Quick Overview
See how Children’s Book Insider, originally a print newsletter for authors, made the transition to a paid membership site. Our exclusive interview with co-founder Jon Bard features lessons learned about making website content different from newsletter content — and how much of that newsletter archive you should put online at launch. Plus, Bard shares advice for working around login and password problems with a WordPress-based site.
Company Snapshot
Print Newsletter Founded: 1990
Marketing Website Founded: 1995
Membership Website Founded 2009
No. of Employees: 2 (both are founders/owners of the site)
No. of Freelancers: ~5
Business Model: Hybrid (subscriptions, consulting, in-person events)
Paying Members: ~5,000
Free Email Opt-ins: 44,000
Headquarters: Fort Collins, Colo.
Membership Site: http://www.cbiclubhouse.com
Free Site: http://www.write4kids.com
Target Audience
The site has two primary audiences: The traditional newsletter audience was experienced writers and published authors. They still have that audience, but since launching the membership site the focus has shifted to attracting aspiring writers who need advice on how to get started.
The typical subscriber is a woman aged 35+. But the membership site is attracting younger subscribers, as well as more subscribers outside the United States.
Content Model
Subscribers have access to two primary types of content: A premium newsletter and the membership website.
The premium monthly newsletter is 8 pages when printed out, and made available as a printed copy or a downloadable PDF. It contains writing advice, publishing tips, author interviews, and a list of publishers actively seeking manuscripts.
The premium membership website, CBI Clubhouse, features online only content, such as how-to videos and author podcasts. It also features the kind of how-to articles and industry news that typically appear in the print newsletter.
In fact, many website articles are repurposed from past newsletters. Bard didn’t post the newsletter’s entire archives online when launching the site. Instead, he posted a limited number of stories and now uses the archives to help keep the website updated without requiring a ton of additional work.
The team typically posts one new article on the site each week, down from the 3-4 new content pieces they were publishing after launch.
“In our case, less was more,” Bard says. “Our cancellation rate dropped when we backed off.”
Because the site’s goal is to gather new subscribers and hold onto them for years to cross-sell additional services, Bard created special evergreen content for newbies, such as a 20-part online children’s writing course, that keeps new members busy without requiring many updates. Instead, the team can focus on creating a stream of timely, fresh content for more experienced writers.
Revenue Streams
The site generates revenues from its subscriptions and from consulting services offered by co-founder (and Bard’s wife) Laura Backes, a literary agent who specializes in children’s books.
#1. Subscriptions
Subscriptions (which include the membership site and monthly newsletter) are $4.49/month or $42.95/year. Monthly subscriptions are autorenew, but Bard still uses manual renewal for annual subscriptions.
Note: The print newsletter is still available for an additional fee of $2.25 a month or $15.95 a year to cover the costs of printing and shipping. Roughly 10% subscribers request the print edition.
Bard says they keep the subscription rates so low because of the price-sensitive nature of their target audience (no one thinks they’re going to get rich writing children’s books). However, they also wanted to establish the largest possible paid customer base to which they could market ancillary services.
“We launched into the teeth of greatest economic downturn in years and managed to build through that because the subscription price is so reasonable.”
#2. Consulting services
Backes offers consulting services such as manuscript critiques and phone consultations. Rates include:
- $145 to critique a manuscript up to 5 pages of double-spaced type ($1.50 for each additional page)
- $30 per 15 minutes for phone consultations
In addition, Backes and Bard operate a separate company to host in-person writing workshops. They take advantage of their websites, newsletter and email lists to sell tickets to these events.
Marketing Tactics
Transitioning from a newsletter to a membership site required special outreach to existing subscribers. Since then, Bard has turned his attention on attracting new members.
Migrating newsletter subscribers to the membership site
Prior to launching the site, Bard had been migrating print subscribers to become email subscribers who receive the newsletter as a PDF. About 50% had already made the switch when he launched the CBI Insider.
Next, he focused on migrating both sets of subscribers to the membership site.
He started by reaching out to subscribers who were receiving the PDF version of the newsletter and for whom he had email addresses. He created new membership levels that reflected the month that a subscribers’ newsletter subscription was due to expire.
Then, he sent subscribers an email announcing the launch of the website and explaining that the online membership was included with their subscription fee. The email included a hotlink to a registration page for an online membership that expired the same month as their newsletter subscription (those subscriptions were not set to autorenew). He sent two reminder emails over the next month.
To reach print newsletter subscribers for whom they didn’t have email addresses, the team placed advertisements in the first two issues of the Children’s Book Insider in 2009. The ads announced the launch of the site and featured a URL where subscribers could register for their online memberships.
