I will use a 7,000-word article to teach you how to build a popular paid community from scratch

How can ordinary people create a community that can be monetized?

This is an issue that I am very concerned about, and I believe it is also an issue that most people care about.

No matter how popular a course is, there are always many people who buy it but don’t participate, or only attend the first class and give up after the remaining three classes.

Learning is like everything else, many people always give up halfway.

If you have studied this course in depth, you will find that the finale of this course is Teacher Guan’s, which I personally feel is relatively more practical and easier to operate.

I personally think that the finale course is what all ordinary people should learn, because it is basic and practical enough. It would be a pity if you didn't stick to the end.

In view of the above pain points, we studied this course in depth and wrote this review article, which we believe will be of great help to ordinary people in building communities.

1. How to position the community?

Mr. Guan, a former copywriter at Ogilvy, has this opinion: Rather than thinking about community positioning, it is better to think about life positioning.

The method is also very simple. When you are young, keep trying. You can quickly try in multiple industries and you will find your own position.

The community is a product, and we need to think about what the users’ needs are?

Summarizes common community needs.

• The need to obtain high-quality information on vertical industries
• Personalized consultation needs
• Find professional reports and articles
• The need for mutual encouragement
• Crowdsourcing case collection and summary requirements
• Finding the need for on-the-same-frequency communication

So when you create a group, you need to think about what needs your community should meet.

Because I think there are too many paid knowledge courses now. Even if you learn, if you don’t practice deliberately, then all this knowledge will be useless to you.

So my community will hold a lot of activities to allow everyone to practice a certain skill one by one.

After you have thought about the general community needs, you also need to go into detail about specific industries and groups.

Summarizes four methods to explore community needs

• Google is the best teacher
• Your pain points are worth a thousand gold
• Lists are human nature
• Reverse thinking: work backwards from solutions to requirements

First, you can search on Google, and of course you can also search on Baidu . When you search for a keyword , Baidu's drop-down box and recommended search terms will prompt several groups of words.

These words are the results of big data , proving that many people have searched for these words and have related needs.

Second, your own pain points are also other people’s pain points.

For me, I had the pain point of being distracted by my mobile phone, so I found an app called "Forest" that solved my pain point and benefited me a lot. So my own community will also organize such activities to help everyone get rid of the distraction of mobile phones.

Third, the list is about human nature. The list of any platform is a tip , and it must be the most necessary part of human nature.

So I searched the WeChat Index myself and tested the popularity of my own positioning, and indeed there is a huge gap.

Fourth, use reverse thinking to deduce demand. For example, if I need to learn how to use Evernote, there will be various solutions. I can choose to read related articles, sign up for paid courses, or consult big Vs , Evernote official staff, etc.

So the community can also be one of the solutions.

Three methods for exploring community needs are summarized.

1. Let the community happen naturally

The establishment of a community is a natural behavior after it has gained influence and accumulated users.

The idea is that once you have influence, you will naturally build community. Although my own influence is not great, I still have some influence in a small circle. For example, the article I wrote on "Monetization of WeChat Moments Operations " has attracted nearly 500 people to add me on WeChat so far, and many people want to learn more about WeChat Moments operations.

So at this time, it was a natural and spontaneous thing for me to build a community.

2. Freshness brings its own potential

There is no doubt that new things have bonuses. Once others have done it, you will lose your first-mover advantage if you do it again. So at this time you need to consider new directions or seek differentiation from others.

3. Mining copper in the mountains

Reading Jin Yong, Jin Yong is his Tongshan, and he will continue to write content around Jin Yong. So what is your copper mountain?

The differences of a community are equivalent to its value points.

How to find the differences?

First, combine the depth and breadth of your field. Based on the depth of the field, users can be positioned as novice users or professional-level users.

The target audience of my community is advanced users between novices and professionals. They have already gotten started, but are not yet professional and need continuous evolution.

What is breadth? Take the new media community for example, my friends around me are also doing it. Some of them share new media information packages, some analyze new media cases, some provide new media information, and some make money by taking new media orders.

Second, the strength and value cycle of community positioning value. Some communities are temporary, like the community of our course, which is established temporarily and is short-term. Some communities last for one year, 21 days, or half a year. This type of community is long-term and requires long-term service.

The strength of value. Strong value means that the connection between group members is very strong and everyone has common needs. For example, Uncle Akiba’s IP training camp is to empower each other and let everyone gain energy. There are topics for discussion every day, and big names share from time to time, etc. Weak value means that the relationship between users is very weak, for example, everyone joins the group just to receive useful information packages.

Therefore, before you start building a community, you must consider your positioning clearly and find your own differences. Only then will your community survive.

2. How to set the price of community

✅How should you price your course/community so that it will become popular and grow explosively?

