We interviewed a handful of professional Squarespace designers to learn their secrets to running a succesful web design business, with a particular focus on recurring revenue. Our takeaway: there’s no “one size fits all” approach in the web design ecosystem. This is good news because it means that, whatever your passions, strengths, and experience, there are an exciting variety of approaches for generating sustainable revenue, growing your client base, and loving what you do as a designer! Some of these designers have a single specialty focus, such as workshops, whereas others offer a range of services to suit their lifestyle. In this interview, we chat about membership-based income with Katelyn Dekle. Read to the end for Katelyn’s wisdom on starting a membership-based business.

Tell us about yourself and your business

My name’s Katelyn. I went to college to focus on design and was an in-house designer in service-based businesses from 2006-2020, going full-time freelance in 2020. I now help solo business owners and self-taught designers clean up their systems, streamline their websites, and show up online with personality and professionalism!

What recurring income streams have you built into your business?

I don't really like feeling 'on-call' so the only frequent recurring revenue in my business is my membership. There is some recurring revenue from affiliate programs I participate in, mostly from software and courses, but those are mostly collected payouts from one-time purchases so even though I regularly get monthly payouts the amounts each month vary for each source.

I’ve been doing the monthly co-coaching Q&A calls for the past 3 or 4 years with a fellow Squarespace educator’s students and get paid a recurring fee for that.

Recently, I added one of my best clients on a maintenance plan subscription, and get recurring fees for a couple hours each month.

What's your rough split between one-time project income versus recurring income?

As of May 2025, about 17% of my revenue is recurring specifically from my membership, up from about 13% in 2024.

Last year, about 28% of my revenue came from digital products and courses, another 35% came from affiliate marketing, and about 24% came from custom projects/client work.

The percentages fluctuate from year to year based on what I’ve focused on growing and what I want more of that year, and feel ready to take on, versus want to back off of. That flexibility has been really nice!

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What do you include in your membership packages and how do you structure them?

When I first opened the membership, I had two paid tiers with different levels of access per tier, and one free tier with very limited access. However… that was much more admin work than I wanted to manage! Now I only have one paid tier with full access, and one free tier with limited access.

My All-Access members get:

a private discussion page,
a live chat area,
a place to share their wins and celebrate with the group,
a place to access past workshops, guest interviews, and call replays
an event calendar to add upcoming calls to their own schedule + get reminders
Resources including two databases which are both updated regularly:

a CSS Snippet library (how to install custom fonts, etc) and
a Resources library of tools, educational stuff, video tutorials, etc;

Member Perks:

an exclusive discount code for my main course/digital product: the Ultimate Client Portal System
a free copy of my Pricing Calculator Template for service-based businesses
direct access to me and the other members to ask questions about any of my templates/digital products, monthly calls, direct feedback on their stuff, etc.

And they have access to all of the free tier content too!

My Freeloader (free tier) members get:

a single public community page to ask questions of the group, where I also post weekly mindset tips (mini-blog posts) for everyone, announcements, etc.
a 'just for fun' space to post images (pets, memes, whatever)
a 'free event' calendar where I'll do occasional live events or workshops

How do you typically charge for ongoing services to design clients?

There were three options we explored: a flat monthly fee, a flat fee charged on an ad-hoc bases (as the client needed), and tracking hourly work. While I don't love the whole 'use it or lose it' flat monthly fee setup, honestly, after trying flat rates on an ad-hoc basis and tracking hourly work too… both of those options are confusing to manage for us, inefficient, and essentially punish us for being too fast or too slow. Recurring flat fees are much more manageable admin-wise, making it an offer worth trying, compared to one that takes over our lives.

That said, I don't like feeling like I'm on-call all the time, so I don't offer an ongoing service option to many people, no matter how awesome they are to work with. I do have one automated system that allows one of my oldest clients to book 1 - 2 hours as needed and I only allow that because she only uses it 2-3 times a year and never wants more than 1 or 2 hours at a time, making that very manageable. I also just set up a subscription-style service for another repeat client who needs help with ongoing/regular tasks for about 2 hours each month. For both of those, I just set the price based on my hourly rate. For my other clients, I suggest they keep a running list of things they’d like help with and then book a full or half Design Day when needed so I can knock out their wish list all in one day. I’ve also automated this process to make it easier/faster for them to buy when ready.

I’ve written a blog post about pricing your business, which includes a handy rates calculator.

What tools do you rely on for your recurring revenue streams?

To get traffic, my blog on Squarespace & my YouTube channel are my two big 'engines' for collecting leads and building my audience. I haven’t used social media for marketing purposes since 2022 or 2023!