Since then, they’ve promoted the membership site by concluding newsletter articles with mentions of related content that’s available on the website. Those mentions remind subscribers to email customer service if they do not yet have their membership login info.
Handling WordPress-related password problems
Bard says the biggest challenge during the transition was a 3-4 month period of widespread complaints about confusing or lost passwords. The site was built on a WordPress platform that automatically generated a random string of characters for new passwords — and those passwords were generating dozens of emails a day from members who couldn’t log in.
The solution was a plug-in that allows members to click a link and easily type-in their own new password when they’d lost or forgotten their previous one (see Technology and Vendors Used, below).
“Once I did that, the email complaints almost entirely stopped,” he says. “We went from 30 a day to maybe one a day.”
Generating new members
Bard is now focused on driving traffic to the CBI Clubhouse website and converting new members. Here are some of his most successful tactics:
#1. Using a separate site for marketing purposes
Organic search generates a significant portion of traffic to CBIClubhouse.com, thanks to direct links from the Write4Kids website. “Write4Kids has been there since 1995 and has massive juice with Google,” says Bard.
Write4Kids is the top result for phrases such as “writing children’s books” and “how to write children’s books,” and features a direct subscription offer and several links to specific sections of the CBI Clubhouse, where visitors see a paywall and subscription offer.
The team also hosts a blog on the site, and has published many free articles over the years that have been picked up by other sites, providing direct links back to the Write4kids site.
The site converts that search traffic through a free email newsletter called Children’s Writing Update, which has 44,000 opt-ins. About 60% of the monthly newsletter’s content is informational/educational (such as articles from back issues of the Children’s Book Insider). The remaining 40% is promotional items for the paid newsletter, the CBI Clubhouse, or the workshops.
#2. Optimizing the membership site for conversions
Nearly all content on the CBI Clubhouse is behind the members’ paywall, with the exception of a few articles for beginning writers. To convert those visitors to subscribers, the site features:
- A paywall with a long-form subscription sales letter that describes membership details
- Member testimonials
- A video site tour
- A homepage chat box that lets visitors see, but not participate in, member Q&A
Technology and Vendors Used
CBI Clubhouse is built on WordPress with several plug-ins and third-party tools:
Wishlist Member: Membership software for WordPress sites that manages member access, content and email marketing
http://member.wishlistproducts.com/
Improved User Experience: Login name and password recovery plug-in
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/improved-user-experience/
Pierre’s Wordspew: Plug-in that creates the members Q&A chatbox on the homepage
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pierres-wordspew/
Branford Magazine: The WordPress theme that Bard used for the CBI Clubhouse design
http://www.wp-themes.der-prinz.com/branfordmagazine/
1ShoppingCart: The site’s payment processing software
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/
About John Bard
Bard worked in the New York PR world before launching Children’s Book Insider with his then-girlfriend Laura Backes. After a few years, the couple decided to move to Colorado and make the newsletter their full-time jobs, with Laura providing the editorial and John handling the business and technology side of things.
After experimenting with early Internet service providers like CompuServe, and then launching his first website in 1995, Bard says he was inspired by the explosion of Web content to create his first membership site. He believes that information overload offers new opportunities for subject-matter experts to create “gated communities” that promise quality information and valuable interaction with a like-minded community. “If you provide that gated community with real trust and the opportunity to connect with an expert, that’s what [members] are paying for.”
Subscription Insider’s Analysis
CBI Clubhouse demonstrates how a premium newsletter can expand its audience without threatening its traditional subscriber base. Long-time subscribers still get their monthly update, while the website’s audio and video content and community features offer a clear complement to the newsletter content — without being a huge burden to produce. Creating dedicated, evergreen content for newbies is another great tactic that lets the editorial team focus on retaining intermediate to advanced subscribers.
Now that the website is established, we feel they could focus more attention on their online marketing. Bard admits to being a “gut” marketer, which has served him well so far. But a few basic tests — such as testing whether they can boost that $4.49 monthly price slightly ($4.97?) without hurting conversions — could increase revenues with no additional traffic. They also should explore other ways to build links directly to CBIClubhouse.com and generate email opt-ins. Relying on Write4Kids.com for so much of their visitor acquisition is risky should anything change in the Google algorithm that knocks that site from its top placements.
Lastly, because of the very low monthly fee, it’s critical that the company retain members for as long as possible. To do that, we hope they are optimizing their credit card processing strategy to minimize losses due to expired cards, reissued cards, subscriber credit limits, and the like. See the links below for advice on handling credit card breakage.