Pricing is strategic. Many people start with prices of 199 yuan, 299 yuan, 365 yuan, etc., which may discourage many people.

When customers don’t know you, you need to lower the entry threshold, but not simply by lowering the price. Instead, you can split the courses into beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels, or monthly, quarterly, and annual cards, rather than offering low prices. For example, Gengke uses low prices at the beginning, which also reduces the cost of trial and error for customers, making it easier for them to try.

In addition, you also have to consider your user group. If it is students, the pricing should be lower. If it is mothers or senior executives in the workplace, it can be higher.

Many teachers use a low-price strategy for Knowledge Planet. The threshold of 100 yuan is not high. He also suggested starting the price from 50 yuan, reaching 300 paying users , and then considering raising the price in a step-by-step manner.

Looking back over the past period of time, all the exposed courses were low-priced, even 39 yuan, 49 yuan, 59 yuan, and 69 yuan. This is enough to illustrate the current consumption status of knowledge-paying users.

In addition, step-by-step price increases will bring about explosive growth.

One of the key success factors of Xin Shixiang 's fission courses is the strategy of "increasing by five yuan for every 10,000 people", which gives users a sense of urgency and prompts them to place orders quickly.

The editor’s friend, the goddess “Ah Gu” is a marketing expert. Her best and most frequently used marketing method is the “price increase strategy at the end of each month”. She often mentions that the price will increase to xxx yuan next month, which gives users a sense of urgency. Especially at the end of the month, a large number of people will join her harem group.

That's where the price comes as a surprise. No matter what product it is, you must consider value, price, and positioning, so that you can achieve good growth~

3. Packaging of Knowledge Planet/Community

✅How to package your own community/course?

Whether it is a knowledge planet, a community, or a course, it all needs to be packaged, just like people need to wear clothes to package themselves. I also learned Teacher Guanjianming’s method of packaging the knowledge planet and made a simple packaging for my own knowledge planet.

① The first round of China's new media practice, activeness ranking top 6 in the country

② Star Master "Editor" Hujiang CCtalk user growth officer, four years of new media practitioners, Jianshu recommended author, Weibo book reviewer, self-media person, the total network self-media reading volume exceeds 10 million

③ 600+ friends have joined this circle, and the editor will evolve new media with you

Let me explain the above three paragraphs.

🔺The first round of China's new media practice (positioning)

I have studied many knowledge planets, covering different fields and types, and there are also several knowledge planets with the theme of "new media". The only theme missing was “new media practice”, so I hit the pain point of “practice”.

Nowadays, there are too many ways to learn new media. The flood of courses and training camps will teach you how to do new media, but few will take you to "actual combat new media." This leads to the current situation that "I have heard too many truths, but still cannot live a good life." The more classes you take, the more anxious you become.

Therefore, a series of small-theme activities were launched around the big theme of "new media".

There is only one purpose, which is to let you evolve new media through actual combat. These activities are organized by me in conjunction with active KOLs in the group, helping them incubate small projects internally, providing value to friends in the group, gaining project experience themselves, and attracting countless fans.

This positioning means that my Knowledge Planet must be a place where everyone can contribute. Some people may be confused after purchasing it and feel like they have entered a forum . In fact, they can click on the "Essence" section to see high-quality content including that produced by me.

🔺Top 6 in the national activity rankings (authoritative endorsement by the platform)

The Knowledge Planet Activity Ranking is the only official window to measure activity. Although this list is updated once an hour, it is authoritative and referenceable.

Therefore, to operate a knowledge planet, we must work hard to increase the activity of the planet, and then we can be included in the list, which is the most authoritative official endorsement.

It is the same no matter which platform you are on. You must first know what the platform’s criteria are for judging high-quality users and what the presentation format is, and then try to get on the list.

🔺Star Master introduces packaging

Why do others buy your knowledge planet or paid products? Generally, people will buy your products because they recognize you as a person. This is “selling people first, then selling products”.

An important method to package yourself is "authoritative endorsement". For example, if you tried your best to go to Ogilvy, you would have a personal title of "former Ogilvy advertiser". At this time, a big brand is always endorsing you.

🔺Number of people who have participated in the Knowledge Planet

The number of participants is a key indicator, just like when we order takeout, we usually choose the store with the highest monthly sales. So you have to show users that your community has a lot of participants and is very popular, which will promote user participation.

4. How to cold start the Knowledge Planet

Whether it is a course, a community, or a new product, seed users are needed to cold start it.

