- Admin
- #1
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2023
- Messages
- 5,678
- Reaction score
- 598
I used to be the Community Manager for Copyblogger which is a blog that's been around for a long time.
The CEO created an online community using Circle which is like a forum but with more features and it's also SaaS that costs money.
I was hired on as the Community Manager for a little over a year. A new CEO took over and changed the direction a bit and I lost my position there. I'm not upset, though. It was just a side gig for me. I quickly filled in that gap doing other things that benefited me very well.
However, I learned a lot about paid communities in that year and a half.
One of my biggest takeaways was that people are paying for engagement on those types of communities.
When they pay $500 to $1,500 a year to be a member, they want to engage not just with other community members but with the community owners, as well. Sure, they liked me as I created posts, run monthly Zoom meetings, and did webinars with copywriting experts but the biggest complaint was always "Where is the CEO? We want to engage with the CEO." The CEO hired me so that he didn't have to work on the community and he could focus on the sales aspects of the business.
But in reality, people want to engage with the main person in charge.
This story can easily be integrated with running forums and blogs. Even if membership is free, engagement is still the selling point of why people are joining and being active. But it's not just simple engagement. They want to engage with you - the forum owner. People want to be close to you.
So, don't disappoint them.
The CEO created an online community using Circle which is like a forum but with more features and it's also SaaS that costs money.
I was hired on as the Community Manager for a little over a year. A new CEO took over and changed the direction a bit and I lost my position there. I'm not upset, though. It was just a side gig for me. I quickly filled in that gap doing other things that benefited me very well.
However, I learned a lot about paid communities in that year and a half.
One of my biggest takeaways was that people are paying for engagement on those types of communities.
When they pay $500 to $1,500 a year to be a member, they want to engage not just with other community members but with the community owners, as well. Sure, they liked me as I created posts, run monthly Zoom meetings, and did webinars with copywriting experts but the biggest complaint was always "Where is the CEO? We want to engage with the CEO." The CEO hired me so that he didn't have to work on the community and he could focus on the sales aspects of the business.
But in reality, people want to engage with the main person in charge.
This story can easily be integrated with running forums and blogs. Even if membership is free, engagement is still the selling point of why people are joining and being active. But it's not just simple engagement. They want to engage with you - the forum owner. People want to be close to you.
So, don't disappoint them.