Many people attempt to start a business and end up trying and failing several times. It’s part of the process, but with the advent of digital technology, there are more straightforward ways to attempt to start and grow a business that may not seem relevant at first. Yet with some patience and effort, these online business models can easily help generate revenues consistently.
Build the community
My name is Ekansh Sharma and when I started out trying to build my own business at the age of 16, I failed numerous times. It didn’t matter how good the idea was, but without that far-reaching community, it wouldn’t go anywhere. This is where I decided that I would focus on building a community first instead of working through a traditional business model. Digital communities these days are extremely lucrative and easier to monetize than in the past. It’s about finding the right niche market.
I built out this niche with a community of over 10,000 members by offering an open communication forum for those to express themselves in a safe environment. Whether it was sharing memes or ideas and thoughts, all of it was in a way that didn’t have to make people feel uncomfortable.
Once I was able to build out my niche community, it organically grew and continues to be quite active. That’s another key component is the constant activity from the users to keep the channels interesting and growing.
What platform to use
I used a free platform known as Discord that helps to build out the right tools from the start and leave it as a place for others to communicate and interact. When using a platform such as this, the community itself builds out the engagement, and all I need to do is simply moderate it and slowly expand the functionality.
That’s what makes this such a strong business model, because instead of focusing on a one-to-many mentality, where I am actively trying to sell something to many people, I work and focus on bringing a community of people who have their own discussions, comments, and offerings to grow it, with minimal interference from myself.
How to monetize it
Since the only resource I spent was time to grow this community, eventually, there are ways to help monetize it once it gets to a large enough size. Then I was able to push my own platform within the community without being overly pushy.
Since the community is an open-ended forum of discussion, it doesn’t just enable me but anyone to promote their items, services, and/or talents. I went down the route of a Patreon account for the Discord channel specifically, enabling users to support this channel by subscribing and donating funds monthly.
This allows for the community to continue its growth and keep it free for everyone while at the same time offering a channel for people to donate to support and grow the medium further. Rewards can include special server access and specialized emoji to show they’ve supported the channel. Take a gander at the channel yourself here, and feel free to easily connect with me here for the latest business ideas I’m working on.
