What is Digital Engagement?

So what is a nurturing pathway?  I define a Nurturing Pathway as the journey you are guiding someone through to help nurture them around your vision.  When you think of nurturing, you think of caring and stewarding someone as they become a better person.  You think of a mother with a newborn.  You think of a father caring for a child who was hurt.  You think of a teacher training and equipping their students.  

In a digital environment, a Nurturing Pathway is similar in its feel but different in how it’s executed.  You are looking for ways that you are guiding people to their next step and helping to see them grow.  A Nurturing Pathway is an internal strategy to meet people where they are and help guide them to what’s next.  

I have unpacked the concept of a Member Pathway in other areas… this is different.  A Member Pathway is how you are guiding someone through the stages of becoming a member and the various membership maturity stages.  A Nurturing Pathway sits right on top of the Member Pathway but this specifically looks at how you are caring for them at each stage… or nurturing them.  Another way to look at this is a Member Pathway is how you are moving someone to deeper engagement and through your various tiers.  A Nurturing Pathway is about the development of the person and who they are becoming.  

Let’s spend some time unpacking what this looks like.

• Think Coffee Shop - I believe one of the best ways to get your mind around what true nurturing looks like is to put yourself at a coffee shop across the table from a person at this stage and think about what you would talk about with them.  Map that out and then explore how to leverage technology to help bring that to life.  

• Drip Campaigns - You are going to have key triggers of activity that can launch specific communication series.  Drip campaigns are excellent ways to nurture someone who has just made a decision.  Remember that every decision has some level of doubt in it so you’re working to help remove someone’s doubt while helping them know exactly what comes next. 

• Picture of Success - Build a picture of success… not about your success but their success.  This is a time to paint a picture of exactly what you hope success looks like in their life and on their journey.  This helps you build a baseline and goal as you consider how you are nurturing this person.  

• Put Yourself in Their Shoes - Take time to put yourself in their shoes and think about how you would want to be nurtured, guided, spoken to, resourced, and encouraged.  Think about frequency, tone, collateral, personalization, and quality.  You’re not doing something to someone… you’re doing something for them.  

You don’t have to spend a ton of time building your Nurturing Pathway, but it’s still very important… especially to help frame our strategies around the betterment of our people.  Take time to map out with your team a simple Nurturing Pathway and continue to build on it.  

Cause Machine Solutions

Cause Machine is designed to help guide people to greater engagement within a private community.  The platform helps you implement your Nurturing Pathway and helps automate a number of ways for people to be cared for well in a community.  Schedule a demo today!

If you’ve been blogging for any real length of time, you know there’s a bunch of bad ideas out there for how to make money from blogging. You know the ones. It’s the same folks who’ll tell you it’s quick and easy to blog and make a fortune. 

Well, there’s another ditch to run face-first into as well: the it’s-too-tough-to-make money from blogging. Here’s the deal: not long ago, it used to be super difficult to make any money from blogging. Remember all of the disjointed tools? Then there was the cost of all of those disjointed tools. And, you pretty much needed an advanced degree to actually use the expensive, disjointed tools.

Nowadays, many folks make money from blogging. And, honestly, lots of people don’t. How much money can you make from blogging? Answer: it depends. I’ve heard stories of bloggers who report making millions of dollars per year—or better yet—while they sleep. While other bloggers make, actually almost 90 percent of bloggers, make an average of less than $10,000 per year. 

I have no idea where you are on this scale or where you want to be. But, you’re here, which means you’ve probably been blogging for a while and figure it’s time to go pro. Another guess is you have a decent amount of page views. But, you also get that a lot of barriers exist - you’re crunched for time, you don’t have a ton of money to throw at this whole thing, and you probably don’t have the technical expertise that’s necessary for running all of the different systems it takes to be even a little bit successful (see my rant above about disjointed tools). 

Anyway, you’re here. You’re looking for help. You understand the challenge is not can you monetize, but how? Maybe you already know some folks who are making money blogging. So you aren’t questioning that. But, you have no idea where to start related to how to monetize a blog. Which approach is right for you? When should you start said approach—right this second or wait until you have one billion followers? And, let’s say you start within the hour and you make a few bucks. What now? At what point will you know if this whole thing is actually working?

