Monetize community 101

Welcome to the Community Coach newsletter, a value packed read
for community builders who would build communities even if they didn’t get paid to do so.

In this newsletter…

📚 Community 101: Monetizing a community

🤖 A research tool that searches all of Reddit to help you understand your community members better

🎱 Deliver community value via a Spotify playlist!

🔥 Inspiring community builder: WolvesDAO (Web3 gaming community)

👋 Answering your questions: “What do I do when a community member breaks the community house rules?”

Community 101: Monetizing a community

Monetizing a community effectively involves strategies that align with the community's values and enhance the member experience.

Here are some common methods to consider:

Memberships or Subscriptions:

• Members pay a recurring fee for exclusive content, resources, or interactions.

• Structured membership tiers caters to various levels of engagement and investment, allowing customization and flexibility for members (and various income streams for you)

Sponsored Content and Partnerships:

• Partner with brands or companies that resonate with the community’s ethos.

• Sponsors support financially in exchange for exposure through posts, endorsements, or event sponsorships.

• It’s crucial to keep the content relevant and valuable to maintain trust and authenticity within the community.

Hosting Events:

• Organizing paid online webinars, workshops, or in-person gatherings.

• You can generate income through entry fees, selling VIP experiences, and/or offering exclusive access to event recordings.

• Events can also integrate additional revenue streams like sponsorships and merchandise sales

  • Organizing paid online webinars, workshops, or in-person gatherings.

  • You can generate income through entry fees, selling VIP experiences, and/or offering exclusive access to event recordings.

  • Events can also integrate additional revenue streams like sponsorships and merchandise sales

Upselling Products and Services:

• Offering community-specific products like courses, ebooks, and guides that provide deeper insights or practical skills related to the community’s focus.

• Utilizing a tiered product approach where basic information is available for free, while more detailed, advanced resources are sold at a premium.

• Tailored offerings to the community's interests and needs, ensuring that these products enhance the member experience and provide real value.

Reddit Research tool: Gummy Search

Gummy Search is a super tool.

It helps you figure out what people are really into by checking out the chats happening in different Reddit groups.

If you’re trying to set up a group or event that hits the right note, Gummy Search shows you what topics are hot and what people are buzzing about. They also show you trending communities.

This way, you can make sure your group talks about stuff everyone cares about and actually wants to join in on.

As an example, say you’re looking at starting a gaming community. Gummy Search can help you track what games are trending, what issues gamers are chatting about, or even the best gaming meetups happening now.

This info is valuable community member research - and can help draw more people to join your community because you understand your target members better.

Delivering value via a Spotify playlist

Shoutout to Daniel the newsletter Setup Dude on Twitter who gave me this idea: create a Spotify podcast playlist for your community!

Daniel uses it as a lead magnet, you could also use this as an additional resource for your community members.

You could also include listening parties to go through episodes together, take notes and/or discuss the episodes and key takeaways.

Inspiring community builder
WolvesDAO

I was recently told to spend time and check out WolvesDAO and I must admit I find them impressive.

WolvesDAO is considered one of the best Web3 gaming communities out there currently.

Their purpose? Moving the gaming space forward by equipping the blockchain gaming sector with insights, education, and tools to build the games and communities of tomorrow.

Web3 and gaming in general gets a bad rap for being terrible at building healthy communities - along with their lack of diversity.

WolvesDAO chose a different approach to address these issues.

To be a member of WolvesDAO, they built an application form that focused on the person’s thoughts and philosophies, rather than their ethnicity or background, underscoring the community’s commitment to diversity.

Wolves DAO is firmly committed to fairness and inclusivity, focusing on skills rather than demographics but also actively addressing any gaps in representation.

For instance, when they noticed a lack of female participation, they took steps to encourage more women to join.

They've also made efforts to include individuals from Africa, valuing the unique perspectives they bring.

This is a big deal. Have you paid attention to gaps in your community?

After reading through some of their newsletters (they use Substack) - it was obvious to see how much value they are delivering to their community. 

The newsletters contained well written long form content with insightful and balanced commentary on industry developments.

The newsletters are also co-written by several members in their community (I counted 19 contributors for the one linked above).

They have prominent names in their community - you can see the quality of their membership below.

Answering your questions

“What do I do when a community member seems to be breaking the house rules (it’s a “he says she says situation”)? 

If you are in a situation where a community member has broken the house rules, you must take it seriously - and you must ensure your community members feel safe, heard and that you will face these difficult situations head on.

If you don’t know the full story/context behind how this member has broken the rules (often you may receive a DM from another member complaining about it) - the first point of call is to try to get the full story first.

I'd then recommend putting out a general announcement to the community as a whole - with a general reminder of your rules and what would happen to members that broke these rules (be as transparent about the process as possible).

A bit of patience may be required with this and empathy - that’s why it is important to get full context of what is going on but be mindful of your tone and try to be understanding first before jumping to conclusions.

Consider having a way for community members to submit feedback anonymously if you think this may be a viable solution.

Got a question for me? DM me on Twitter and ask away. Your question may be answered in a future newsletter (and I’ll reply to everyone who asks).

Until next time,

Carmen
Community Coach

Connect with me on Twitter, Youtube, LinkedIn.

A few of my previous newsletters…