How to build your own membership website in 2016.

You know you need the website. But how exactly do you execute on that idea?

You just don’t have time to properly research, then make the decision where to start. Then start.

You should learn from my mistakes.

Learn lessons I’ve picked up first-hand experience, aka the hard way where scars are part of the experience.

Over my close to a decade languishing in online business purgatory. Barely subsisting week-to-week, for years.

Get ahead of the game

No less a smart marketing cookie, than Brian Clark, has repeatedly implored you to build a membership website.  Seems others in sharing their view of the subject.

Brian and his team even went so far as to built the simplest way to build your membership website. There is no longer any need to cobble together disparate pieces into your time suck of an online marketing platform.

So you know you need to build a membership site and employ content marketing to start building your audience first.

What is your best, first step, to start successfully?

Rainmaker.

I walked step-by-step through today’s second best option in a previous piece of content (Published 04/19/2014).

Before you buy Rainmaker Platform:

Sketch out your plan and write down your singular goal for this website. It should be revenue. Maybe not immediately, but certainly thats exactly where this train is headed.

You’re FAR better served building the audience first. It’s what I’ve finally forced myself to do, even as every fiber of my being as a long-time marketer is to craft solutions, then sell access.

Remember, you can always course correct, but you must choose your course for abandoning shore.

The best way I’ve found is to work on creating attraction content to grow your audience.

Organize your audience on your turf, where you control the experience, even though you’re currently a one-woman show.

Below is a mind map of a simple plan.

A simple plan with a single, extremely important business goal. Grow and serve a passionate community via a logged in experience.

You create attraction content and attach a singular call-to-action. Blog posts or podcast episodes offer a singular CTA, which is linked to the sales landing page you created to “sell” your free membership.

The best part of using Rainmaker Marketing Platform to power your business online?

Most, if not all, of the pieces to the mind map above, are ready as soon as you flip the switch on your 14-day free trial.

Your card will be charged once you decide to attach your domain name to your website powered by the Rainmaker Marketing Platform.

Start your trial today, then publish your site to a live domain later today or tomorrow

You’ll be ready to launch your site to a live domain, your choice of domain name, well before 14 days.

1. Rainmaker Marketing Platform – Admin Login

   Once you’ve started your trial, head over to your Rainmaker installation and log in.

   

2. You’ll need to choose a design template

   And stick with it.

   There are lots of themes available today with even more on the horizon.

   There’s even loads of quality designers and developers who work with the basics of Rainmaker Marketing Platform, which is to say the Genesis Framework by the StudioPress team.

   Click the Design button in the left-hand navigation column. Then Themes –> Click the View All link

   Hover over any theme for the Live Preview button

   

   Activate your choice of theme

3. Universal Settings Tab-by-tab

   Begin by traipsing tab-by-tab through the Universal Settings.

   These settings will be largely left alone, once set.

   So pay attention to the settings as you set them to prevent having to waste time later, time you’d much rather spend creating content.

   

4. Customize using the Live Appearance Editor.

   Start at the top and work your way to the bottom, you can return to modify but you’re best course is primarily one of set and forget for these settings.

   Focus on your business.

   

5. Create your free course

   This begins as a single page. Teach something useful to your customer. You’ve attracted her attention, she took you up on your invitation to connect using your platform, on your domain.