The Business of Community presents a case study of Dreamers & Doers, a paid community for women entrepreneurs in its seventh year. It is a reflection on the past seven years of success synthesized into a set of six simple takeaways. 

• • Build a community you want to be a member of-this one’s pretty simple. 
  • Solve your members’ problems-discover and address your members’ pain points to deliver the best value. 
  • Charge enough to make your business sustainable-Members are willing to pay for value. You want to charge enough to be able to spend the time and attention needed for growing your community. 
  • Be thoughtful about growth-a large part of your community’s value lies with its members. You want to attract and retain the right kind of members with a careful prospect review process. 

• • Celebrate and feature members to generate connections-Foster networking among members by highlighting their work in your community. This also gives you a new stream of content. 
  • Forget gimmicky “engagement” metrics-constant conversations in a community aren’t everything. Reframe your idea of engagement to include longer, more thoughtful, but less frequent comments and responses. 

Read the full article here: businessofcommunity.co/how-a-7-year-old-paid-community-works/