James: James Schramko here chatting with my friend John Lint from 10XPRO. Hey, John.
John: Hey! Hello, everybody.
James: So we’ve been making a few videos about topics that come up. And in my travels, speaking with people with membership sites, and with you having a membership site platform that people are building on, we get this one a lot where people are trying to figure out how they can secure and ration out their content to their members, and a very cautious conservative approach. And I just want to talk to you about the balance between usability and attracting members and making it easy for them to use the course that they purchased because I do see this as being an issue sometimes.
John: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we were talking about this just before recording and I get this question sometimes from members where it’s a bit of a paranoia, it’s a bit of a lack of understanding how the online world works, how computer works and how information is shared and consumed online, right? But people are like, how can I protect all my content? I created those videos, I have created that course. And well, how can I make sure that they can only download it like now but in 10 minutes it’s going to expire. And then they go into all these crazy things, which in theory, technically, can someone do it? Yeah, but is it worth it?
Absolutely not. You know, whenever someone asks me that, first of all I know that he’s probably someone who’s not very experienced online. They haven’t been doing this like us for more than 10 years. And I just say, you know, like, you can try to waste all your time protecting things, overthinking things, and you try to secure things but at the end of the day, if someone wants to take your stuff and share it, they can…
James: That’s the thing. They can take it.
John: They can take it. There are so many different ways to take it. Either download it, finding it in the source code, I’m going to start talking a bit tech here, but just as simple as recording my screen with a screen recording software and recording the audio…
James: Like the people who go to the cinema with a phone, an iPhone…
John: Exactly.
James: And they stick it on a tripod and then record the movie and then upload it, right? Like, look, we’ve seen technology like iTunes, you can rent a movie on iTunes and then it disappears off your computer a few days later after you’ve watched it. Great technology. Is that movie still available all over the internet? Yes. You know, you can’t stop your content from getting taken and shared. Like there’s browser plugins that will just pull a video out of whatever you embed it with.
So the rule of thumb is this, the harder you make it for people to access your content, the more your support demand is going to skyrocket. So if you want to have a great user experience for your actual paying customers, make it frictionless, make it easy for them to consume your information. That’s why I put less hoops for people to jump through on my own website. They’re not getting smacked in the face with popovers and they don’t have to opt in 17 times for stuff.
Let people have things. People can go and download a workbook from my book for free without an opt-in. So, you know, when people are in my membership, they actually get every video, every audio, every transcription from the minute they order. And you know, when I’m talking to people, they say, Oh my god, people are going to just join, and then they’re going to download everything, and then they’re going to cancel. Maybe that’s human nature. But I’ll tell you what, probably more people sign up even if they’re thinking that.
As John Carlton, my copywriting friend said, let them feel like they’re ripping you off. But here’s the thing they come in for the content, maybe. But the next thing you know, I start solving their problems with coaching. And they’re actually getting value, and then they get to meet a few other members. And now they’re part of the community and actually miss that if they leave. So be generous. Make your content usable, remove the barriers.
Look, I used to do it, I used to put an IP stamp on the PDF when people download it. I even had one got shared everywhere and I approached the guy whose IP address and name and email was in the document that was shared everywhere online and I said, Hey, buddy, what happened? And he was, Oh, that wasn’t me. One of my techs stole my password. I think one of his associates took it. Like, basically, the excuses come and there’s very little you can do about it across borders and everything else, even if you know who stole it from you.
So if you have a product, or if you have a membership site, make it easy for people to use. The actual paying customers, remove frictions, remove barriers, remove obstacles, be generous, give them far more than they expect. And you might be surprised. It’s a great business model.
John, anything more to add to that?
John: Yeah, and you need to look at it as a business. It’s part of doing business. You know, we all have business costs. The reality is that, yeah, it will happen. Someone will buy your product, they’re going to log in, they’re going to download everything and two hours later, they’re going to ask for either their money back or a refund or something like that. It’s part of doing business. That’s how it is. There are people who are complete losers out there that do that, unfortunately, like I said. But the vast majority of your clients are decent people, respectable people that will do the right thing. And our job is to focus on those guys and let the losers go away, out away, here’s your money back, bye-bye, never buy my product again, I don’t care about you, never come back, fine. They did their little thing but we focus on our customers making sure that they have a great experience like you said. They’re going to come for the content, they will stay because of you, your expertise, your coaching and how you’re helping them.
James: Bottom line, instead of focusing all your energy on making it difficult for the bad customers, focus your energy on making it amazing for your awesome customers.
I’m James Schramko, SuperFastBusiness.com. That’s John Lint there from 10XPRO.io
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