The key objectives of developing online communities include increasing user engagement, offering more cost-effective support, creating customer satisfaction, and turning clients into advocates. However, there are individuals and organisations who have begun to monetize their online communities by extracting money off them. Have you ever asked how you should do the same thing? Let us recommend you how to monetize online communities.
Charge for membership/premium subscription
At first, you can provide the user with a free basic membership to set up your community. Then, try to pack your community with added value. As it expands and users continue to engage and explore more knowledge, you can give them exclusive content based on subscriptions, such as case studies, white papers or unique access to podcasts, webinars, etc.
Advertising
By far this has been the most popular method of monetization. You can look for businesses that wish to market their products to your community users and charge them for promotion. This can give them the sponsored areas of your community & the opportunities to participate in their brands’ topics or discussion or place their banner advertisements.
Cross-selling
In addition to the strategies you are now using to make money from your online community, think about adding recommendations or great CTA to encourage your users to buy additional items. When done well, cross-selling favours both the vendor and the customer, because it is for everyone’s advantage that the tactic is implemented properly.
Affiliate Marketing
This is commission-based marketing, in which the providers will give you a referral fee on products you advertise on your site. However, you need to promote the products that you and hopefully your members like. This means those are good & valuable products. Don’t just dive in the money-only game because it can affect your community engagement.
Organize events, conferences, etc.
The moment you start charging an event entrance fee, people’s expectations are rising. So, performing beyond the norm is vital to your reputation and potential performance. Whichever format you choose for the events, begin tiny and obsess with the info. You will draw much experience and discover fresh insights about how to monetize your community. Collaborating with speakers, coaches, influencers, etc to make your events more valuable and attractive. Always remember to concentrate on the quality!
There are many ways to monetize a community. But first, always remember to create and add more value to your community before extracting from your members.
Let’s build and monetize your community today with phpFox. Along with free consultancy, we offer an optimal package while setting up and other services for your ideal customer community. Do not hesitate to contact us for further discussion or drop us a message to hello@phpfox.com