How the best online communities monetize

Biggest takeaways from this research:

1. Layering monetization options makes communities antifragile. If you are too reliant on one source, that source becomes a liability.
2. “Build distribution, then build whatever you want.” All of the community builders featured here used their followings to attract a community of likeminded people. Build content magnets, then use your community to satisfy the attention demand from your magnet.
3. Community builder monetization software is a massive market. Companies like Pallet (job board infrastructure), Memberspace (private memberships), Podia(paid courses), beehiiv (premium content), BuiltFirst (software perks and discounts), and AngelList (syndicates and rolling funds) make it easier to capture value created.

Makerpad (Ben Tossell)

Overview: Makerpad is the best community for people upgrading their no-code skillset.

Ways Ben monetizes:

• Cohort-based learning community
  • private community + instructional videos led by experts
  • $50k in software discounts
• Co-sponsored content
  • companies pay to tell their story on the Makerpad website through tutorials and guides
• Job board
  • companies feature their job postings in front of the Makerpad community and pay a fee for the distribution help
• Rolling fund
  • LPs pay a quarterly fee in order to access Ben’s deal flow and invest with him

Lenny’s Newsletter (Lenny Ratchisky)

Overview: Lenny runs a private community of operators, builders, and product managers.

Ways Lenny monetizes:

• Private content and community
  • writes long-form essays on growth
  • free subscribers get one episode per month; paid subscribers get one per week
• Job board
  • companies pay money to be featured on the job board and included in the newsletter. Lenny will tweet featured roles to his 100k+ Twitter followers.
• Paid course
  • cohort-based learning course for people to accelerate their product management career

Visualize Value (Jack Butcher)

Overview: Jack builds things to help others build things, and he has built a community of builders around his work.

Ways Jack monetizes:

• Digital products
  • sells three courses
    • How to Visualize Value
    • Build Once, Sell Twice
    • Permissionless Apprentice
• NFTs
  • has turned his designs into NFTs on Rarible
• Merch
  • sells clothing related to meme culture and crypto
• Consulting
  • sells his time via high-ticket consulting

Trends.vc (Dru Riley)

Overview: Trends.vc condenses market research into five minute reports that people actually enjoy reading.

Ways Dru monetizes:

• Private content and community
  • writes in-depth research reports on topics that people are interested in
  • free subscribers get a lighter version; paying subscribers get more actionable items to capitalize on the trends + access to 1,200 community members
• Digital products
  • if people want access to reports but don’t want to become a subscriber, they can buy them as individual products on Gumroad
• NFTs
  • created a collection on Open Sea that gives holders lifetime access to Trends Pro
  • links new pieces at the top of the newsletter to make sure it is seen by a huge audience

Nomad List (Pieter Levels):

Overview: Nomad List is the go-to community for digital nomads across the world.

Ways Pieter monetizes:

• Paid database and community:
  • private database of information on different places to live
  • private community of other nomads
• Job board:
  • companies pay money to be featured on the job board and have their roles shared in the Slack group (members have to pay to post within the #hiring channel)
• Ads:
  • companies pay to be featured and promoted to the group (airlines, insurance companies, etc.)

Bankless (Ryan Sean Adams + David Hoffman)

Overview: Bankless is a community that helps people level up their crypto strategy

Ways Ryan and David monetize:

• Premium newsletter and Discord:
  • premium writing with actionable advice for readers to make more money
• Job board:
  • also run a job board and talent collective where businesses can subscribe to get access into their talent pool of readers interested in crypto, Web3, and DeFi.
• Ads:
  • companies pay to be featured and promoted in their weekly newsletter, podcast, and YouTube videos that go out to tens of thousands of subscribers every day
• Affiliate links:
  • recommend products in their daily newsletters and get a kick back on business generated
• DAO:
  • creates and rewards contribution from members through $BANK tokens

➡️ Check out the full list of companies we looked at here. ⬅️