How to Build a Community Website for Free in 2024

Every day, it becomes clearer that more and more online users are joining virtual communities for connection, advice, and support. In fact, 76% of internet users participate in online communities across various platforms. Reddit alone is home to over 130,000 active communities and 73.1 million daily active users. With this dramatic rise in the popularity of online communities, brands, businesses, entrepreneurs, and coaches are all embracing community culture. It’s not enough to sell products anymore – consumers want to feel like they belong.

Social media platforms used to be the go-to place for communities, but with the change in privacy policies, the rise in AI, algorithm changes, and the general lack of trust surrounding these platforms in general, brands and businesses are seeking alternative ways to build their communities. Here’s how to build a community website for free in 2024.

Why do I Need a Website and Not Just a Facebook Group?

Although Facebook Groups and other social media platforms are good for building an online following, they come with limitations that community websites simply don’t have. Here are some of the drawbacks of using social media for your online community:

• Harder to Monetize – Facebook Groups, X, and Instagram offer low and limited monetization options. In comparison, brands that set up a website get full access to monetization in the form of advertisements, affiliate links, subscriptions, courses, products, and more.
• Need Third-Party Apps to Offer Products – Facebook Groups, X, and Instagram often require third-party apps to offer products such as ebooks, guides, and course content. This means that, even if you advertise yourself on social media, you’ll have to direct potential customers to a completely new platform using Link Tree, which could mean a lower conversion rate.
• Algorithm Changes – Social media content creators are always at the mercy of algorithm changes. For example, Instagram rewards those who follow the algorithm and punishes those who don’t by limiting your account’s reach.
• Platform Policies – If you don’t follow the rules set out by social media platforms, you can get suspended or even permanently banned. Creators in the past have been banned and had to fight to get their accounts back. If another account chooses to report you, you may lose your entire brand in an instant.

Customization and Brand Identity

Your brand identity is tied to building your platform. Whether you’re a fitness coach, a budding business entrepreneur, an SEO expert, or a DIY guru, you need a unique space that you can tailor to your personal brand’s identity. This means choosing your own colors, fonts, images, layout, and messaging.

A strong brand identity comes with a wealth of benefits, including:

• Customer loyalty
• Brand recognition
• Credibility
• Word-of-mouth marketing
• A competitive advantage

The fitness industry is rife with coaches, all sporting personal brands. Popular fitness coaches include Michelle Lewin (16M followers), Simeon Panda (8.1M), and Joe Wicks (4.7M). These fitness coaches have personal brands that allow them to connect with their audience on a deeper level.

Owning a website gives you full control over the design of your brand. Even if you choose a free theme when you’re starting out, you can still customize the colors and fonts to create a website that feels like you. With social media, this simply isn’t possible – all you have is a profile picture and a short bio to try and reflect who you are.

Data Ownership and Privacy Concerns

Social media has a lot of sensitive information that belongs to its millions of users. When people sign up for social media, they agree to the terms and conditions that allow these platforms to collect data, such as locations, cross-site tracking, and interests. Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) has previously been accused of allowing third-party companies to access Facebook users’ personal data.

Advertisers and scammers can get access to data such as:

• Profile Information – names, birthdates, and contact details
• Status Updates – including personal information
• Shared Content – photos and videos
• Employment Information – past and current jobs

And so much more.

In comparison, a personal website allows brands and companies to control data and be transparent about what the data is used for, alleviating their community members’ worries and solidifying their trust.

Step 1. Setting the Foundations

How to Start a Community: Finding Community’s Purpose

Outline the benefits of joining your community. To do this, you first have to choose a niche. Ask yourself which area you’re particularly passionate about. For example, are you looking to build a fitness coaching community, or does your area of expertise lie somewhere within the realm of reading and writing?

Once you’ve chosen a niche, decide what the purpose of your community is. There are various community types, and the trick is working out which category yours fits into:

• Learning Communities
• Social Communities
• Branded Communities
• Networking Communities
• Fan Communities

If you’re struggling to find a purpose for your community, use the following prompt:

My community will help [BLANK] to [BLANK.]

For example, Duolingo would say, “My community will help complete beginners learn a language.” On the other hand, Goodreads might say, “My community will help readers connect with other readers over books.”

