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What is a Membership Community?
A membership community allows you to provide a dedicated space where people with a shared interest can interact, collaborate, and support one another. And, best of all, it’s a way to earn recurring revenue.
Members sign up to a creator’s membership community and pay a recurring membership fee (usually monthly or annual). In exchange, they receive access to your exclusive community and premium content.
More and more creators are choosing to monetize their content and online following through a membership community.
Let’s take a look at some of the most popular reasons why creators everywhere are launching their online membership communities
Create an Exclusive Community Space
When the creator economy was still developing, creators underestimated the value of what they had built.
But, very few people in the world are able to draw in likeminded people and create a thriving community around a common interest, which is why creators today are realizing that what they offer is rare, and extremely valuable.
So valuable, that it’s worth putting behind a paywall and charging a monthly fee in exchange for access.
The benefit? Besides providing creators with a recurring source of revenue month after month, a paywalled community increases the quality of the community itself, since everyone in the community has shown that they’re willing to pay to be there.
And, that exclusivity can guarantee a safe space for members to connect with you and one another, making it easier to nurture your relationship with members and create loyal, paying members.
The best part is that at a certain point, this collaborative environment can even become self-sustaining, meaning your members will consistently start and participate in conversations, freeing up time and energy for you to work on other things!
Speaking of freeing up time, let’s look at another reason why creators are launching their membership communities…
Earn Recurring Revenue
Recurring revenue is the holy grail for independent creators.
Heck, it is for most people!
That’s because it can help ease some financial anxiety, and give you the time, space and resources you need to:
- re-invest in your content.
- plan ahead and scale your operations.
- create a more sustainable work/life balance.
Unlike one-off purchases for products like merch and online courses, paid communities can create a stable and reliable revenue stream (that takes less work to maintain).
Here’s a revenue growth comparison between an online course community priced at $299 once-off, and a monthly community membership priced at $15 per month:
Thanks to the power of recurring revenue, compounding growth, and customer retention, memberships tend to outperform one-off products (by quite a lot).
When you build a membership community, you’re building your own platform
That means you get
Plus, with all of that creative freedom at your fingertips, you’re able to connect with and delight your superfans.
These are the folks in your audience who consistently engage with your content and can never seem to get enough. (Think: Kevin Kelly’s 1000 True Fans.)
A membership community allows you to wow your fans with the extra content they’re looking for alongside a totally exclusive community experience.
In fact, a bunch of people specifically seek out and are willing to pay for that private platform experience because of things like social media fatigue that make public platforms less fun to interact with.
A pay-to-access membership community platform gives your audience meaningful social connection mixed with exclusive content.
So, ready to learn how to build your own platform?
How to Build a Membership Community the Right Way
You’re ready to start creating your new membership community if you have either:
- An active online community hosted on a free-to-access platform (think Facebook Groups or Discord).
- A ready-to-monetize group of superfans in your audience.
To build your membership community the right way, make sure you’re using a platform that supports your business goals and gives your members the best experience.
Let’s jump into how you can launch the perfect membership community!
