How to grow a niche community?

• hang out where your people hang out, no need to spam, just be human
• consume the things they (would like to) consume
• be useful to them
• be human

Doing this you will learn more about what appeals to them and what challenges they may have. Then in turn it will help you communicate effectively (and at their level) with them and help you evolve your product towards something that truly appeals to them.

Don't spam, it's not worth it. If you are in it for the long game, take your time and earn the respect.

Hello Jose Leon, buen dia!

I am going to speak bluntly here, I hope that is okay with you.
(Guessing from your name you are Spanish or South American, in which case you can take it! Haha!)

First of all, thank you for your question. I appreciate the thoughtfulness behind it, and the authenticity of your request! Not a lot of that going around at the moment. ;) Going "outside your comfort zone" is always tough, and worthy. I cheer you on!

Second, your design is beautiful. Very simple, beautiful, and makes me feel like I'm in a physical space. I love it!

Now to the harsh part. What is the virtue of CoffeeList.co? Is it a list, or a community? (Was CoffeePassion available as a domain? or CoffeeComm? CoffeeConnects?) There are 100s of sites out there about coffee, clubs, schools, etc etc etc.

What is your dream? Your vision? Are you trying to make money off me, or do you love coffee too?

As a partner in a solar coffee roastery, and someone who has owned a cafe, I can say I'd love to participate in a community like this! But, it confuses me when I arrive at the site. If you sent me a cold email from "CoffeeList", I wouldn't open it. It sounds like another paid directory, and we do just fine on our own.

Now, approach me as someone who LOVES coffee, and wants to know about our solar roasting process, how we built the company, etc etc, and wants to do a cupping with me... now we are talking!

Let's debate about Colombians drinking coffee "from the bottle" and what vitamins it provides, and the recent trends of highest-end coffee cocktail bars in East Asia, and the founder of Bulletproof, and whether the exploding barista phase has finally settled into maturity, and what machines you prefer, and whether the in-home espresso machine is a good or bad thing. Let's argue over the secret ingredients for the best cunape & chipa, and have a brawl over serving the coffee first, or waiting for the medialuna to bake.

Let's conspire to break open the countries who export the beans and whose people can't get it locally. And to uplift a different tiny grower each month on your site, and tell the real stories of their lives and not the pretty Starbucks version.

Then offer me a membership, and to put my roastery on your map. I'll probably be a friend for life.

<3
~Ki

i love that you're here, first of all! this is a good place to be.

here's how i start building communities from scratch!

https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-to-start-a-new-community-from-scratch-8dad7e0096

lmk if you have questions!

Right now I'm doing a blog with interviews with successful community builders. You might find them inspiring. https://panion.com/blog/community-builders-interview-anya-cherrice is particularly interesting.

Hey @jrleonr, I wrote this post sometime last week https://www.indiehackers.com/post/the-bare-minimum-to-start-a-community-261b5932b1, might give you some ideas on starting a community. Let me know if it helps.

Hey! I launched a series to cover the nuts and bolts of online community-building which might be helpful to you.

Site is here: digitalcampfires.co/

Recaps (w/ lots of juicy take-aways for brands) here: digitalcampfires.co/recaps

And sign-up for future episodes and content is here: digitalcampfires.co/jointhenext

Feel free to check it out and get in touch!

I have a bunch of resources on building communities with some examples of communities I really like the UX of. I highly recommend looking at 'The community-canvas' https://www.notion.so/sxhx/A-Community-Resource-re-Community-ddaf5cce08314eb8a9feaa50514e5d5b

Hi José, I've seen many posts about coffee on HackerNews and most of them get loads of upvotes. I see a good intersection between tech professionals and coffee. What if you start focusing on those? I'm one of those btw

Hi Jose (with the cool ' marks)

Sure, I feel ya. There's a few ways you can do it but here's what I ask myself.

1. What's the problem I'm solving?
2. Where are the people with that problem hanging out?
3. I go there and talk to the users and tell them about my product.

Also, signed up for your product. Very cool because I love coffee and want to learn more about how to make craft coffee but I don't use Slack so is it not possible to use it?

Do you want to charge money for Coffeelist or keep it free?

Hope this helps,

Bill