I’ve learned a lot from having an active Circle community since 2022. What works, and what can be improved to make our community so much better!
My focus has always been on adding more value and I truly believe, these coming changes will have a huge positive impact on our community adding more value to our Pro Members.
The New Updates:
- A new free public space for non-pro members
- Pro Member subscriptions migrated from the Lytbox Academy website to Circle
- New Affiliate Program for Pro Members
- Live Pro Calls include 1 high-valued workshop a month with weekly Live Pro Session Fireside Chats
- All new Pro Member’s directory on the LA site
- Parity pricing for a few selected countries
- New pricing plans
- All new ‘Student Community’
- A revamped spaces layout
A New Free Public Space for Non-Pro Members
Up till now, I have not actively promoted our awesome community. It’s time to let the world of web creatives know what we have going on. Our free spaces will open our community to everyone. And when someone is ready, they can join us as a Pro Member.
The free spaces will include:
- A Welcome Space for onboarding and to help better understand how everything works
- Lytbox Academy Posts – These will only be posts from myself where everyone can comment (free members cannot create posts, this is reserved only for Pro Members)
- Free Resources – I often create templates and design assets to share in my videos. I’ll be sharing these here making all free resources centralized and easily accessible
- Free Events – In 2 weeks I’m bringing back live streams with special guests and speaking in future webinars with other brands. My next event is on July 15th for an InstaWP webinar on ‘Building Multiple Revenue Streams’. Our Pro Member calls and workshops are reserved only for Pro Members.
Pro Member Subscriptions Migration
As a web designer, I loved having the control of doing everything from my site. But this has created confusion as students and Pro Members try to navigate Circle and the LA site.
This update will simplify everything for everyone.
- Circle will be migrating all active subscriptions from The LA site to the Circle platform
- Pro Members can manage their subscriptions directly in Circle
- Nothing needs to be done by Pro Members, subscriptions stay as they are
- All information remains encrypted, myself and Circle will never have and never access credit card data, it all stays protected within Stripe
- This will be completed by the second week of July
- Courses will also be purchased through Circle going forward
New Affiliate Program
Pro Members can now become affiliates. The program opens the second week of July with more details being posted.
Updates to the Live Pro Calls
To get more out of our calls and build up our video library for Pro Members, I and other special guests will present 1 high-level monthly workshop. This is not just a video call with bullet points. We’re talking about a full-scale, well-prepared deck, and high-value workshops.
Our community has a high-tiered plan that includes AI transcripts that go into the searches. Through time this will grow into a valuable resource.
We’ll continue our normal weekly Live Pro Sessions as topic-focused fireside chats.
All new – Pro Members Directory on the LA Site
I get several leads a week for projects. I am going to build a Pro Member Directory on the LA site that displays the Pro Member, their brand, their specialty, and their contact details for leads to contact you directly. Oh and theirs a juicy backlink to add 😉.
Now, I can redirect all my leads to our directory and hopefully pass on business to fellow Pro Members.
To get listed, a Pro Member needs to be an active member for 6 consecutive months. Members with the highest Circle Activity Score will get priority in the order you are listed.
Parity Pricing
My goal has always been to help web creatives with their web careers. The best way to help more of us is to make our community accessible.
There will be special pricing for a few selected countries that have a significant economic difference. This will go into effect in the second week of July.
New Pricing Plans
For now, Pro Memberships will remain at $20/month. The annual membership has been discontinued and replaced by a 3-month plan at $50/quarterly.
Prices are expected to increase throughout the year but current memberships will never increase as long as the plan remains active. Pro Members on annual plans will continue their annual plans until the member cancels.
All new ‘Student Community’
For all Lytbox Academy course students, this is a big change!
Support is a huge part of my courses. Up to now, we had a dedicated support space for each course. But this has made our space sidebar cluttered and with more courses coming, the clutter will grow.
Most students use the lesson’s chat for questions and support so we’ll keep that going.
The all-new Student Community space will replace the current course support spaces.
Any student who purchases any course will have access to the Student Community space. This way not only can students get support from me and fellow students, we all can network and connect together in a community. More value! 🎉
A Revamped Spaces Layout
Some of our spaces are active, and some get crickets. This next week you’ll see our left side bar and spaces in it completely change. Here is the new layout:
Space Group 1 (free public space): The Lytbox Community (Free)
👉 This will be an open public space to open the community to everyone.
- Welcome/Start Here – A gallery view for onboarding new members and making everything clear on how the Circle community functions.
- The Lytbox Feed – Only I can post but everyone can comment.
- Free Resources – Sharing free resources from my YouTube videos
- Free Events – Webinars and live streams
Space Group 2: Premium Courses
👉 Making courses accessible with a new Student Community space.
- Design with Elementor Course
- The Ultimate SEO for WordPress Course
- Building a WordPress Maintenance Business
- The Complete Guide to Project Management (only visible to existing students, enrollment is closed at this time)
- Student Community – This is the support space for all courses. This will clear up spaces in Circle and create more engagement between students.
Space Group 3: The Pro Community
👉 Only for Pro Members!
- Say Hi 👋
- Pro Member Posts
- Pro Member Chat (we’ll experiment with Circle’s chat)
- Pro Member Events
- Event Video Library
- Pro Member Resources – This is where the good stuff goes 😉
Pro Member Mini-Courses
👉 This is where courses included in Pro Memberships are included
- SEO Crash Course (cohort recording)
- Sales for Creatives (cohort recording)
- Building Our Agency & Freelance Website (cohort recording)
As always, I look forward to hearing your feedback and ideas.
Thank you all for being with me on this journey! I promise I’ll do my best to create the most value I possibly can. Much 💖 – Jeffrey @ Lytbox
