So there's been a ton of chaos in the YouTube creator space lately and I wanted to break down what actually happened vs all the myths floating around. The Panic: Big channels like Linus Tech Tips and Markiplier started reporting massive view drops (we're talking 50%+ in some cases). This immediately sparked theories about secret algorithm changes, shadow banning, and this old "restricted mode" setting that's been around since 2010. What Really Happened: Turns out it wasn't algorithm conspiracy at all. The culprit was YouTube's ongoing battle with ad blockers like uBlock Origin. These conflicts were messing with view counting specifically for desktop users (where ad blockers are common), while mobile views stayed normal. The data actually backs this up. Creators showing "low views" still had normal or even increased ad revenue and engagement. Desktop vs mobile analytics told the whole story. But Here's What's Actually Exciting: While everyone was panicking, YouTube dropped some genuinely cool updates: • Practice streaming mode (finally! Like Twitch has had forever) • Dual format streaming from one studio (horizontal + vertical simultaneously) • AI highlight generation that auto-creates Shorts from your live streams • Side-by-side ads instead of stream-interrupting ones • Seamless public-to-members transitions during live streams My Take: This whole situation shows how quickly misinformation spreads in creator communities. So many people made "THE ALGORITHM IS BROKEN" videos without actually analyzing their data first. Also, if you're getting burnt out on YouTube's constant changes, there are alternatives worth checking out: PeerTube (open source), Makerspace (for makers/crafters), and TillVids (educational content). Just know the audiences are way smaller. Questions for Discussion: - Anyone else notice the desktop vs mobile view discrepancy? - Thoughts on the new live streaming features? - Are you considering platform alternatives? Would love to hear your experiences! Drop your analytics stories below 📊 The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | YouTube's Secret War on Ad Bloc...What We're Talking About This Week:YouTube had everyone freaking out lately, and honestly, most of it was just creators jumping to conclusions without doing their homework. We're breaking down what...

1. The "Consent" Defense: When Does Agreement Stop Being Valid? One of the streamers involved in the Jean Pormanove case claims "everything was consensual" and the deceased could "leave anytime he wanted." But when someone is financially dependent on harmful content and potentially struggling with mental health issues, can we really call it true consent? Where do you draw the line between personal choice and exploitation? 2. Should Governments Regulate Streaming Platforms Like Traditional Media? France is threatening to take Kick to court over creator safety, but the platform says it's just "politicization." Do you think streaming platforms should face the same regulations as TV networks, or would that kill creativity and free expression? What's the right balance between safety and censorship? 3. Chat Culture: Are We Creating Digital Bullies? When viewers donate money specifically to watch creators suffer or embarrass themselves, who's really responsible? Is it just harmless entertainment, or are we training entire communities to find human pain amusing? Have you ever seen chat go too far, and what did you do about it? 4. The "It's Just a Prank Bro" Mentality: Why Do People Think Cameras Make Everything OK? From shooting strangers with paintball guns to harassing delivery drivers until they pull weapons, some creators seem to think filming makes any behavior acceptable. Why do you think people lose empathy when there's a camera involved? Is it the money, the views, or something deeper? 5. Platform Safe Harbor: Protection or Cop-Out? Streaming platforms often say they can't moderate content until it's reported, using "safe harbor" laws as protection. But should platforms that profit from content have more responsibility to actively monitor for harmful material? Or would that create an impossible standard that would shut down smaller platforms? 6. The Mental Health Crisis in Content Creation: Who's Responsible for Creator Wellness? We're seeing more creators "crash out" from the pressure to create increasingly extreme content. Should platforms implement mandatory mental health resources, or is that overreach? What role should the creator community play in looking out for each other? 7. IRL Streaming's Public Problem: When Your Content Affects Innocent Bystanders Unlike studio content, IRL streaming involves real people who never consented to be part of someone's show. Should there be special rules for public streaming? How do we balance creator freedom with protecting random people just trying to live their lives? 8. The Economics of Exploitation: Is Shock Content Just Supply and Demand? If audiences didn't pay for extreme content, creators wouldn't make it. Are we looking at this wrong by focusing on platforms and creators instead of examining why people want to watch others suffer? What does this say about us as a society? The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | When Audiences Pay to Watch Cre...What We're Talking About This WeekJosh dives deep into a really uncomfortable topic that's been brewing in the streaming world. After a French creator tragically died during a live stream where he ...

Hello, beautiful people! Today I want to dive deep into something that's been bothering me lately: the elitism that's creeping into open source communities. You know that feeling when you're trying to escape big tech and their walled gardens, only to run straight into another barrier? Picture this scenario. You're fed up with surveillance capitalism and decide to try open source alternatives like PeerTube, Owncast, or Linux. You download the software, join the community forum, and ask what seems like a simple question. Suddenly you're drowning in technical jargon you don't understand, getting hit with "RTFM" responses or snarky "let me Google that for you" links. You get the distinct feeling that you've just been judged for not having some built-in knowledge base about Linux, as if asking a basic question is like asking whether the sky is blue. This is what I call open source elitism. The door is technically open, but not everyone gets a warm welcome when they walk through it. My Recent Wake-Up CallWhat sparked this conversation for me was a recent experience trying out Fedora 42. I've been dabbling in Linux for over a couple of years now, and if you're reading this, you know I'm a big proponent of Owncast and open source software in general. I've gone through the trials and tribulations of installing PeerTube, set up hosting for various open source projects, and built out home labs for testing. So I decided to try Fedora 42 on a spare drive. After getting through the installation process with the usual Linux hiccups, I worked on getting Steam installed and tried to run an older game called Secret World Legends. Last year, this took me two hours and some serious digging to get working. This time around, I was getting one or two frames per second, characters weren't loading, and it was basically a slideshow disaster. After fixing that issue using my previous research, I tried Marvel Rivals, which some people claimed worked well on Linux. Unfortunately, that was a no-go. So I wrote a short post on social media saying "Linux gaming is almost there" for most games, but some still aren't quite ready yet. That's when I met my first real troll. The Gatekeepers Come OutThis person jumped into my Blue Sky comments calling me a "Microsoft shill" spreading FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt). I took a quick look at their profile and discovered they'd made it their life mission to patrol social media, telling anyone with Linux troubles to "just go back to Windows." Here's someone who claims to love Linux and open source, yet actively pushes people away from it. It's this exact elitism that can kill the momentum of open source adoption. Yes, we all understand that Windows is bloated, but the reality is that most people can use it without major problems. When they try to have that same experience on Linux, it's often a 50-50 shot whether things will work smoothly. The Real Impact of ElitismI've talked about this before when discussing Mastodon and getting people to have patience with the Fediverse. There's a vocal minority that seems to be gatekeeping the Linux and open source experience, deciding who they think is "worthy" of using these systems. To those people, I have to say: you're wrong. Linux and open source software are for everyone. If you want more people to discover the passion for open source and help make it better, you need to stop with this elitist gatekeeping. You're not guarding the sanctity of Linux. You're actually hurting it. Growing Pains Are NormalI understand this stuff isn't for everybody, and yes, there are going to be growing pains. When newcomers look at Linux, they're hit with a hundred different distribution choices and don't know where to start. That's exactly why it's so valuable when people create guides and tutorials, pointing beginners toward user-friendly options like Linux Mint. The best community members are those who guide newcomers without doing the work for them. Think of it like gardening: "Here are some seeds and a hand trowel. You're going to make mistakes, and that's fine. We've got your back, but we're not going to plant your garden for you." We need more of this supportive community outreach instead of trolls who seem to actively harm the very community they claim to protect. The Gaming ChallengeRight now I'm working with Bazzite on my gaming computer, and it's not cooperating at all. This is one of those situations where someone might jump in and say, "I never have problems with my machine. Must be user error. Go back to Windows." But here's the thing: your use case isn't the same as everyone else's. Technology isn't going to work 100% of the time for everyone. I used Linux Mint for most of 2024 with very few problems, but I couldn't play Fortnite or Overwatch due to kernel-level anti-cheat systems. That's not a Linux problem; that's a business decision by publishers who don't want their games played on Linux. The introduction of the Steam Deck has been fantastic for pushing developers toward better Linux compatibility through Proton, which essentially tricks games into thinking they're running on Windows. Unfortunately, major titles like Fortnite, Valorant, and most Riot games still can't be played on Linux because of anti-cheat concerns. The Anti-Cheat Arms RacePublishers are worried about cheaters using Linux systems, so they've implemented kernel-level anti-cheat that embeds directly into Windows code. This creates its own security concerns since if a cheater cracks kernel-level access, they essentially have the keys to the entire system. It's an arms race where each side temporarily gains an advantage before the other catches up. Building a Better CommunityLooking forward, we need to understand the average user better. We have to put ourselves in their shoes and stop thinking "why are you asking that question? Everyone knows that." This mentality has to change if we want to ensure the survival and growth of Linux and open source software. We need to cultivate a more welcoming atmosphere for people who are interested, experimenting, or just curious about what this "Linux thing" is all about. Instead of pushing them away, let's say, "Here are the tools. Let's get you started." The beauty of open source is that it's supposed to be open to everyone. When we create barriers through elitism and gatekeeping, we're betraying the very principles that make these projects special in the first place. Your TurnHave you encountered these elitist gatekeepers in your open source journey? Or maybe you've had a great experience with welcoming communities that helped you get started? I'd love to hear your stories in the comments or join our community at indiecreator.space where our forums are always open for discussion. Until next time, let's think about what we can do together to make open source more truly open. Have a great week, and I'll see you later, taters! The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Open Source, Closed Minds: The...Hey Linux Lovers & Tech Explorers!Buckle up for this week's spicy episode where I dive into the world of open source elitism! 🔥I'm getting real about my recent adventures in Linux-land, including m..