There are a bunch of methods you could use to monetize a blog. I’m not pretending this post is exhaustive by any measure. But, my hope is the following list will either remind you to try one of these ways—or—jumpstart your thinking and try one or more of them out for your blog. 

Here are seven (7) real-life ideas for how to monetize a blog that actually work:

1. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is the process of earning a commission by promoting other people’s (or company’s) products. There are many different affiliate marketing networks to use. One of the biggest affiliate marketing networks Amazon. Point is: you find a product you like, promote it to others, and earn a small percentage of the profit for each sale you make.

2. Advertising

This can happen a lot of ways. One great way is selling advertising to businesses because your blog has a good number of page views.

3. Selling digital products 

Selling digital products on your blog might mean selling anything from eBooks as short as a few pages. As long as it’s helpful, there’s often a market for quick and helpful eBooks. But, it’s not limited to this. You can also sell any resource that’s helpful to your audience. It could be any content you can put into a PDF. Write it down and sell it!

4. Selling courses

Depending on your audience and the content you create, you should consider creating courses to walk your followers through step-by-step on how to do something or get better at something else. You might not think you are online course material but you might be surprised. We often ask people what they find themselves explaining to others all of the time. There you have it! That's your course.

5. Selling Services

Consider what questions your readers are asking you all of the time. Can you package some consulting services and sell them? What about your teaching or facilitation? What if you trained others in how to do something in person or online? One of our clients offers services to onboard new clients and has packaged these services to be simple, understandable, and yes, even desirable.

6. Sponsorships

This idea is not often thought about. But, consider selling sponsorship placement on your blog. This could mean selling sponsors on any of the above mentioned ideas or on certain pages of your blog. As long as the brand or sponsor fits yours and they want your audience to see their business, you have an opportunity to sell sponsorships. That actually is you “making money while you sleep”! : )

7. Membership

I’m not going to lie. This isn’t easy. But, if you have the traffic and you’ve written lots of content, then it might just be time to consider creating a space and content that your readers have to pay to access by membership. We've seen many learn to how to take their communities digital and grow their memberships or tribes launch a membership program - both with great success. One community has built a community of tens of thousands of individuals which turned in to over 800 groups around the world. This is when membership has some real teeth.

Now that you have seven ideas you’ve either been reminded of or thinking about for the first time. What now? How in the world will you decide which one to do? And when? Well, I mentioned that I’m here to help!

So, here are three questions you can ask yourself right now to help you pick the right method for you:

1. Which monetization method is reasonable to achieve today (and not sometime out in the future)?

2. Which method gets you the most excited?

3. Do people trust you as a guide?

Now, here’s the biggest secret: Don’t overcomplicate things.Your natural tendency, because this is your passion—will be to overthink it. Don’t! At this stage, it’s way more important to just get started. Just start. Pick one of these ideas and run. You’ll figure it out on the way. I’ll be right here to help as you learn. Remember, to try and fail is to learn. Try some one idea. Even if you only make a few dollars, that’s better than nothing. You never know what might happen after that. Who knows, one of these ideas might actually work in your real life.

Need more help monetizing your community?

You want to have a significant impact on the world AND generate revenue. In order to do that you need valuable resources and a means to deliver those great resources. Download the free eBook: 5 ways to monetize your community.

About the author: Will Rogers is the Founder and CEO of CauseMachine. Will’s career has been spent leading organizations and helping to mobilize communities to shared vision. He has served in various leadership roles to build community engagement and movements teaching him valuable hands on skills and experience. Will has developed business and community engagement strategies for dozens of organizations in nearly 50 countries. He and his wife have two sons and now live in Kentucky after two decades in Colorado.

Are you looking to transform your site into a membership site? Guess what? In order to make this happen, you’ll need membership plugins. With membership site plugins, you’ll be able to create a premium content library and make it accessible only to members you want to see it.

Choosing the right membership plugin is a major decision. Why? Well, in many cases, it’s tough to change course once you start down one path. 

