Kaustubh Katdare

What are some of the alternatives to XenForo?

XenForo is a dominant player in the world of community platforms. I’d like to know about the latest forum and community platforms in the market that...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

If you thought launching paid memberships is the only way you can make money with your online community, hold your horse!In this article, you’ll learn not...

Are Online Forums Dead?

TL;DR: No, online forums are not dead. Despite what many believe, online forums still exist - and they are evolving. In fact, more communities and businesses...

21 Top Skills for Community Building and Engagement

In this article, I will share a list of 21 must have skills for any professional community builder.Now, even with almost 20 years of community building...

Jatra - An Upvoty Alternative Integrated with Community

Prior to founding the Jatra Community Platform, I served as the Head of Growth at a hyper-growth SaaS startup. Our product teams relied on user feedback,...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

Last, but not the least is special one, corporate sponsorships! 25. Corporate Sponsorships If your community serves a specific niche (and it should) companies would want...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

24. Paid Challenges Challenges are a fun, high-energy way to activate your community...and make money doing it. You set a clear goal (like “Write every day...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

23. Group Coaching If you or someone in your community has expertise, group coaching is a high-impact way to monetize. Instead of 1-on-1 sessions, you coach...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

22. Selling Market Data / Reports Community generated user-data can have insights that no other resources can provide. If your community has high-value members who create...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

21. Virtual Summits or Conferences Hosting virtual summits or online conferences is powerful way to bring your community together. It can bring lot of revenue throgh...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

20. White-labeling / Reseller Partnerships If your community platform, course or tool is valuable; you can let others rebrand and sell it under their name for...

What are the different types of online communities?

There are 11 types of online communities. Following is the TL;DR version: Interest-Based Communities (e.g., Reddit, Facebook Groups) Professional Networks (e.g., LinkedIn, Slack W...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

19. Podcast Sponsorships Podcasting is on the rise. It's a good idea to launch a podcast for your community. Podcasts are popular with advertisers because they...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

18. Courses and Workshops Identify the opportunities to organize workshops or short courses relevant to your community. For example, a Quality Assurance / Software Testing related....

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

17. App / Software Tools Tool building is an underrated way to make money from your community. You may choose to build a custom application or...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

16. Content Licensing If your community has high-quality, high-value content like guide, reports, research, templates - you may license it to other businesses, media outlets or...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

15. Sponsored Newsletters If your community receives regular email updates, you can monetize your newsletter by adding sponsored content. Brands love to target niche audience throu...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

14. Exclusive Community Access Build a VIP space inside your community that only accepts paying members. Think of Mastermind Groups, Private Forums or Invite-Only chats. This...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

13. Consulting If you are an expert in your niche - or the community trusts your insights, offering consulting services is a powerful way to monetize...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

12. Paid Directories Integrating directories with your community can be a crowd puller and a revenue magnet. Build a paid directory where your members can list...

25 Proven Community Monetization Strategies: Going Beyond Paid Memberships

11. Job Board This is an interesting way to create value for the members and also make money. If you are building a professional community, aim...

Does Jatra Offer Native Support for Conducting Online Webinars?

Hi - Jatra relies on multiple 'post-types' so that community builders can create engaging experiences for their users. Jatra will soon have support for online webinars;...

Quality of Life Update: Improved Click-Area for Posts

A short quality-of-life improvement to Jatra Community. We now have a much bigger clickable area for all the posts on the Index.Typically, the way to implement...

Which of these is a pull method of community engagement?

You're starting a new online community. What should you do first?

What is the most common reason why online communities fail?

What are the best online communities for community builders and managers?

Hi Sia, good to see you again. I've prepared a list of the best online communities meant for community builders, managers and anyone looking to learn...

What's the Best PHP Forum Software In Your Opinion?

Update: Several people contacted me to choose the best PHP-based forum software for their community. I thought I'd add more details: 🥇 Jatra – Best All-Rounder...

Guide: Get First 100 Community Members Quickly

In my career, I’ve built several communities. The hardest part of building a community is getting its first 100 members.Let’s not confuse ‘members’ with 'sign-ups’. In...

How to get more members in WhatsApp community?

Paula - I want to share a few more ideas now that WhatsApp has rolled out its Community feature. IF you are still figuring out how...

The Ultimate Guide to Community Engagement and Retention in 2026

In this guide, you will learn some of the most advanced and time-tested strategies and activities to boost community engagement and retention. The world of communities...

Jatra - An Upvoty Alternative Integrated with Community

Hi Rohit - We are already working on enhanced notification system. I know that notifying everyone who's expressed interest in the feature by upvoting or liking....

How often should a community manager post to keep members engaged?

