Man, it’s so weird to think that I’m a full-time content creator. It sounds like I should be living in Los Angeles, sporting a trendy cut, and hawking products like most others in my shoes. In reality, I’m sitting here, trying to rebuild after a bankruptcy while being high-key desperate for a job.
While I’m not in an enviable position, financially speaking, I can say I have a lot of success in my field. I’ve amassed a 50,000 fan following on Medium. I currently clock in at 4,500 subscribers on Substack with 10,000 followers. I make a fair amount of money and I might be opening up some other sites for my saucy pinups.
At my peak, I made an average of $7,000 to $10,000 a month in content creation. I’ve been doing this for about six years. Part of the reason I was able to go this far deals with the community that I have around me.
Your content is only going to be as healthy as the community you garner around you. Let me tell you some of the biggest things I’ve noticed when it comes to creating a good community around your content and your business…
#1: If you build it, people will come.
First things first: if you make content, people will eventually find it. This is doubly true if you make a point of promoting it wisely. Even if your community is only five people, that’s still a community.
Generally speaking, how fast your content’s community grows will depend on four things:
- Your content. Relatable, interesting, beneficial, and high-quality content will always bring more people than content that is mostly there for you. If you keep honing your content quality while posting regularly, you’re going to be light years ahead of others by default.
- Your marketing. Well-marketed content is going to spread faster than content that’s just dumped on a site then left to languish.
- Engagement. Do you reply back to your fans’ comments? Do you work to ensure your fans feel appreciated and seen?
- Luck. Yes, there are a lot of indie creators who deserve a lot more love than they got. A lot of people with massive followings only have them because Lady Luck gave them a kiss on the cheek.
Yes. You will get a community if you build stuff up. That’s a given.
#2: You need to tend to community like a garden.
I mentioned this in my most recent long-length YouTube video about mental health, but you really have to watch out for bad vibes in your content. If you let trolls take over the comment section and don’t moderate your community, bad things happen and good fans get chased away.
You want a community that uplifts other people, not just you. So, cultivate that.
Great, loyal posters are people you want to interact with and shout out as soon as you can. They’re the prized flowers in your garden. You want them on your channel and you want them to remain fans. Even so much as a, “Hey, how are you doing?” can make a huge difference in maintaining them.
On the other hand? Trolls need to be nipped in the proverbial bud. You do not want to be known as a creator who allows trolls on your comments list. Block them. Ban them. If you notice repeat offenders who try to ban-evade, give the platform they’re on a heads up. This can actually lead to a permaban depending on the platform.
#3: You need to understand the needs of your community and fandom.
Different fandoms tend to have different needs, especially when it comes to validation and encouragement. For example, if you are a creator in the male dating circuit, you don’t want to minimize men’s problems. They are going there because they want YOU to help them with those very problems!
On the other hand, if you are a creator in the business guru circuit, you shouldn’t talk about things like being single or loneliness. It’ll just make viewers raise an eyebrow and wonder what you’re on about.
This brings me to a major sticking point…
#4: Understand the behavior that your fans expect of you and act accordingly if you want to change.
I was recently watching a video about an influencer who died as a result of overeating. She was a content creator in the fat acceptance circuit, and it ended up killing her. She didn’t start off this way. She actually started off as a creator who tried to lose weight and just fell into the fat acceptance crowd.
One of the things that I’ve noticed is that a lot of plus-size models are terrified to lose weight, even when they know it’s hurting them. Why? Because their entire brand is built around being happy at any weight. So it goes against the brand.
The body positivity community is also notoriously toxic and hateful toward people who lose weight. It’s not unusual to get hate for “betraying” people by losing weight. This leads a lot of creators into a trap that seems hard to get out of.
As a plus-size model, I’m aware of the health risks that come with being overweight. That’s also why I’ve been slowly losing weight. Then again, this doesn’t really harm my brand as much because I’m a small BBW and I don’t build my entire image around fat acceptance.
Here’s the thing: there is a right way and a wrong way to pivot when you’re stuck in a Catch-22. The right way to do it is to have a video announcing your decision, why you are choosing it, how you intend on being healthy, and encouraging people to love themselves.
From there, it’s best to announce that your channel will likely turn into a weight loss channel or a continued body positivity channel for all sizes (plus and standard). If you have people who raise a stink, remind them that body positivity is for all sizes and if they don’t like it, they can unsubscribe or get banned.
Most creators in these channels do not do that. They spring it on people or simply bend to the will of their worst fans. That causes a lot more damage to a brand than being upfront. While we’re talking about fandoms…
#5: Be careful of the types of fandoms and movements that you end up associating with.
This is the biggest klaxon I wish I could explain to people: not all fans are created equal. Some fandoms and movements tend to be incredibly, unbelievably toxic for both creators and fans alike. At times, that toxicity can turn deadly.
The worst fandom offenders tend to be:
- Manosphere fans
- Body positivity/fat acceptance fans
- Political activists
- Animal rights groups
With many of these groups, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Many of these causes get hijacked by narcissists and predators for their own gain. I say this as someone who is an LGBT activist who also does fundraising for an animal rights group.
As a creator, I’ve had “friendly fire” from groups of people who were in similar political leanings as myself. It’s actually a major issue among left-leaning groups and creators, to the point that it actually takes away from the messages that I try to send out.
The more fringe and extreme a group is, the more likely it is that you’re going to deal with a lot of nonsense that can harm your mental health, your community, and your own personal fandom. That’s just the truth of it.
You can’t always protect yourself from unhinged groups of people, but one thing you can do is not cater to them. In other words, if you notice toxic behaviors from a group of people, don’t engage with them too much. Don’t build your brand around them too much. Just do YOU.
What do you think about my tips?
Do they help? Have you seen similar things in your exploits on the net? Tell me your thoughts.
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