Skool owners, one finding from our State of Skool study of 18,412 communities: in only 33% of communities is the owner the top commenter. Those communities show more participation and lower churn. And timing matters: the typical member who leaves goes after about seven weeks, so the replies you write early count most. Most of us skip the comments because creating posts eats the time. Two things that help: • Write the week's posts in one sitting and schedule them. • Spend the time you saved in the comments, starting with new members. The full report is free: https://skoolgrades.com/state-of-skool

73.4% of Skool communities have only one admin (State of Skool, 18,412 communities). If that's you, Skoolgrades takes the repeat work off your plate, free: • Connect your Skool to Claude or ChatGPT in minutes • Free DMs: an automatic, personal welcome for every new member • Free post scheduling: write once, publish on the days you choose • A free benchmark against 18,412 communities Grab it in our community: https://www.skool.com/skoolgrades-5195

Skool owners: we measured 18,412 Skool communities. Three findings: • A first post is usually a last post. 64% of first-time posters never post again. • 87% of members who leave a community are still on Skool. They didn't quit Skool, they left that community. • It's decided early. Members active in their first two weeks leave at about half the rate of silent ones: 11% gone by day 90, versus 22%. If you fix one thing this month, reply to every first post the same day. The full report is free: http://skoolgrades.com/state-of-skool

Skool still doesn’t have native voice messages, so I built VoiceDrop, a browser extension that lets you record and send them directly inside Skool. And while voice messages are obviously handy when you don’t feel like typing, there are a few places where I think they really shine. 𝟭. 𝙒𝙚𝙡𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮 Most new members get some version of “Welcome, great to have you here!” Imagine joining a community and instead hearing a short message where the owner actually says your name and welcomes you personally. It takes seconds, but immediately makes the community feel a little less like another website you joined and a little more like somewhere people actually know you’re there. 𝟮. 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙜𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙦𝙪𝙞𝙚𝙩 Maybe a member stopped engaging. A lead disappeared halfway through a conversation. Or someone you were talking with just dropped off. Another text can easily feel like another follow-up. A quick voice message using their name feels much more personal and much less like something that could have been copied and pasted to 20 people. 𝟯. 𝙒𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙝 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙣𝙜 They bought something. Referred someone. Hit a milestone. Made a great contribution. Took action on something you suggested. Most people expect a notification, a like or a quick text reply. They probably don’t expect to actually hear from you. That’s where VoiceDrop comes in. It gives you voice messaging directly inside Skool, without moving the conversation somewhere else. -- -- -- See how VoiceDrop works at VoiceDropHQ.com

Not necessarily today, and not necessarily Skool altogether. But at what point does “keep going” stop being persistence and start being stubbornness? I’ve been building Room to Record for about six months. I’ve experimented with content, ads, pricing, free and paid membership, different offers and a low-cost product. I’ve got members, traffic comes and goes, and I’ve learned a ridiculous amount. But I still haven’t had that first paid member. Meanwhile I launched Guitar Mod Lab as a second experiment and it has moved much faster in Discovery, which has made me question whether the problem is my execution, the offer, the niche, or simply that Room to Record isn’t something people want badly enough to pay for. So I’m curious about the people here who have been doing this longer: How do you decide whether to keep pushing, pivot, or kill an idea? What evidence actually matters to you?