Hello, good morning, you beautiful people. Welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast. That's right. We're still going. We're still doing this thing. So what we're going to do today is actually break down a couple of different things. We're going to change the format a little bit, not much. We're just going to take a look at podcast statistics. We're going to be very analytical on this episode. We're getting into the numbers and everything that is part of the spreadsheets and all sorts of stuff and pie charts. But not really. We're not going to get too deep. We're just going to look into what is making podcasts actually still a viable option for listening to or actually watching, as right now you're probably doing both or one or the other on this particular episode. Gen Z is Still Here for PodcastsLet's actually look into what's happening, especially for Gen Z. Gen Z is still, you know, being a much younger audience than typically for like my generation and older, but they're still listening to a lot of podcasts, which is pretty amazing and pretty powerful. This particular generation is still utilizing or using podcasts as a form to gather information, be entertained, you know, just still looking at podcasts as a viable art form for us, which is a great thing. I have pulled up something from a couple days ago. This is from the podcast industry statistics 2025, last updated back on March 13th from podcastindustry.org. On the chart here, people within Gen Z listen to podcasts via Spotify at least 55.9 percent. That is a massive amount of people listening to podcasts when you would think, you know, podcasts as a whole would be dying off because of short form content like TikTok and YouTube shorts and Instagram reels. But that's really not the case for my generation and Gen Z. I don't know about Gen Alpha. I don't know. They're probably still too young. They're the ones that are driving the TikTok craze, driving those numbers to remain high. But for most folks, they still listen to podcasts via Spotify. Spotify's Dominance and What It MeansAs you can see here, YouTube is commanding a good portion at 20.6 percent. My understanding is that YouTube has been gaining a lot of ground and they've been pushing for a lot of things for people to listen to podcasts, especially through YouTube Music, that arm of YouTube. And video podcasting is also climbing as well. Like if you're watching this episode right now on YouTube, you are part of the people who watch podcast episodes via YouTube, which thank you for continuing to watch. It's interesting to see that Spotify commands a huge amount here. I don't know if it's because of the knock on effect from like them signing Joe Rogan and some other big celebrity podcast hosts, whatever the reason why Spotify is almost at like over 55 percent of the listenership when you get Apple Podcasts at nine, just under 10 percent, and you get Pocket Casts, others, and TikTok, and the small little slivers here and there. It's interesting to see that Spotify has this amount of listenership using the service to listen to podcasts. And is it a good thing or is it a bad thing? It's something that, you know, many people would say that Spotify is kind of gentrifying podcasting as a whole where it's locking in the user experience. Let's take a podcast show like Joe Rogan or one of the other ones that Call Her Daddy or some other shows that are exclusively to Spotify that you won't be able to use or you won't be able to listen to them via Pocket Casts or via the RSS feed that you can plug into Apple Podcasts or anywhere or another podcast player. The Exclusive Content DilemmaThat's the thing. Is this cresting that hill where all of these exclusive shows can only be heard and sometimes seen because they have been breaking into providing a video portion of the podcast listening and viewing experience on Spotify? But the thing is, is it too much? Is Spotify trying to break into this market or control this market? Say, if you want to have a successful podcast show, you can only be on Spotify because that's where people are going to or listening to via our platform. And I have to say that, you know, it's kind of frustrating when you look at this chart and you can see that it's over half of podcast listeners are using Spotify when there's many other platforms like players that are more than capable of providing you the same level without the exclusivity of staying on Spotify. Looking at going through this little report here, frequent podcast listeners, the majority is on Spotify. Apple Podcasts is 10 percent less at 25 percent. And of course we got the SiriusXM-owned platforms. And then you go from Wondery, iHeartMedia, and a little bit further down. The online brand used most often is Spotify within the age range of 12 to 34. That's a big bracket, OK. 35 to 54, it's kind of neck and neck between YouTube Music and Spotify. So it's kind of interesting to see the generational makeup or the age range demographics to see who mostly uses Spotify. It's the 12 to 34 range. Now, is that going to continue once they age out of this bracket into 35 to 54? Is it going to change where they were listening to Spotify? Is that going to be, let's say within another 10 to 15 years? Who knows the makeup of how Spotify will be then. The Rise of Video PodcastingYouTube, like I mentioned before, they've been making some inroads and trying to get more people to use the YouTube podcast feature, both video and audio. Video podcasting has started growing more and more. A lot of times people were saying, yeah, just start your podcast, audio format, and just post it out everywhere, like Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, all the distribution models that are out there. And now the gurus are saying that it is more of a better idea to still be doing the audio product as well, but also include video into the whole mix as like an add-on bonus. Because especially if you're putting on YouTube, you have access to a wider audience. There's what, five billion potential eyeballs that are able to see your video. And depending on what niche or topic that your show, your podcast is about, it has a larger form of getting people to see it with the video format as well. Should You Add Video to Your Podcast?That's the thing. If I wanted to create a podcast, do I just focus on audio? Well, sure, you can still focus on that, but you also want to add in the video portion as well. And now I understand most people don't want to have the video part. They don't feel comfortable talking into a camera. And that's perfectly fine. You don't have to have a video portion or video side of your podcast because you're still getting the audio format out there. As long as you have good audio, that's pretty much all you really need. To think about it, you can probably get a wider audience because most of the time people are listening to your show or your episodes passively by either listening in the car as they drive into work or going about their day or doing chores or having you up on the TV. Because I have noticed that not a lot but I'd say a growing audience participation or audience viewing is via the TV, especially for YouTube. It's interesting to see that more and more people are using their TV as a basis for listening or viewing your content, especially for a podcast, because you can easily have it on TV, have it going as you're doing like chores, washing dishes, vacuuming, folding clothes, whatever, or just have it there as you're reading a book and just have it on just listening to it while it's passively on a TV. The Power of Passive ConsumptionBut you can also do that through your phone or your stereo speakers if it's Bluetooth enabled. Podcasting is a very passively used medium to listen to. I don't know if I was getting my words there right or not, but anyways, you can passively listen to a show. And that's what I believe most people are consuming your show in that manner. Now, there are people that would sit here and actively watch, like engaging and watching or listening to every single thing that you say. And that's perfectly fine because people are still consuming your content. And that's what you really want is to get your content out there for people, your audience to listen to, to start engaging with your content and all your episodes. And whether it's video or if it's audio, it doesn't really matter. What matters the most is that you are creating the content for your audience. Whether it's through Spotify or any other number of players or YouTube, it's just getting the content out there. And that's a great thing. A Message to Gen Z ListenersSo I wanted to take some time in this episode to look at the Spotify active listeners, especially for Gen Z. I believe that is a new audience that are coming into learning about different things, say like podcast creation or content creation as a whole or gardening. It's just this whole new generation is coming into it, looking for your content, and how you provide it is very important. So if you are part of Generation Z and you actively listen to our podcast, this podcast, I would love to get your comments. Leave a five star rating and everything like that, especially if you're listening on Spotify. Definitely let me know in the comments because you can leave a comment on Spotify and also on YouTube or anywhere else. But if you're also on Apple Podcasts, five star reviews are much appreciated. So with that, I want to say thank you for listening and I'll see you on the next one. Until next time, later taters. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Is Spotify Gentrifying Podcasti...Hey podcast fam! 👋Josh dropped another super interesting episode where he digs into something pretty surprising—Gen Z isn't abandoning podcasts for TikTok after all! Who knew?!What we chatted about..

