How to Monetize Your Online Community in 2021
Communities allow a creator to monetize their knowledge, time, and access
Building an online community is replacing traditional employment.
Individuals are able to convert their passions into sources of income through differentiated services and loyal user bases, thanks to the Passion Economy. Digital platforms allow anyone to monetize unique skills.
This is the new American dream. To make a living off of one’s creativity, expertise, and authenticity. Monetizing individuality is the internet’s version of entrepreneurship. In the process, a creator can build relationships, find their people, and lead a fulfilling life.
This dream is alive and well. It explains why we are currently shifting from horizontal social media to creator-specific social networks and closed communities.
As people shift away from the algorithmic news feeds and media, they’re drawn towards creators. Specifically, the ones who are providing knowledge and bespoke communities.
Communities are powerful, and allow a creator to monetize their time, knowledge, and access. By first building a fanbase of engaged individuals, the creator can then create the perfect products. Community-as-a-Service (CaaS) is a trend in the upcoming years that remains deeply unappreciated.
To build and monetize a community, here’s the suggested framework a creator should follow:
- Cultivate a large, free audience on a horizontal social platform
- Convert some of those individuals into patrons and subscribers
- Leverage a percentage of those buyers to high-value purchases
Let’s dive into it.
Before Community, Cultivate Audience
There’s a lot of buzz around the importance of online communities. Let’s face it — it’s probably why you clicked on this article.
But people forget that audience and community exist in a symbiotic relationship. The two cannot exist without the other, and they fuel the other’s existence.
If you’re brand new to the game as a creator, your goal should not be to establish a community.
It should be to build an audience.
You want to create a meeting ground where people can peek their heads and see what you’re working on. If they’re interested, they’ll pull up a chair. In an audience, all the chairs are facing the singular persona — the creator.
Making an account on a horizontal social media platform (Twitter, Instagram) will do the trick.
Creating an audience beforehand is vital for three reasons.
- People give you their time and attention for free in exchange for the value of your knowledge.
- It proves legitimacy, cementing your trustworthiness.
- It forms a bedrock of individuals who are likely to convert into fans, patrons, and high-value purchasers over time.
The guiding principle when building an audience is to always deliver value. Do not try and sell anything, especially if you’re in the beginning stages.
Instead, aim to help people with their goals and trajectory, without any expectation of returning the favor. Create content such as how-to’s, articles, videos, and other forms of digital assets that rouse the curiosity of the crowd. Over time, people will begin to trust you and know what you’re capable of.
This then makes the transition from audience to community seamless.
Converting Audience into Community
Once you’ve established an audience, you’re ready to begin funneling this capitalizable energy into a community.
Begin by moving away from the horizontal platform, which has a low bandwidth for communication. Create a closed space for communication instead. It allows for more authentic conversations and relationship building as interactions can be real-time and one-on-one.
You could choose traditional communication channels such as Discord, Slack, or Telegram. But these platforms are one-dimensional in what they offer to a creator. They don’t support the integration of paywalled content, affiliate links, and streamline marketing. This is a problem considering it’s a major pillar of how a creator stands to monetize.
Platforms like Officeparty bundle these services together for the creator. Make an account and in under 30 seconds, people can begin finding your community.
Once you have the home set up, remember not to spam everyone with an invite. As a host of a palace, be courteous about letting people in. Don’t force them inside. We mean, if someone was shoving you into their home you’d be sketched out, right?
Same concept.
Tell people about your community in an organic, nonchalant way, and people will begin to make their way to you.
Community Members into Patrons and Subscribers
Now that you’ve got interested people, the next step is to convert community members into patrons and subscribers.
At this point, you’re still offering value. You’re providing knowledge, offering unique content, and asking questions about your community’s pain points. Up until now, it was all free. But here’s when you can ask people to support you through altruism or fandom.
By now, certain people will love what you’re creating. They find you inspiring and want to support your endeavors. They’re aware you work extremely hard to produce content and don’t mind supporting you.
Platforms like Buy Me a Coffee allow fans to support you without even needing to have an account. Subscription-based platforms like Patreon or Onlyfans allow fans to purchase a subscription for recurring content from the creator.
But this means a creator has to have multiple accounts to monetize their community. It gets messy. Officeparty allows it all to be in one place and put your content behind a paywall just like OF or Patreon does.
Leveraging Buyers into High-Value Purchasers
Having content behind a paywall is a great way for a creator to monetize. Yet creators are shifting towards a value model. Fans are willing to pay more for something that benefits them directly.
And there’s never been a better time to create value as a creator. The possibilities are endless. And when it comes to sharing your knowledge, think like a chef.
Recipe → Create a step-by-step guide (Slideshare, article, how-to, worksheet)
Cook Book → Assemble your “recipes” (Keynote talks, e-books, books, audiobooks, apps)
Cooking Show → Use audio/visuals to add production value to your guides
Cooking Class → Host demos and workshops at virtual events/live streaming
Cooking Apprenticeship → Host your services one-on-one, coaching services where people can book a specific slot of time with you
Restaurant → A closed community that is behind a paywall where people can only have access if they pay for it
Monetize these digital services and deliverables, so long if they’re high-value. Within your community, you can also advertise these assets. You can additionally sell access to a more private, high-value community within that community. Community inception, if you will.
Point is, if the creator is generating access, recognition, and status through their content, they’ll be able to monetize the community. By building a digital asset once and selling it indefinitely online (aside from 1-on-1 coaching sessions) there are no limits for the profit a creator can make.
Creating an Audience Will Be Difficult
Modern brands and creators are now attracting fans before turning them into paying customers.
Going from audience to community, to patrons and donations, to finally high-paying customers is a new way to make money. Focus on building your own creative identity and prioritize organic growth.
But remember that creating an engaged audience (the first initial step in this journey) will be the most difficult part.
It will take time, honesty, and effort. Nothing good comes easy.
Yet once your audience gains momentum, the hardest part is over. You’ll be ready to begin transforming this energy into a community and monetizing the bespoke place you’ve created for others.
Above all, pay close attention to the community and what they tell you. They’ll show you the way.
If you’d like to set up your own online community and start monetizing, you can open an account with us on Officeparty here.