If you’re looking to monetize your blog readers, sell more digital courses, or generate a list of engaged contacts, there are a ton of ways to approach membership within your website. 

I want to help you navigate the membership plugin world properly. What follows is a few key thoughts that will help you think through the proper steps for picking a membership plugin that fits your needs.

First, ask yourself a few questions.

Start by asking yourself if you’re ready to build a membership site, how do you know when you and your audience is ready?

• Is your audience asking for it?

• Do you have a solid quantity of google-ranked content and offerings?

• Would membership offer your followers something they don’t already have?

• Do you have a tribe following?

• What all are you planning to offer your members?

These are just a few of the questions you should be asking yourself to get you started. Did you answer "yes" to some of these questions? It may be time to move on to our second step. 

Second, evaluate your tools.

You’ll need several tools within your membership site. Again, this list isn't meant to be exhaustive but will get you to think about what you should consider. Evaluate the tools you have and the tools you think you will need based on your goals. You may need tools such as:

• Individual memberships and business memberships

• Content management with access per membership tier or level

• Content management type features for member data 

• Integrations with other tools through things like Zapier or MailChimp

• Does it incorporate other community management tools like courses, an online store, stories, events, and so on?

Third, dive into the various plugins.

There are so many plugins available, here are a few to get you started down the right path:

MemberPress : MemberPress comes with many of the features you’ll need to create a powerful membership site. Just install the plugin on your site, enter your payment information, setup what you’re selling, and start promoting your membership site. The plugin integrates well with several services, like MailChimp, PayPal, Stripe, and so on.

aMember Pro: aMember is another plugin that’s been around for years. Now, aMember Pro is not a native WordPress plugin. But, you can integrate it with WordPress. It has the features you might expect from a plugin. It comes with unlimited levels and integrates with many payment systems like PayPal, Stripe, and so on. 

LearnDash: LearnDash was built for creating and selling online courses on your WordPress sites. Check LearnDash out if you’re interested in allowing your followers to access new courses based on the points they have upon completion of certain courses. As you can imagine, this option helps keep followers engaged as well. 

Teachable: Teachable is an all-in-one platform for creating and publishing online courses. You can pick between integrating your online courses into your existing website or host them on Teachable. This is pretty handy. Teachable has lots of learning tools (think quizzes and forums), integrations (think Google Drive and others), and marketing tools (think coupon codes, affiliate programs, and so on) you will find helpful. 

s2Member: S2Member gives you access to one of the most comprehensive membership plugins out there. It includes helpful things like content dripping and one-step registration and checkout. It works well with Stripe, PayPal, and others.

WooCommerce Memberships: WooCommerce Memberships is an add on if you already use WooCommerce. If you’re selling digital products on your website and want to sell memberships as well, you may want to give WooCommerce Memberships a try.

Restrict Content Pro: Restrict Content Pro is a plugin that lets you create a fully-featured membership site. It bundles features you need for your membership site as add-ons. It has integrations like Stripe and PayPal. Like many of the plugins, there’s a free version that gets you started. 

Paid Membership Pro: Paid Membership Pro is one of the best plugins for offering special product prices to certain members. It’s basically like your customers having Amazon-Prime-like experience. It’s worth looking into. You can manage member subscriptions, give posts and pages access, and much more. Set up is super easy.

This is just a few options for membership plugin site options. Check them out and play around checking for differences in each one. You may find your best solution only after you've learned something about several plugins. 

Fourth, launch well.

Once you’ve done your research and made a selection, then it’s time to launch. Scary, huh?! Nah, don't be afraid. Here’s what you can do to make things more simple. Start with a beta team of honest, close friends. Well, they don't have to be close friends. But, they need to be super honest. You'll need 10-20 people to help test things out and give you feedback. You want super honest people who won’t just be nice and say, “Oh, that’s great. I love that.” You need folks who will tell you, “Hey, I’ve seen this on another site I’m apart of, I think you should add this feature or integration.” You get the idea. 

When you make your official launch, think of it as a multi-month campaign with a number of steps and touchpoints. Your launch should include web and landing page with a compelling offer, blog posts, emails, and many social media posts to get the word out there. The more touchpoints for your new launch the better it will stick with people.

