What kind of content are you providing to the subscribers of the $100/mo. forum? And are you using actual forum software or some other CMS to manage the community?
I'm a member, and I didn't even know there was going to be content, outside of the conversation when I signed up. The value I get out of it is a place I can have candid conversations about the business I am building and get actionable feedback from Nathan (and the other smart peeps). Actionable stuff that will definitely increase revenue more than the cost of admission.
It's tough to do this stuff in a vacuum. I've got a hipchat room I hang out in regularly that has the same vibe, and there is value in hanging out with smart & motivated people working towards similar goals.
I'm writing a new course that is a follow-up to Authority. That is being dripped out one chapter per month. I also have case studies of other profitable audiences (my friends I admire).
Finally (and currently the biggest part) I have a forum of 20 like-minded people all helping each other out each day. I'm pretty active as well. Just answering questions ranging from landing page feedback, pricing advice, to which audience you should choose.
Chiming in here. Nathan and I both run membership sites that use the same underlying tech stack: a Discourse app that authenticates off a Stripe-aware Rails app that handles memberships and grouping users into cohorts.
Unfortunately, just about every forum that could be plugged into one of those "Membership site made easy" Wordpress plugins seemingly got lost in the 90s.
