Which Is Right for You? [Expert Tips]

A key determination when creating an online community is whether or not it’ll be free for members to affix or in the event that they’ll need to pay to entry it. And, the mannequin you select can have a major influence on how you find yourself operating your neighborhood.

This piece will probably be all about free vs. paid communities — I’ll clarify what each is, the professionals and cons to every mannequin, and dive into professional suggestions for selecting between the 2.

Desk of Contents

Free vs. Paid On-line Communities

The 2 major kinds of on-line communities are free and paid. Inside every, communities may also be owned and use the freemium mannequin. Let’s begin with free vs. paid on-line communities.

Free On-line Group

A free on-line neighborhood is, nicely, a free-to-join on-line neighborhood.

It may be owned and run by your enterprise (extra on owned communities here), like a forum you create in your web site or a social media profile you make, like a Fb Web page.

Finest For

I like to recommend free on-line communities for manufacturers, companies, or creators and influencers who need to construct model consciousness, enhance visibility, and entice a big and numerous consumer base with various ranges of engagement.

Free communities are additionally glorious methods to study extra about your audiences in an open discussion board.

Professionals of Free On-line Communities

• Free on-line communities have low boundaries to entry, which means it’s simpler to draw new members and construct bigger communities with extra numerous illustration.
• You possibly can construct model consciousness and platforms your viewers may already be on, lessening the work it takes to construct a neighborhood from scratch.
• You might be extra hands-off with a free neighborhood and let your neighborhood members create engagement alternatives for each other.

Cons of Free On-line Communities

• Low barrier to entry means you may need bigger communities that aren’t made up of well-qualified members. I’m half of some communities however think about myself an informal consumer fairly than a well-qualified lead.
• Engagement might be decrease as a result of customers may be a part of out of curiosity fairly than being keen to have interaction with your enterprise and different neighborhood members.
• In case your free neighborhood is on a social media platform, you need to comply with its guidelines and have restricted artistic liberties.

Paid On-line Communities

A paid on-line neighborhood is an area you create that members pay to affix, often with month-to-month subscription charges, to entry its content material and options.

Most companies create paid on-line communities to monetize affords, construct loyalty, and deepen relationships with audiences.

The exclusivity of paid communities brings larger engagement and extra devoted customers desirous to work together with the premium choices of your neighborhood.

Many paid on-line communities use platforms or tools meant for neighborhood constructing, however you’ve gotten management over what you do along with your neighborhood.

You set the principles and pointers, customise it to your branding, and set costs. Most platforms take a proportion of your earnings.

I feel Patreon is a superb instance of a paid on-line neighborhood platform. Customers can provide unique content material to subscribers and range choices with tiered memberships. The 2 plans it affords take a proportion of membership income.

Finest For

I like to recommend paid on-line communities to those that need extra management, assured curiosity from members, and a gradual stream of income. They’re additionally greatest for individuals who need to provide unique content material and companies.

Professionals of Paid On-line Communities

• You could have full management over the paid communities you construct, from the visuals you employ to who can entry the content material behind your paywalls to the privateness and safety measures you employ to guard the neighborhood.
• Members are keen to make a monetary funding, so that they’re sometimes extra certified and eager about what you provide. Customers are keen to have interaction, which gives higher-quality engagement and provides you deeper perception into your supreme consumer.
• Membership charges are a supply of recurring income for your enterprise, and you may monetize the content material you’re already used to creating.

Cons of Paid On-line Communities

• Membership charges can deter folks from becoming a member of, so paid communities are sometimes smaller.
• Paid communities expertise slower progress, and you have to market the neighborhood to attract in customers.
• Paying members need their cash’s value and can examine in to verify they’re getting worth out of your provide. It’s essential stay dedicated to offering high-value, unique content material and maintaining members engaged.

As I discussed above, free and paid on-line communities are the 2 major fashions. Throughout the two, nonetheless, there are additionally owned and freemium on-line communities. I’ll focus on the 2 under.

Owned On-line Group

An owned on-line neighborhood is one that you just construct and handle your self. You could have full management over your owned neighborhood and the content material you share, and you may monetize (or not) as you see match.

Any such neighborhood might be so simple as a discussion board you create in your web site or extra superior like a membership website you construct or subscription tiers you provide on a neighborhood platform web site like Patreon.