To answer your question: A community manager should post about 1-2 discussion threads daily. As your community starts generating user-generated content, you can increase or decreas...

How often should a community manager post to keep members engaged?

Rohit - as you mentioned, the content creation is the responsibility of the community manager in the early days of the community. We have an interesting...

What does a community manager do all day, hour by hour?

Update: I had an opportunity to discuss the tasks and responsibilities of a community manager with a SaaS company. I made a few suggestions to them....

Are Online Forums Dead?

Sia - the popularity of forums is growing. In the earlier days, forums were mostly about discussions. Now, forums offer more to create a community experience....

What's the best way to onboard new members into a community?

Here's a simple, yet effective strategy to onboard new members into your community. This works always when your community is new. -> Send a personalised DM...

Community-Led Growth : The Easy Way

You raised an important question, Sia. It's important to make community-led growth self-sustaining. Many communities will see that the growth fades away after first few weeks...

Self-Hosted Vs. Fully Managed Community Platform - What Should You Pick?

Agree, Alex. BuddyBoss is problematic with its plugins. I usually do not like any tenical distractions when build a community. In early stages of building a...

Community-Led Growth : The Easy Way

In this article, we’ll talk about community-led growth and discuss an easy way to implement it for your business.Prior to founding the Jatra Community Platform, I...

[Steps] Build Organic Online Community for Brand

Okay, here's the TL;DR version of how to create content for your community: When starting a new community, it's essential to create instant value for your...

Jatra - An Upvoty Alternative Integrated with Community

Hi Sia - Thank you. It's the feature we ourselves wanted for Jatra's official community. The feedback tool is indeed available for your community. You will...

Why is Community Building Important for Startups in 2025?

Howdy Jatra Community Members! 👋 Thought I’d get your views on Why community building is important for startups. Having a thriving community for your business is...

Honestly, What is the Future of Online Forums?

Hey Sia, welcome to the Jatra Community Platform. I hope you will get the responses you are looking for. I've already expressed my thoughts through a...

SEO for Online Communities: Ultimate Guide to Organic Growth

There are several ways to identify the 'painkiller content' for your community: Google's People Also Ask: It's a goldmine of queries that people actually type. Google...

Jatra - An Upvoty Alternative Integrated with Community

Thank you, Rohit. User feedback is important for building features that users want. It's an essential feature for most of the product development teams. I hope...

Thoughts on using AI to build community content?

I've been vocal against using 100% AI content anywhere. Sure AI can write better than you; but you know what - it misses that human touch....

Are Online Forums Dead?

Sara, that's right. Let me present some data to confirm that forums are not dead and in fact, they are thriving. Reddit's Massive Growth: From the...

Is Jatra an Alternative to Upvoty?

Update: I published an article on why Jatra is a better Upvoty alternative Give it a read and let me know if you have questions.

What are the best ways to monetize community?

Welcome back, Paula! CrazyEngineers community was fully monetized using online ads. Online advertisements is the best way to monetize a community. It works for any community...

Experimental: Delete and Ban User [Powerful]

Shubhada - this is just a start. We are advancing towards industry-leading AI-enabled SPAM control. It'd make the lives of moderators easy and no spam will...

Experimental: Delete and Ban User [Powerful]

Hi Sara - not at the moment. But that's an excellent suggestion. I request you to add a feedback with the details so that we can...

Experimental: Delete and Ban User [Powerful]

It’s essential to keep our community spam-free. Today, we have launched an experimental feature that is quite powerful. It’s called “Delete and Ban”Whenever the admins delete...

New: Community SEO, Layout Optimization and Performance Improvements

Thank you, Shubhada and Sara. I'm excited about the 'Structured Data'. Our industry-leading SEO features set Jatra apart from all the other community platforms. The next...

New: Community SEO, Layout Optimization and Performance Improvements

I’m excited to release the version 2.2.0 - our major update to Jatra in 2025. This release is paced with amazing features, massive SEO improvements and...

What is the future of online communities?

Well, great post, Sara! The future of online communities is bright. Virtual communities are evolving, not dying. In the early days, communities were all about discussions....

Medial App (Shark Tank India) : Social Network

Medial App pitched on Shark Tank India. It’s a cool social network that takes on X and goes beyond by offering features like Startup Showcase (India’s...

Community Manager Job Description Templates [Junior / Mid / Senior]

Hello! I hope these job description templates for community manager roles are useful. Let me know if you have questions or wish to suggest improvements.

How did you get your first 100 members for your community?

Update, I have recently published an article that addresses the way to get 100 active members of your community. Read it here: Get first 100 community...