What happens when the algorithm changes overnight and your digital content just poofs out of existence? The answer might be simpler than you think. And it starts with you taking over your digital landscape. The Problem with Renting Your Digital SpaceMost of the time people present themselves to their audience by posting on Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, or Twitter, thinking their content lives there forever. Wrong. You're posting to a place that is not your own. You don't control what happens to your content once you hit send or enter or OK. It basically lives on a rented or leased space that you have no absolute control over. It's at the whims of a large corporation or a billionaire that can really care less what happens to your content or to you at all. Let's take Substack as an example. When you look at the URL, it's substack.com slash whatever name you set your account up with. The issue is that when people think of "I'm going to podcast XYZ," they're looking at it and thinking, "Oh, it's on Substack." They're not thinking, "I'm going to podcast XYZ's website dot com." So already you're at a disadvantage when people are associating you or your content with Substack rather than your own brand. It's Not Your House, It's Just an ApartmentI'm not saying that Substack or Medium or Patreon aren't good places. What I'm saying is that they're places you don't have control over. It's not podcast xyz.com. It's not your home. It's just an apartment. It's an apartment that you're renting month to month or you got a six month lease on. People don't say, "Oh, we're going to your house." No, you're going to your apartment. And in six months, the management company might say, "Yeah, we're kicking you out because we're turning all these apartments into condos. Find another place to live. Sorry." Again, it's the mind share issue. When people think of your digital home, in the case of Patreon, it's patreon.com slash whatever your name is. People are not looking at your house. It's just an apartment. I know a lot of people get caught up and say, "Well, it's free. It's a place. I don't have to pay for server costs. I don't have to pay someone to take over and do the admin side of things." I understand that and I get it. Believe me, I do. But you need to take care of your digital space because that's pretty much all you really have. Your name is who you are as a brand, as a content creator, as a podcaster, an artist, an author, whatever. The Professional Appearance FactorLet's take a step back in time. Back in the day, all we really had was websites and email. We didn't have any social networks. I'm talking like the days before Facebook or even MySpace. There were people setting up accounts on AOL.com. Fast forward a decade. When you look at someone's business card and they hand it to you and you see their email is their name at AOL.com, what goes into your mind? Either this person is really old and part of the boomer generation, or they're stuck on AOL, or they're probably still paying for AOL when they shouldn't be. The thing is, it's not a professional look when you have an AOL.com or Gmail.com email address on your business cards when you're trying to promote your business. The same thing applies to your blog or website. Say with Substack. Yes, I understand Substack gives you a space. It's kind of like a social network for blogs. It gives you a place to help advertise your content. But at what cost? Yes, it's free, but you don't really own your home. The Distribution DilemmaSome people will say, "Well, Substack gives you all of this distribution network to help get your site seen by many other people." They offer podcast hosting and they're starting to get into short form video content too, because everybody's got to do that. But at what cost to your brand? When people think of your blog, the first thing they're going to say is, "Oh yeah, I saw your blog post on Substack." They're not going to say, "Oh yeah, I read your blog post on your website." It's kind of a catch 22. There are thousands or hundreds of thousands or even millions of users on Substack who are happy with this, and you know what? That's perfectly fine. I'm not here to say using one platform over creating your own website is something you should be ashamed of. It's something you should take care of if you're very serious about your brand and creating content. The Video ExceptionFor video content creators, you're either on YouTube or you host it yourself through PeerTube or Vimeo. There really isn't any other way that's low cost, because video is expensive to host. If you don't have infrastructure set up for video hosting, you're looking at thousands of dollars per month. If you have a large following or one or two videos go viral with several million views, your server cost is going to go right through the roof. In that case, having your stuff on YouTube is an exception, because believe me when I say video hosting is very expensive. When Platforms Make SenseUsing Substack and Medium is probably a good idea if you're just starting out your content creation and you're looking for a place and you don't have the technical know-how to create websites or blog posts. If you're listening and saying, "I have no idea what you mean by Docker containers or self-hosting a Ghost blog site," then these platforms make sense for beginners. I want to preface this: I'm not knocking these platforms or the people who use them successfully. I'm just giving insight into what I believe and many other people believe is that if you want to build your brand, going this route is probably not the best in the long run. The Brand Perception IssueYour decision on creating your brand for your business requires considering how your content, clients, and viewership perceives what you make or what you want to present to the world. By using certain platforms, you have to take that into consideration. I know there's a guy called Mike Elgin who's been in the tech space for many decades. He gave a passionate speech on why he creates his blog on Substack. He understands what some people perceive Substack as, but in his case, he hasn't seen any of those issues. We can argue that just by using the Internet, you're essentially platforming various ideologies as well. Are you going to stop using the Internet and live in a shack in Montana? You kind of have to weigh the pros and cons really. The Solution: Own Your Digital Real EstateIf you want to take your brand to the next level, create a domain and find a domain for your brand name. Set up your website. That's the meat and potatoes of what I'm trying to say here. If you create your website, create the content on your website, then share that content out to Blue Sky or Twitter or Facebook or wherever else to lead back to your website, that's a much better experience for yourself, your content, and eventually your members or viewers. You can still utilize Substack if you want to have a newsletter. You can use Medium, Beehive, Ghost, Fourth Wall, or ConvertKit for creating your newsletter to send out emails once a week or once a month. But it's important to have that domain, not just for a home for your content, but for your emails too. The Email Address StoryIt's more professional to have your name at whatever.com instead of AOL.com or Gmail.com. I have a story from my line of work where we deal with firms on different projects. One person who works at a multimillion dollar firm gave us a professional email with Gmail.com. I'm sitting there like, "That's so unprofessional." You're working in this professional environment and you're giving someone a Gmail.com address. I know some of you will probably say, "What's wrong with that? It's just an email account." But in certain aspects of corporate life, you don't want to show that by using a free account, it gives the air of laziness and that you don't really care about your work. Having Josh at Nvidia.com or Josh at Riverside.com with the company name as the domain gives so much more weight to your email and your presence with other people in the industry, clients, and viewers. Taking Control as an Independent CreatorAs a creator, especially independent creators trying to run your own business, set up a domain so you can have an email address. I have Josh B at two tone waffle dot com and also at indie creator hub dot com. I can use that email in a professional setting instead of AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, or anything like that. Your digital space is really all you have as a content creator. Take care of it, own it, and build your brand on a foundation that you control. That's how you create a sustainable, professional presence that grows with you instead of being at the mercy of platform changes and corporate decisions. If you're serious about furthering your content creation journey as a business, these are decisions you have to think about as you grow your media empire. Until next time, later taters. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | The Importance of Ownership in...🏠 Why Your Content Needs Its Own HomeHave you ever thought about what happens when the algorithm changes overnight and your content just vanishes? In our latest episode, Josh dives into the digital..

Welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator podcast. Tonight, I'm doing something a little different. I'm opening up our behind-the-scenes look and actually diving into trying to organize my mess of hard drives and my whole workflow for content creation. This is something I've pretty much got down to a science now. I spent several hours today and a little bit of time yesterday going through the motions and trying to figure out a way to better organize my workflow. That's what I'm going to do tonight - open up myself to you in this kind of raw, open look at my process. The best way to think about this is: How do you keep yourself organized? I'm not just talking about your digital files. I'm talking about your workflow. How do you create content? How do you keep track of everything? How do you stay organized and keep the organized mess away from yourself? The Breaking PointLooking back at my old system, it wasn't too bad. It was okay, nothing to write home about, but it was something I could keep track of. I knew I could have made things a little bit better, especially when trying to stay organized with all the logos and graphic templates I use to create thumbnails and all sorts of stuff like that. I knew I would eventually have to come to a head and say, "I got to take care of this right here and now." Without saying "let's just burn it to the ground and start from scratch," I essentially did that. But all the stuff I had previously made, I moved it into an archive. Discovering the PARA MethodLet me backtrack a little bit because one of the things I was looking into is the PARA method. If you've been around content creation or YouTube or anything like that, you might have come across or heard about Tiago Forte's PARA method. PARA stands for Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives. Going through it was something I had to relearn in terms of how I organize things. The nice thing is that Tiago himself said it's not something set in stone. It's customizable to pretty much anyone and everybody. It's very dynamic. Where I Got Lost in the WeedsHere's where I started overthinking things. Projects are supposed to be things with an end date, right? So I'm thinking to myself, "Well, projects is stuff like videos, podcast episodes." Those are projects I can put in there. But thinking about it, yes, different episodes or different videos do have an end date when they need to be published and uploaded. But it's an ongoing thing, so it wouldn't be in the projects folder. This is what I was going through yesterday, last night, and most of today when I was redoing all of my organization. I was getting lost in the weeds and starting to overthink things. I started thinking, "Okay, with projects, that's good for videos, but then once they're done, I can move them into an archive." Well, I started thinking, "Why would I move them into an archive? Because it'll break all my links for my task tracking." I have a link to where that project folder connects to the task itself. So I can easily, without having a couple of windows open, say "I need to find out what thumbnail I'll use," go to that particular task, open it up, click on the link, and it'll take me into the folder that lives on my NAS. If I move the project folder out of projects and put it into archive, that link will be broken. I don't want to go through and have to redo a link every single time I move something. Finding My SolutionSo I'm like, "What's the next best case? Put it in areas." Well, that's what I did. But again, I started overthinking myself. I was like, "Well, if I keep it here, then it's not really a project, it's an area." This is where I started doing more research, watching more videos, and getting ideas of different ways of organizing your file structure as a content creator. Maybe I could use a little bit of elements of PARA and something a little bit more customizable that fits my workflow and my way of thinking. I eventually came to the conclusion that I could still use the PARA method (I'm using air quotes there), but projects are something where they stay there. They stay in the projects folder, and I don't move them to the archive. Then it becomes a game of cat and mouse. I'll title my stuff by year, month, and date. But what happens when we go into 2026 or 2027? Instead of folders within folders within folders, I need to have minimal folders. My New SystemLet me show you what I have set up. I still use the PARA method, so I have projects, areas, resources, and archives. For projects, I decided to have a reference prefix for each folder. I created a reference sheet with abbreviations: F2H for The First Two Hours (my Independent Creator podcast), any Creator Hub, Zero Point Report, Two Ton Waffle. So I have The First Two Hours, which is F2H, then the year, month, then date, and of course, the actual title of the project itself. So in this case, "Crazy Machines 3," which I'll be doing as part of my video series called The First Two Hours, where I play a game I've never played before for two hours and then review it. I have them set up with a template that I copy and paste. Inside each project folder, I have: A-Roll: This is the talking head footage, me speaking to camera B-Roll: Gameplay footage or other supplementary video Audio Assets: All audio files for the project Image Assets: Promo images and Discord event banners Thumbnail Assets: Screenshots and elements for thumbnail creation Video Assets: Raw edit files that external editors can pull from Thumbnail Final: The completed thumbnail Final Render: The final version of the video after editing Documents: Transcripts, subtitle files, and blog post materials The Manual Process That WorksI got this structure from another content creator (I forget their name), but this is how they lay out their YouTube video files. What they do is have this master folder structure with blank folders. All I do is right-click on it, duplicate it, take my title from Notion, create the folder, go to NextCloud, get the link, and paste it into the task field. It's convoluted, but it works. It's a manual system that doesn't really take too much time. Task Management IntegrationI have my task tracker in Notion with all my video ideas. If you watched my video a couple of days ago, I posted a livestream about slight changes I'll be making to Any Creator Hub. One of those changes is that I want to get at least 100 video ideas posted. I'm still working on it and very far away from my goal of 100, but I gave myself at least two weeks to do it. I have a space for the project folder where I take the link from my NextCloud (the NAS link itself) and post it up there. Then I'll enter when I'm going to be doing the recording, when I want the edits to be due (normally the day prior to the posting date), and my due date. Why I Stuck with NotionI know in that video I said I was going to be using ClickUp, but after I said that, I totally forgot that ClickUp comes with some caveats. If you're using the browser-based version, it's a little slow. When you go into the database, it opens up each one very slowly. I forgot about that and thought, "Do I want to deal with this for a good year before I drive myself crazy in less than a couple of weeks?" Even though Notion has some issues, I've resigned myself to not tinker with it as much as I used to. As you can see, I have at least eight different pages, and these are all prior attempts or experiments to see how they function and if they'd be a good fit for my workflow. Breaking Old HabitsWhat I'm going to be doing throughout the week and maybe next week is going through these and asking, "Is there anything I can pick out of here? Nope. All right, delete it." I've been livestreaming and creating content for a good 10-plus years, and I have a lot of old habits I need to break. This is the reason why I wanted to do this episode: to open myself up to you all and say, "Hey, I'm probably worse than you in creating organizational debt." I constantly have to tweak things and experiment with them to see how I can make them prettier or better. I spend more time doing that than actually creating content. This past week, I was like, "I have to stop doing this." That's why I did the channel reflections video and this episode tonight. Keeping It SimpleThis looks complicated, but to me, this is actually pretty simple. It's proving to myself that I don't need a big cover image or an awesome-looking dashboard with charts and Gantt views and timelines. I just need a task list, a calendar to show me visually what needs to be done and when it's going to be done. That's pretty much it. It's just a database, a collection of stuff that I've wanted to do, am doing, and have done. Future-Proofing My AssetsOne of the processes was getting the organization of my file structure taken care of. I have my resources with all my assets for each channel. I work in Affinity Designer, so I have all this built into one file that I can create files from within that template. I also have all the logos I use for different channels and content. I went through and changed all the file names so they're consistent. For example, instead of a random Discord icon filename, it's now "icon-Discord-Blurple." If I want to do a search, all I need to do is search for "logo" and it'll give me everything with logo in the title. It's harder to do now, but it's future-proofing and making it easier for future me to say thank you. The Fresh Start ApproachAll the old stuff I had basically got moved yesterday and today. I said, "I am starting fresh. This is a fresh start. Burn everything to the ground, build from the foundation." All my old stuff now lives in the archives. I didn't delete anything, I just moved it to a place where it can stay since I hadn't touched any of it in probably months or a good year. Smart Organization ToolsThe stuff I do now all lives in projects. I didn't want to have a folder within a folder because what I used to do was have projects, then two-ton waffle, then 2025, then the actual folder itself. That's a lot of clicks: one, two, three, four, and then four and a half because you're inside the project folder itself. I'm like, "Let's just have two clicks. Let's try to keep this as simple as possible and work off the prefix." So First Two Hours 2025 April 11th, 0411, Crazy Machines 3. If I do a search for anything that's F2H, it'll display everything for First Two Hours. Yes, it might seem like this is going to get extremely bloated, but you have to think about it: I'll be able to easily get into this by searching. I can create smart folders that automatically pull up results based on my naming conventions. Next StepsThere's also an app called Hazel that a lot of people swear by. It can search through your entire operating system for different things and basically takes what I showed you with the search function and lets you set it up as rules. There's also an app called Raycast, which integrates similar elements but improves on them. Those are some of the things I'm going to be looking into going forward: making it easier so I don't have to go into the actual folder itself. I can just open up Raycast or do a spotlight search to find what I'm looking for. You're Not AloneThat's basically what I'm going through, and I also want to show anyone who watches or listens to this episode: Hey, you're not alone. There are other people out there who are just as bad or worse as I am. I kind of see myself as the worst at being organized. I'm not going to say that I'm the perfect poster child for organization, but I'm pretty close to the worst. So yeah, I hope you enjoyed this episode. Let me know what kind of organization or workflow you utilize for content creation. I'd love to hear or see your ideas and examples. You can leave a discussion in the comments, or if you don't want to do that, you can just leave an emoji. A poop emoji, I mean, it's still engagement. If you're listening to this on any podcast player, leave a review, leave a five-star review. It helps get the podcast out there for anyone else to enjoy. I'm also going to be going through another change and doing a better job of promoting my work as well. I hope to see you next time on the Independent Creator podcast. Have a good night. Later, taters. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Organized MessIn this episode of the Independent Creator podcast, Josh delves into the intricacies of organizing workflows for content creation. He shares his personal journey of restructuring his digital life u...

Welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast. Tonight we're diving into live streaming platforms, and I know we've covered this before, but it really bears repeating. With all the recent changes happening on Twitch and YouTube, the two main platforms people think of when live streaming comes up, there are alternatives out there that might actually be better for your content creation journey. The Twitch Reality CheckLet's start with Twitch. They've made some recent changes, some good, some not so much, and there's a lot of misinformation floating around about what Twitch actually is and what it can do for you. Recently, Twitch CEO Dan Clancy released a blog post outlining their roadmap for 2025. One section that caught attention was "monetization for all." If you're a live streamer on Twitch, you've probably seen the push for affiliate status or partner status. That's all well and good, but here's what happens: people get their partner status, and then their views fall off a cliff. They end up disappointed and confused about what went wrong. The monetization for all feature means new Twitch accounts will get monetization capabilities pretty much from day one for bits and subscriptions. Bits are basically exchanging real currency for digital currency you can give to streamers, and subscriptions run about six dollars a month, with streamers getting anywhere from 50% to 70% depending on their subscriber count. Here's the thing though: the vast majority of live streamers on Twitch don't have the concurrent viewer numbers to make this profitable enough to go full time. I'm not saying what they're doing is wrong, it's just the nature of Twitch. You're one person going up against thousands, hundreds of thousands, even millions of other creators doing pretty much the same thing you are. Discovery on Twitch? It doesn't really exist the way you see it on YouTube. So while pushing monetization for every account sounds good, it could lead more people to think they can stream on Twitch and become famous and rich. When that doesn't happen within a month or two, they get that sinking realization and quit. Unfortunately, this happens every single day. Why YouTube Live Has Its AdvantagesYouTube does offer live streaming capabilities, and in some aspects, it's better than Twitch. The video player is miles above Twitch. You can join a YouTube live stream and rewind it to the beginning, then catch up at 1.5x or 2x speed to get back to the live point. You can technically do this on Twitch, but it's convoluted. You have to click on the person's profile picture, go to videos, find the broadcast, click on that, then go back. And it only goes back to where you started watching. It's just not good for live streaming. My Top Pick: OwncastIf you know me and have watched this podcast or my other videos, you know I'm a big advocate for Owncast. This is a free, open source platform that lets you take complete control of your live streaming journey. You install it on your own infrastructure, whether that's your own hardware, something you rent from providers like Hetzner or Digital Ocean, or even something sitting in your closet. You can easily put the Owncast software on that hardware and stream from your computer to that server. People can join in, participate in chat, and watch your stream. You have full, outright control over everything. There's really no minimum server hardware requirement. People have successfully run streams on a Raspberry Pi. Now, will you get high quality? Maybe not. It depends on your hardware and what resolution you want to stream at. On a Raspberry Pi, you might get 480p or 720p because the encoding isn't as data heavy as 1080p or 1440p. Owncast offers so much that it's pretty much limitless depending on how you want to use it. By nature, it's not a multi channel streaming platform like Twitch or YouTube. This is geared toward single channel content creation, sharing your own content with the world. It's completely free, open source software with lots of contributors. There are easy download options, and if you use Hetzner, there's even a one click installer. I have an affiliate link below, and you can get Owncast running in 10 to 15 minutes. Alternative Multi Platform OptionsMaybe you don't want the hassle of setting up a server or installing software. That's okay because there are other multi channel streaming platform alternatives. BeamBeamstream is a new up and comer that's been around for less than a year. They've positioned themselves as an alternative, though they don't offer a free plan. They have two tiers: you can pay about four dollars a month to stream on Beam, or you can have your channel sponsored by a company. I stream to Beam myself, sponsored by Logitech G. Do I get any money from this? No, these companies are basically subsidizing streamers on Beam. What Beam does really well is multi platform streaming capability. You can stream to Beam and have that stream sent to Twitch, Trovo, YouTube, and many other places. I think they support 30 to 40 different platforms. It's essentially a free alternative to Restream, where instead of streaming from your computer to four or five different places, you stream to one place and they distribute it. Creating an account is free for viewers at beamstream.gg. The service is perfectly doable. They offer a studio option similar to Twitch's creator dashboard, though more streamlined. They don't offer as much analytics as Twitch or anywhere close to YouTube, but they're slowly implementing new features. Since this is relatively new, they're working hard to provide the best streaming experience they can. MoonbeamAnother up and comer is Moonbeam. I don't have an account because they're currently in alpha testing. I covered Moonbeam last summer, and what they're doing is basically taking elements of Discord and combining them with live streaming in a better way than what Trovo attempted. Trovo tried to be a Twitch competitor while adding Discord capabilities, but Moonbeam is building this concept from the ground up. They're creating community spaces where your streaming community can live, similar to Discord servers, but with integrated live streaming capabilities. Their alpha testing is going really well, so they might move to beta sooner than expected. I'm guessing we'll see Moonbeam fully public sometime this summer, maybe by the end of the year. We'll definitely cover all the features when it becomes available. SharePlaySharePlay is another multi channel option that's been around for about two years. To be truthfully honest, they haven't done much. They opened up a beta phase that's easy to access, but the circle of content creators streaming to SharePlay is very, very tiny. Right now, looking at their website, there are only two people streaming on the entire platform. I've been part of SharePlay for almost two years. During the alpha phase, they were more engaged with the community, rolling out new features and running tests. Lately, it's just plateaued. I hate to say this, but SharePlay isn't really a viable alternative. It's there and available with a small dedicated community, but that's about it. If you want a very tiny community, give SharePlay a try. You'll need to join their Discord server to get an invite link to their beta phase. PeerTubeOn the free, open source side, PeerTube offers live streaming capability. I like to call PeerTube a jack of all trades, master of none. They're very good at providing free software for video hosting platforms, but their live streaming capability, while functional, is temperamental. Many people will tell you the same thing. When streaming to a PeerTube instance, your stream might suffer from dropouts, stuttering, or just lower quality enjoyment. This depends heavily on the server hardware the PeerTube platform is running on. The software itself is very good. You won't find a better alternative to YouTube and Vimeo for video hosting than PeerTube. Video hosting is great, transcoding is excellent, and it shares on the Fediverse. The live streaming capability is just tacked on because people asked for it since they viewed PeerTube as a YouTube alternative. My RankingsIf I had to rank these platforms, it would be Owncast, Beam, PeerTube, then SharePlay. I can't include Moonbeam since I don't have experience as either a viewer or streamer. Owncast tops my list because it provides great infrastructure and connects to the Fediverse. When you start a live stream, it automatically posts to Mastodon or the ActivityPub system. PeerTube can do this too, though you have to manually copy and paste. Why This MattersThe reason I wanted to cover these five options is that live streaming isn't just Twitch and YouTube. I highly suggest people give these alternatives at least a month or two as a viewer to experience what's available beyond the usual platforms. As I mentioned at the beginning, Twitch is making lots of changes. Some are good, like monetization for all. Sometimes decisions aren't so good. You need to be aware of what's happening in the live streaming world and not put all your eggs in one basket. I've done this before, and countless others have too. When Mixer shut down, so many people were left wondering what to do next. Some went to Trovo or Glimish. Glimish had great promise but was plagued by mismanagement and eventually shut down. Again, people using it as their only platform were left looking around. Keep this in the back of your mind: do you have a game plan? Do you have plan B and plan C just in case Twitch shuts down? There's no such thing as too big to fail. Amazon could decide Twitch isn't making money and flip the switch. Suddenly, hundreds of thousands of streamers would be wondering where to go or whether to give up streaming entirely. This is why I wanted to highlight these alternatives. Have them in the back of your mind as options. If you enjoyed this episode or have questions or comments, let me know in the comments below or join our forums at indiecreator.community. All the links are down below. Have a good night, and I'll see you on the next episode. Later taters! The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Beyond Twitch: Finding Your Per...Beyond Twitch: Finding Your Perfect Live Streaming Home in 2025Hey there, independent creators! Just released the latest episode of the Independent Creator Podcast, and I'm excited to share the jui...

