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$5K in one month!

I can't believe I forgot to post an update last week when I crossed that milestone, and I'm actually at $6K now, but wanted to celebrate with the IH community nonetheless!

I launched the Ness Labs community with the goal to create a sustainable source of revenue to support my writing, and to be able to rely less on consulting, which can fluctuate greatly in terms of income. It took me exactly 30 days to get to $5K in revenue.

I'm so happy because I've been pouring my heart into this project, and it's amazing to see people showing their support this way and having a tangible proof that they find the work useful.

The community is designed for entrepreneurs, creators, makers and researchers—people who like to come up with new ideas, understand how the mind works, and want to be their most productive and creative self.

Included in the membership are exclusive articles and research reports, a private community, virtual meetups, workshops, and Mind Match, where I manually match community members for 1:1 coffee chats.

While I initially was planning on only offering a yearly membership, the current circumstances and the high levels of uncertainty for many people—including my target audience—made me decide to add a monthly membership. The pricing is currently $5/month or $50/year.

My main acquisition channels at the moment are the free weekly newsletter I send to almost 10K subscribers, and sharing my work on Twitter where some people sign up straight to the membership.

Super happy to answer any questions for Indie Hackers thinking of launching such a paid community!

  1. 1

    Hi @anthilemoon congrats on what you've achieved and thank you for sharing the results 🙏Quick question, how long did it take you to reach 10k subscribers?

  2. 1

    Congrats dear Anne-Laure!
    So happy for you.
    🎉😍

  3. 1

    Congrats @anthilemoon. It's very inspiring the way you've grown your community.

  4. 1

    So glad Anne-Laure you're doing great! I'm so excited to read your articles and your feed and journey on Twitter!

    I think you're building a good path and doing a great job!

    Congratulations well deserved.

    hugs,
    Victor

  5. 1

    Hey!,

    Congrats on your achievements, sounds like you are making excellent progress!

    How long has it been since you started to achieve 5k revenue?. What platform did you use for your newsletter distribution?.

    Amazing work again, may it long continue 😀🥳.

    1. 1

      Hi Sophie, I started last summer. You can read all about the early days in this IH interview!

  6. 1

    This is great Anne-Laure! Reading your articles filled with experience and knowledge helps improve my life. I am planning to buy your subscription soon:-)

  7. 1

    Wow. I remember it wasn't a long time ago since I heard you started Ness Labs. How time flies! And it's great to see you made such a big progress Anne! Congrats!

      1. 1

        I signed up the annual member, but I cannot log in. It says email doesn't exist 😳

  8. 1

    Hey that's great. Congrats!!

    May I know if this was a paid community from start? And how much time did it take to get you here.. I did start a community recently but not sure if I should make it paid till I get a decent amount of audience first.. Thanks!

    1. 1

      Hi Sai, thank you! I created a free newsletter then a paid community :)

  9. 1

    Amazing congrats Anne-Laure. Way to go 🎉

  10. 1

    what a journey, nice to see it paying off in dolla dolla!

  11. 1

    Congratulations Anne-Laure :_)

    @pauldmet's comment is kinda fitting given my milestone today. Got a few questions if you don't mind:

    • What the breakdown is off monthly to yearly?
    • Now that you've launched what's the rate of sign ups like now?

    money money money

    1. 1

      Thank you! Currently at 56% for yearly so it's pretty balanced in terms of distribution. The rate of sign-ups is between 1-5 new members a day.

  12. 1

    Awesome 👏

    Great example of how to monetize a newsletter audience without doing sponsorships.

  13. 1

    Congratutions on hitting your milestone. Your content is excellent and you continue to bring in more and more visitors down the road, which compounds eventually to more paid subscribers. It's great that your voice is very unique in the space where mind meets tech.

  14. 1

    Great work!

    Do you have any plan in mind for when you will raise prices? I could see this easily going to $10 in not too long if you wanted to.

    1. 2

      Thank you! I'll announce it in advance and I'll grandfather everyone who signed up before I raise the prices (that's why I call them "founding members").

      1. 1

        Good plan! And well done again! 6K is great!

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