Someone buys your course. Someone registers for your summit. Someone you’ve wanted to let in for free finally says yes.
So you open Circle, find their account, add them to the right spaces one at a time, remember the tag, and hope you didn’t skip the one space that actually matters.
Then you do it again for the next person.
Circle invitation links handle all of that in a single link. By the end of this, you’ll know how to build one that grants access, tags the member, lands them in the right space, and even starts a paid trial, and you’ll know when a link is the wrong tool entirely.
What Are Circle Invitation Links?
An invitation link is a shareable Circle link that adds new or existing members and gives them preset access, a tag, a landing space, or a paywall trial the moment they join.
One link can do any combination of these:
- Add new members, or existing members, to your community
- Grant free access to specific spaces or whole space groups
- Set up a paywall trial for a paid membership
- Apply a member tag automatically when someone joins
Almost all of it is optional. The simplest link just grants access. From there you can layer on a tag, a default space, and a trial, depending on what the link is for.
I lean on these constantly, for summits I host and for client builds where people need free or paid access at different levels. Once each entry point has its own link, joining stops being something you manage by hand.
When Should You Not Use an Invitation Link?
When access has to stay tight. Invitation links are shareable, so anyone holding the link gets everything it grants. For sensitive spaces, invite members manually or through an automation instead.
This is the catch nobody thinks about until a link gets forwarded. The link doesn’t know who it was meant for. If a member passes it to a friend, the friend gets the same spaces, the same tag, and the same trial.
So before you build one, run a quick test: would you be fine if this link ended up in front of someone you didn’t send it to?
- Free community access, a lead magnet space, an open summit: yes. A link is exactly right.
- Paid spaces with no paywall on the link: no. That’s handing the product to whoever finds it.
- A private cohort or anything sensitive: no. Invite those people directly.
The risk sits with links that grant paid access outright. Know which kind you’re building before it leaves your hands.
How Do You Create an Invitation Link in Circle?
Open Audience, go to Invite links, and choose New invite link. Name it, choose the access it grants, add a tag and default space if you want them, then save.
To get there, open the dropdown at the top left of your community, choose Audience, then Invite links. If you’ve been building in Circle for a while, you’ll already have a list. Mine’s long, because nearly every workflow I run has its own.
Give it an internal name
The name is an internal reference. It’s how you’ll find this link again in six months.
What that looks like:
- Name it after the offer or entry point it belongs to, like the course or the summit
- Keep one link per purpose, so each one’s numbers mean something
- Skip vague names like “Link 2”
Choose the access
This is the part that matters most, and it’s where access groups earn their place.
What that looks like:
- With access groups: pick the group from the list and you’re done. In my sample link, one pick opened all 27 spaces in that group.
- Without them: switch to the legacy space access option and choose the individual spaces and space groups instead.
If you haven’t set up access groups yet, I’d do that first. Picking spaces one by one on every link is how someone ends up missing the course they paid for.
Add a tag and a default space
Both are optional, and both are worth thirty seconds.
What that looks like:
- Tag: apply one that says how this person joined, like a tag for the course they bought. Circle member tags give you something to sort, recognize, and automate around later.
- Default space: choose where the member lands first. For a general community link, I send people straight into the Start Here space.
If you’re selling a course, you can grant just the course spaces, tag the member with that course, and land them right inside it. That’s a whole enrollment flow in one link.
Where people land matters more than it looks. A Start Here space that onboards members gives them an order to follow on day one.
How Do Paywall Trials Work on an Invitation Link?
Pick a paywall, choose its price terms, add a coupon if you want one, and set the trial length. Circle lets you offer up to 730 days free, with no credit card required.
This is the optional layer for paid memberships. Instead of granting free access, the link starts a trial on a paywall you’ve already built.
What you set:
- The paywall the trial belongs to
- The price terms
- A coupon, if you’re using one
- The number of trial days
No card up front makes it an easy yes for the person joining. Choose the length on purpose, based on how long it takes a new member to see what they’d be paying for.
Then save.
How Do You Manage an Invitation Link After It’s Live?
Your Invite links page shows how many members joined through each link, plus its spaces and tags. The three-dot menu lets you view those members, edit, preview with View as, revoke, or delete.
Once you save, find the new link in your list and hit copy link. From there, share it wherever suits the offer: an email workflow, a post inside your community, anywhere your people already are.
The three dots next to each link give you:
- View members: everyone who joined through this link
- Edit: change the access, tag, default space, or trial as your offer changes
- View as: see exactly what someone joining with this link will see
- Revoke or delete: shut the link off
Use View as before you share anything. It shows every bit of access the link will grant, which is the fastest way to catch a space you didn’t mean to include.
And if a link travels further than you meant it to, revoke it and make a new one. That’s the fix for the shareable problem, and it takes a minute.
Try This Prompt
If people get into your community more than one way, this helps you plan a link for each before you build any of them.
“I run a [type of community] on Circle for [who it serves]. People join through these entry points: [list them, such as free signup, a course purchase, a summit registration, or a paid membership]. The spaces each group should get are: [list them]. Plan one invitation link per entry point. For each, give me an internal name, the access to grant, the tag to apply, the default space to land in, whether it needs a paywall trial, and whether it’s safe to share openly or should be handled with manual invites instead. Give me the output as a table.”
Check the plan against the spaces and paywalls you actually have before you build. You make the final call on what each link grants.
Decide the Front Door Once
Every way someone gets into your community is a front door. Right now, some of yours probably open straight onto you, adding spaces and remembering tags by hand.
An invitation link moves that decision out of your head and into the link. You decide once what this person gets, where they land, and how they’re labeled, and everyone who comes through that door gets the same thing.
That consistency matters more than the time it saves. A new member who lands in the right place with the right access has a much easier first week, and a confusing first week is why new members leave your community without saying a word.
Build the door properly. Then keep an eye on who you hand the key to.
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More Like This
Listen: How to Build a Community Onboarding Process That Sticks. The full system an invitation link feeds into, from first click to first post.
Watch: Transform Your “Start Here” Space: Streamline Onboarding for Your Circle Community. Build the space your default landing spot should be.
Listen: Engage Mode: Activated! Crafting a Welcome Series That Captivate. What to send new members once the link has let them in.
Keep Going
coCreator Society is where community builders and membership founders work through this together, with the templates, the walkthroughs, and people who are one step ahead of you. Join coCreator Society
If you would rather not do this part alone, Rachel and the team build, migrate, and run communities for founders who need it done properly the first time. Talk to the team
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