Should You Start with a Free or Paid Skool Community?

Jul 12 in Other

Starting a community can be a strategic move, but the decision to start with a free or paid community depends on your current situation.

If you have no personal brand, no audience, no followers, or platform—essentially if you're starting fresh—a free community can be ideal. It helps build trust and engagement before transitioning to a paid model.

However, if you already have a personal brand and some audience, you can start with a paid community. For example, I launched a $9/month paid community in March and had over 150 members in the first month. Today, we have 146 members.

When we reached 150 members, we shifted focus to higher-ticket offerings like profile optimization and lead generation. By June, 90% of our clients came from the community. Many joined in March, saw our value, and eventually decided to work with us.

In conclusion, if you have an audience ready to be monetized, start with a paid community. If you're starting from scratch, begin with a free one. We're now considering a free community to attract a larger audience that could transition to our paid community.

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