The Steady Membership Crash Course

Memberships are the most sustainable way for publishers to operate independently and generate reliable revenues. And offering memberships is much easier than you think!

Here we share eight lessons with everything you need to know about memberships – served in friendly, bite-sized morsels. A small overview of upcoming topics can be found at the end of this page.

Our promise to you: By the end of this crash course you will understand exactly what memberships are all about and how you can best use this model for your own project.

1 Why you should be thinking about memberships, too

Memberships change everything. Many publishers have already jumped on the bandwagon: big media entities like The Guardian and de Correspondent for example, but also many small projects like the podcast Wochendämmerung or the blog Eat This. Here are three reasons why you should be thinking about memberships, too.

2 How to tell if you’re ready for memberships

Last step we saw how easy it is to start offering memberships. In this step we ask: Is a membership program right for your project? How can you tell if memberships will work for you? Two things are crucial.

3 How to build a loyal community

This step is for you, if you already publish content, but still need to build your community. It will also be helpful if you want to expand your community or improve your relationships with them. Here’s how it’s done.

4 How much can you earn through memberships?

We often meet publishers who have a large community but still believe their fans won’t be willing to pay for their content. But that is unlikely to be true.

5 Membership benefits – what you can offer

For your community to really support you, you need to give them the opportunity to do so – by letting them know you’re offering memberships! Before you announce your membership program, it’s time to think about whether you have something extra to offer, to encourage your community to support you.

6 Formulate your mission statement

It’s time to think about the publications, magazines or podcasts that you find really convincing. What is it that captivates you and draws you in as a reader or listener? And what can you learn from that?

7 What you can learn from successful Steady publishers

Do you also find it really motivating to hear inspiring stories from people who have achieved what you would like to achieve yourself? There are more than 600 publishers on Steady generating sustainable revenues right now. And many of them have shared their membership experiences with us. It’s time to get inspired!

8 Six membership lessons

Here you’ll find a short summary of the Membership Crash Course, which also makes for a handy step-by-step guide for starting your own membership program with Steady. After all this input, now is a great time to start your own membership program. Are you ready?

Still have questions?