18 Online Community Success Stories [2023]
Online communities bring people who share common values together. For anyone looking to start a side hustle and earn money, you need to figure out the best online communities to participate. More important, you need to figure out on how to translate your online community membership into dollars. Ideas of how to earn through online communities include:
- Selling your products
- Promoting affiliate links for a commission
- Run ads
- Sell online community membership
- Start your own online community and charge for sponsored content
Here are some real life success stories of starting a online community:
1. Frontend Mentor ($312K/year)
Matt Studdert (from London, UK) started Frontend Mentor almost 5 years ago.
Hello! I’m Matt Studdert, and I’m the founder of Frontend Mentor. We are an online learning community that helps people improve their front-end coding skills by building projects. Instead of providing learning tutorials, we provide professionally designed challenges to help our community gain real-life experience building websites and web apps.
Today, we have over 200,000 members on the platform and grow at over 16,000 new members per month. Of those 200,000+ members, we have 1,500+ paid subscribers generating over $15,000 MRR.
2. Enter Network ($18K/year)
Jochem Gerritsen (from Utrecht) started Enter Network over 4 years ago.
Hey! My name is Jochem Gerritsen and I’m the founder of Enter Network — the online community for European Early-Stage Entrepreneurs.
I started Enter Network back in 2018, but only launched the membership model this year (on 9 November 2020, to be precise). Currently, the revenue is around $1,500 MRR. This comes from founders who are regular members of our community or take part in an online mastermind group.
Learn more about starting an online community:
Where to start?
-> How much does it cost to start an online community?
-> Pros and cons of an online community
Need inspiration?
-> Examples of established online community
-> Marketing ideas for an online community
-> Online community names
Other resources
4. Indie Worldwide ($24K/year)
Anthony Castrio (from Remote) started Indie Worldwide about 4 years ago.
Hello, I’m Anthony, and run a virtual community for indie founders called Indie Worldwide. Over the last couple of years, we’ve grown to over 2,000 members.
We’re about twice as active as similarly sized communities on Slack and the quality of discussion around everything indie hacking is very high.
5. The Design Database ($60K/year)
Courtlyn Jones (from Brooklyn) started *The Design Database * over 1 year ago.
My name is Courtlyn Jones and I am the CEO and the founder of The Design Database, an online platform, and community designed to be a support system for Creatives (designers, artists, writers, photographers, architects, etc.) by connecting them with clients who are looking to hire now.
Since launching in late July, over 200 Creatives and 25 companies have created accounts on our platform, we have received grant funding from the HerRise Pitch Competition by HerSuiteSpot, and we’ve raised over $10,000 crowdfunding on Kickstarter. We are off to a very exciting start!
6. Aucoin Analytics, LLC ($166K/year)
Kervin Aucoin (from Washington D.C., DC, USA) started Aucoin Analytics, LLC over 4 years ago.
Hello folks, my name is Kervin Aucoin and I am the founder of Aucoin Analytics, LLC, a private intelligence company that focuses on security trends by using data and predictive analysis to protect customers. Aucoin Analytics delivers highly specialized risk assessments and intelligence reports specially tailored to our customer's needs.
7. MicroConf ($120K/year)
Rob co-founded MicroConf, the largest community for bootstrapped founders. They have hosted +24 in-person events and are running an online community.
Rob Walling (from ) started MicroConf ago.
Rob co-founded MicroConf, the largest community for bootstrapped founders. They have hosted +24 in-person events and are running an online community.
8. No Code Founders ($300K/year)
Joshua started No Code Founders, a community of founders using no-code tools to build internet businesses. They're at 10k members and have reached +$3k MRR.
Joshua started No Code Founders, a community of founders using no-code tools to build internet businesses. They're at 10k members and have reached +$3k MRR.
9. Dean Bokhari ($1.44M/year)
Dean Bokhari (from Irvine, CA, USA) started Dean Bokhari about 2 years ago.
Hi! My name is Dean Bokhari, and I’m the founder of DeanBokhari.com - a membership platform focused on inspiring people to improve their lives and achieve their goals.
These days, about half a million people read or listen to my work every month. It’s both fun and fulfilling to help others grow. And it’s financially rewarding, too—our revenues are over $100,000 per month.
10. Ramen Club ($48K/year)
Charlie Ward (from London, UK) started Ramen Club over 3 years ago.
We’re at $3,800 MRR as of May ‘22, with 35% MoM revenue growth between April and now. (Until recently we were known as ‘Weekend Club’, I broke the pivot down in this tweetstorm).