[Steps] Build Organic Online Community for Brand

Most entrepreneurs, markets and community builders believe that their social media following is their “brand community”. The truth is social media is just a broadcast channel...

Looking for an Alternative to Vanilla Forums [Higher Logic Killed It]

It's indeed sad to see Vanilla forums getting abandoned. Vanilla was one of the leading community platforms back in the days; but past its glorious days....

Pareto's Principle Applies to Community Building

Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, observed that 80% of Italy’s land was owned by 20% of the population.This led to Pareto’s Principle: 80% of results come...

WhatsApp Community Growth and Engagement Guide - 2026

There's an important aspect of WhatsApp Communities that I forgot to mention. It's important from community building and growth perspective. WhatsApp Groups Reveal Phone Numbers I....

New Confetti Effect - Upon Clicking 'Like' Button

Eliminated a CSS plugin and directly injected all the CSS required to produce a fantastic “confetti” effect. I don’t want to add any pictures or photos;...

Community Manager Job Description Templates [Junior / Mid / Senior]

Writing job description for the role of community manager is a challenging task. I have created templates for junior, mid and senior level community manager roles...

What is the best way to dissolve a community?

Since we do not have any responses, I thought I'd share my thoughts. In the 20 years of professional community building, I've dissolved two communities. Dissolving...

SEO for Online Communities: Ultimate Guide to Organic Growth

I am a big fan of open communities - the ones that expose content to search engines and users without requiring a login. When you nail...

Minor Update: Members List Available Inside Settings

A small quality of life upgrade has just been released on Jatra. The admins and the owners of the Jatra powered communities can now access their...

Hosting community on Reddit - Pros and Cons

I recently read a post on LinkedIn that EVGA has moved its official forums over to Reddit. It’s a surprising move. I then studied the EVGA...

Should you block community access to LLMs and AI ChatBots?

Is anyone concerned about the chatbots and LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity crawling your content, training their models and then ultimately driving the traffic away from...

Why Build an Online Community: Advantages and Disadvantages

Thomas - Google and other search engines like Bing keep evolving. Google has began offering a special block on the first page of Google for content...

Why Build an Online Community: Advantages and Disadvantages

What excites me about building the Jatra Community Platform is the possibilities it unlocks for businesses. Most of the entrepreneurs are aware of only the ‘user-engagement’...

Sneak Peek At Upcoming Features on Jatra

Keep an eye on our changelog for the latest releases and updates: Jatra changelog

February 2025 Update: Job Board Integrated with Community and More

It’s the middle of February and I’ve an update for all our customers. At Jatra, we were incredibly busy preparing for an an interesting post-type: Job....

Community Vs. Forums - Difference and Similarities

What a fantastic topic to discuss, Thomas! Around the early 2000s, forums were referred to as message boards. Forums offered a structured discussions with threads moderated...

Is Jatra an Alternative to Upvoty?

Update: Someone asked on Reddit whether Jatra can be a full replacement for Upvoty. The answer is yes. However, you will have to define your needs....

How did you get your first 100 members for your community?

In the early days of CrazyEngineers, I leveraged Yahoo chat rooms to get free publicity and recruit early users. Yahoo chat rooms are no longer around,...

Jatra - A Powerful Discourse Alternative for Communities

It’s been 20 years since I started managing online communities.Back in 2005, I created my first community on phpBB - a popular platform at the time....

How would you revive a dead community?

That's pretty much it. But if you want to go a step ahead, there are few more things I'd like you to try. Connect with your...

How would you revive a dead community?

As a community builder, the responsibility of content generation until your community gets some momentum lies on you. Think about fresh ideas for content generation. Step...

How would you revive a dead community?

Identifying your key members is an important step - and that sets you for the next step. Creating low-stake opportunities for the key members to engage...

How would you revive a dead community?

Once you know why your community should exist, it's time to spring into action. It starts with identifying and empowering the key members of your community....

How would you revive a dead community?

Our second step is to identify the main reason your community exists. Make sure that it's relevant to the time. Old communities which were active need...

How would you revive a dead community?

I've developed a playbook for reviving dead communities. You can revive any dead community by listening to users, identifying issues and then creating low-stakes opportunities for....

How to Grow a Telegram Channel Organically?

If you are building a community on Telegram, you're building community in a 'hard mode'. Consider moving it to platform like Jatra which gives you multiple...

New Feature: Automatic Open Graph Image Previews for Jatra Powered Communities

I’m excited to announce a new feature that we ourselves wanted - Automatic Open Graph image generation for your content without explicitly mentioned images. For example,...

How to get engagement on WhatsApp community?

An update: I wrote an article on this topic: WhatsApp Community Growth and Engagement. In short, it's difficult to get engagement naturally on WhatsApp. It's a...