To process payments from my audience:

ThriveCart is my digital product checkout software and course host.
Circle manages my membership and the checkouts for paying members, which allows them to control their own billing (cancel or renew on their own).
Dubsado manages the client booking process for custom website builds (payments, contracts, reminders, etc).
Breely is my scheduler and it also manages the automated systems for booking lower-ticket services, like monthly retainer package subscriptions, Design Days, 1:1 sessions, etc.

For support of those revenue streams, I use:

Kit for email marketing and list nurturing,
Kitchen.co to manage custom client projects collaboratively OUT of my inbox once booked (file sharing, communication, project-specific tasks, homework for client, deadlines, etc).
I use a Tally.so form to collect the website info/content from my clients before the custom website build begins.
I use Asana to manage my own thoughts, ideas, tasks, content, goals, and internal projects related to my business and my various revenue streams.
I use Claude and ChatGPT to help streamline content creation processes for so many things (turning video transcripts into first drafts of the blog post, writing weekly posts for the Club/membership, writing subject line ideas for emails, writing SEO titles & descriptions, creating AI prompts based on my content guide form for help generating website copy for client projects, etc).
I use Descript or Final Cut Pro to edit the videos on my YouTube channel.

How often do your membership clients need additional support or updates beyond what's included in their package?

For my members:

I'm in my membership space several times a day checking DMs, commenting on posts, and answering questions, and a few times a month I update or add to their exclusive members-only content.
For paying members, I often provide video feedback and answers via Loom videos.
We have 1x monthly calls (more like office hours) from 11am - 2pm where we discuss pre-submitted questions, topics related to web design work and our industry, chit chat, brainstorm and get feedback from each other which has really helped build a tight-knit group of ladies who care about each other and want to jump in and help each other when someone asks. Because of this, answers in the group aren't 100% reliant on me 100% of the time.
I post mindset tips every Monday, and check-ins every Friday listing my 'wins' for the week and encouraging members to share theirs too.
I get regular questions to answer from the group, sometimes several a day, sometimes just 1 or 2 in a whole week, but that's okay and exactly why I created it. If it gets to a point where I can no longer keep up with answering the questions, I'll have to change the price to thin the list of members I'm managing each month, but for now it really doesn’t take up that much of my time.

For my clients:

Clients only get an allotment of support time with me after their project is over.

Custom website clients get 30 days of email support (limited to 10 hours over the whole month of actual work time).
Design Day clients get one week of email support (limited to 2 hours of total work time).
They each have access to a Support Ticket form they can use any time if needed, but time outside of those windows is billable at my hourly rate, or they can book a Design Day if more help is needed.

What advice would you give to someone who is thinking about offering membership packages?

Start with a clear scope, simple pricing, clear deliverables, and set boundaries on what’s included/not included.
Lean into your instincts about what you do/don't want to do. DON'T offer anything you think you'll hate doing because it's harder to remove something they're paying for than it is to add it later when you're more certain how it will work for you.
Validate it first! Are people asking for this? If not, ask them if they want it before you go to the trouble of creating it ...just for crickets.
Carefully weigh location options, because moving membership platforms after it's established is hard and you will lose members in that process.
Focus on delivering ongoing value and driving engagement by participating yourself, not just on the technical upkeep. Communicate regularly with members to keep the community top of mind –especially if the group is not located in a place they're already going (e.g., Circle vs. Facebook).
Engaging consistently yourself really helps keep the group top of mind and attentive to you as the leader. It'll only be as good as YOU make it for them and there's a special magic to that which can be a hard recipe to create. The right ingredients make it FUN - not overwhelming or boring.
Packaging support along with education or exclusive resources can absolutely help boost your revenue and attract new members! I think a lot of people are tired of courses and course prices right now and while they're tired of subscriptions too, what they really crave is hands-on attention for questions like "look at my stuff; am I doing this right?"
Consider how you’d prefer to market it (getting new members) and reduce turnover/churn (loss of existing members).

I actually don’t market my membership actively with launches or campaigns or anything like that. I designed it to be low-lift for me and very low commitment for members. As a result, people find it organically which keeps it manageably-sized for me.

I also don’t drive renewals and let my members decide what they need to do on their own. That was a choice I made when I created it, because I wanted them to have a Netflix-style support channel when they needed it with no longterm commitment. As a result, some people have stayed for years while others hop in & out as needed but that’s exactly the kind of flexibility I wanted them to have! Since it's not my only stream of income, I don't "need" anyone to stick around - but I definitely hope they want to!

Connect with Katelyn

Website: launchthedamnthing.com
Instagram: @launchthedamnthing
YouTube Channel: Launch the Damn Thing
Squarespace Templates: store.squarekicker.com/creators/launch-the-damn-thing

Ready to explore premium templates that can help you deliver exceptional client work more efficiently? Discover the SquareKicker Template Store and find designs created by experts like Katelyn to give your projects a professional head start.

Building Membership Revenue as a Squarespace Designer: An Interview with Katelyn Dekle of Launch the Damn Thing