Terms

"You have to know who you're targeting before creating the membership-based business" states Matt Hardigree, publisher of The Autopian. "I have encountered issues where people have just hopefully thought that there would be a market. It's a math issue, but it's not a problem. You can use all of the information you've learned."

If you're writing for an online platform, you should take an inventory of the number of people you've. "If you're on a website together with 10 other authors and we all want to create something, how do we measure our number of readers? Is it fifteen percent of visitors to the website? This isn't a huge amount. Do we constitute greater than 80% all visitors to websites?"

In the past, The Autopian founders David Tracy and Jason Torchinsky made up 50 percent of all traffic to Jalopnik. "They could have believed that 'We can start something - we could achieve this"," continues Matt. "What's interesting is that David and Jason don't have huge followers on social media, which appears to be the most obvious way to turn into a the readership. However, they didn't need to have that because they already had readers.

Before launching, The Autopian did a study of the competitive landscape in the automotive industry and media. "We know the number of people who use automobiles to browse these websites. Calculate: Once we have the expenses taken care of what do we need for success? And then you have to ask: Where do those people come from? 'What percentage have some awareness of who we really are and what we are? and 'What percentage of them will we need in order to achieve our goal of sustainable development? and In terms of membership fees, how much do we plan on charging? ? '."

The article adds: "You can make some predictions - but you don't need to be right, however you must have the relevant data. When you've made your forecasts, you'll be able to use the ability to connect to the information points and later, find out where you're off and then modify your prediction. If there's no data and you're just guessing, you have to do the math, and work it out.

Matt admits that when you've done your homework, there's a "wait and watch" feeling "In the first half an hour or so of the launch of the membership, I was a wreck! I was thinking, "What's going to occur? The memberships started coming to the table, it was quite amazing! Also, we're still conducting analyses of data, and we're always analysing what's effective and what's not."

Strategies to increase engagement and grow

"I consider that we're about 10% of the way towards where the members of our group could be,"" Matt continues. "We've seen success, and seen a number of members. But, the first 10% is the most straightforward to obtain. The rest of the 10% are going to be the most challenging. Every tranche is likely to be harder than the tranche preceding it. It will be necessary to consider a lot."

Matt believes that 10x growth could be a five-year target for five years. "If we can achieve 50% of the amount, then we're nearly completely sustainable at the current level of membership. If we manage to get to 100%, we're in fact sustainably fuelled by the membership fee or have earned a profit from the membership fee alone. It would be wonderful to reach that point."

Matt Hardigree, The Autopian

What are their plans for getting there? What are they offering in terms of perks for members and how will they make use of to draw new members?

Matt replies: "It's a balance because The Autopian is a journalism venture as well as an activity for fans. We think of the three buckets of what we do to help people join, and then to keep them as members - through making The Autopian feel valuable."

Strategy 1: Content

Matt declares that the top bucket is the content. "We have to come up with something that's good enough, interesting enough, as well as distinct from the content you can get everywhere else I can only view this only on the Autopian. It is my obligation to be a part of The Autopian if I want the Autopian to have this.'

"You're not paying to gain access to the content because there's not a paywalled entry to it. You're paying because you want it to be available all over the world." Matt affirms that content is going to be the top value offering "You need this thing to be there so desperately, you'll pay four dollars per month, ten dollars a month, $85 a month for some users."

Strategy 2: Benefits

The Bucket 2 is the items that members get, like Discord access, clothes including T-shirts, entry to trivia nights and events along with other items such as stickers or badges.

"We provide a variety of things you get that's similar to buying an automobile. At the bottom of cloth ($70/year) followed by vinyl ($100/year) and Velour that costs $250/year. Finally, the most expensive level is Corinthian leather that costs $1000 a year. It's been more clients who have used leather and velour than I'd believe!"

"One among the items that you get is a birthday drawing One of our co-founders has a talent as an artist. We didn't expect to receive as many drawings, therefore the artist is drawing more birthday sketches than we anticipated - - and we're still getting caught up!"

The $1000/month amount may seem like a lot of work but this was an advice from the well-known firm in the field of media defector. They advised Matt they had many more clients who could comfortably afford $1,000 than they had anticipated. "I was like"I don't even know the amount it was, but what about $1000?' They said, "Do it!" Matt smiles.

"They were also saying that they wish they had a middle stage, since they've got two levels below and one above," he continues. "We were bouncing around on it and decided to go with 250 dollars per year. This was the best number as there's a huge number of Velour members and [this year] there was a lot more movement between vinyl and Velour as well as between velour and vinyl and back to vinyl. More people moved from 100-250 instead of going between 100 and 250. It seems like we're on the right track!"

Autopian's Autopian team has recognized that content behind the scenes is now a hit. They also share procedural material, for example, the way they came up with a headline, and also "Tales from in the Slack". Matt states: "We have our internal Slack, and it's obviously not meant for consumption by the general public."

"People are prone to saying ridiculous, stupid, hilarious things!" Matt smiles. "Our chief editor David does not have any pop culture knowledge, and that's why the editor is always confused about things. He believed that Ronan was Serpico and believed the film was an al Pacino movie set in the 70s. It was in fact a Robert De Niro movie that debuted in the 1990s!"

Strategy 3. Fear of Missing out (FOMO)

"The third type of media - the one that performs really well and people probably underestimate - is FOMO. People don't want not be able to access content," Matt continues.

"We have a discord with regular column of advice. Our Discord is accessible and free to all, but there's a section for members," he adds. "I suggest that users share photos in the chat room: 'Here's my picture with my shirt that I'm wearing the badge I have'. People would like to join this."

Matt states that the process of attracting new members is a great idea when the appeal aligns with the type of content you write. "Every every now and again we'll make a 'Here's what you'll get' appeal. It's a reminder of what members get from membership."

They will more often be able to acknowledge their communities "We love our commenters and it's because of you that we're so awesome. If you're not able to be an active member, we're sorry. Not everyone has the money. If you're a student, no matter what you're doing is fine with us. If you're not able to afford the funds, you can become an avid reader. We're here for you, we'd like to welcome you as a part of our community. If you're interested in such things There's a chance for you to be member of the community."

Then we'll create a FOMO post where Jason will write 'Here's my birthday-themed drawings that I made this month and more!' And viewers will be able to look at them and consider 'God, I'd really like this.'

Communities can take on a range of different shapes and sizes as well as birthday cards for those who love cars.

Additional details

For further information or to be a part of The Autopian, go to theautopian.com.

This post was first seen on here