I've tried two approaches:
Integrate with Intercom. It requires syncing your database of users and any data/events that's relevant for the emails you send. So the downside are that it requires a bit of setup, isn't as flexible as a custom-made solution, and costs money. The upside is that it's super easy to write and send emails which is something most of us probably don't do enough of yet.
Add these one-off emails to my codebase. This is a bit of a hassle as it requires re-deploying the app if you want to send an email. It also is prone to error with sending to the wrong people or sending duplicate emails. You'll need to manage unsubscribes, etc. The upside is that it's not yet another monthly bill, and it's really flexible. You can target just the users you want quite easily and have access to all the necessary user data without needing to share it with a third party.
I'm not sure which one I prefer.
Thanks, yes we're currently excluding a lot of people from different parts of the world.
Part of my response has been that with remote work and the online gig economy, it's becoming a lot easier for any entrepreneurial person to earn some money to afford a $20/mo subscription (e.g. spending 1-2 hours a month on doing gigs on Upwork should cover it), but perhaps that's an overly optimistic view?
Either way, I think having a free-tier would definitely open up to a wider audience. And as long as we make sure we still curate for pasionate, positive and entrepeneurial people, then they should be a value-add to the community regardless of their current discretionary budget.
With regards to the online events, I'll be looking into hopin.com which @marver777 recommended to me a while ago.
Do you subscribe to the current daily WIP email?
It only shows todo activity of the people you follow, but there's a lot more we can like you suggest. Include new discussions, recently added projects, etc.
What would you like to see in such a daily email?
I've been building out our own forum software which we're having this conversation in right now. Are you saying you want more of an email interface for this, including the ability to reply to comments, etc?
No, I do the weekly email - I'll switch to daily.
The main point of a forum for me is non-realtime discussions. Replying via email is secondary for me.
Yeah I definitely don't want to give invites to everyone. That would defeat the purpose of having invites.
We'd need to find the right mechanism for deciding who gets to invite new members, but I think we can figure that out.
I like the suggestion of a Reddit-like karma system. I also thought about Reddit Gold. So maybe paying members can gift (a month of) "pro"-access to "free"-members if they want to get the involved in the paid-only sections of the community.
I think the main issue with upfront payment (regardless of the exact price) is that people aren't sure what to expect of WIP. It's not like a SaaS that solves a specific problem. For many people sharing their todos publicly already feels like an alien concept, so why would they start paying to do that?
I tried to combat that by providing existing members with invites to share that give 30-day access free-of-charge, but it hasn't been that effective at driving up memberships.
My current thesis is that part of the reason for that is it doesn't feel great giving away what's basically a free trial. But when it's actually giving someone access to something that's otherwise inaccessible, then I think it will hold a lot more value. So people would be more inclined to use invite someone, and those who get invited would value that invite more.
I looked into it, and you were one of the first to become a paying patron so thank you for that!
It was a $100/year payment that didn't automatically renew and I never reached out to ask people to renew because it didn't feel right to ask for more money.
So you had the "patron" status for that one year. But because you initially joined WIP before we made a paid membership required, you were also grandfathered into a lifelong free membership.
The best $100 I have spent
Ah yes! Want to do these for sure. Like diferent themes. Marketing week where we all do marketing for one week. Hackathons where we all try and ship something by a certain date. Etc.
Yes, this would be so perfect! Love hackathons)
Nice, yes these are some great suggestions for pro-only features 👍
The only thing I want to be careful with is making "invites" a perk of being a paying member. As then people might feel entitled to get them, whereas I'd like to keep the option to be selective about who get to invited other members.
But it's definitely something we can experiment with
I'm in a number of private Telegram groups, but those are more "friend group" than "community"
Besides that I'm in a few NFT-related Discords. Primarily the PROOF Discord which is token-gated, so it's more of a tight-knit community than those hyper-active open-for-all Discords.
Other than that I don't think I'm part of any online or offline communities. I occasionally jump into the Nomad List Slack when I have a travel-related question. But nomads as a group is too broad for me to really feel a connection.
I used to visit co-working spaces, which are a nice way to find a local community when traveling.