“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta
Online courses have been around for quite some time and are an amazing way to deliver and acquire knowledge. With the ever-growing online learning space, courses have become a go-to destination for anybody thinking of learning something new, or wanting to offer an expertise for others to learn from.
In recent years memberships came on the scene. With all the benefits memberships offer, they are a very attractive solution to replace and/or supplement online courses. And, with the option to combine online courses and memberships together, whoa!
Let’s take a look at the structure for both.
Online courses
- They have a curriculum with a beginning and an end
- They are usually broken down in modules, and lessons within each module
- Lessons can be “dripped,” meaning they can be released based on time which allows people to consume the material before they move on to subsequent modules and/or lessons
- They have a fixed price and usually offer unlimited access to the course once the buyer has purchased
- For the seller, they offer a one-time income
Memberships
- They are a subscription-based business model, offering recurring income to the owner
- They offer the possibility of multiple subscription options, aka monthly, annual, free trials, etc.
- Content is added to the membership on a regular basis, allowing members to learn and make progress on a on-going basis
- The learning journey is broken down in stages or Landmarks to give an opportunity for members to see where they’re currently at, and measure their progress
- They give an opportunity to develop a community with its own culture, which is a big advantage for both membership site owners and members
How can online courses be integrated within a membership?
Well, there’s definitely a few ways it can be done. Which is best depends largely on how you want to position your membership. Let’s take a look.
- Let’s say you want to create a membership. However, given the material that you will deliver, it makes sense that everyone enrolling in your membership first needs some sort of foundational knowledge, like a 101 understanding of the content. In this case, instead of offering a stand-alone course and a membership for sale separately, you could have your course be part of your membership - embedded within. All of your members would start with the foundational course and then move forward with your monthly content. The advantage is that you only have to make that sale once, and with it comes recurring revenue. This setup delivers great value to your membership and makes the process seamless for you and your members, it is a win-win.
- A second option is to deliver your monthly content within a membership and supplement or add to the experience with occasional deeper learning materials delivered via a course. It could be a deeper dive type of course, delivered live, pre-recorded, or written. In this scenario, you would offer those deep dive courses periodically throughout the year as part of your membership, and/or they could even be made available for purchase to non-members as well - giving them an opportunity to discover your expertise, get a taste of who you are and the quality of your content. It is a great opportunity to invite them to join your membership.
- Another option would be to offer a buffet of online courses as part of your membership. Even though all of your courses could be sold individually, by packaging them within a membership it gives you the opportunity to deliver more value to your members as they do not need to decide which course or courses they need to purchase a la carte, but instead can access them all on an as-needed basis. It allows you to build a community around your membership and generate recurring income.
These are just a few examples of how online courses can be integrated within memberships. If you’re also wondering how you can build (or start) your membership site with online course integration, two of our GJ Membership Site Templates, Jersey-Grove and Pacific, come with courses built-in. Additionally, all of our GJ Templates are pre-configured with course capability, which allow you to add courses to them with just a few clicks.
Did we also mention that our GJ Membership site templates are yours to own? We want the recurring money to be flowing in, not out.