Teacher Yiren’s methodology:

• Establishing a traffic pool
  • Write articles with product thinking
  • Go where the paying users are
  • Let users flow
• Building a potential energy pool

Building a traffic pool means finding seed users and writing articles with a product mindset. You need to consider factors such as topic selection, content, title , layout, open rate, sharing rate, conversion rate , etc., so that writing articles becomes polishing a product. We should do our best and spend a lot of time to work on an article that contains practical content. You may be able to share half a month's practical experience in one article. Such an article will be more likely to become a hit.

The influence of a hit product is very strong, it will penetrate the user circle and may establish an IP.

Instead of shuttling between various WeChat groups to post emoticons , it is better to polish an article with practical content to make it your best-selling case, stand in a high position, and let others come to you. These users all agree with your values ​​and can easily become seed users to start a cold start.

Another way to build a traffic pool is to go to places where paying users gather.

I have a deep understanding of this point. I have participated in many free groups and paid groups. They are simply two completely different groups of people with completely different cognitions, and their recognition of value is completely higher than others.

You can find your seed users in other similar paid communities . For example, if you are in a community for copywriting, you can participate in similar paid communities and post your useful articles in them. This will attract a large number of users with the same frequency to add you on WeChat, and then gradually establish connections with them and they will become your users.

You may say that this is "poaching", but it is not at all. In this Internet age, users are all common and can learn copywriting from you or from others.

The last way to build a traffic pool is to get users moving. Back up the traffic in multiple locations, guide the fans of the official account to the WeChat account, or in the WeChat group, let your fans be on multiple channels , so that you can reach users through multiple channels.

Establishing a potential energy pool means gathering together the traffic scattered in various corners, causing a concentrated burst and causing secondary dissemination. Just like the very popular fission distribution courses, seed users are prepared in advance, activity plans are given to KOLs, and finally a concentrated outbreak is made at a determined time. This way, there is great potential energy and secondary dissemination is formed.

Or you can semi-reveal the activity plan in social networks or WeChat Moments to let users have expectations.

Teacher Shao Yunjiao's methodology:

• Cold start to invite seed users to join
• Create atmosphere

Before the community starts recruiting, you can invite friends to join, generate some content, and categorize the content. This will create a community atmosphere so that new users will not feel empty and have nothing after coming in, which will cause negative emotions.

Because this is a community, not a course, many people are confused after purchasing it, feeling that there is no valuable content. Instead, it is like a forum where everyone can speak.

Therefore, before launching, it is necessary to allow seed users to create an active community atmosphere.

Therefore, Teacher Guan proposed a guide for communities that do not expect to grow rapidly, as shown below.

0-50 people: In this stage, in addition to inviting friends to join the platform, you can also ask loyal fans and friends and relatives to help you promote it. Basically, you will quickly reach 50 people and complete your own cold start seed users

50-200 people: At this stage, you can set a low price and provide cash back incentives. The best price is 50 yuan, and the distribution ratio is set to 50%, to encourage everyone to forward and promote and expand their user base.

200-300 people: Use Moments and WeChat groups to increase users. Share your posts or other people’s high-quality posts to Moments/WeChat groups. Your friends will buy if they find them valuable.

Especially as mentioned above, if you join other similar paid communities and share more of your thoughts, you may gain a large number of fans and paying users.

Because paying is addictive, and these paying users have a very high recognition of value, so once your content impresses them, they will definitely buy it.

5. How to continuously produce content and keep the planet active

If users pay, we have to be responsible for them. We can’t just cut the leeks and then end it. So how can we continue to produce valuable content?

Teacher Yiren’s methodology: helping members establish connections and guiding passive content output.

Four ways to build social connections

(1) Establish a connection with the super user

(2) Although a self-introduction is small, it also has superimposed potential

(3) Make your social friends friends of each other

(4) Create community opinion leaders other than yourself

As a community initiator, don't be aloof. You must get in touch with users, establish connections with them, help them connect with resources, and make them feel a real sense of existence. After new people join the group, let the users introduce themselves, so that everyone can get to know each other, and then help each other and cooperate. This is a valuable community that gives everyone the opportunity to express themselves.

I have always insisted on encouraging everyone to become friends and add each other as friends, while creating other opinion leaders besides yourself. I have launched a series of activities in conjunction with active KOLs. This process is entirely about creating KOLs and helping them increase their exposure. This is something I always need to do.

Three Ways to Lead Passive Content

(1) Establish output framework

(2) Establish a timely positive feedback mechanism

(3) Get the community moving

What is the output framework? In Knowledge Planet, it is the label or content section. You need to tell users in the pinned post that your content will revolve around those points, and then set the default labels, and everyone will output content around the labels.

Establish timely positive and negative feedback, that is, formulate the rules of the game . For example, if the content you output gets more than a certain number of likes, you will receive a red envelope; if the content is set as "essence", you will get exposure on the official account, etc. Encourage and make suggestions on the content, and establish timely positive and negative feedback.