Once you’ve outlined the purpose of your community, this will help you work out what type of audience to attract.

Discovering Your Audience

To create content that resonates, you need to know who your audience is.

1. Audience Research – Visit the websites and social media of competitors in your niche. See the type of people who are responding to their content. For example, if your community is centered around SEO, you might find young entrepreneurs and startups looking for guidance on their SEO strategies.
2. Detailed Audience Profiles – Include information such as their names, ages, gender, jobs, interests and hobbies, and anything else that might be relevant. This will help you create targeted content.
3. Pain Points – Discover what makes your audience tick. What are they driven by? Are you targeting families who need budget-friendly meals in the cost of living crisis? Or young professionals who want to use fitness and meditation as a way to relieve stress and anxiety?

Top Tip – Don’t be afraid to adjust your audience profiles as you go. Once your community is up and running and you start getting accurate community data, you might find you’re attracting a different type of audience or additional demographics you might not have expected. Adjust your audience profiles and your content plan accordingly.

Designing the Right Content

To build a successful community, your content should address the pain points you’ve outlined and solve a problem for your audience. For example, if they want to learn Spanish in a fun and accessible way, then your community should teach them Spanish using new and innovative strategies.

Content can come in many forms, including videos and webinars, text posts, infographics, ebooks, live events, and so much more. The important thing is to find out what engages your community best.

Step 2. Choose a Community Website Builder

There are a range of platforms offering free plans that you can use to build your community. Here are some of the most popular and user-friendly options.

• WordPress – Recognized worldwide, with more than 474 million sites using it, WordPress is a safe option for both professionals and complete beginners. According to Netcraft, WordPress has over 30,000 themes and more than 70,000 plugins for businesses, communities, and bloggers to customize their websites.
• Wix – Wix is another popular example of a website builder, with over 10.8 million websites around the world. Wix powers 2.5% of all websites and has 800+ and 500+ professional applications. Creators can add a “Wix Forum” to their site, allowing them to create a community space where their users can ask questions, share ideas, and connect with others.
• SquareSpace – SquareSpace has 4.91 million unique subscriptions. This platform also has a range of “Extensions,” which are their versions of plugins.

Keep in mind that the free versions of these platforms will be limited and might not offer you everything you need to build a sustainable community space. Other platforms, such as Mighty Networks, Circle, and Teach.io may be better suited to your needs.

Integrating Community Features

When it comes to integrating community features onto your website, look for plugins suited to the needs of your community. For example, are you planning to offer member subscriptions? Or is community chat the most important feature for you? Here are some popular plugins that can help you build a sustainable community.

How to Make a Website Where Users Can Post

• BbPress – This open-source plugin will transform your website into a forum or community space. It allows for private messaging, RSS feed functionality, customizable notifications, and templates, and it supports over 12 different languages.
• PeepSo – Create your own social website, get live chat and messaging, video and photo uploads, custom widgets, and more with this plugin.

How to Make a Website With User Accounts and Profiles

• Paid Membership Subscriptions – Add a subscription to your website. Register users, restrict content, set up recurring payments, and so much more.
• Ultimate Member – With this plugin, you can build any type of community. Get WooCommerce integration, private messaging, user roles, and even more extensions.
• BuddyPress – This open-source WordPress community plugin lets you create member profiles and pages, send private messages, connect with community members, and build user groups. However, it’s only compatible with specific themes.

Community Website Design: Designing for User Experience

If you want to hit the ground running with a good community conversion rate, it’s important that your website is easy to see, understand, and navigate. Here are some things to consider.

• Use the Right Colors – Your community should use colors that reflect your brand and ensure your website is readable. For example, black text on a dark green background will be difficult to see and will turn away potential members.
• Harness SEO – Implement SEO techniques to drive organic traffic to your website, such as keyword research and optimization, page speed, and internal linking. Google needs to see you as an authority in your niche so that you can rank highly.
• Grammar Checks – A community platform riddled with errors will impact your users’ experience. Poor grammar or punctuation errors and typos will make your website come across as untrustworthy.
• Mix it Up – Use headers, text, images, and icons to appeal to your audience. No user wants to be greeted with a solid wall of text.
• Optimize for Mobile – Your community website should have cross-platform compatibility. This means designing two website layouts – one for desktop and one for mobile.

