How Faceless Communities Make a Bank

Hey there!

I'm back with another intriguing edition for you. Today, let's play a little game. I'm going to spill the beans on a super successful "faceless" community, and your challenge is to guess which one it is.

The first person to nail it gets a one-on-one call with me for any advice they desire and people pay for at least $500.
(reply to this email with your name, I will be sharing more than enough information about it here)

I will share the growth rate, the funnel, how much $$$ they are generating
and
advice to make it better

Ready?
Let's dive in.

The Funnel

Is pretty much simple - different social media accounts - TikTok (465k followers) with a linktree in bio (where they promote 2 communities), Instagram (100k) and Twitter (<1,000)

Their model is simple yet effective. Start with a free community to hook in the curious, then offer a paid tier brimming with exclusive content like training plans and meal plans.

In their free community they have around 41,173 members (as I am writing it)

The paid community costs around $20/month (we will get into how much they’re making a little bit later)

Oh, forgot to mention the topic - self-improvement and fitness - aka “how to get Sam Sulek’s physique” - those are the main videos they are posting
Along with motivational advice from guys like Tom Platz and other famous bodybuilders

Growth Rate & Conversions

It's not just about the followers; it's about the conversion.

They've masterfully channeled these followers into a bustling Discord server, growing from 30,000 to 40,000 members in just over two months (from October 22, 2023, to January 3, 2024).

That's a staggering 33% increase in under a quarter!
Given their current trajectory, we could see this community hitting 50,000 members in the next quarter. If they maintain their conversion rates, this means even more revenue potential.

Revenue

I can’t see the current conversion rates (yet), but let’s figure out the different revenue numbers that they might have:

1) 1% case
Let’s take typical conversion rates of 1% for those kinds of servers.
Then, we take 41k members and only 1% of those converted to a $20/month subscription using Whop
(won’t cover their fees if their server got discovered here)

That means (without churn) around 410 members who are paying $20 and bring $8200 monthly

Doesn’t sound too bad, but might be too much work if their conversions are that bad

Which they might be - they are posting little testimonials, just doing giveaways on the server, and targeting all kinds of audience
Mostly young men aged 15-20 and they might not be ready to pull out money and pay immediately

2) Same conversions as conversions from TikTok to Community
They are converting around 8,9% of members from the TikTok account to their community

Let’s assume they’re able to convert just as big of % of people onto a paid community as they’re doing it from TikTok to the free tier

But now, we got 3649 members that are paying $20/month
Which means 72980$ monthly

That doesn’t count in the churn

The last number is quite unrealistic considering that the community doesn’t have a face of the brand
And the value proposition
(this is the only thing they are using, they aren’t posting many testimonials)
is typical to any other similar server:

This goes to show you only one thing

Conversions inside of the community matter even more than just the amount of members.

And that’s why communities with a face will always outcompete communities without one.
(But - if you have a great value proposition and a mysterious guy behind it, it can work well - example is Grim Hustle - quite faceless but got a good brand)

What would I do better

Here are just simple 5 tips I got:

1. Simplify your layout to avoid overwhelming newbies.

2. Flood your space with real testimonials and feedback - it's the best kind of hype.

3. Slow down those rapid-fire chats with a 'slowmode'.

4. Engage your members with live events and challenges.
   Bonus: Active participants get a shot at becoming moderators.
   These steps keep your churn rate low and the perceived value of your subscription sky-high.

5. Build a true brand out of a community, not just another “faceless” discord server

That was all for today, if you got any questions, shoot them over an email or @HelioHype on Twitter

If you guessed the name of the community I was breaking down today, shoot it over an email too - you will get $500 from me
(in a form of a call, not $500 cash, just saying)

Stay on the lookout for the next newsletter and I hope you have a great day ;)

Next issue is going to be about free + paid community funnel and whether you should take a narrow or broad approach

See you,
Valeria