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Launching a paid community ​

A clean path from "I want to run a paid community" to a published space your first members can actually pay to join.

Quick answer

Create a community product, set up categories, write the welcome message, decide on access rules, optionally link a course, set subscription pricing, seed it with a few starter posts, publish, and invite your first members. Stripe needs to be connected before any of this earns money.

Before you start ​

A short prep checklist saves you backtracking later:

  • A Klixey workspace with onboarding finished. See Creator quickstart.
  • Stripe connected — paid communities won't accept signups otherwise. See Connecting Stripe.
  • A short statement of what the community is for — one sentence is enough.
  • A list of 3–6 categories you'd organise discussions into (e.g. Introductions, Wins, Questions, Resources).
  • A banner image and a square cover image.
  • A first batch of friends, mailing-list folks, or social followers you'll invite on day one.

The playbook ​

1. Create your community product ​

Open Products, pick Add product, and choose Community. You'll get a fresh community with placeholder copy. Give it a name, a description that explains who it's for, and the banner image. Autosave keeps everything as you type.

→ Creating a community

2. Set up the categories ​

Categories are how posts get organised. Most communities run with four or five — Introductions, Questions, Wins, Resources, Announcements covers it for most. Add yours, set the icons, drag to reorder.

→ Categories

3. Write your welcome message ​

The welcome message is the first thing a new member sees when they join. Use it to say hello, set expectations, point them at the first thing they should do (post an intro, watch a welcome video, browse the resources).

→ Creating a community

4. Decide on access controls ​

Open the community settings and decide:

  • Should new members go through an approval queue, or join straight away? Approval queues are great when you want to vet members one at a time.
  • Can members start new posts, or only comment? Most communities allow member posts; locked-down ones don't.

You can change these later. → Members and approvals

5. Optional: link a course ​

If you already have a course (or plan to add one), you can link it to the community. Members get the course bundled with their subscription — they don't pay twice and you don't have to manage two products' billing.

→ Linking courses to a community

6. Decide on pricing ​

Most paid communities are subscription. Open the Pricing section, switch to Full mode if you want a one-time and monthly option, or stick with One-time if it's a lifetime-access membership. Subscription tiers can include a free trial.

→ Pricing your products

7. Seed the community with 3–5 starter posts ​

An empty community feels lifeless. Before you publish, write a handful of posts yourself — a welcome thread, a "post your introduction here" prompt, one piece of useful content. New members land on something alive, not an empty feed.

→ Posts, comments and moderation

8. Tighten checkout and confirmation copy ​

Edit the checkout headline, the order-confirmation message, and the welcome email. A community is a place — its checkout should feel personal, not transactional.

→ Editing checkout and confirmation copy

9. Publish ​

Flip the product's status from Draft to Listed. The community now shows up on your storefront and the join URL goes live.

→ Product status

10. Invite the first members ​

Share the join link with your warmest audience first — friends, beta testers, your existing mailing list, your most active social followers. The first ten members set the tone for the next hundred.

What customers see at the end ​

The buyer flow for a community is short and friendly:

  1. They land on the community card on your storefront, click in, and hit the checkout page.
  2. They pay (or start a trial) and land on the community immediately — no link to click, no email to wait for.
  3. If the community requires approval, they wait in the queue and see a "we'll let you in shortly" page.
  4. Once in, they see your welcome message, the categories, and the starter posts.

Common things to tighten before you launch ​

A few thirty-second improvements that make a real difference:

  • [ ] Pin a welcome post so it stays at the top of the feed. → Posts, comments and moderation
  • [ ] Write community rules in the About section — what's allowed, what isn't, how often you reply.
  • [ ] Set up the leaderboard names (Newcomer, Regular, Top contributor, etc.) so the levels feel like your brand. → Leaderboard
  • [ ] Add a few resources to the Resources library — even one PDF beats an empty tab. → Resources library
  • [ ] Test the join flow with a personal email before you share the link widely.

A trial can carry the first month

A 7- or 14-day free trial on the subscription often converts better than offering it free for the first day. People need time to feel like they belong before they'll pay every month.

After launch ​

The first weeks matter. Watch these:

  • In-app notifications — every new post and comment rings the bell so you can reply quickly. Show up early and often. → In-app notifications
  • Member list — every signup appears here with a join date. Welcome people personally for the first month. → Members and approvals
  • Approval queue (if you turned it on) — don't leave people waiting more than a day or two.
  • Income dashboard — subscription health is here. Cancellations and failed payments show up on the customer's record. → Income · Customer detail

When someone needs to be removed or refunded, do it from their customer record, not by touching the community itself. → Customer detail · Refunds, failed payments, and disputes

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