Try Paid Community Platforms Instead

If building your own website sounds like a chore, we understand. Although we don’t recommend using social media platforms, a lot of paid community platforms offer free plans or trials to help you get started.

Teach.io is an excellent choice. This platform combines course creation and community in one place. Build courses, host live events, and interact with your community without the hassle of app switching or installing multiple plugins. With built-in checkout pages, subscription management, and gamification features, you can create a sustainable community and get paid, right from the get-go.

Try Teach’s 14-day free trial.

Step 3. Launching Your Community

Planning is essential to ensuring a successful launch day. There are a range of marketing tactics you can use to build anticipation and attract those initial members.

• Share your Community on Personal Channels – If you have a social media following, whether on TikTok, X, LinkedIn, or Instagram, use it to advertise your community. Make stories and posts, and go on lives to talk about your community and all the benefits it offers.
• Offer Discounts and Reduced Membership Fees – Offering a 15% or 20% discount for the first 100 members will help attract potential community members who are interested in your community but unsure about the price.
• Get in Front of an Audience – Join podcasts or speak at niche-specific events to advertise your community. For example, if you’re a business coach, become a guest speaker to highlight your expertise. When your target audience sees that you’re an expert in your field, they’ll be more likely to join your community.
• Create Content Teasers – Post content teasers on your social media and website to build anticipation and get people excited about your community. This could be in the form of infographics, quick 10-second videos, or facts on your stories. For example, if you’re a writing community, posting something like “3 Quick Ways to Beat Writer’s Block” is a great way to show your audience the type of content they can expect in your community.
• Start a Newsletter – Encouraging your audience to sign up for your newsletter is a fantastic way to curate an engaged group of people you can send discounts and offers to. Create an “Early Bird Offer” with 15% off your community if they sign up for your newsletter.

Step 4. Engaging and Retaining Members

Keeping your community members engaged is the key to retaining them. Posting content is not enough – community leaders should look for new and inventive ways to engage their audience.

• Events – Hold virtual events related to your niche, such as talks and webinars from experts in the industry, live Q&As, and conferences.
• Classes – Yoga, cooking, and meditation are all great ideas for virtual classes.
• Challenges – Virtual scavenger hunts, Guess Who, virtual escape rooms, and game shows are all fun challenges you can use to engage your community. You could even offer prizes such as points, spots on the leaderboard, or even virtual gift cards for the winners.
• Contests – From “Guess How Many Sweets” to writing competitions and giveaways, you can use various contest types to engage your audience. Like with the challenges, you could offer prizes for the winners.
• Other – Think outside the box with murder mysteries, virtual coffee breaks, book clubs, and speed networking.

Need some more ideas? Check out our fool-proof ideas to increase community engagement.

Step 5. Measuring Success

Tracking the health of your community is so important to see whether you’re reaching your community goals. From user engagement to customer retention, you can monitor the health of your community in a range of different ways.

Metrics – These provide information on your community’s health, helping you track if and how it’s growing and whether it’s sustainable. You can track these through your community platform, your website settings, your social media analytics, or by using specific formulas. For a full breakdown of what metrics you should be monitoring, check out this article.

Audience feedback – Measure your success by asking your audience for feedback directly. Use polls and surveys to gather information about which content they resonate with, which types of events they prefer, and other information. You could even ask them what future content they’d like to see in the community. This approach will also make your community members feel valued, increasing retention rates.

Conclusion: The Community-Built Castle

Having your own community website is so important for the health and sustainability of your community. Although social media platforms like Facebook Groups, Instagram, and X offer a variety of ways to build a community, their feature limitations and privacy policies are a cause for concern. By building your own website or using a community platform like Teach.io, you take back control. You can create a safe space for your community members where their data won’t be sold to third-party users and build a brand your audience can trust. Furthermore, building a community website lets you follow in the footsteps of community giants like Duolingo and GoodReads.

Once you’ve built your community, it’s important to keep improving and evolving your space. Use audience feedback to improve your content, your website’s ease of use, and your personal brand so that everything aligns. This will help you create a sustainable community that will stand the test of time.