Happy Sunday, creators!

There are 19 days left in 2021, let’s finish them on a strong note with momentum and progress!

In this week’s newsletter, we cover:

Keys to building a loyal community
Making Your Own Path with Ana Lorena Fabrega
36 Blender tutorials

Let’s jump in.

Keys To Building A Strong Community

The creator economy has proven how important communities are. And has shown us that some of the best brands and creators scale on the base of these communities. But a community isn’t just creating a place for people to hang out. It’s bringing like-minded people together who share specific values and are on a mission together.

So, we put together five essential elements to build a strong community that will help you scale your personal brand.

Find Other Communities And See What Sticks

If you want to identify what makes a successful community, then find the communities you or your audience spend time in and see what continues to bring members back. Ask yourself if it’s the content, the conversations, the digital or real-life meetings that retain members. Take this information and use it to fuel the decisions behind your community.

Create An Identity Around The Community

The best communities form around identities. These identities serve as magnets to continue to attract more and more members, inherently creating a tribe. To find the communities identity, search for the common denominator in your ideal member’s interests, hobbies, personalities, and habits. For example, Indie Hackers didn’t try to build a community around every entrepreneur, instead, they identified with only indie hackers.

Find The Collective Mission

Strong-knit communities come together around a collective mission. A mission that members get behind and work together on this shared purpose. The stronger the purpose, the stronger the bond between community members. To establish the mission, you must first establish the cause you want to positively impact.

Inject Your Community Into Your Brand’s Development

Not only can your community serve as the base of your brand, but also can serve as your feedback loop. And just like many creators build in public, build with your community. This will help convert members into advocates that buy into what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.

Use Your Community To Build Your Affiliate Program

Lastly, your most engaged community members have the potential to become your most effective affiliates. Not only will they know how to sell your product, but they will ensure to find customers who strengthen the quality of your community.

Because of how powerful communities are, we made it easy for you to start building one.

You can now automate inviting new customers to your Circle community.
Here’s how.

Here’s What We Shipped For Gumroad Creators

You can now add custom fields to your checkout form.

You can now build Terms and Conditions and other opt-in checkboxes into your Gumroad purchase flow.

What’s Happening In The Creator Economy

Want to see what we have in store for you ongoing? Check out our Roadmap here
Sahil on the business of creativity — process, principles, and people
Five ways to increase your social media engagement
Building a big business starts with building something small first
Check out our new App icon

Making Your Own Path with Ana Lorena Fabrega

In the inaugural episode of UnStuck, Justin Mikolay and Ana Lorena Fabrega discuss her leaving a traditional career to create her own path.

It started in 2019 when Ana left her teaching career to create a personal monopoly around using the internet to improve childhood education.

In this episode, Ana discusses:

Leaving a traditional career
Joining a creative community
Creating professional luck
Finding your “game”
Future of education

You can listen to the full episode here.

36 Blender Tutorials, Add-ons & Assets For 3D Animators

The creator economy has broken the stigma of the starving artist.

Instead, we’re living in the best time to be a digital artist.

Not only are there more and more ways to monetize every day, but there are more resources at your disposal than ever.

Because of this, we put together the best resources and recommendations for Blender to help jumpstart your creative process.
You can read the entire article here.

We'll see you next week,

The Gumroad Team