Hey there, welcome to another discussion about bringing people into the Fediverse. Tonight I want to slow things down a bit and talk about the importance of patience when trying to move people from mainstream social networks to alternative platforms like Mastodon, PeerTube, and other Fediverse options. Let's be honest about something first. Quick upswings and massive flooding into the Fediverse, like we saw back in 2020 and 2021 when Elon Musk first took over Twitter, caused serious problems. Servers weren't designed or ready for all those people coming in at once. Servers crashed, people got confused and frustrated asking, "Why do I have to pick a server? I can't just click go and post my breakfast?" The mindset at the time was that everybody was so used to centralized networks like Twitter and Facebook. They were trying to associate those old network feelings with this new and weird way of communicating. The ironic thing is, they were essentially using a flavor of the Fediverse before, which was email. Let me break it down simply. If you're using Mastodon, it's very similar to how you work with email. You create an email and send it to someone over on Gmail, they receive it, but you have a Hotmail or AOL account. I know you're old if you still have an AOL account. But the point is, these two systems can interact and talk with each other. You don't have to be a Gmail user to talk to other Gmail users. What makes the Fediverse great is that it brings multiple servers together to share communication between them. What makes it even better is when the people using it understand what it's capable of and what they can use it for. The Challenge of MigrationThe people coming in from Twitter and Facebook were hitting roadblocks because they were trying to associate the Twitter experience with Mastodon. When you've been used to the Twitter experience for the past 20 years, it's hard to automatically and quickly change how you interact with a completely different system. That's where we have to be patient with bringing people into the Fediverse. Nowadays, with everything happening on Twitter or X as it's called now, plus Facebook and Meta and Instagram and Threads, people are looking for alternatives. We're seeing another tsunami of people trying to find new platforms because they've heard from mass media and their friends about how Meta has been taking all their information, which they've been doing for 20 something years anyway. We have to work on a system to get these people moved off the mass media centralized services into more contained alternative platforms. We need a Fediverse that is welcoming and patient with these newcomers because they themselves are not going to be patient. They want results now. If they don't get those results immediately, they'll give up and go back to where they were before. Start Small with Tech-Savvy FamilyThe best way to approach this whole thing is to start small. Communicate with your more tech-savvy family members first. Your cousin, uncle, sister, niece, nephew, whoever has more technical capability than your parents or grandparents. We all know that every Thanksgiving or holiday, those of us who are tech-savvy get the inevitable request: "Oh yeah, you know about computers. Can you fix mine? It's not working." We've all felt those frustrations. Start with the tech-savvy family members and get them associated with alternative platforms first. They might already be part of the Fediverse ecosystem, and if that's the case, your job is almost halfway over. You can utilize their experience to help bring over your uncles, aunts, grandparents, and parents. But keep in mind the old saying: you can't teach an old dog new tricks. This unfortunately plays out here. With your grandparents, for example, they've been locked into doing one thing steadily, and it was probably hard enough to get them into Facebook in the first place. That took years. Now you want to switch them to Friendica or GoToSocial or Mastodon, and the experience isn't going to be as streamlined as Facebook. It just isn't. Most of the Fediverse is designed and built by programmers, and the user experience isn't as polished as it should be. It should be simpler. Not that we should dumb down the experience, but the onboarding process needs work. Mastodon is working on this, bringing people in to improve that first user experience, but it's not as straightforward as Facebook or Twitter made it. When you first logged into Facebook or Twitter, you were instantly given suggestions: "You want to follow these people? Click, click, click, and off you go." You got people to follow and content to look at right away. With Mastodon, you're completely on your own. You have to find the content you're interested in yourself. That's actually one of the best things about Mastodon, but it can be a deterrent for the older generation because they don't understand it. If they do understand it, it takes a longer process for them to grasp the reasoning behind it. Again, that's why you have to be patient. Make It EasyCreate a simple, one-page guide with screenshots. Many older people are visual learners, but there are text-based learners too, so you can't just rely on one approach. Use screenshots and recommend a specific instance based on their interests. If they like sci-fi movies, find a Mastodon server that focuses on sci-fi discussions. This helps break the ice because you're pushing them into a niche they're already interested in instead of a general, vague "everything goes" approach. Offer to help them set up their account. Spend half a day with them. Take them to lunch or have them take you to lunch and say, "What we're going to do is slowly walk through building up your account, following people you'll enjoy, and seeing content you'll like." Show them how to find their friends who might already be on Mastodon or other platforms. Get those connections built first. Later, when they start asking questions like "How do I post alt text?" you can show them step by step. Upload your image, hit the button that says alt text, and enter it. Try to get them into a slow progression of using these systems. Teaching the BasicsTeach them the basics of boosting and following. Most people don't understand that hitting the star on a post in Mastodon isn't like hitting "like" on other platforms. Technically it doesn't do much for algorithmic reach, but it does tell the original poster that someone enjoyed their content. It's not going to be like "This post got 60 billion likes, it must be good." No, it's the opposite. The only person who really cares about the star is the original poster, and that's great. When you hit that boost button, you share it to your feed and network, enriching the original post content for a wider audience. People see it, think "That's good, I want to see more of that," hit follow, and the original poster gets a new follower. It just works out for the best. Managing the TransitionPeople worry about losing touch with their existing networks, so show them how to cross-post between platforms during the transition. Take your content from Mastodon and share it to Facebook or Twitter if you're still on those platforms. Say, "Hey, I'm slowly transitioning from using X or Facebook as my primary platform to this new platform, and I wish you'd join me on this journey." If people don't want to make the switch, that's okay. Each person has their individual likes and dislikes. They might say, "Mastodon is for nerdy, geeky people and it's very difficult and impossible to use. No one's using it." Well, okay, that's their opinion. Good luck with that. At least cross-post so people can get your content information, but they won't get the full enriched experience if they don't come over to Mastodon. Use tools like MoaParty to sync your posts. Buffer is another great option. You can post links from your Mastodon account or, even better, from your blog site. Create a website or blog, post to your website, then take the link and share it to social network platforms through Buffer and other services. Keep your old accounts while building your Fediverse presence. When I first moved to Mastodon, I left my other account going for about two weeks. After that, I said, "You know what? Kill it. I'm not coming back here." But many people don't want to kill their Twitter account because there's still so much happening on X. Unfortunately, a lot of brands and large initiatives still use X for some reason. If you want to keep your account there, that's totally your prerogative. Just understand that when people see that, they might think, "Oh, you still support X even with all the bad stuff that's been going on." You'll have that connotation tied to your X account. Some people and companies are taking longer to figure out where they want their social media presence to go. It's not a quick turnaround, so keep that in mind and be patient. Live Streaming PlatformsMoving people from live streaming platforms requires similar patience. Many people still love Twitch, and it has a deeply ingrained culture and chat culture of viewers watching their favorite streamers. You're not going to get all your viewers to easily move to another platform like YouTube, PeerTube, Beam, or Owncast. It's going to take work, and unfortunately, a lot of your audience will stay on Twitch. One solution is multi-streaming. I stream to Twitch, YouTube, our Owncast server, and Beam, and I'm probably going to reset our PeerTube live streaming system since we have a PeerTube instance. I live stream to four or five different places simultaneously and use Social Stream to combine chat from all these places into one location. People on Twitch can see what people on Owncast are saying and vice versa. You have to do a slow transition. Don't just say, "Starting tomorrow, I'm only streaming on Owncast." People on Twitch would think, "Oh, so you're giving up Twitch. I guess I'll find another streamer." You have to do this in stages over months, not weeks. Some viewers are solely within the Twitch bubble and will not go anywhere else. Even if Twitch died tomorrow, they'd be upset and say, "Well, I guess I'm not watching anything." They don't understand that their favorite creators are still making content elsewhere. That's just the cultural mindset of how Twitch has been ingrained in these viewers' thinking. Don't chastise them. Take time to set things up. Say, "Hey, we're doing an