When I Changed My Membership Tiers (and What Happened)
January and February were quiet months for my community. Almost no new paid members were joining. At the same time, I had several Premium members telling me the same thing privately: they really wanted to learn how to make money with their knitting… but they couldn’t afford the VIP level. I also realized something else. I was giving away a lot for free. The free level included: - A beginner’s course - Access to the community - Yarn reviews - A pattern library - A new pattern every month My income had dropped significantly because new members had slowed down, and I could feel that the structure of the tiers just wasn’t working the way I hoped. So I did what I usually do when I’m unsure. I talked to my admin team - the top members in my community. We looked at what people actually used, what people asked for, and what seemed to matter most to the members who were already here. That conversation led to a simple change. Instead of having Premium and VIP, we combined them into one level at a slightly lower price. That became the new VIP membership. Then we shifted the rest around. The Standard (Free) level now includes: - The beginner’s course - Full access to the community The Premium level became a very low entry point —$1 a month / $10 a year — and includes: - The pattern library - Two new patterns each month - The yarn reviews What surprised me most wasn’t just the structure. It was the response. The members who already support the community were genuinely happy about the change. They liked that they could now participate in everything together instead of feeling separated by tiers. And very quickly, things started to move. We've had: - 20 members upgrade - 9 new VIP members - 13 new Premium members who had previously been getting everything for free. But more than the numbers, something shifted in the feel of the community. The energy is different. It feels more connected. More aligned. More like everyone is moving forward together instead of in separate lanes.