Fifth, have fun!

Don’t forget to have fun along the way. Enjoy learning more from your audience and meeting more of their needs. Remember, you are on a journey, this doesn't happen overnight. But, you can improve a little every day! 

Need more help taking your community digital?

You want to have a dynamic and multi-dimensional community which thrives. In order to do that, you need a strategy of both online and offline engagement. This guide will help you think through your approach to engaging a virtual community. Download the free eBook: How to Take Your Community Digital.

About the author: Will Rogers is the Founder and CEO of CauseMachine. Will’s career has been spent leading organizations and helping to mobilize communities to shared vision. He has served in various leadership roles to build community engagement and movements teaching him valuable hands-on skills and experience. Will has developed business and community engagement strategies for dozens of organizations in nearly 50 countries. He and his wife have two sons and now live in Kentucky after two decades in Colorado.

Maybe you’ve heard about the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to launching membership sites. I want to talk about the things people forget about when it comes to launching a membership site. 

In many cases, we skip right through all of the work that goes into launching a membership site. These are the things folks often forget. The things that make membership sites successful. Hear that? I said “successful”. I didn’t say easy. Doing all of these things won’t be easy. But, doing them will set you up for success. 

Here are 10 things people forget about launching a membership site:

#1 Forgetting to have a plan.

Most people I talk with about membership sites start at the wrong place. They buy domains and spend all kinds of money. Listen, don’t start working on building out your site. If you are doing that now—stop! 

Where should you start? Whatever type of community leader you're looking to be online, start with pen and paper and design your plan. You must start with a plan before you make too many other steps. What should be part of your plan? I’m glad you asked. In creating a plan for your membership site, think through and list out your goals, your audience—who you’ll want to attract to your site, revenue structure, messaging, onboarding, and so on.

#2 Forgetting to clarify membership offerings.

Here’s what I often see: people are in love with what they do. Great, it’s your passion. I appreciate that. But, we often get too cute. Don’t make things too cute. People won’t understand.

For example, title your membership tiers as something people would identify themselves and not something that you understand for backend office terminology. I see this way too much. Err on the side of descriptive when you can’t decide. Be LESS creative if you need to! 

Also, be sure, somewhere on your site, show a list of everything they get for that membership tier. Use a bulleted list if you have to. But, be clear and take time to clarify your offer to followers. 

#3 Forgetting to welcome followers well.

Once you have a customer, it’s easy to think you’re done. But, you can’t think this way. Getting a customer is just the start! Seriously, just go ahead and assume buyers' remorse and your great effort to combat that remorse. 

Want to know a few things worth remembering once someone becomes a paying customer? Welcome the new customer quickly to say thanks for joining. You’d be amazed at how often communication stops for customers. Show your new customer right away the value and the next steps they should take. Try and focus on two or three key next steps. Don’t overcomplicate this process. Make it as simple as possible for your buyer. Remember, they are new and they don’t know their way around yet. It’s your job to teach them and order their steps so they get the most from your site. This is a great way to get more followers on your site.

#4 Forgetting to explain the value of the membership. 

Here’s what I mean by this: tell folks what they get when they sign up! Create a list to show people the value of your membership. Spell everything out! Make a dedicated page to explain the value of membership. Too many details are a good thing here. 

Protip: add member testimonials. Make them short and sweet. But, show them on your site! This step is one many people often forget. You can’t forget it. Do it!

#5 Forgetting to share testimonials from members. 

Now that I mentioned testimonials. This, if remembered, is often done incorrectly. Be sure you capture testimonies from people in your community. I know, that should be standard. You’d be surprised! Here’s what you need to remember: show the testimony with a photo to make it more personal and real. 

Use testimonies both for selling memberships but also for reinforcing the purchase people have made. Recall step three of this list—or have you already forgotten?! 

#6 Forgetting to make it simple. 

I can’t stress this enough. Make the process simple. Direct visitors to the “Join Now” button all over your site and in your navigation. Yes, it’ll feel salesy. But, it’s not. It’s helpful for interested visitors. It's literally how you can make money with your site. They need to know where to go to join. Also, try not to ask too many questions when inviting them in to join. We want this to be a simple process. Protip: Make sure you’ve walked through the process yourself with a different email. Test. Test. Test.  

