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Business Model Design

Memberships, Subscriptions, and Community Offers

Memberships, subscriptions, and communities are three different things, and most people selling one are accidentally describing another. This session separates them, then works through when the model suits your business, what it costs you to run, and how to price it so it survives.

What this session covers

  • The actual differences between a membership, a subscription, and a community — and why the distinction changes how you sell it
  • The mindsets that make these models work: sub-specific audiences, packaging community or services with the content, and accepting that it takes time to become lucrative
  • When the model fits — evergreen problems with no clear end, price-sensitive markets, scaling delivery of your IP — and when it plainly doesn’t
  • The financial and content risks: people who download everything and leave, too much content creating overwhelm, and the ongoing work of keeping it alive
  • Pricing approaches — monthly, annual, lifetime, upfront fee plus subscription, premium exclusivity, and sponsorship revenue
  • Offer structures and the full list of ingredients to mix: templates, coaching, private content, guest experts, member discounts
  • Marketing tactics that work — sampling content, free live trainings, joint webinars, and giveaways
  • A dozen real examples pulled apart, from Exit Five and Lenny’s Newsletter to Small Bets and Farnam Street

Included with the Library

This session is one of 37 workshops in the Indie Strategist Library, along with the Advisor Operating System templates and the private community. One payment, yours for good.

Get Lifetime Access — US$499 One-time payment · 30-day guarantee

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