Watch out to view your social media profiles as an “owned” possibility. Sure, you create your profiles, however it’s a must to comply with the platform guidelines fairly than make your performance.

Finest For

I like to recommend owned communities for companies, manufacturers, or creators/influencers trying to create a managed setting, encourage engagement that helps you meet model objectives, and deepen relationships with members.

Professionals of Owned On-line Communities

The principle professional to owned communities is that you’ve got full management, like the principles you set for members to comply with, the branded shade schemes you employ, and whether or not you monetize your neighborhood to generate income.

You additionally get deeper perception into your neighborhood than you’ll on non-owned platforms, and also you don’t need to compete with the noise of different communities.

Cons of Owned On-line Communities

A con of owned on-line communities is that you just create them your self, which requires time and sources. Natural progress might be restricted, and in case your neighborhood is paid, you need to present ongoing worth to maintain members engaged.

Freemium On-line Group

A freemium on-line neighborhood combines free and paid choices. Informal customers can keep informal, and individuals who need extra will pay for extra.

The paid choices sometimes run on tiered fashions, the place every step up contains the content material from the earlier tier plus further unique perks.

Finest For

I like to recommend freemium communities to these wanting to draw a big consumer base with fundamental choices and unique content material for essentially the most customers.

You’ll entice each those that don’t need to pay and those that do, supplying you with two separate teams of individuals to study.

Professionals of Freemium On-line Communities

I feel Amy Porterfield, host of On-line Advertising Made Straightforward, gave my teammate Caroline Forsey the most effective rationalization of the advantages of a freemium neighborhood:

“When constructing your on-line neighborhood, your aim is all the time to depart your followers considering, ‘If that is what they provide without spending a dime, I ponder what their paid content material is like?’ So don’t be afraid to provide your greatest stuff away without spending a dime.”

Image Source

You possibly can constantly construct model consciousness and have interaction with a normal viewers whereas additionally utilizing the draw of premium content material to entice members to grow to be paid customers (income technology alternative).

You can even decrease churn charges by downgrading those that cancel subscriptions to fundamental customers that you just re-engage and doubtlessly encourage to restart subscriptions.

Cons of Freemium On-line Communities

The most important problem with freemium communities is discovering a transparent stability for every tier. You need to have interaction your free customers however not a lot that you just go away your paid customers hanging.

Discovering a stability is essential as a result of your paid members will probably be ready for these premium choices, and customers eager about upgrading need to see a key differentiator and value-add for any funds they make.

Methods to Select the Proper Group Enterprise Mannequin

Now that concerning the totally different neighborhood fashions, it’s time to resolve what works greatest for you.

That can assist you by means of your course of, I requested community-building consultants to share their prime suggestions for selecting between free and paid communities. Let’s dive in.

Perceive the aim of your neighborhood.

In this piece, I focus on how one can construct a web based neighborhood in depth, however step one is figuring out your objectives for beginning a neighborhood, as these will influence what you create.

So, equally, one of the vital steps to picking between free vs paid on-line communities is knowing why you’re making a neighborhood.

Robel de Jesus, Company Communications Group Head at SAFC, agrees with this and instructed me that this was considered one of his major concerns when he created a web based neighborhood at his firm.

He stated: “At SAFC, after we launched the SAFC Heroes neighborhood, our goal was to have interaction with people eager about sustainable enterprise practices and company social accountability. We opted for a free neighborhood mannequin as a result of it aligned with our aim to maximise attain and inclusivity, which is crucial for fostering widespread engagement and influence.”

He says paid communities are extra applicable for conditions the place, for instance, you’re providing issues like unique content material or networking alternatives, which require extra sources and efforts to handle successfully.

Right here’s his tip: “In the end, the selection between a free or paid neighborhood ought to hinge on the strategic targets of the neighborhood: attain and inclusivity versus exclusivity and specialised worth. For manufacturers trying to construct a loyal, engaged neighborhood, think about how the construction helps your long-term objectives and the perceived worth you want to present to your members.”

Perceive your objectives on your on-line neighborhood.

Sure, objectives and goal are comparable, however I’m separating them as a result of they imply two various things for neighborhood constructing.

Your goal is why you’re constructing your neighborhood, and your objectives are what you’ll accomplish based mostly on that goal.