#7 Forgetting to repeat the offer often.

Make the offer early and often. Make it look consistent through your website and emails. Don’t assume people see or catch the idea the first time around. It’s said you need to see something or hear something seven times before it sinks in. Let that sink in!

#8 Forgetting to offer gifting options.

If your site is done well. Customers will want to give it to others as a gift. Plan for that! Allow people to give membership to your community as a gift. Make sure your members know they can gift it to others. Run promotional campaigns to customers at key times of the year about your gifting options. 

#9 Forgetting to pick the right platform.

The right platform is the one that fits your needs. Choose the online membership management software that can help manage and automate as much of the steps in the post as possible. Consider all the things you want to offer your members when selecting a platform. Make a list. It’s much easier to have it all in one place. For example, member content, courses, events, groups, email automation, you get the idea. Keep the list of your priorities handy. 

#10 Forgetting to launch with a marketing campaign.

Launch a marketing campaign around your membership. Plan to run that campaign more than once, think of doing it seasonally. You’ll be tired of hearing your campaign before others are tired of hearing it—hopefully! Consider what’s new. You’re working on your site all of the time. Get everyone excited about what’s new in your membership offering for your next campaign. 

Bonus: Forgetting to make a checklist. You have to have a checklist. Or, you’ll get lost on the newest, most expensive platform with all of the promises. We have you covered here. Grab your pre-launch checklist. Happy launching!

Need more help taking your community digital?

You want to have a dynamic and multi-dimensional community that thrives. In order to do that, you need a strategy of both online and offline engagement. This guide will help you think through your approach to engaging a virtual community. Download the free eBook: How to Take Your Community Digital.

About the author: Will Rogers is the Founder and CEO of CauseMachine. Will’s career has been spent leading organizations and helping to mobilize communities to a shared vision. He has served in various leadership roles to build community engagement and movements teaching him valuable hands-on skills and experience. Will has developed business and community engagement strategies for dozens of organizations in nearly 50 countries. He and his wife have two sons and now live in Kentucky after two decades in Colorado.

We all see online courses everywhere these days but how difficult is it to build my own? Great question! Here’s my take from years of building courses. It’s not easy. But, it’s easier if you have your steps ordered properly. 

Let’s unpack a process to help you know how to build an online course. Here are twelve (12) steps to building your very own online course.

Step #1: Brainstorm your course idea.

On this first step, try not to overthink it. Simply list out everything you can think of that could go into your course. Now, if you're thinking about a course, my guess is that you know how to get followers to your website and know some strategies for monetizing your site on some level. Think through all of the steps people would need to go through from start to finish and leave happy. Consider the worksheets and other modules people need to understand your course better, understand you care about your resources, and that you want them to reach out to you with any questions. 

Step #2: Determine key categories.

Look back at your brainstorming session to see where there are themes. Give each theme an official title and description. Start writing out what the goal is for each theme area. Ultimately, these ideas will become either your modules or sessions and maybe even future courses.

Step #3: Strive for balance.

Take a look and make sure your content is all balanced across modules. At this stage, you should consider adding an expectation for time and consistency across the modules. This will help you not over-do one topic and under-do another topic. You’re looking for the right blend of helpful material and balance across topics. Remember, you can always come back and address additional details in subsequent courses. 

Step #4: Outline your lesson plans.

Determine your modules or sessions. By modules, I simply mean groupings of session topics. For example, perhaps you would have twelve total sessions. Your course could be the straight twelve or it may benefit your followers to have four modules of three sessions each. 

It’s all how you want to present it. Consider the viewer at this step. Here’s the general rule, if you need to go over ten sessions, you should consider breaking it into modules.

Here are a few tips as you outline your plans: 

Outline your core talking points. Think through examples, models, diagrams, quotes, research, stats, testimonials, case studies, infographics, and any other content items you have available. 

Next, outline your lesson plan. Consider what could fit onto a single page of a keynote presentation. Make it easy on yourself to transfer the work you’ve done in your outline to your actual course presentation by working in whatever software you prefer.  

