Would you pay to be a part of an online community?

[Shawn Gossman]

I'm in the process of creating a paid online community.

It doesn't use these traditional forums.

My question to you is would you pay for membership on a community?

Why or why not?

 

[meetdilip]

I have no issues paying to anything that is useful to me. Provided the prices are not insane.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I have no issues paying to anything that is useful to me. Provided the prices are not insane.

Agreed.

I paid $500 for year on a community once. Now I'm the community manager there but I don't know if I'd want to keep paying that every year.

My pricing strategy is this. I'll charge around $25 a month for membership, those who pay and stay a member get locked into that price as long as they remain a member. Then after a while as the community and value grows, I'll up the price.

Of course, this is all being done on a platform I pay for. I use Circle.

 

[meetdilip]

As long as you can generate demand, premium content is fine. I have seen it backfire though.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

I have seen it backfire though.

Got a good story for this?

 

[meetdilip]

Not like a story, but people feel insulted sometimes. For example in a newpaper site, I read half the story and they asked money to read more. I am ok to pay if I was dying for rest. The content was available elsewhere and the quality of writing was not great either.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

The content was available elsewhere and the quality of writing was not great either.

I think there is what's important for a paid community. Unique things that you can't find anywhere else.