I have a feeling that there has been a seismic shift in the ability of new or even seasoned marketers being able to create communities on the web.
When I started, and decided to create a free forum for 5 Bucks a Day readers, and later a paid community for those who wanted to learn more about the exact steps I took to earn my main income (with mini money sites), I chose free forum software, which was phpBB.
It worked OK, with some flaws as far as security, but nothing that I couldn't get around with some help from friends.
Later on, people started creating small groups with Skype (remember them?). Good memories, though I never created a Skype group myself. I did belong to a few. I think there was a limit of 300 people in a Skype group. Something like that.
And then, and until now, Facebook groups have been the most popular communities for those looking to save money.
Then Skool came around, and I think it's great. Except there was a built-in barrier to entry for new folks, with a $99/month charge to host your community.
If you knew you could draw paying members, it wasn't so much a problem, but if you weren't so confident, then it was tough to pull the trigger.
A couple days ago, as I write this, things have changed, and now there is absolutely no reason that I can think of for someone to not have their own Skool community.
In addition to the original Skool $99/month plan, there is now a $9/month option called Skool Hobby.
There are a few features missing from the Hobby platform, but nothing earth-shattering. There is a spot on your community where Skool links to other communities. You can't have a dedicated URL. And it looks like there's no leaderboard that shows the most active members.
But what it does have... the community, the classroom ability, the ability to charge monthly fees to members, the affiliate program, the direct messaging ability, the email notification to members about new posts and comments that they're following... probably a lot more features and benefits that aren't on the top of my head.
Maybe most of all, there is the very easy setup that can get you up and running very quickly, measured in minutes.
Plus the ability to grow beyond your wildest dreams. There are many Skool communities with more than 10,000 paying members. Do the math and see what might happen if you just charged $5 per month for each member… even $2/month.
One thing I really like about Skool is that they collect all the membership fees that you charge, and every Wednesday they send money to your bank account for your earnings.
So you don't need to have a merchant account or even a PayPal account. For that they charge you a flat 10% (for Hobby) or just 2.9% for Pro accounts.
So think about this. You can set up a Hobby account, and once you're making more than $100 a month or so, you can upgrade to Pro and get all the Pro features and lower fees.
Or you can just have a free community and build a very loyal following as the leader of that community.
Or get things rolling by making it free for the first bunch of members, maybe 100 or so, to get activity started, and then start charging.
Or... for $9 a month, the most you can lose is $9 a month.
Or, your free Hobby community can be a feeder for leads to your more expensive community that you charge for (which could be another Hobby account). Your free community will demonstrate your abilities, and make people know, like and trust you enough to want to take the upgrade…
Exactly what I did back in 2007 when I had the free 5 Bucks a Day forum that fed people into the Earn1KaDay forum.
Except now it’s much easier to set up the communities.
Like I said, this is huge.
This changes everything!
This could replace Facebook groups and all the data mining and other things they do with you and YOUR members.
I'm almost as excited about this as I was about the first appearance of ChatGPT.
Here's a link to check out the different Skool platforms:
https://daboffers.com/tryskool
Now, for the bonus that I always include for paid newsletter subscribers, here's another oldie but goodie from the Earn1KaDay archives. It's called Success Secrets of Self Made Millionaires, and it comes with resell rights (cannot be given away for free, but can be sold, added to a paid membership site, or used as a bonus for a paid product).