Jatra Community
Jatra Community

  • Community Monetization Via Ads or Paid Membership - What's a Better Choice?

    Natasha Sharma

    Member

    Updated: May 14, 2025
    Views: 10

    We are looking to monetize our community of founders and marketers. The community has shown a steady growth over the past several months and we have some really good content. That’s when I stumbled upon the community monetization guide by Kaustubh.

    Considering our audience, I’m confused between monetization via advertising and through paid memberships.

    I spoke to a few members and they were against paid memberships; which is okay - because our community has been free for everyone since its inception.

    Please help me decide.

    2
    Replies
Howdy guest!
Dear guest, you must be logged-in to participate on Jatra Community. We would love to have you as a member of our community. Consider creating an account or login.
Replies

  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Founder • 5h

    Great question! The decision is actually simple. If your community gets lot of traffic ( > 50,000 UVs/mo) from the first-world countries, monetization via ads is a no-brainer. The CPMs are good and you should be able to make a few thousand dollars per month to cover your expenses. Your community operates in an interesting niche and caters to a premium audience. You should be able to command good CPC from advertisers.

    The drawback of ads-based revenue is that it fluctuates with traffic.

    Paid memberships is also a great option when you have exclusive content or network. Paid membership is good option because it improves your member engagement while generating revenue for your community.

    Recommendation: Start by showing advertisements only to the guests. That will help you estimate the revenue potential of the community. Secondly, start forming a core member group and discuss the challenges of your community with them. Seek their opinion on paid memberships. Not everyone will agree; but you'll get a sense of the mood of your community.

    Hope this helps.

    Are you sure? This action cannot be undone.
    Cancel
Home Channels Search Login Register