In the beginning was a great idea: let’s create a Web site that makes it easy for people with similar interests to find each other and coordinate face-to-face meetings. And so Meetup.com was born, and grew, and grew. Along the way it became part of the massive, amorphous “social networking” set of companies (which includes LinkedIn, Orkut, Ryze and most famously Friendster.

All of these companies now face the same challenge that hit thousands of dotcom experiments squarely between the eyes just a few years ago: how do you monetize your customer base without producing a mass exodus?

Today Meetup.com announced that their free service was going to a fee-based model. And they’re not going to survive the transition.

First off, let’s look at their marketing communications. I got the following email from “info@meetup.com”…

Continue reading about Meetup.com at The Intuitive Life Business Blog.