Local SEO Community
Discuss local SEO and Google My Business tips & strategies
I had someone reach out to me who was interested in sponsoring my community.
They are a software tool in the local SEO space, and my community is a place to discuss all things local SEO, so it was a perfect fit.
We agreed to $700/month, which I was pretty happy with 😊
Crossed over the 1,100 member mark on Local SEO Community
Growth has basically just been more of the same: keep the community a fun and engaging place, and members will share with others in their circles.
Onwards and upwards!
I reached profitability with Local SEO Community 🤓
I posted on IH recently about how I found my first paying sponsor for the community: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/how-i-got-my-first-paying-sponsor-for-my-community-922f865291
The community runs on Circle, which costs $79/month. That is the only cost of running the community.
The sponsor is paying me more than that, so I have officially reached profitability 😎
I launched Local SEO Community about 4 months ago, and just crossed 1,000 members.
I'm pretty happy with engagement in the community. There are normally multiple new posts each day, and each post usually get replies from other community members within 15 minutes or so.
The original plan was to turn it into a paid community once I hit 1,000 members, but I think that has changed.
I've been approached by a few different companies about sponsoring Local SEO Community, so I think the plan now is to keep it free to join, and monetize through sponsors.
I'll post here about the sponsorship deal once that is locked in 🤓
3 different SEO SaaS tools agreed to offer exclusive discounts to members of Local SEO Community.
Hoping for a win-win scenario: Visitors to the site have additional incentive to join the community, these SEO tools gets more branding and clicks from members of the community.
How did I get them to agree to offer discounts?
I just emailed them and asked 🤓
The discounts are in the members-only section: https://www.localseocommunity.com/c/discounts
Local SEO Community just crossed 600 members 😎
The recent growth came from a post I published on Reddit, in an SEO subreddit, explaining a little about the community and how it will only be free to join until we reach 1,000 members.
I would say that reddit post directly led to about 60 signups 😊
Pumped to hit 520 members just a few days after reaching 500.
Growth has basically been more of the same stuff in the previous milestone posts.
A little about Local SEO Community for anyone who's curious:
Local SEO Community is a place to discuss and learn more about local SEO and Google My Business tips and strategies.
What is local SEO, and how is it different from normal SEO?
Local SEO is the practice of increasing the search visibility of brick-and-mortar businesses.
For example, a restaurant doesn't need to worry about ranking globally for the search term "food".
Rather, that restaurant just wants to show up at the top of the map search results (AKA Map Pack) when people search "food" in their area.
For brick-and-mortar businesses, local SEO is normally crucial to success.
-
1
Very cool Davis. Im preparing a platform for paid groups and if you dont mind have two question. If you set a price, say $5 a month to join the club, what percentage of your users will remain? And how do yo plan on charging your subscribers? Thank you.
-
1
Hey Steban, all existing members will receive a free-for-life membership once I turn on the paywall.
My community is built on Circle, and they offer a few different ways to accept payments: https://community.circle.so/c/customization/how-do-i-charge-for-my-community
-
I posted Local SEO Community in a Facebook Group, mentioning how it will only be free-for-life for the first 1,000 members.
This led to a whole bunch of signups, thanks to the FOMO of people not wanting to miss the free deal.
After the first 1000 members, I think it will be $50/year to join. Still not certain though.
Local SEO Community has added about 20 additional members in the last week or so 🙂
I am pretty happy with the pace of growth overall, but it could always be higher.
My recent focus has been on reaching out to some software companies in the local SEO space and asking if they would like to offer any exclusive discounts for members of Local SEO Community.
Hoping for a win-win scenario: Members have additional incentive to join the community, the software companies get more branding and clicks from members of the community.
-
1
Congrats! What are your plans to monetize it?
Crossed 425 members just a few days ago, and now at 450 members.
My plan is to keep it free-for-life for every who joins prior to reaching 1000 members. After that, I plan on charging new members ~$50/year to join.
I think this scarcity has helped grow the community so far. Members have invited others because they know the free spots won't last long 🤓
6 Comments
Congrats! How are you doing the sponsor? Just a regular post every week with their ad? What community platform are you using?
Thanks Yaro!
The community is on Circle: www.localSEOcommunity.com
They get featured in the "Sponsor" section, and they are also get featured at the top of each weekly newsletter, which shows the top posts from the previous week.
@DavisBaer interesting choice :) Why did you go with Circle? Do members actively goes to the Sponsor section?
I wrote about why I went with Circle a few months back: https://www.indiehackers.com/post/rented-vs-owned-community-platforms-30ce12f10b
Not really sure how often people go to the Sponsor section, but when you're visiting the community from a computer, it's always present, so there is always at least some branding/impressions to gain for sponsors.
Thanks! I'll give this a read. I'm building Playgroup, a community platform creators. And am always researching why someone chooses Circle or Discourse or any other platform.
Congratulations, Davis! Great to find a sponsor that aligns with the community so well :)