Your first week
A short, opinionated order to do things in, so you launch to real people instead of polishing a community nobody has seen.
- first steps
- setup
- launch
The most common way a new community stalls is spending three weeks on the inside of it. This is the order that gets you to a real member fastest. None of it is mandatory.
Day one: make it yours and write one post
Open Customize, set your wordmark or logo, pick your accent colour, and save. Then go to Community and replace the default welcome post with a real one: who this is for, what happens here, what you would like people to do first.
Day two: put something inside
One course with three lessons beats an empty library with a beautiful cover. If your teaching is not video shaped, use Guides instead. The point is that the first member who walks in finds something to do.
Day three: decide how people pay
Free or paid, in Settings. If you are charging, connect Stripe now rather than the night before you launch, because verification can take a little while.
Day four: build the front door
Under Funnels & Forms, make one landing page that explains the community and links to your join page. If you would rather collect emails before you open, build a form instead and hand out a freebie.
Day five: invite ten people by name
Not a launch. Ten people who already ask you questions, messaged individually, with your community link. Ten people talking is a community. Two hundred silent signups is not.
Day six and seven: answer everything
Reply to every post in the first fortnight, however small. Early members are deciding whether this place is alive, and you are the only evidence they have.
Common questions
Should I launch free and charge later?
It works, and plenty of coaches do it, but converting a free room to a paid one is harder than starting paid with ten people. If you are unsure, a low founding member price with an Offer is usually a better first move than free.
How much content do I need before I open?
Enough for the first fortnight. Members judge you on whether the place is active, not on how deep the archive is.
What if nobody posts?
Normal for the first few weeks. Post three times a week yourself, ask questions that are easy to answer, and reply to every reply. Silence is a habit and so is talking.