Terms

"You need to be aware of those who will be your clients before you develop a membership company," says Matt Hardigree the publisher of The Autopian. "I have encountered issues in which people just thought that there was a audience that exists. Although math can be difficult it's not too hard. It's possible to make use of all the facts you've gathered."

He says that if you're currently writing for an online platform, take note of the number of readers you've got. "If you're on a website along with 10 other writers and 3 of us are trying to start with something, how much is our combined readership? Are we fifteen percent website's users? That's not much. Do we constitute more than 80% of every website's visitors?"

At some point, The Autopian founders David Tracy and Jason Torchinsky made up 50 percent of the traffic on Jalopnik. "They may have believed "We are able to start something and we can do this'," Matt says. Matt. "What's fascinating is the fact that David and Jason do not have massive amounts of followers on their social media, which seems like the obvious way to translate into readership. The two didn't need to be able to acquire that, since they already have readers.

Prior to the launch, The Autopian did a study of the competitive landscape of the automobile industry and the media. "We are aware of the number of car enthusiasts who visit these websites. Think about this: once we take out the costs, what do we need in order to be successful? And then you have to ask, where are those people going to come from?  What percentage of them are aware of our identity and what we are? What percentage will we require to achieve the criteria that is viable? regarding membership costs, how much will we cost? ? '."

He says: "You can make some prediction - but you aren't required to be right however, you must have the information points. After you've begun making your predictions, you'll be able to use the ability to connect the data points in order to figure your current location and then make changes. If you're lacking data or you're guessing that you're guessing, then calculate the numbers and then work to find.

Matt acknowledges that once you've done your research you'll have the "hold your breath" time "In the first hour or two hours following the start of my account, I felt like an complete mess! I wondered, "What's going to happen? As memberships started to come in, I felt amazing! The team is still conducting data analysis and still constantly looking at what is doing good and not doing."

Strategies for engagement and growth

"I consider that we're about 10% of the way towards where our members would be,"" Matt continues. "We've achieved our goals, and we've had plenty of members, but those first 10 percent is most accessible to obtain. Those the last 10% of members will be the hardest. Each phase is going to be harder than the preceding one, it's going to be necessary be creative."

Matt believes that 10x growth is probably an achievable goal for five years in the following five years. "If we are able to attain 50% of this goal, we are nearly completely sustainable at our level of membership. If we are able to achieve 100%, we will be much more able to sustain ourselves through fees for membership or earning income from membership only I'd love to be able to achieve that goal."

Matt Hardigree, The Autopian

What are their plans to get there? What are they offering now in terms of benefits for membership and how do they use this to attract new members?

Matt answers: "It's a balance because The Autopian is a journalism enterprise and is a place for the fans. We see it in three distinct categories in the way we motivate people to sign up and maintain them as members by giving The Autopian feel valuable."

Strategy 1: Content

Matt says that the main bucket is the content. "We must write something which is both engaging enough and unique enough to be different from the content you get everywhere else I can only view this on the Autopian. I am required to join the official ranks to The Autopian if I want to see the Autopian to have this.'

"You're not paying for access to this content because it's not paid-for. This is because you'd want it anywhere in the world." Matt confirms that it will remain the Autopian's most valuable proposition: "You need this thing to be here so badly, you will part with $4 a month, $10 a month, $85 a month for certain people."

Strategy 2: The Benefits

The bucket two is an example of things that members get at no cost, such as Discord access, clothes like T-shirts, and access to various events, like trivia nights, with other things such as stickers or badges.

"We offer a wide range of products you can choose from, which is similar to purchasing a car. The first is cloth ($70/year) before moving to vinyl ($100/year) and then Velour at $250 per year. In the end, there is rich Corinthian leather, which costs $1,000 each year. It is more common for people to use leather and velour than I'd imagine!"

"One among the presents that you get is a birthday sketch one of the co-founders has a talent as an artist. We weren't expecting to get so many drawings. Hence, the drawings he's drawn for birthdays are more than we thought he would - And we're yet to finish!"

A monthly rate of $1000 seems as an enormous amount, but this was the suggestion of Defector, a well-established business in media Defector. They informed Matt they had a lot clients who had $1000 or more in their accounts than was expected. "I considered to myself"I do not even know how you're talking about, but how much?' they said"Do this!"" Matt laughed.

"They were also saying that they wish they had the middle-tier option, as they currently have two lower levels in addition to a higher one," He continues. "We debated over it before settling to go with the $250 annually. It was the ideal quantity since we've got so many Velour members. And this yearmore people went between vinyl and Velour as well as from vinyl down to velour - more than 100 people moved from 250 than those who moved from 250 to 100. I believe we've got it correct!"

Autopian's Autopian team has also noticed that behind-the-scenes material has gained a lot of attention. The team also shares procedural content like how the team came up with the headline and "Tales of the Slack". Matt says: "We have our internal Slack. The Slack is not intended for public consumption."

"People come up with bizarre, ridiculous and hilarious things!" Matt smiles. "Our Chief Editor David isn't a pop-culture awareness and is constantly lost in the details of things. He was thinking Ronan was Serpico and believed the Al Pacino film set in the 1970s was a Robert De Niro film from the 1990s!"

Strategy 3. Fear of Missing out (FOMO)

"The third bucket of content that does well and which a lot of viewers overlook, is FOMO. They don't want their readers to miss crucial facts," Matt continues.

"We are on an official Discord which has a daily columns of tips and advice. The Discord we use is accessible and free, however there's a member section," he adds. "I would like members to post photos in general chat: 'Here's my picture with my shirt Here's me wearing my badge' and members are keen to take part in this."

Matt concludes attracting members is a great idea when it is compatible with the kinds of content that you post. "Every now and then we'll have a 'Here's everything you receive' appeal that will remind people of the benefits that membership offers."

More regularly they will acknowledge their communities "We are very grateful to our members who comment. We thank your contributions to making our community better. If you're not able to become an active member, we are understanding. We understand that not everyone can afford. If you're a student whatever this is, we can understand. If you're unable manage the cost it's okay to be simply a reader. We'd like to warmly welcome you; we'd like you to become a part of our community. If you're an avid fan of this kind of thing you have the chance to be a part of it."

Then we'll do a FOMO blog post in which Jason will write 'Here are all of the birthday designs I made in the month of July!' The people who look at them will be like 'God! I'd love to be that.'

Building communities can be found in a variety of forms and sizes, including birthday cards for car enthusiasts.

More details

For more information about the Autopian and how you can join The Autopian, go to theautopian.com.

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