January, 2025 : Community Platform Update

After several weeks of silence, I thought I’d give our fellow Jatra family members an update on what’s happening behind the scenes. We spent past 3...

WhatsApp Community Growth and Engagement Guide - 2026

In this guide, you will learn the proven techniques to grow your WhatsApp community and boost engagement. As someone who has been building online communities for...

Public, Private and Restricted Channels on Jatra

We are excited to announce a major upgrade to Jatra Community Platform. Following is the overview of what’s new, and available immediately to all Jatra consumers.You...

Community Building is Easy - Dharmesh Shah

I came across this LinkedIn post from Dharmesh Shah: co-founder and CTO at Hubspot. Dharmesh says that most founders overthink how hard it is to start...

What's the Best PHP Forum Software In Your Opinion?

I've created a list of popular php-based forum software. If you are looking to start a forum or community, you have a wide choice of software...

Is Jatra an Alternative to Upvoty?

Hey Alex, thank you for your question. Jatra indeed is an alternative to Upvoty and lets you collect product feedback from your users. Jatra, at its...

Sneak Peek At Upcoming Features on Jatra

ETA: January, 2025 last week.After several weeks of working behind the scenes, we are excited to start 2025 with a huge update to Jatra Community Platform.The...

How to turn community members into brand ambassadors?

Hi Alex, I think 500 active members is a great number! I'm sure you must be getting a ton of useful content on your community daily....

What is the best way to dissolve a community?

This question was asked in a webinar I attended about building community for startups. Say you’ve built a community and now want to dissolve it; what...

Self-Hosted Vs. Fully Managed Community Platform - What Should You Pick?

When starting a new community, you’ll have to choose between a self-hosted and a fully-managed community platform.In my career spanning 20 years as an entrepreneur and...

How to get engagement on WhatsApp community?

I recently had a discussion with a promising founder who is looking to build a community. Their startup has potential and has steadily gaining users. They...

Building Training for Community Builders

My biggest community management challenge is to keep the content up to date and relevant to our members. I'm not a big fan of building community...

What does Community Engagement Manager do?

Hi Amanda, welcome to Jatra community platform. I'm glad lot of new graduates are choosing community manager as a profession. I'd recommend reading our article on...

Growing Discord Server : The Hard Problem (and Solution)

Relax! You are not the only one finding it difficult to grow your community on Discord servers. You probably have seen active Discord servers with 200,000+...

How to Build a SaaS Community Effortlessly

@Rahul: Good question. The process is really simple. Scout all the forums and find out what questions your potential users are asking. Look for the suggestions...

Is Jatra an alternative to Discourse community platform?

TLDR; Jatra is a worthy alternative to Discourse. We respect Discourse and have used their platform to build successful communities; but the platform has lost its...

As a community manager, do you quickly reply to all new questions?

... is this question for me, Steve? I like to reply to all the comments quickly! =')

Flarum or XenForo - Which Community Platform is Better?

Self-hosted are a better option if you have the technical resources and capabilities to manage servers, security updates and patches on your own. Plus, you'll need...

How to get more members in WhatsApp community?

For small, local communities WhatsApp is a good choice. The main objection I've seen from people to join WhatsApp community is that it requires sharing your...

How to Build a SaaS Community Effortlessly

In this guide, I’ll teach you how to build a successful SaaS community effortlessly. I’d like you to follow the playbook I’ve built over the last...

What does a community manager do all day, hour by hour?

Excellent, Paula! I'd like to point to a few articles and discussions relevant to the topic: Skills for community managers KPIs for community managers Community moderation...

How can I improve community management skills?

Thomas has given an apt answer. You can improve community skills by being more active in the communities, both as a manager and a member. What...

User Feedback Tool - Integrated Within the Community

Saandeep - @mentions is a requested feature; and we are considering it. You reported a bug - should be a new 'feedback'? Can you please try...

Slack Or Discord - The Uneasy Choice You'll Make

Saandeep - the JIRA, Slack, Atlassian are mostly (and rightly) used for team communication - often in a corporate setup. As I mentioned, these tools are...

What are the negative parts of building online community?

It’s important to be aware of the negative aspects of building an online community. In this article, I will share some of the challenges that I...

Are Online Forums Dead?

Someone asked me - Do forums still exist? The answer is - Yes! Forums exist and are growing rapidly. In fact- forums are the fastest growing...

User Feedback Tool - Integrated Within the Community

Yes, Jatra's Feedback post-type makes it a worthy alternative to Canny, Upvoty, Nolt, UserVoice, ProductBoard and others. The key thing here is that Jatra's feedback tool...