Thanks for stopping by.

Noah

My wife is new to the whole blog world. Her and her sister have their favorite blogs. They enjoy getting together to talk about all the updates and going-ons in so-and-so’s life. This past weekend, I overheard them talking about their all-time favorite blog and how the blogger hadn’t made a peep for months! They were both fed up and had moved on.

It made me think of my own blog, and I thought that I should touch base.

No excuses here except that over the past 5 months I’ve been busy…. very busy.

Before I move on to The 6-month Rule, here’s brief bullet-point update of what I’ve been up to.

• Baby… Avalon is nearly 8-months old. I wouldn’t give up anything for the time I’ve been fortunate enough to be at home, and watch her grow over the past 8 months.
• I’ve been taking on a few new local business clients and handling their marketing systems.
• Met with Stu McLaren & Tracy Childers of Wishlist Member and Wishlist Insider - working on a top-secret venture with those guys. More on that later…
• In the process of building a local Windsor/Essex Business Mastermind Network.
• Concurrently working on a couple of new information products and membership sites.

There’s more, but that’s a start. Not nearly enough time to go out fishing over the past few months but all is well.

Here’s my 6-month self-employment rule.

A budding entrepreneur recently asked me when it was OK to leave his day job to work on his entrepreneurial ventures full-time. For me, I left my corporate-world marketing job in 2005 and haven’t looked back once. The 6-month rule is simple. You work on your venture, your passion, and your side-business at night or whenever you’ve got free time. When you are able to earn at least the same or more income (i.e. A bigger paycheck!) for a minimum of six months from your venture, you’re probably safe to make the jump.

Be strict. Feeding your spouse & children should always come first.

What have you been up to?

P.S. Here’s a picture of Avalon. She’ll be 8 months old in a few days. Scroll down, and look at the picture below taken at 3.5 months.

Here’s my take on it. I think the phrase is silly and really overused.

I mean really, when do things ever go as planned? Of course, they tell us to expect the unexpected and when the unexpected happens, we’re still in shock and disbelief!

How could this have happened?

We didn’t know our competitor was going to do that!

I think the unexpected happens nearly all the time. It’s not to throw in an element of surprise or derail our plans, but to teach us and help us grow. It’s one of the planets greatest and most mysterious teaching tools.

I prefer to expect the expected.

When the unexpected happens, instead of pulling your hair out, or making excuses as to why you were surprised when the (un)expected happened, even though you told everyone at the board meeting to be ready for it, you can choose to proceed in a proactive manner.

When the (un)expected happens, success comes from those who aren’t just ready for it, but those who move in a positive manner to deal with it when it happens.

Hugh want’s you to know that while you may be pouring your heart and soul into your art, or your business, or your passion; nobody cares.

Why would anybody care about all the great things you’re doing?

Human beings are generally considered to be self-interested creatures. Everyone’s living their own busy lives to really care about what you’re up to.

But there’s another important reason as to why most people don’t care.

They don’t care because it’s hard for people to watch someone breaking the rules. It makes people cringe.

It’s hard to fathom someone doing something not considered “safe.”

It’s hard for people to accept your ideas as anything more than silly pipe dreams.

But why?

It’s because there is so much pent up fear.

Fear you might break free.

Fear you might change the rules.

Fear you might succeed.

Fear you might find your way out of the waiting place.

Someday, everyone may be paying attention. They might start paying attention, but they still won’t care.

The good news is this: You’re a self-interested creature too.

Do whatever it is you’re doing for yourself. Get used to nobody caring and carry on.

The phone rings and, within first 10 seconds, you know it’s a business call. They don’t care about you, they care about the sale.

A real estate agent tells you about a house the same way he writes the ad for the newspaper - 2 bedroom, 2 bath, new fireplace, granite countertops, fenced yard.

He’s just going through the motions; hammer the sign into the lawn, write the ad, open house on Sunday.

A car salesman walks, talks, acts like the stereotypical car salesman. He’s always got to “present” your offer to the manager. You think you’re negotiating a major deal – he’s laughing at you in the next room.

Did you really believe you saved three grand on that new SUV because of your super negotiating skills?

You walk into the furniture shop, and you’re swarmed by commission-ready vampires.

You think they care if you buy the flower print ottoman? Do you really believe that it’s actually on sale – and he’s “willing” to do even better on the price?

It’s all business.

We knew it all along, but we chose to accept it. We have stereotyped these people because we believed there was nothing else we could do about it. Therefore, we cope by making light of the situation.

All of a sudden, these tools exist, and we choose not to accept it anymore. All of a sudden, we’ve lost our sense of humour.

Lie to us and we tell our 400 friends on Facebook. Please understand that 400 friends on Facebook can snowball into thousands of people in seconds.

Provide horrible service at your restaurant, and instantly we can Tweet to 2500 people about it.

Tell us the house is a great deal, even though you know it isn’t, by hiding the fact that it needs 20k in repairs. People will retaliate by starting a blog exposing the lies.

Here’s the flip-side. Actually, I’d be willing to say rather than this being the flip-side, this is the only side that matters, going forward.

Be real.

Be honest and truthful with us and we’ll tell our 400 friends on Facebook. Please understand that 400 friends on Facebook can snowball into thousands of people in seconds.

Provide amazing service at your restaurant, and instantly we can Tweet 2500 people about it.

Tell us honestly that you believe a house is a great deal, but warn us it’s going to need 20k in repairs, and we’ll start a blog to share our great experience.

Get it?

I write this blog, I consult with businesses, and  I help them make more money. I show businesses how to use the internet to grow their business and make more money. I do a little of this and a bit of that.

However, I’m not sure I’ve found the “thing” yet.

You know the “thing” right? The “thing” that wakes you up every morning with a burning desire to go out there and get-em. You’ve got it right?

If you go to bed Sunday night and simply can’t wait for the five days ahead, then you’ve found your “thing.”

I was never able to say in my earlier years, “this is what I want to do when I grow up.”

Here I am all grown up, and I still can’t say exactly what that is.

Guidance counselors, teachers, and peers used to make me feel like this was inadequate. After all, most people had it all figured out. They would go off and become teachers, police officer, accountants, advertisers, bankers, restaurant managers etc…

I remember being told that eventually you just had to “decide and pick something.”

I’ve never been able to “just decide and pick” my life, and it used to scare the pants off me.

The nice thing is that I’m not bothered by it anymore.

It used to scare me that I couldn’t just decide.

It used to scare me how easily I could jump between hobbies and try new things.

It used to scare me how I could so easily attempt new business ventures by moving from one extreme to another.

But it doesn’t scare me anymore. It excites me now.

It excites me because I’ve learned that I don’t need to be looking for the “thing.”

What excites me about it isn’t that I can’t settle down,  I’m excited because there is something not allowing me to settle down.

Am I looking for a “thing” or is some-”thing” looking for me?

Either way, in my mind, it’s way more exciting than the alternative.