“Take it from somebody who’s constructed fairly a couple of profitable on-line communities: Making a thriving on-line neighborhood entails making a key determination proper on the outset—ought to or not it’s free, or ought to it require a membership payment? The proper selection hinges on what you goal to attain along with your neighborhood,” says Jonathan Buffard, Digital Advertising Director at Bottom Line Marketing Agency.

A free neighborhood is likely to be your greatest guess in case your major aim is to construct engagement, model consciousness, and model visibility.

You possibly can entice numerous customers as a result of there are not any boundaries to entry, and neighborhood members are desirous to work together with folks like them.

Buffard says that there are situations the place a paid neighborhood may make extra sense: “In case your neighborhood acts as an important step inside your gross sales funnel, or if it‘s the primary product you’re providing, charging a membership payment could possibly be advantageous.”

Earlier than you resolve to cost for entry, Buffard recommends asking your self these 4 vital questions:

• What distinctive advantages does your neighborhood provide?
• What would you pay for entry to such a neighborhood?
• May potential members discover comparable teams without spending a dime on social platforms?
• What unique benefits would they acquire by becoming a member of yours?

Decide whether or not your viewers is keen to pay.

Your objectives on your neighborhood are vital, however you’ll have bother reaching them for those who don’t think about whether or not your viewers might help you meet them.

Given this, who your viewers is performs a major position in the neighborhood mannequin you select as a result of you have to account for his or her wants, preferences, and willingness to pay.

For instance, if you wish to create an unique neighborhood however your viewers doesn’t appear eager about extra unique choices, a paid neighborhood could be a waste of your time.

You’d seemingly discover extra success with a freemium mannequin that allows you to entice a big group of non-paying customers and a smaller group extra keen to pay.

Stefano Lodola, Proprietor of Think Languages LLC, instructed me he needed to make this evaluation throughout his course of: “As somebody who runs a language-learning web site, I recommend rigorously contemplating your model‘s worth proposition and, most significantly, your target market’s willingness to pay.”

He provides, “In my case, I cater to language learners who have to see enchancment of their language proficiency. A paid neighborhood could also be simpler for them since they need to have entry to helpful and unique content material. In the end, it actually is dependent upon your objectives and targets and whether or not will probably be sustainable in the long term.”

Contemplate the extent of engagement you’re searching for.

I assume you need to foster engagement inside your neighborhood, so the extent of interplay you need performs a component within the mannequin you select.

Victor Hsi, Founding father of UGC Creator, manages free and paid communities and stated engagement is a crucial issue to contemplate. He says, “In free communities, most members be a part of with out contributing. They could be a part of out of curiosity or to entry free info and can seemingly not be actively taking part.”

Alternatively, he says {that a} neighborhood with a subscription payment can “Encourage extra energetic, value-adding participation. For instance, by establishing a small $1 subscription payment, members are prompted to make a transaction, which inherently results in elevated dedication and participation in the neighborhood.”

He provides, “This easy act of pulling out their bank card and being invested in studying what the neighborhood has to supply them typically makes members extra pushed to have interaction and community inside the neighborhood.”

Contemplate how unique you need your neighborhood to be.

Casey Meraz, Proprietor & Digital Advertising Knowledgeable of Casey Meraz, shares his prime tip with me: “Whenever you’re deciding between a free or paid on-line neighborhood, take into consideration the extent of exclusivity you need to provide.”

Free communities enable for various ranges of participation however quicker progress.

Meraz says free communities additionally “Provide accessibility to a wider viewers, together with those that is likely to be invaluable contributors however should not able to pay. Whereas free communities won’t have the inherent sense of exclusivity, you possibly can nonetheless create worth by means of high-quality content material and energetic administration.”

Selecting between the 2 can come right down to the exclusivity you need to provide.

You possibly can construct a extra certified group of actively engaged members with paid communities since everybody who joins is keen to spend cash to reap the advantages. You possibly can create bigger communities with free choices, however there’s no assure that members who be a part of will take part in conversations.

Over to You

Free and paid communities profit those that use them, however each help you meet totally different objectives.

For those who leverage the recommendation from the consultants I spoke to, you possibly can decide the mannequin that works greatest for you and helps you meet your targets.