Step #5: Build your slide deck.

Consider hiring someone to build a branded slide deck template for you or take a look at websites that sell Powerpoint templates. Or, strive to make your presentation super simple (text only) if you’re only using your slide deck as a reference for speaking. 

Be prepared to spend more time on this task if you plan to show your slide deck or if you need to do a voice-over slide deck in your presentation.  

Step #6: Record your teachings.

Choose what type of recording you want to do. You have a few options:

• Direct to Camera: this is you talking directly to the camera. This option is genuine but requires more video equipment, editing, and general talent.

• Voice Over Slide Deck: this is your voice recorded over only the slides being shown.  It’s a simple approach but the user doesn’t get to see you.

• Hybrid Approach: this is you either recording directly to the camera and supplementing the video with slide images OR recording a live bumper at the beginning and end of each session.

Want an extra tip? Begin by recording your sessions however your most comfortable and your tech allows. Don’t overthink things. Just jump in and start recording. As you grow in this area and learn more about what your followers need help with, you can always try new approaches.

Step #7: Edit your videos.

Edit your videos to what you need and what makes you happy. But, remember to keep it simple. The more simple you keep it, the more likely it is to get completed! 

Here are a few things to remember: 

• Check for background noise and audio levels

• Remember audio levels are more important than video quality. Consider tools like iMovie as you’re getting started.

Step #8: Load your videos.

Upload your finished videos on YouTube or Vimeo. In my experience, here’s how you can decide which one to use: 

• YouTube is fine for the world to see. It will have advertisements that don’t necessarily fit your brand or mission.

• Vimeo is great if you want to restrict access - especially if you’re charging for your course.

Step #9: Create worksheets for your viewers.

Consider creating complimentary worksheets for your sessions. This will serve a few purposes. It will give your audience something to work through as they learn. It will also help them see the value they are getting from your course. They will have a resource they can look back to for reference after the course. 

Step #10: Create a welcome campaign.

Want a secret? At this step, always assume buyers' remorse. Don’t hold back on the help here! You’ll want to immediately welcome people to your online course. Consider building an email campaign based on the amount of time your course should take from start to finish. Adjust the number of emails in your campaign based on how much time it might take to complete the course. For example, if your course only takes a couple of hours, you might consider a welcome and, a reminder email a few days later, and a feedback email a month after that. 

Next, consider sending a summary email of what each week’s lesson should be. You’ll want to welcome people as well as keep your resources in their minds. 

Step #11: Launch your course.

You’ve completed a lot of work to get to this stage. Congrats! But, it’s not time to celebrate. Sorry, it’s time to work even more! It’s time to make your official launch. Consider at least a few options from the ideas below: 

• Post to social media channels

• Let friends know about your course by email or text

• Put a banner ad on your website

• Ask others to promote your course

• Consider a few blog posts you could to that are helpful now and point readers to your course.

Step #12: Keep engaging with your audience.

Don’t set up your course and forget it. Live with your audience. Remember to stay engaged with people taking your course. You’ll want to be responsive—quickly respond to questions as they come up. And, post new materials when you have them to keep the conversation going. 

One more thing: Start building your next course!

Okay, maybe you can take one day off. Rest a bit. But, very soon, it’s time to start thinking about your next course. People will start to complete your current course. Guess what? They’ll start looking for another course. It’s never too late to start building your next course. So, complete all of the twelve steps we just covered—then repeat!

Need more help taking your community digital?

You want to have a dynamic and multi-dimensional community that thrives. In order to do that, you need a strategy of both online and offline engagement. This guide will help you think through your approach to engaging a virtual community. Download the free eBook: How to Take Your Community Digital.

About the author: Will Rogers is the Founder and CEO of CauseMachine. Will’s career has been spent leading organizations and helping to mobilize communities to a shared vision. He has served in various leadership roles to build community engagement and movements teaching him valuable hands-on skills and experience. Will has developed business and community engagement strategies for dozens of organizations in nearly 50 countries. He and his wife have two sons and now live in Kentucky after two decades in Colorado.