Seven tips on running an online membership site and service – from my experience

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Maybe I should start off straight by saying that I am a lawyer.  No, no, please don’t run away, I am quite a nice lawyer, really.  Look, I’m a Mum working from home.  Just happen to be a lawyer too.  Maybe a slightly mad one …

My story

In 1994, a long time ago now, I decided to hand in my notice as a reasonably well paid assistant solicitor at a good local firm, and set up on my own.  It was bonkers. I had no money (actually I had an overdraft), and it was just me and the cat (this was before I got married). But something forced me on, plus I did not want to be an old lady at the end of my life, regretting that I had never done it (that old lady has a lot to answer for …).

So I set up, and for a few years ran a normal solicitors type practice, doing litigation and legal aid work, with an emphasis on property law, which just about paid the bills.

My main expense when I set up (other than my practicing certificate and professional indemnity insurance – owch!) was my computer.  It was through this I discovered that there was this thing called the internet, where computers talk to each other through telephone lines.

I became fascinated by the internet (which no-one knew much about in 1994) and read all I could about it.  So when I decided in about 1999 to change the way I worked, and narrow up my field of expertise to just residential landlord and tenant law, it seemed the obvious thing to do, to reach out to landlords elsewhere in the country via a web-site.

And so Landlord Law mark 1 was born.

The development of my web site service Landlord Law

The first site was just a brochure site, but it did have a Q&A page.  This had a form for people to email me their problems and I would answer 10 of them every 2 weeks.  Through this I discovered that lots of people, both landlords and tenants, haven’t a clue about their legal rights and obligations.

“What if” I thought, “there was somewhere they could go and look these things up on the internet?”  If they paid a modest subscription fee, then that would justify me spending time working on the site.

I put a question on the bottom of the Q&A form asking if they would be prepared to pay a modest fee for content, and most people said yes!  And so the Landlord Law site was born.  You can see it now at www.landlordlaw.co.uk.

Landlord Law has been brilliant.  It has allowed me to work from home, which I love, and develop as an expert in my field.  Through people finding me online, I have got speaking engagements, a tenants book contract /, and have twice been invited to be a Judge in national landlord awards .  Not to mention work!

But the best thing has been the steady income from subscriptions which has allowed me to give up doing things I don’t like much (such as a lot of the one to one casework and litigation which I find stressful) and develop as a writer, which I love.

So – where are these seven tips then?

The Seven Tips

Tip one – develop a service which you know people actually want.  The whole idea of my subscription service came because I saw that people had no easy way to find out their legal rights and obligations

Tip two – offer a (free) Q&A service.  People love reading problem pages and I know many landlords and tenants  regularly visit my Q&A page and learn from it.  You can see it here:  http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/qa.ihtml?id=4&catparid=4&step=6 I have got loads of new readers, subscribers and clients from the Q&A.  Plus it keeps me in touch with what is bothering people, so is also market research for the site content.

Tip three – make some of your content open access.  People will want to know what they are going to get, before paying out any money.

Tip four – let your personality come through, and be friendly, so the site is not some faceless corporate thing.  Lots of people have said that they like the fact that there is a real person, me, behind the site.  Most people writing to me start ‘Dear Tessa” or Hi Tessa” which is nice

Tip five – write clearly and use plain English. I have to say that I sometimes have problems here as, being a lawyer, there is a dreadful tendency to drift into lawyer speak.  However I do try very hard to make things readable, and most people have said that they find the site easy to understand.

Tip six – keep moving forwards and doing new things.  My site is quite different now from when I started over eight years ago.  I have added new services, for example my rent arrears action plan , and the online do it yourself legal kits .  I have also changed the appearance of the site several times and changed the navigation.  The internet is a fast moving place and you need to keep up.  (I am working on a new site now which you can read about here http://www.landlordlaw.co.uk/page.ihtml?id=330&step=2&page=non)

Tip seven – work very hard and be a bit obsessive about it.  I do get complaints from my family about this, but Landlord Law is always high in my thoughts at all times.  I have spent hours and hours and hours on it.  That’s the only way to make it work.

I hope these tips will be helpful to you, and if you are a landlord or a tenant, you might want to pop over to my site at www.landlordlaw.co.uk or my blog at www.landlordlawblog.co.uk.

Tessa Shepperson (@TessaShepperson)

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