I heard one of my trusted advisers say, “If you don’t have continuity, you don’t have a business.”

A continuity program is a product or service purchase that is billed on a recurring basis. It may be weekly, monthly or some other interval. The sweet part is, you don’t just get the initial sale. Your customers keep sending you money over and over again.

Well, since we’re all surrounded by naysayers who say that our entrepreneurial spirit is a waste of energy, the courses we take are a waste of money, and that none of it will ever work… I wanted to begin a series of blog posts that get your creative juices flowing… with Continuity Program Ideas for you to consider.

Continuity Program Idea #1 – Membership Websites

Of course this is first… After all, this is MembershipMatrix.com.

A membership site is web (or mobile) accessible content or services provided for a specific period of time. You could offer a monthly course, a digital newsletter, a series of articles, how to information, videos, podcasts… You could include software, coaching, templates, checklists, etc. One of these or any combination of these. What your membership site provides is completely up to you.

One of the cool things is that in addition to providing content or information, an online membership adds the possibilities of interactivity that aren’t always possible with a printed publication. You can add interactivity through a forum or social widgets, allowing members create their own profiles, comment on content, and “follow” each other. That, of course, adds a “stickiness” to your continuity program, keeping people around longer. Also, you can mine the discussions for content and product ideas.

With an online membership, your costs will be much lower than publishing a printed publication and you can offer more frequent updates. That being said… just because it is lower cost, don’t assume it will be more profitable. Oftentimes, physical products have a higher perceived value and you can charge more for them.

In some of the other Continuity Program Ideas, we will explore physical products and hybrids – part digital, part physical.