I design membership tiers for creators and small teams every week, and one principle guides me: you want more revenue, not fewer fans. That sounds obvious, but I see too many creators build premium tiers that unintentionally fragment their audience or make free viewers feel neglected. Below I walk through pragmatic decisions you can make to increase monthly revenue while keeping your community healthy — tested tactics, trade-offs, and concrete examples you can implement this week.
Start with the problem you’re solving
Memberships succeed when they map to real needs. Before sketching tiers, ask these three questions and keep the answers visible as you design: who benefits, what problem does this tier solve, and how does it scale?
Who benefits: Is the tier aimed at superfans, power-users, or professional users who rely on your content? Different audiences pay for different things.What problem do you solve: Time savings? Exclusive access? Status? Education? Monetization works when you trade perceived value for recurring cost.How does it scale: Can you automate delivery? Can the benefits be delivered without a proportional time increase as members grow?For example, a creator I worked with shifted from “exclusive streams” (which required them to stream an extra 4 hours/week) to a members-only Discord with pinned resources and monthly AMAs. The perceived value increased while the creator’s workload stayed flat.
Design principles that protect free viewers
Memberships should feel additive, not subtractive. Free viewers need to feel nourished enough to stick around and potentially convert later. I use these guardrails:
Non-reduction of core experience: Never move core content behind a paywall if that content is how new viewers discover you. Discovery content should remain free.Visible perks: Make paid benefits clearly visible to free users — highlight member highlights in thumbnails, show member-only badges, or tease clips from exclusive content.Respect thresholds: Avoid micro-exclusivity that splits the chat or community. If you add member-only chat during streams, keep at least one public channel active so free viewers can still participate.Tier architecture that drives upgrades
Most creators overcomplicate tier structures. I recommend a simple three-tier model aligned to behavior and willingness to pay:
Free — discovery + baseline community valueTier A (entry paid) — small monthly price, high-frequency perks that reinforce habitTier B (premium) — higher price, lower-frequency but high-impact benefits (coaching, merch, direct feedback)Why this works: the entry paid tier converts those who need an easy win (e.g., ad-free viewing, exclusive emojis), while the premium tier targets high LTV supporters willing to trade money for direct influence or tangible outcomes.
| Feature | Free | Tier A (Entry) | Tier B (Premium) |
| Ad-free playback | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Exclusive channel/Discord | — | ✓ | ✓ |
| Monthly AMAs | — | ✓ | ✓ (priority) |
| One-on-one session | — | — | ✓ |
Price sensibly, then test
Pricing is behavioral. Small price increases can dramatically reduce churn if you communicate value; large increases require more justification. I prefer starting with a lower entry price ($3–$6/month in many markets) to reduce friction, then use time-limited experiments to A/B test price elasticity.
Practical experiment plan:
Run a two-week trial where a portion of your audience sees the entry tier at +20% price, another portion at baseline. Measure conversion and churn at 30, 60, and 90 days.Introduce annual pricing with a discount (e.g., two months free) — annual plans increase lifetime value and reduce monthly churn.Use payment processors that allow easy price changes and offer prorated upgrades so members feel upgrades are fair.Benefits that scale without burning you out
Members often value access more than time. That’s a crucial distinction you can exploit to scale.
Asynchronous access: Exclusive videos, downloadable templates, and behind-the-scenes posts are one-time effort with ongoing value.Community leverage: Member-led spaces where advanced members help each other reduce your support load. Incentivize with badges or limited governance roles.Exclusive signals: Badges, early access, and member shoutouts are low-cost and high-visibility perks.Examples: I’ve implemented a “member vault” for creators — a living library of past streams, templates, and recorded Q&As. It costs virtually nothing to host (S3 + a simple CMS) and becomes a strong retention tool.
Messaging and onboarding
The onboarding experience determines whether a member feels they “got value.” Make activation easy and immediate.
Deliver an automated welcome sequence (email + DM/post) that highlights 1–3 immediate actions: join Discord, download a starter pack, or RSVP to the next members-only event.Use a clear value-first message: “Join to skip ads, unlock exclusive emojis, and access our monthly resource pack.” Avoid vague language like “support the channel.”Leverage social proof: show member counts, testimonials, or case studies of members who achieved outcomes from your content.Retention tactics that actually work
Retention is more cost-effective than acquisition. Here are tactics I use to keep monthly revenue predictable:
Monthly ritual: Create a ritual that members anticipate — a members-only video every month, a downloadable checklist, or a poll-driven topic that influences your next stream.Rolling scarcity: Offer limited-run physical goods or limited seats for premium office hours. Scarcity must feel genuine and repeatable without exhausting resources.Feedback loops: Quarterly surveys asking members what they value let you reweight benefits without guessing.Grace periods and nudges: If a card fails, give a 7-day grace with email + DM reminders. Many renewals recover if you make the path back frictionless.Common pitfalls and how to avoid them
Putting everything behind paywall: This kills discovery. Keep tutorials, highlight clips, and SEO content free.Unbalanced time-cost perks: Exclusive live coaching scales poorly. If you offer it, price it high or automate parts (group coaching, templates).Ignoring churn metrics: Track monthly churn, LTV, and upgrade conversion. If churn spikes after a perk change, revert quickly and test smaller iterations.I could fill pages with examples and templates, but the key takeaway I always stress: design tiers that amplify your strengths, minimize one-off labor, and keep free users excited. Build for simplicity, measure everything, and iterate in small, reversible steps — that’s how you increase monthly revenue without alienating the very people who brought you there.
