[HN Gopher] Memberships Work: What I learned during the third ye...
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       Memberships Work: What I learned during the third year of my
       membership program
        
       Author : philip1209
       Score  : 53 points
       Date   : 2022-02-01 14:44 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (craigmod.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (craigmod.com)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | eric4smith wrote:
       | Awesome writeup. Especially the technical stack part.
       | 
       | I think there's so much emphasis on Courses, crypto, NFT's drop
       | shipping, etc, that many people forget its businesses like this
       | that are stable and last a super long time for small creators.
       | 
       | One point that stood out is that the author kept saying "it's a
       | lot of work". And that's fine. Somehow we have been trained by
       | society to want a lot without working a lot -- perhaps just
       | refined human nature in the west.
       | 
       | There's something to be said for curating information with an
       | opinion into a niche that people actually want. Refreshing and
       | congratulations.
        
         | ec109685 wrote:
         | I agree. It's a shame the creator economy shifted so hard into
         | Crypto. You can build a very "creator first" stack without any
         | Web 3.0 technologies. I guess one thing missing that NFT and
         | the like purports to provide is a "stake" in the creator that
         | can grow in value over time. That's clearly not what Craig was
         | looking for by creating this venture.
        
       | infecto wrote:
       | I don't even really get the gist of what he does/is selling. I am
       | probably not refined enough to get it but glossing over multiple
       | pages it kept reading the same to me. He writes a lot, goes on
       | walks and has a "SPECIAL PROJECTS" membership program.
        
         | CPLX wrote:
         | Sort of a merge of some of the concepts of Substack, Patreon,
         | and old fashioned fan clubs from the looks of it.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Yes. I didn't even understand what he meant by public facing,
         | which at first I assumed to be something own source.
        
         | Goronmon wrote:
         | Creates books, alongside some documentary style work related to
         | the topic and the creation of those books. At least as far as I
         | can tell.
         | 
         | https://shop.specialprojects.jp/products/kissa-by-kissa-3rd-...
        
         | ejvincent wrote:
         | Sounds like it's a patreon style setup, but on his hand-built
         | stack instead.
        
         | mabub24 wrote:
         | These are very common for a lot of "Thought-leader" or
         | influencer types. They are just social clubs/memberships. So a
         | portion of the money goes to him, and the rest goes towards
         | organizing these "special projects" (Socials/events) for the
         | people who are paying to be members. They are a new sort of
         | country club, for example.
         | 
         | Like most social clubs in the past, the price of membership
         | acts to gatekeep against "casuals", and creates a sort of
         | commitment ("I pay this much, so I might as well use it"). For
         | the latter point, like gym memberships, the model probably
         | relies on 100% of the people rarely if ever showing up or
         | taking part. In that way the attendees are treated to an event
         | or occasion that is worth more than the sum of the contribution
         | of the _attendants_ , in principle.
        
           | tomcam wrote:
           | Damn I need to start being a thought leader
        
             | gumby wrote:
             | Start a sect and be its guru. It's less work and more
             | lucrative. Example: Goop.
        
         | runako wrote:
         | There's a bulleted list of what you get on the membership page.
         | I'm not in the target audience, but he does make pretty clear
         | what I would expect to receive if I were a member.
         | 
         | https://craigmod.com/membership/
        
           | infecto wrote:
           | Right but none of it is of substance at least for me.
           | Probably not the target demographic for this, I just saw a
           | lot of rambling about things but for myself I could not
           | pinpoint what was being said. Again, I am not the audience
           | most likely, curious though this works.
        
       | ec109685 wrote:
       | Very similar to motivation for starting a startup:
       | 
       | "And my main takeaway from this was: Committing to big, messy,
       | creative projects is a reliable way to increase the number and
       | quality of healthy, talented archetypes within your orbit. The
       | highest signal you can send a busy, accomplished person is that
       | you are someone who makes, not just talks."
        
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       (page generated 2022-02-01 23:02 UTC)