experiment. If you want to watch this ad-free without needing a subscription, go watch on Owncast." The experience is night and day because you don't need an account for Owncast. You get a generic name or can associate a Fediverse account if you want. Give them options and slowly get them to know about alternatives every stream. Mention that you're available on multiple platforms and the links are below the player. Offer different content on different platforms, like behind-the-scenes streams on Owncast that you don't do on Twitch. Avoiding ToxicityOne thing I see too often is people attacking others who still use Meta, Twitch, YouTube, or other centralized platforms. They say things like, "You guys suck. If you're using Meta, you just love giving away your information." That kind of thinking turns away people who might want to look at the Fediverse. All they see is toxicity and harassment. It's a tribal mindset: "Mastodon is the best, we're the best tribe, and you guys on X suck." Stop that thinking. Yes, Mastodon is a better experience overall, but as the old expression goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. Be a positive force. Yes, there are negative elements, but the overall experience of Mastodon is more positive than what people will find where they are now. There are negative people everywhere you go, that's an unfortunate part of being human. But as you're trying to be an advocate for the Fediverse, try to say, "Hey, give us a chance." Be the advocate who says, "If you come across any issues, let me know and I'll try to work with you to take care of them." Don't try to do that for everybody. Take one or two people under your wing and show them what's possible within the Fediverse. The Long GameEventually, more people will understand what the Fediverse is about. We've already seen news stories talking about the Fediverse, Mastodon, Blue Sky, and other platforms. We have to continue getting the word out, not spinning it as overly positive, but making it clear that this is a viable alternative where people will have a better experience over the long term. Your mental health will probably be in a better place. You won't have to deal with the overly negative and vile content, advertising, and accounts that shove information into your feeds on other platforms. This whole discussion comes down to being patient with everybody. There's no race. We don't have to have massive numbers of Fediverse and Blue Sky users exceeding X and Meta combined by the end of 2025. There is no deadline where the whole system collapses if we don't hit certain numbers. It's a marathon, not a sprint. We just want to show people that this is a viable alternative to the garbage they're dealing with now. Take your time, be patient, and focus on quality connections over quantity. That's the key to successfully bringing people into the Fediverse. Small steps, patience, and understanding will get us much further than forcing rapid changes or attacking people for their current platform choices. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Patience is KeyMoving to the Fediverse? Slow Down and Enjoy the Journey! | The Independent Creator PodcastHey Fediverse friends! 🌐This week's episode tackles something we've all seen happen - those massive waves ..

Hey there, folks. We're living in some interesting times, and there's going to be some fascinating things to unpack in today's discussion. It's raining AI, right? That's the whole thing. Everyone is just talking about AI this, AI that. It's kind of weird how we've gone from almost nothing just a couple of years ago to what we have now, which is like a deluge, a monsoon of AI making its way into everything that we do really. So strap in, folks. Let's get right into the meat and potatoes of independent podcasts and independent creator content. AI: The New Creative LandscapeSome of the stuff that we've been looking at is how AI has been invading almost every aspect of our lives as regular people, as content creators, or any kind of creating aspect. It's become really a big part of what we do nowadays. Many people are looking at AI like it's the boogeyman. I know that a lot of aspects, especially in the art community and other kinds of creation, see it as an invader of sorts really. Things like Sora or Midjourney when it first started out, Gemini, and Deep Seek, which is a new one that just came out. AI has just glommed onto everything. Many of us have gone full circle into embracing AI to replace what we do as a creative endeavor. I think that can lead to some things that are not conducive to how we used to be creative in creating content and doing our normal day-to-day hobbies and jobs. When Big Brands Go Cheap: The Coca-Cola DisasterLet's take a look at the recent Coca-Cola holiday ad from a couple of months ago back in the holiday season. Normally we'd see Santa and the polar bears and the trucks and everything coming through in beautifully crafted advertisements. But this time, it was like, "You know what? Let's do this in AI. We don't want to pay people to make this stuff." And it was really, really bad. Seriously bad. Of course, AI has a hard problem with text and words. You could definitely tell on some of the shots with the Coca-Cola logo on the truck that it was completely messed up. You'd see "Coca," but the hyphen and "Cola" was all squished and just didn't look correct. That brought a lot of outrage from people, which they were perfectly within their right to express. Why would you do this? You used to pay people: artists, videographers, character designers, and visual effects professionals to create your advertisements. Coca-Cola just decided to go cheap and pay AI to do it instead. You had six-fingered people and all sorts of problems like that, plus misspelled words. It brought up a backlash, and Coca-Cola deserved it. The same thing happened with the Disney Plus show "Secret Invasion," an MCU production where the opening intro was done in AI. People were furious because they knew Disney could have someone do something like that, or better. The Poison Pill Arms RaceOne thing I like to bring up is that people have been putting in what's called poison pills to make their content poisoned so AI wouldn't be able to scrape it and use their content in its learning process. This has been ongoing for about a year or two with different approaches. There's an Ars Technica article about how one YouTuber is trying to poison AI bots stealing her content by using specialized garbage-filled captions that are invisible to humans but confounding to AI. Unfortunately, AI is getting smart enough to detect if content is poison-pilled and can bypass it to scrape normally. We're getting into an arms race really. It's very similar to the US and Russia back in the fifties and sixties with the space race. One side launches Sputnik, which kicks America into doing something better, and it goes back and forth. The problem with AI is that we're going to be spending more time and effort creating poison pills and trying to block AI content scraping than we're actually creating our art or content. We have to realize what's important and how far we can go with this. The Human Cost: When Creators Get SiloedWe've seen this plenty of times: longtime YouTubers getting their channels removed without warning. I'm thinking of the Zero Warnings case, where a founder of a small music software brand spent more than 15 years building a YouTube channel with all original content to promote his business products. He never had any issues with YouTube's automated content removal system until one day when YouTube, without issuing a single warning, abruptly deleted his entire channel. We see this constantly. People post about how YouTube has demonetized their video or completely killed their channel. Good luck trying to get any kind of response from YouTube because unless you're a big YouTube giant like MrBeast or MKBHD, you're not really going to get any traction from YouTube support. You're just going to hit an automated brick wall with no human interaction. This is where AI has taken over the moderation side of things as well. Yes, YouTube has made some improvements over the years, especially after the Viacom lawsuit that almost cost us YouTube entirely. YouTube spent billions of dollars and years creating their Content ID system. It's not perfect by far, but it's something that's perfectly capable of finding copyrighted material within a video and flagging it. In that respect, AI is actually a good thing. It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing and better than having no video hosting service whatsoever. Fighting Back: Cara and the Artist ResistanceThe art community, especially on Instagram, saw that Meta was going to use all their art and posts for machine learning in their Llama AI. In response, a group of people decided to open up a new site called Cara. Cara is a social media and portfolio sharing platform for artists and art enthusiasts. The important part is that they have built-in aspects to detect AI art, and they don't allow it on their platform. They state: "We do not agree with generative AI tools in their current unethical form, and we won't host AI-generated portfolios unless the rampant ethical and data privacy issues around datasets are resolved via regulation." It's great to see a growing platform take this stance. When they first started in 2023, they had such high demand that their servers would crash constantly. But they've gotten past that point, and everything has leveled out to where it's perfectly fine now with a growing community of artists and art enthusiasts who want to escape the Meta umbrella. The DeepSeek DisruptionRecently, this Chinese company DeepSeek came out with their machine learning platform and used ChatGPT information for their training. Everyone freaked out, saying, "How dare you steal the content that we stole from everybody else?" DeepSeek proved that you can have a ChatGPT-like service for not even a fraction of the cost that ChatGPT was charging. When DeepSeek became public about a week ago, everything dropped in the stock market. There was an insane number: about $600 billion in market cap lost from OpenAI and other companies like Meta. The stock market was red and falling fast. Now, it bounced back within a day or two, but DeepSeek proved that you can do what these companies claim requires massive expenses for a lot