11. COO Alliance ($5M/year)
Hiring has been a huge issue for me. And in a past interview with Cameron Herold, I brought it up because he’s the founder of the COO Alliance, the world’s leading network for the second in command. I don’t get embarrassed by a lot of stuff. If you heard my interviews, you hear me get pretty frank a…
Cameron Herold (from Scottsdale, Arizona, USA) started COO Alliance almost 7 years ago.
Cameron Herold is a successful entrepreneur and serial founder who launched Coo Alliance, a globally renowned training network, in 2016. The COO training firm provides the skills, methods, and processes you need to develop your organization smarter and quicker.
The platform provides a support group and enables COOs to build better companies, grow their revenue, and develop ideas that will be 100% profitable. Here COOs will get access to a leading community where the peer team is allowing proper tools & guidance to take their businesses to the next level.
Apart from being a renowned business expert Cameron Herold is a best-selling author of books like The Miracle Morning, Free PR, and Meetings Suck among others. He is the driving force behind the exponential expansion of hundreds of enterprises, and his work has indirectly impacted countless more.
At 42 years old, Cameron joined 1-800-GOT-JUNK. As the COO and during the 6.5 years he was with the company, he oversaw a phenomenal growth in sales from $2 million to $106 million. In the last few years, his enterprises received over 5,200 media placements, including attention on Oprah.
The founder received his BA, LAW from Carleton University in 1988. He is a well-known international speaker. He is also a top-rated professor at EO/Entrepreneurial MIT’s Masters Program and a strong and successful speaker at global CEO and COO leadership events.
The platform’s mission is to provide COOs with the same professional development and growth opportunities that CEOs have had for many years.
Key Takeaways
- Cameron made great connections flying business class.
- The business makes around $2.5 million ARR and has 7 employees.
- Rating his team based on results and cultural fit.
- Sets quarterly and annual goals.
- Meets employees every quarter to check on goals.

12. The Holistic Enchilada ($96K/year)
Delilah Orpi (from Winter Springs) started The Holistic Enchilada over 5 years ago.
My name is Delilah Orpi and I blog about curly hair and clean beauty at The Holistic Enchilada. I help people with naturally curly and wavy hair transition to wearing their natural texture.
My website currently averages $7,000 a month in revenue, though some months can be a lot higher or lower.
13. Book Club Chat ($48K/year)
Heather Caliendo (from San Diego, CA, USA) started Book Club Chat almost 5 years ago.
Hi, I’m Heather Caliendo, founder, and content creator for Book Club Chat, a website dedicated to book club questions, reviews, book lists, and author Q&As.
My flagship content includes original and unbiased book club questions and book lists that provide lots of book recommendations. Since starting in 2018, Book Club Chat has grown to more than 5,000 visitors a day and it’s been an awesome way to connect with readers and authors around the world.
14. Merrative ($24K/year)
Harshala Chavan (from Mumbai, Maharashtra, India) started Merrative over 2 years ago.
I am Harshala Chavan from Mumbai India - a maker, community-builder, and writer in the publishing and content industry.
Today, Merrative can provide on average USD 200 worth of projects to our talent. We generate on an average USD 1500 per month in marketplace transactions and are hungry to scale up!
16. SelectSoftware Reviews ($40.5K/year)
Phil Strazzulla (from Cambridge) started SelectSoftware Reviews about 4 years ago.
My name is Phil Strazzulla and I run SelectSoftware. We are an expert online review site for HR software - basically the NerdWallet/WireCutter for all of the different HR software categories out there.
Over the past 3 months, the organic search traffic to SelectSoftware has been growing at around 30% per month, and in August 2019 we had our first month of revenues with a little over $1k/mo.
17. GummySearch ($12K/year)
Folio Fed (from New York City, NY, USA) started GummySearch almost 2 years ago.
I’m Fed - bootstrapped founder, digital nomad, and maker of two community-focused products.
18. HR.com ($21.8M/year)
The startup podcast with more than 500 episodes to help you launch and grow. 10 million+ downloads. 500+ five-star reviews.
Debbie McGrath (from Jackson's Point, Ontario) started HR.com about 24 years ago.
Debbie McGrath is the CEO and creator of HR.com. The world's largest social networking and resource site for human resource professionals to help recruit quality individuals.
The company's online social community provides its members with access to shared knowledge on practices, trends, and industry news to help them develop their people, as well as articles, case studies, newsletters, surveys, and discussion forums that help Human Resources (HR) professionals find the right candidate for their client companies.
The platform also provides webinars that allow users to keep up with different HR trends and needs.
HR.com is trusted by over 110,000 HR professionals for education, career development, and compliance: 5,900+ courses and tips in the HR Genius on-demand training library and 400+ webcasts every year.

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