Start a community

Make a community

1. 01

   Create it

   In your store, go to Communities and click New community. Or click New product on Products and pick Community.

2. 02

   Name and price it

   On the Offer step, give it a title. The title is the community's name. Then set the price (see the table below).

3. 03

   Set up the community

   On the Community step, open the Joining tab. Write a Welcome line and pick the products it's Also included with. Add Channels on the Channels tab if you want them.

4. 04

   Publish

   Fill in the Page step, then publish. The product page is now your community's join page.

Let the Community Builder set it up

Not sure what channels or events to make? Let the Community Builder plan it with you. Start it from either place:

• Store → Communities: click Plan it with the Community Builder, or Start on the gray banner above your communities.
• Inside a community product: on the Offer step, click Build it with the Community Builder.

The chat opens on the right with it ready. Press Enter to start.

1. 01

   Answer its questions

   It asks who the community is for, what changes for members in 90 days, why they'd want to be together, and how much time you really have. A few at a time.

2. 02

   Check the plan

   It shows the whole setup in one message, then saves a Community Plan note in your workspace. Next time, it picks up from that note.

3. 03

   Let it build

   It sets up the channels, Library categories, events, welcome pop-up, welcome line, and rules. Look it over on the Community step.

• It shows you every post or message first. Nothing goes to members until you say yes.
• It never publishes, changes your price, or invites people on its own.
• To hide the banner, click the x on it.

Make it free, paid, or included

How people get in	How to set it
Free	Set the price to 0. People get it free from the product page.
One payment	Set How buyers pay to One-time and add a price.
Monthly or yearly	Set How buyers pay to Membership. Fill in Monthly price, Yearly price, or both. When a membership ends, they leave.
Included with other products	On the Community step's Joining tab, tick products under Also included with. Their buyers get in too, and it shows in that product's sidebar.

You can mix them. A paid community can also come free with your course.

Include it with a course or another product

Any product can come with a community: a course, coaching, a cohort, a workshop, a newsletter, a membership, a download, Ask me, or a Custom AI.

1. 01

   Open the product

   Open the course (or other product) in the product editor. Go to the Offer step.

2. 02

   Turn on the community

   Under Comes with a community, turn on the switch next to your community. No community yet? Click Start a community. The new one comes with this product from the start.

• New buyers get in free the moment they pay. People who already bought get in the next time they open Eden.
• If your community has its own price, it stays free for them. Everyone else still pays.
• On a monthly or yearly product, people who cancel leave the community too.
• Turn the switch off, and people who got in only through that product leave the next time they open Eden.
• It's the same list as Also included with on the Joining tab of the community's Community step. Change it in either place.

What members see when they join

• Buying the product opens the community. It stays in their purchases like any other product.
• They start in Chat, in one room called General. A channel list shows up only once you add a second channel.
• A line in General says who joined, like "Maya joined" or "Maya and 3 others joined."
• Your welcome line shows as a note from you right under their own "joined" line in General. Only they see it. If you set up a welcome pop-up, they see that once instead. To keep the line too, turn on Also show with the pop-up under Welcome line on the Community step's Joining tab.
• Members get Chat, Forum, and Events: in the icon bar on the left on the web, as tabs at the bottom on a phone. You can turn off the Forum and Events under Sections on the Community step's Basics tab. On the web you also get a Products tab to give or sell your other products. See Add products to your community.

See the whole funnel before you share it

• Live preview: in the product editor, the chips over the preview show each step people go through. Page, then Applied and Accepted if people apply first, then Checkout if it's paid (plus After payment and Thank you when there's an upsell, membership, or bump), then Welcome. Welcome shows your rules and your welcome pop-up the way a new member sees them on their first open. Edit them on the Community step's Joining tab and the preview opens that part.
• Test checkout: click Test checkout at the top of the editor. It works on free communities too. Click Steps in the orange bar to walk the funnel. If people apply first, send your own application, then click Accept this application to see the page their join link opens. Nothing is saved, and you aren't added as a member. On a paid one, Eden emails you the test receipt and your first sequence email. No one else gets anything.

Let only accepted people in

1. Open your community product, go to its Community step, open the Joining tab, and turn on People apply first.
2. Click Create one under Application. If you already have forms, click Create a new one or pick New application form in the list. It opens a starter application, already set to review by hand and ask for an email. Change the words and publish it.
3. Back on the Joining tab of the Community step, pick the form under Application.

Your product page now has an apply button (Start application on the starter form) instead of Join. When you accept someone, your accept email includes their own link to join. It works for 14 days, only for the email they applied with. Free communities let them in. Paid ones take them to checkout. To change the words under the price in the Apply box, fill in Line under the price under Who can join on the Joining tab.

Setting	What it does
I review each one	You accept or decline each person in the inbox
Let the score decide	People at or above your score get in right away. The rest wait for you
Accept right away if...	People who pick an answer you chose get in right away, whatever their score
Decline right away if...	People under a score, or who pick an answer you chose, are declined. Accept always wins
Accepted, not joined yet	A ready-made sequence in Email → Sequences that nudges people to join before their link runs out

To give some people their own channel, like a VIP room for big accounts, tag the answer on the form with Tag people who pick it (for example VIP on "100k+ followers"). Then in the chat, hover the channel, click ⋯, choose Edit channel, and pick VIP under Only for. (The Channels tab on the product's Community step works too.) Accepted people with that answer see it.

Let one answer in right away

Say you want everyone with 10,000+ followers in at once, and you review the rest.

1. On the Community step's Joining tab, under Accept right away if..., click Add a rule.
2. Pick the question, like "How many followers do you have?".
3. Tick the answers that let someone in, like "10k to 100k" and "100k+".

One matching rule is enough. It works with I review each one too, so your rules alone decide who gets in on the spot. Rules work on questions with answers to pick, not typed answers. If you later remove that question or answer from the form, the rule shows a warning and lets no one in until you fix or remove it.

Decline some people right away

1. On the Community step's Joining tab, under Decline right away if..., type a number in Score is below. Leave it empty to turn it off.
2. To decline by answer, click Add a rule, pick the question, and tick the answers.

Your accept score and accept rules always win, so a big account with a low score still gets in. The decline score can't be higher than your accept score. If an answer is in both an accept rule and a decline rule, you see a warning.

They see the same thank-you screen as everyone else. Your decline email goes the next morning at 9, in your time zone, and at least 8 hours after they applied. Until then you can still change your mind in the inbox, and if you do, no decline email goes. If your decline email is off, nothing is sent.

Someone who applies again with the same email always waits for you. Your accept and decline rules skip them, so a declined person can't come back with better answers and slip in.

You accept and decline people in Store → Inbox → Applications. See Accept or decline applications.

Share the join link

• Inside the community, click the link icon (Copy invite link) at the bottom of the icon bar on the left. On your phone, tap ⋯, then Copy invite link.
• Members who open it go straight in. Everyone else lands on the product page to join or buy.
• Your product page link works the same way.

Find your community later

• Store → Communities lists every community with its members and price. Click Open to go in. To change the product, click ⋮ on its row, then Edit.
• In the product editor, the Community step has an Open community button.
• On your phone, your store's Overview lists them at the bottom, under Members (or Communities if you sell no memberships). Tap one to open it. Make and edit communities on the web.