🤔 Is it "worth it" to build a monetized online community? Yes! But heed these warnings...

I estimated that I spent ~$3000 on software to get my Fluent Community fully up and running the way I wanted it. Therefore, my goal was to hit $3000 by end of the year in cash collected from my subscriptions and my shop, and I just hit it today! 🎉

I'm especially excited about meeting this milestone, because every tool I use (with the exception of FluentCRM Pro) is a lifetime deal. 🤩

I was previously paying annually for Buddyboss, Learndash, Restrict Content Pro, and Events Calendar. I am thrilled to have traded in annual subscriptions to my current setup, which is much faster, more engaging for my users, and easier to use.

So was it worth it to build a Fluent Community and a shop? 🤔

YES 👍 it is worth it to build a Fluent Community. But keep these things in mind as you build:

✅ Make sure you sell offers in addition to subscriptions.

Have products and/or services available for purchase in a shop as well. I made most of the money from add-on purchases—not subscriptions. I only have 18 members. Here is my not-fancy-looking shop: https://app.theartofapplying.com/shop

⚠️ Overbuying plans will drive up costs.

I often bought a higher tier of a lifetime deal than I needed, and that really added up. If you only have 1 site, consider buying just for 1 site to contain costs.

⚠️ Be careful buying software that you might not use.

I spent over $1800 on software that I thought I might use in my setup but that I have not yet used, either due to not needing it yet or it not working well with Fluent's ecosystem (like PrestoPlayer). However, most of the things in the list are things I'm interested to set up, explore, and actually use in the near term.

💰 Where I find members:

• I post simple, talking head videos on my Youtube channel (https://youtube.com/c/@theartofapplying) based on the topics my ideal client is searching for.
• Under every video is a CTA to book a call with my team to explore joining our signature program.
• If they are not a good fit for our signature program, then I invite them to join my membership.