Start a community

At the end of this guide you have a published community with channels, a first post written by you, and one member who joined through your checkout link and replied. The guide builds a community that is free to join, so no payment setup is needed; the last section shows where to turn it into a paid membership.

Before you start, have these ready:

• A Zanfia account. If you do not have one yet, follow phase 1 of From signup to a live product and click Skip for now on the welcome screen.
• A second email address you can open. You will use it to join as a member and see the community from the other side.
• A desktop-width screen. The community editor does not open on a phone.

1. Create the community

In the sidebar open Products → Communities (/communities), click Create product and choose Create (classic). You can also open https://app.zanfia.com/products/new?wizard=1 and pick Community.

The wizard is one card headed You are creating:

1. Name: the name of the community.
2. What is it about? (optional): one sentence about who it is for. The AI uses it to name the channels and write a welcome post.
3. Base price: choose Free for this guide.
4. Leave Generate a draft offer and sample content with AI ticked and click Create and open the editor →.

Drafting can take up to a minute. You land in the product editor on the Community tab (/communities/<productId>/content). The status is Draft and the tab shows Get ready to launch with four items: Create your channels, Create a checkout, Publish the community and Invite your first members.

In depth: Set up a community.

2. Review what the AI prepared

On the Community tab click the Community editor tile. The editor opens at /communities/<productId>/editor with a menu on the left: Overview, then Channels, Events and Resources under Content, and Members list, Roles, Moderation and Support under Community, with Settings at the end. The arrow in the top-left corner returns to the product.

Open Channels (/communities/<productId>/editor/channels). With the AI option on you should see:

• One announcements channel with a Read-only badge. Only you and your admins can start posts there.
• A few open chats, named after your community's topic.

Click a row to rename a channel or change its settings; drag the handle on the left to reorder.

In depth: Communities overview.

3. Add your own channel

Still in Channels, click Create in the top-right corner. The menu offers four things:

Pick Chat. The Add new chat window opens: type a Name and click Save. The chat appears in the list and in the channel list of the community itself.

In depth: Channels and groups and Roles and VIP channels.

4. Open the community and write the first post

Click Go to community in the editor header (the same button sits in the product header). A new tab opens on your own site address with the community as members see it, and you are signed in automatically. The icon next to the button, Copy community link, copies the plain address of the community for later.

You should see the feed with a welcome post that the AI wrote into the announcements channel. It is published under your name, as an ordinary post, and you can edit or delete it from its ⋮ menu.

Now write your own:

1. Open the announcements channel and click Add new post.
2. Fill in Title (optional) and the text.
3. Leave Notify all members off for now; there is nobody to notify yet.
4. Click Publish. The post appears at the top of the channel.

The channel is read-only for members, but you, as the owner, can always post there.

In depth: Write a post and The community feed and search.

5. Publish the community

Go back to the tab with the product editor and click Publish in the header. The Publish [name]? window lists the community's checkouts with the default one ticked. A free checkout needs no payment gateway; click Publish.

You should see the status tag change to Published and a window titled [name] is live 🎉 with your checkout link, Copy link and Open. Members cannot join before this step.

6. Join as a member

Copy the checkout link from that window, or later from the product's left column: Share & preview → Copy checkout link. Then play the member:

1. Paste the link into a private (incognito) browser window.
2. Fill in the signup form, Email address and First Name, with your second email address and click Get Access. There is no payment step.
3. On the thank-you page, Thanks for your order!, click Log in to access your purchase and log in with the one-time code sent to that address.
4. Open the community from My Products.

Back in the editor, the new person appears in Members list.

In depth: Checkout fields and quick payment and Manage members.

7. Read and reply as the member

In the member's window you should see:

• The channel list, including the chat you added in phase 3.
• In the announcements channel: the welcome post and your post, but no Add new post box. Starting posts there is reserved for you.
• In the chat: a message box where the member can write freely.

Open your post, type a reply in Add your comment... and click Comment.

8. Answer as the creator

Switch to your own community tab and open the post. The member's comment is under it; answer with Reply. Your community now has its first conversation.

From here on, the product's Community tab in the dashboard works as your daily overview: it collects unread replies and mentions, posts with no reply and a list of who joined.

Where to go next

• Manage members: bring in people who already bought from you with Import members.
• Notifications and announcements: decide what members hear about and announce a post to everyone.
• Gamification: turn on XP, levels and leaderboards.
• Set up a subscription price: charge a monthly or annual fee for membership; a paid checkout needs a payment gateway, see Take your first sale.