How do you turn your readers into a community?

I built Micro SaaS Ideas to 25,000 subscribers, and then we realized there was a need to build a community to give a way for users to interact. So, I built Micro SaaS HQ which connects the paid subscribers to a closed community of builders. Mine is built on Circle, but I think people are using Discord, Telegram as well.

But please note that running a community is not easy and takes a huge chunk of time.

Substack is a platform for writers to share their own newsletters and be involved in a community of writers. I am not sure if you can create a group for your subscribers exclusively however this is a good idea to bring unity and interaction between subscribers on a common topic they all enjoy.

Doing this at a smaller scale with my side project https://dayquest.carrd.co/ (gamified productivity framework + community)

But I've also done this at a larger scale (thousands of email addresses to a community that grew to a thousand).

You'll want to decide on a platform for your community based on your audience's preferences and how you want the community to operate.

As an example, for Dayquest I'm using Discord because gamers generally have a Discord account.

Once you have the platform or even before, you'll want to start listing your community's vision/mission, purpose, goals, and what makes a member of your community (you'll want clear distinction on what makes a member so people feel special)

After this you'll want to think of the new member flow from entering the community and reading the welcome/rules to becoming an engaged member who's attending events or posting a lot in the community.

It's always great to add some gamification by having different roles/perks that people can earn over time if they stay engaged in the community .

Hope this helps!

It sounds like you're looking for ways to turn your readers into an engaged community. Building a community around your newsletter can be a great way to help your readers get to know each other and develop relationships. Some popular tools for building online communities include subreddits, Facebook groups, and WhatsApp groups. You can also consider creating a forum or Discord server to encourage conversations among your readers.

Best thing i've used is discord, simple to join and users can chat with each other, with admins, or also lurk (hello lurkers). It's also free to use which is always a bonus

by participating in the community you can be the part of community

A tool does not define a community, it's something you serve. A tool (such as Slack, Discord, Facebook, etc) should be a much smaller part of your community efforts...say, like 20%.

But you have readers, first start caring about them and finding ways to have conversations to understand what their real needs are.

Conversations can happen anywhere, they are happening here right now.

You can then expand on that by perhaps inviting them to an event or into a platform, but this likely won't be enough to keep them. People generally get tired with conversations pretty quickly and want more to address their needs.

One such example is how Indie Hackers started, it was focused on Founder Interviews when it started. Interviews are really just edited conversations...depending how you look at it.