A Layered Approach Beats Free Or Paid

The dilemma of whether a community should be free or paid, divides people.

I have seen people dismiss paid communities as glorified service models, I have seen people struggle where the free community model becomes a mish mash of strangers who dip in and out. 

When people ask ‘should a community be free?’ it presents a binary choice. This means one or the other, it limits strategy and longevity. It’s similar to whether you should see a band for free and give them a tip, or pay to see them.

The answer is that it’s rarely one or the other. When free or paid options take precedence, we create transactions, while ecosystems are what we aspire to build.

Rosie Sherry said this, “For people to come in and have top of mind whether it is “free” or “paid” takes away from the value that we hope to create.”

Rather than the focus on free or paid we need to ask, ‘What role does community play in our business and in peoples lives?’ Is it a way for people to figure out together and be stronger in our own work? Is it a marketing advantage that allows us to gather knowledge? Is it a value exchange between people that offers a return for all involved?

Choosing a side, free or paid community, puts your head in one place. 

Over the years, I have developed a hybrid model that I can share with you for building an audience. When it’s time to strengthen community connections, you guide people from one place to another.

The free forms of community participation are what we are used to. This could mean WhatsApp or Discord Groups to a newsletter. 

Paid formats provide that extra step for people to commit. It could be a events, mentorship or membership.

Layered access is effective; it offers various entry points unified by purpose.What changes is depth of involvement, not ethos.

Let me explain how it works.

Free

Email provided to opt-in

Newsletter every Thursday

We have a WhatsApp Group around events

Paid

Events to attend (September to April)

Creator Day to attend (May)

Membership with YATM Club

Each level has the same meaning, it just means deeper connection and belonging with each level of commitment.

The weekly newsletter? One-to-many communication (2,000 subscribers).

YATM Club? One-to-one, one-to-few, a trusted support system and peer council.

As time and investment deepens, price is just one way people contribute to a community. Creativity, involvement and trust are often worth more.

Over time, different tiers were introduced as it became necessary to move onto the next step. For instance, if Creator Day was a standalone event, before the newsletter was introduced, it would be a lot harder for people to commit. It is the time invested at the start where a lot of time is invested for free, that provides the opportunity further down the line for paid. 

Without context, a paid offer can feel like a transaction.

Instead, what happened was organic:

Each step prepared people for the next.

A word of warning, the jump from free to paid can be challenging, unless it’s planned properly.

When trust and value are established, it can easier to share your intentions. For instance, when we launched YATM Club, our membership space, managing was new for me too. As a result, the platform was free for the first six months while I took the time to understand its role and value for our members. By the time we were ready to transition to a paid model, the shift felt natural rather than abrupt.

Set aside pricing models for a moment.. Ask:

Mark Schaefer shared recently, “You’ll be more successful if you align your strengths with pressing and obvious problems people are willing to pay to solve.” By this, there is a role that you play that is of value to someone else. It could be a role within your industry, or creating a shared space where the calibre of people creates association.

The value you provide helps people determine if what you share and stand for is for them. It also implies that it can’t simply be free or paid.

Free doesn’t mean “no cost,” it means the cost is hidden, such as time invested to share and produce a newsletter or collecting data to progress initiatives. Conversely, ‘paid’ services do not always ensure value. In fact, they can lead to unmet expectations if not managed properly.

This all relates to contribution and the role that the community serves. It’s not about creating products, it’s about progressing principles that connect how far someone wants to progress. For instance the A to B for YATM is from isolation to togetherness. 

The more you understand your role, it opens up ways to develop that is values-led, human-first and commercially sustainable.

A hybrid model to a community framework means you lead with the right approach for the appropriate community. For instance, I enjoy writing and want to share my thinking, hence the newsletter plays that role to share ideas and also spotlight people from the wider YATM community. 

When people attend Creator Day or joins YATM Club, the focus and attention is put into that part of the community. We shift from broadcast to belonging. This is especially true for those who choose to attend an event by the seaside, where our attention and efforts are dedicated to them.

This has developed over time as a side project, to become an initiative more substantial based on the role it serves people.

A purely free model can easily turn into an expensive hobby and is rarely sustainable unless it’s supported by investments or contributions from others.

What matters is how to develop and grow a project that benfits other people. Ultimately, it is people who decide whether to pay or not.

You define a community not by its cost, but by its contributions to the people served and to the broader mission.

If YATM is about building independent, self-sufficient spaces beyond algorithmic control, then our pricing model should also resist binary thinking. It’s not just free or paid. It’s layered, purposeful, human.

So before asking ‘how much’, ask ‘why now’? You build the rest from there.