Building your online community, whether on a closed platform or an open social media platform poses a number of challenges for any community manager looking to monetize their audience. If you’ve got a robust advertising strategy in place (incorporating PPC, SEO and Social Media) perhaps consider additional revenue streams such as:
- Onsite eStore – merchandise/swag to include branded USBs, tote bags, pens, stickers, pins, quirky gadgets
- Paid workshops (physical locations)
If you’ve opted for a tiered membership subscription model, some initial ideas could include:
- Premium member badge/avatar
- Distinct username color
- Discounted advertising rates on header/skyscraper banner ads
- Increased private message space – up to X messages can be stored. Progress bar (see OK Cupid example) detailing what percentage of inbox used
- Free premium posting to X forum, once every X days. Non-premium members are limited to $X per post, once every X days.
- Access to exclusive forums and chat areas only available to Premium and Corporate (if applicable) members
- Lower flood limit – a lowered wait time between posts and searches
- Discount on advertising through any third party affiliates
- Digital subscription to trade publication X (affiliates?)
- Corporate/group membership option?
- Corporate badge and presence.
- Reduced limits in the advertisement forums. Corporate members can post once every 3 days, compared to 6 for Premium and 7 for non-premium
- Occasional discounts for ad forum upgrades, such as sticky topics, highlighted topics, etc
- Quick start guide to maximizing your Corporate membership benefits
- Ability to private message up to X members at once
- Private message receipts and tracking
- Access to an exclusive forum only for X Members
- Increased photo gallery space – ie. from 256 MB to 512 MB
- Ability to be “invisible” and not be listed as online, even when viewing the site
- Option to disable advertising on certain page(s)
- Fast track access to the founders
- Ability to follow an unlimited number of threads
- Special template for improved mobile access to forum(s)
- Weekly video webcasts where founders will answer questions from Premium Members. Also released as a podcast
- Daily analysis of topical news stories
- Exclusive video clips
- Exclusive photos of founders on the road, at conferences etc
For a fuller community development roadmap process, here is a useful visual on how this process may work.