To get the community moving is to organize many activities within the community, constantly stimulate everyone to participate in the activities, and increase activity. For example, Huayi Community’s “300 words a day” check-in activity and the “tree planting” activity are all initiatives to increase activity.

Shao Yunjiao's Methodology

• Unexpected content
• Activity content
• Main content
• Cooperation Content
• Professional content

We will classify our community content into the above five categories. This is the key factor for any community to continue to operate.

Professional content: I will continue to produce some professional content, and I will also invite senior friends in the industry to produce professional content. This will, to a large extent, determine the commanding heights of the community's value, but the output cost is relatively high, so the quantity is not large.

For cooperation, I will discover active users in the community, and organize some activities with them in my community, so that they can provide value to others, gain recognition, practice skills, and attract countless fans.

For the main content, that is, the theme content, I will initiate an activity, such as 300 words a day to practice my copywriting skills. Planting three trees every day is an activity that encourages everyone to improve their time management skills. I will also combine time management and copywriting output, for example, using the time of 3 trees to practice copywriting output. The main content is generally about practitioners who want to improve themselves. This link must include appropriate ranking and feedback mechanisms, as mentioned above.

As for the content of activities, the community should not have monotonous activities. Instead, we should add some new activities to bring freshness to everyone, which will increase their enthusiasm.

How to host a more fun event? The teacher summarized two methods.

1. Personal ability
2. Threshold

Activities with high barriers to entry, for example, there is a great player in each issue, and the one who gets the most votes will become the first in the next issue after defeating the great player, and the cycle continues. This activity reflects high personal ability and the quality of the content will also be high.

Activities with low barriers to entry, such as setting a common goal and sharing a prize pool (profitable) that everyone can participate in (simple). This activity reflects low personal ability and the quality of the content is difficult to control.

My previous check-in activity belonged to the latter. We all had a common goal of completing the 21-day check-in. In the end, the contract money of those who did not check in could be put into the bonus pool and finally divided equally.

Teacher Guan's Methodology

1. The key to creating high-quality content is not to write every day based on your mood, but to output high-quality content every day.

Many people do not have the ability to output continuously, so they output according to their mood. But it is undeniable that you can insist on brushing your teeth every day, so why can't you output every day? Maybe it’s a problem of method. By mastering good methods, you can continuously output high-quality content.

2. Stable output = predictable delivery

You need to come up with a fixed slogan, such as Huayi's "300 words a day", and publish it at a fixed time, so that users will read your content at a fixed time and have expectations in their minds.

3. Build your content "waterworks" and don't rely on inspiration to keep producing content

If you are a teacher who teaches time management, your content can come from time management books, Zhihu, and public accounts.

These three channels are sufficient to provide high-quality and rich materials and cases, and you can also review and analyze what you have learned. It is not about asking you to plagiarize content, but to break down excellent content, add your own thoughts, learn more methodologies, and share them with your users.

Interviews with experts share the growth stories of kols in the circle. Interviewing these kols not only helps the kols gain exposure, but also shares the successful methodology, which is of great help to users.

Red envelope rewards, this method is crude, but very effective. For content with a high number of likes, you can directly reward and encourage it, and set it as "essence" to let users know that high-quality content can bring benefits, so that content will continue to be generated in your circle.

6. How to steadily increase your community income and attract more new users?

1. Moments/paid communities/Zhihu

2. Old users bring new users (distribution)

Operating a circle of friends is a very popular project at the moment. It can help you build a personal brand as well as sell yourself and your products. Therefore, WeChat Moments is definitely the best place for you to expand your customer base. If you manage WeChat Moments well, you will get many surprises, which may be picking up girls or earning money through sex.

As mentioned above, you can share the content you shared on Knowledge Planet in the form of pictures to your Moments. If your friends think the content is good, they will gradually become your paying users.

You can also answer questions in related fields on Zhihu and take some traffic-generating measures. Others will add you as a WeChat friend, and payment will be generated after trust is established.

As mentioned above, you can go to places where paying users gather, that is, other paid communities in the same field, and share your valuable content. This will also attract a large number of users to add you and then convert them into your paying users. It has been proven to be effective.

In addition to using your own channels to add new users, you can try to "use old users to bring in new users" and let existing users help you distribute your community. By utilizing the "Share and Earn" function of Knowledge Planet, on the one hand, old users can also gain benefits, and on the other hand, they can help each other and increase the value of the circle. If you provide value to users, they will be happy to help you promote and distribute your products.

The above content is all what I learned from the community courses officially launched by Knowledge Planet, and then I put it into practice and achieved good results. Finally, I shared it and reviewed it in an article. I hope it will be helpful to you.

Source: Huayishuo (ID: huayishuo )