Micheal Savoie

I am reprinting this article with permission of Terry Telford to show you
what you can do to increase your income streams. This article taught
me a lot and I hope you get as much from it as I received.

Recurring Income – Your Ticket To Intelligent Wealth Creation
By: Terry Telford
Every single human being on this planet has the potential
to be wealthy. Bar none!

That’s a pretty bold statement, but it’s true. You can
create your own financially independent lifestyle in a
multitude of ways. Today, we’ll look at recurring income
as your wealth creation vehicle.

Recurring income is money that flows into your bank
account on a regular basis. Some of the common business
models that take advantage of recurring income include
subscriptions and membership fees.

The most common recurring online plans, pay out on a
monthly basis. Some pay out on an annual or bi-annual
schedule, depending on the payment plan. Many
independently wealthy people have developed their empires
using these business models.

Subscriptions and Membership Fees

Subscriptions and membership fees work in a similar
fashion. The subscriber or member is granted access to a
product or service in exchange for a regular recurring
payment.

This business model guarantees the subscriber/member
continued service and guarantees the provider a locked
in, guaranteed income.

But there are pitfalls. If you’re thinking about creating
a recurring billing product, you could be in for a wild
ride. The following case study is the real life journey
that I took, while creating The Business Professional
Private Members’ Site.

CASE STUDY: The Business Professional Private Membership
Website

President and CEO: Terry Telford
Vice President: Edwin Ryan
Development Start Date: December 15, 2003
Website Launch Date : May, 1, 2004

In the research phase, I decided to keep everything
in-house except for the payment processing. This gave me
greater control over the entire process, but created a
lot more work in the beginning.

The basic modules that needed to snap together and make
the membership area run, were:

1. Membership software to create logins and passwords

2. Affiliate software to track affiliate sales and
commissions

3. Autoresponder

4. Payment Processor

Discovering what software to use was a matter of trial
and error, but I finally ended up choosing:

1. Membership Manager from GroundBreak

2. Ultimate Affiliate Manager to handle the
affiliate and autoresponder functions

3. PayPal / 2CheckOut to process recurring payments

The next step was to have a programmer connect the dots
and make all three programs play nicely together. This
was the step where I realized I’d done everything
backwards.

Instead of finding the software and then the programmer,
I should have found the programmer and let him decide
how to create the system. I was now at a fork in the
road. Do I scrap the software that I already purchased
and start from ground zero, or do I invest in a
programmer to attempt to make all the software play
together.

To make a long story short, I decided on option two and
paid a programmer a small fortune to attempt the
impossible. In the end, The Business Professional works
90% on autopilot and 10% on manual.

It was a long and costly process, but a fantastic
learning experience. And the adventure was far from over.

Now I had a cool Private Membership site, with a $5,762
price tag. Next, I had to fill it with content. It took
another two months to top up the content and get things
rolling.

Fast forward to today.

CHALLENGE:

Both Edwin and I are spending 80% of our time marketing
The Business Professional and don’t have enough time to
build solid content into the member’s area.

SOLUTION:

Outsource the marketing to a handful of skilled
entrepreneurs, so we can focus on upgrading the member’s
area.

The marketers collect and keep 100% of the membership
fees, and we get a continual stream of new members who
order our products and services. This cooperative
business model builds a stronger, more profitable
business for everyone.

SUMMARY:

Generating a monthly recurring income by building a
membership website is a great concept. In practical terms,
it’s a costly way to learn the ropes.

My recommendation to anyone who is considering a
recurring monthly income is, start out promoting an
existing product or service. You’ll save a lot of time
and energy and can start generating a profit, your first
month in business.

Without expenses, it’s all profit

—
Terry Telford is a business developer with experience on and
offline. Telford’s training system for helping other
entrepreneurs build and develop their own businesses can be
found at
http://www.terrytelford.com/go.php?offer=mirrror&pid=3

I hope you liked the article, I am getting prepared for the workshop that is coming
up in two weeks. I still have that ticket available to join me for $500 (or $1000 and
I share the hotel room, too). If you can be in Orlando November 9 – 12, and want
to know more about it:

http://michealsavoie.com/presents/workshop

And if you just want to contribute to help me pay for it:

http://traf-x.com/hotwater/