💬 Paid Communities: Rituals, 90–9–1 Rule, Community-as-a-Service

In this Trends.vc Report, we talk about Community-as-a-Service, market networks, validating demand, building rituals and more.

💎 Why It Matters

A group of like-minded people can help you grow faster.

🔍 Problem

Free communities tend to be noisy without a barrier to entry.

💡 Solution

Paid communities use strategic friction to build high-signal environments.

🏁 Players

Paid Communities

Trends Pro • Community of successful founders discovering new markets and ideas
Rosieland • Everything about community building
10xmanagers • Learn management and leadership
Empowering.Cloud • Community for Microsoft Teams industry professionals
Cloud Software Association • Association of cloud software vendors, resellers, distributors and platforms
Frauvis • Community of black women in tech
The Futur • Courses, coaching and community for creative professionals

Paid Community Tools

Levellr • Build a thriving fan community on Discord or Telegram
MemberSpace • Turn any part of your website into members-only with just a few clicks
Ghost • Publish content, send newsletters & offer paid subscriptions to members
Pico • Build landing pages, grow your audience and get paid
Notion • All-in-one workspace for your notes, tasks, wikis and databases
Spiffy • Conversion-optimized checkouts and one-click upsells
Payhere • Payment links to help you collect payments online

Paid Community Platforms

Discord • Create invite-only channels for paid members
Tribe • Customizable community platform for businesses
Heights • Create a community of engaged learners with forums, gamification, automations and more
Orbit • Platform for building, growing and automating your community
Mighty Networks • Build courses, memberships and communities on iOS, Android and the web
Podia • Build websites, courses, digital products and paid communities

🔮 Predictions

We’ll see more Community-as-a-Service professionals. They will help you build, launch and monetize your paid community.

Bri Leever builds community-led brands.

Ece Kurtaraner is a freelance community builder.

Late Checkout builds communities for your products.

Hard Numbers builds engaging communities on any platform.

Sara Saunders helps you build, grow and maintain stronger communities.

We’ll see more niche paid communities. They will cater to long-tail interests unaddressed by other communities.

NABJ is a community of black journalists.

Fulhamish is a community of fans of Fulham FC.

AAJA is a community of Asian-American journalists.

Refresh Miami is Miami’s tech and startup community.

SENT is a community of Catholic founders and executives.

International Gem Society is a community of gemstone professionals and enthusiasts.

TopMusicPro helps music teachers build music studios and grow their music teaching business.

Next Gen Men teaches positive masculinity, mental wellness, healthy relationships and gender equity among young boys.

We’ll see more market networks. They will combine marketplace and social network features. Such as branded profiles, product listings and direct connections.

Microns lets you connect with startup buyers and sellers.

HerHouse is a community of female hosts and solo travelers.

Foster connects writers and editors that contribute to text drafts.

Houzz connects homeowners and home designers with Houzz Pro.

SoleSavy connects members who want to buy, sell or trade sneakers.

Mylance is a community and a marketplace of tech and startup consultants.

MicroAcquire connects buyers with startup founders to discuss acquisitions.

Fishbrain is a community and marketplace for anglers who connect with each other and fishing brands.

Time Bank of the Rockies connects people and organizations who exchange resources and services for free.

☁️ Opportunities

Validate demand with presales and waitlists. Don’t build a community nobody wants.

Rosie Sherry presold The Indiependent to 27 people for $325.

Charlie Ward presold Ramen Club to 20 people for $500 MRR.

Framework is building a school and community of tech entrepreneurs. You can join the waitlist to see when they launch.

Build rituals to help members stay productive and accountable.

Trends.vc has daily standups, 1-on-1 founder chats and masterminds.

Makerlog has daily tasks and streaks.

Indie Worldwide has monthly live calls.

Founders Board has monthly 90-minute group calls.

48 Days Eagles has small, focused 1-hour group meetups 4 times a month.

Offer a clear benefit. Show how your community leads to specific outcomes.

Drumeo teaches how to play drums.

The Golficity teaches how to play golf.

Pipeline teaches how to livestream like a pro.

Launch Club helps you get support for your product launch.

Blogging for Devs teaches developers how to write SEO-optimized content online.

Monthly Makers helps you launch a no-code MVP in 1 month by joining a monthly cohort.

Build a community for your paid newsletter to help readers with similar interests connect with each other.

Lenny’s Newsletter has a private Slack community for paid readers.

Bankless has a community of crypto enthusiasts and professionals.

Trends.vc has a private community of 1,000+ successful founders discovering new markets and ideas.

Micro SaaS HQ shares research-backed profitable Micro-SaaS ideas. It has an exclusive community of paid subscribers.

Build community-specific tools. Share tools designed to solve members’ problems.

BiggerPockets shares property, rent and rehab calculators.

The Blog Societies shares pitch, invoice, media kit templates and more.

Modern Mastery shares marketing strategies, content frameworks, sales scripts and more.

🏔️ Risks

Negative Network Effects • Engagement drops as niche communities grow without a way to efficiently sort contributions and content.
Key-Person Risk • If you are the sole source of value for the community, you may face burnout and/or the inability to sell the community as an asset.
Platform Risk • You are subject to the platform’s terms, outages and roadmap. Slack is a popular, but not an ideal choice for running paid communities.

🔑 Key Lessons

Build an audience to solve the chicken-and-egg problem. Trends.vc reached 20,000+ subscribers before Trends Tribe meetups were launched.
Show appreciation by highlighting active members. Trends.vc highlights contributors at the end of each report.
Online communities suffer from participation inequality. The 90–9–1 rule says that in most online communities, 90% of users lurk, 9% contribute a little and 1% create content. While this is a well-known phenomenon, it can look like your community is stagnant.

🔥 Hot Takes

Paid communities will let members review new applications. WIP is not paid, but it’s an invite-only community. If nobody knows you, WIP will share your application with existing members. They will decide if you can join the community.
We’ll see hyper-niche paid communities. MAP Community is a community of museum professionals who aim to build more inclusive and innovative museums.
Paid communities should use scarcity tactics. Use limited-time offers to tap into people’s fear of missing out. Sophia Amoruso made her paid community part of her Business Class cohort-based course which opens twice a year. You can join the waitlist to not miss it.

😠 Haters

“The 90–9–1 rule has been challenged. It’s not accurate anymore.”
We said this rule applies to most online communities. Not all. Remember negative network effects. You can expect higher engagement in small communities and lower in big ones.

“Paid communities are exclusionary.”
So are cohort-based courses, paid newsletters and top universities. Great things cost money. It can be wise to join a paid community if you can’t find the value it gives anywhere else.

“I have a free community. Members won’t be happy if I lock it behind a paywall.”
You don’t have to lock everything. Freemium is a viable option if you don’t want to upset existing members.

“Most of your examples are online communities. How to get started with an **offline **paid community?”
While starting an online community is easier, you can apply most of the tactics to offline communities. Host offline events and masterminds. Vet members and run cohort-based courses. These are common among offline paid communities.

🔗 Links

Which Paid Communities Do You Belong to? • The tweet behind this report.
Paid Communities • Previous version of this report.
How I Built a Paid Community to 1,000+ Members in 10 Months • Dru Riley talks about building and growing the Trends PRO community to 1,000+ paying members.

📁 Related Reports

Cohort-Based Courses • How to build, grow and monetize cohort-based courses
Token-Gated Communities • How to build deep alignment between community members
Audience-First Products • How to validate ideas, get feedback and build trust
Internet Challenges • How to build strong brands and communities using time-bound challenges
Build in Public • How to break through noise by sharing wins, failures and lessons

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