less. This Chinese AI company came in and upended the tech pros of the US, saying, "Yeah, we can do it better, cheaper, and faster." AI as a Tool: Finding the BalanceHere's where I might get some flack, but I want to be honest about how I use AI. I use a little bit of AI for creating my written articles and cleaning stuff up. What I do is write the first draft, then have it go through AI for grammar, tonality, and structure to tighten it up a little bit. Then I go back over it to make sure it's still me. Is my use of AI bad? In some people's minds, yes, I'm a horrible person for using AI that way. But for me, because I have very limited time between my nine-to-five job and content creation, I have to be efficient. I could spend hours creating a blog post and editing, then have one out once every week or maybe once every two weeks. Is that a good use of my time? I'm still creating the content first. I'm still editing two or three times to make sure that what I created is part of the final product. For video editing, I use Whisper AI to get transcripts and subtitles because paying a company to do that is very expensive and time-consuming. I use a tool to cut my workflow time down to a much more manageable process while still making sure the final product maintains my personal touch. The Art DilemmaFor art, I can see where using AI could be perceived as cheating yourself. I create all my thumbnails myself and do all my artwork myself. I'm not the best, but I'm trying. If you looked at my older videos, those thumbnails were rough, but I like doing them myself. AI art has that soulless feel to it. It doesn't have the human touch. You can tell it's fake. I know artists like Corey who live streams his digital art creation process to prove his work is original and to get people accustomed to seeing art being made. It's a slow process that sometimes takes multiple streams to finish, but you can see the sausage being made. With AI, it's all done behind the screen, and then it's like, "Here you go, I got your thing." It's taking away a lot of the creativeness of an artist's work. Looking Forward: AI Isn't Going AnywhereWhat if Leonardo da Vinci or Picasso were creating their artwork today? How bad of a reception would they receive from the general public saying, "I can create something like that in less than 20 minutes. Why should I pay you thousands of dollars for a commission when I can get my $20 a month subscription to Midjourney or Sora?" I'm not saying all AI is bad. That's not what I want people to take away from this. Certain elements of AI, especially in written form for editing or structuring ideas, can work when there's human interaction going through the process to make sure what's been created from human work is still viewable as human work. The takeaway from this discussion should be to look at AI as something not to be feared. Don't treat it as a boogeyman. Give it a good look and ask: What is this going to be doing? How does this work? How does it work against my work? What is this changing? AI is not going anywhere. That genie has been let out of the bottle. Pandora's box has been opened. You're not putting that away now. It's something we have to learn to deal with. Yes, it sucks, but we have to figure out a way to contain the damage as much as possible. Take it for what you will. Whatever your AI viewpoints are, I'd love to hear about them. Whether you completely disagree with everything I've said or you agree, or you couldn't care less, let me know. It's all engagement, and we're all working with the YouTube AI algorithm anyway. If you haven't already, we'd love to see you over on our community forums where we talk about all this stuff: indie games, AI, content creation, alternative platforms, and a little bit of everything else. We might even talk about the price of eggs. Who knows? Thanks for sticking with me through this discussion, and I'll see you next time. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Navigating the AI Revolution in...Episode 023: Navigating the AI Revolution in Creative SpacesIn this episode, I explore the complex relationship between artificial intelligence and content creation, discussing:• The current

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of thoughts from the Independent Creator Podcast universe. Today we're diving into something that's been weighing on my mind lately. It's not exactly earth-shattering news, but it's definitely something that affects a lot of creators who were streaming on LiveSpace. So here's what happened. LiveSpace just shut down. And I mean really shut down. One day we got a notification from LiveSpace themselves saying they were calling it quits, and boom. They flipped the switch and turned off the streaming portion of the site. No one could stream anymore. Just like that. It was kind of a shot out of the dark, but honestly, some of us saw the writing on the wall. There had been inklings that something was going on behind the scenes. The Warning Signs Were ThereFor weeks leading up to the shutdown, things felt different. Ever since LiveSpace started up, even during the beta phase, there was constant communication. Updates were flowing, the Discord server was buzzing with activity, and the team was actively engaging with the community. But in the weeks before the announcement, everything went eerily quiet. The Discord servers just went silent. There wasn't much communication except for Todd doing his "T-days with Todd" sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and even those were sporadic when he got busy with other business responsibilities. As a co-founder, you're kind of beholden to actually running the business, right? The last update came out, and then for two to three weeks after that, there was almost nothing. No communication, issues weren't being addressed, and for those of us using the platform regularly, it felt strange. It was like the calm before the storm. What Made LiveSpace SpecialHere's the thing that really gets me about this whole situation. LiveSpace was actually a great place to stream. It was fantastic for setting up live streams and building a community around your channel and content. What really set LiveSpace apart was their ability to combine a live streaming platform with social networking features in a way that we hadn't really seen before on other platforms. Now, I'm not saying LiveSpace was perfectly innovative or knocking everything out of the park. They definitely had their missteps. One of the biggest issues was that they were constantly changing the front page layout. I'm talking almost every other week, the entire homepage would look completely different. I get it. I understand they were experimenting and trying to figure out what worked. But here's the problem: that constant changing probably drove away or confused a lot of potential users. Imagine coming to watch a stream one day, then returning the next week to find a completely different layout. People would ask, "Where is that section of the website I was looking for?" I think they were trying to do too much too fast. New people coming to a platform like stability. They want to know where the following feed is, where to click to find their favorite streamers. When you keep moving things around or removing features entirely, it makes people frustrated, and they don't want to come back. It's that whole "move fast and break things" mentality, which works great for some startups, but when you're trying to be a live streaming platform, you need that stable user experience. Viewers need to know exactly where to find what they're looking for. The Real Reason Behind the ShutdownFrom what I've been reading in the Discord server, LiveSpace shut down due to lack of funding. They couldn't secure the investment they needed to keep going. The story that's emerging is pretty telling about the current state of the tech industry. Apparently, LiveSpace was in talks with some venture capitalists who were willing to provide funding, but there was a catch. These VCs wanted LiveSpace to integrate AI features into their platform. And you know what? I'm actually glad that Todd, Spencer, and the rest of the team stood their ground and said no. Everyone and their mother is shoving AI into their products these days, and most of the time it's not a good implementation. It's driving people away who don't want AI crammed down their throats everywhere they go. So when the team said, "No, we're not going to do that," the VCs basically said, "Okay, we're taking our money and going home." And that was it. They pulled the plug. The Broader Impact on Content CreatorsWhat happened with LiveSpace is part of a bigger pattern that's been affecting content creators and live streamers over the past couple of years. We've been dealing with platform shutdowns left and right, and it's starting to take a real toll on the community. Remember Mixer? That was probably the first big one that really hit hard. The way it was handled was terrible. They basically broke up with their entire creator base over a tweet, giving everyone just 30 days notice before shutting down. That's it. Thanks for playing. Mixer was doing some really innovative stuff too. They had FTL technology with sub-one-second latency between what viewers saw and what streamers were actually doing. Before that, Twitch had maybe 10 seconds of delay, sometimes more. Mobile streaming could be 30 to 40 seconds behind. Mixer also pioneered things like channel points and multicasting with multiple streamers on one screen. Then all of a sudden, we got that rug pulled out from under us with a single tweet. It affected so many people who had been building their communities on Mixer. People were left scrambling, trying to figure out whether to go back to Twitch or take Facebook's offer to migrate there. The Hardening EffectHere's what I think is happening, and it's not good for the industry as a whole. We, as content creators, are becoming hardened to these shutdowns. We've seen Mixer go down, then Glimish, then various smaller platforms, and now LiveSpace. Each time, creators get 30 days notice or less, and their communities get scattered to the wind. This is creating a chilling effect on new platforms trying to enter the market. When services like Beam, Arena, or SharePlay launch, they face a huge uphill battle. Not just in getting streamers to try their platform, but in convincing both creators and viewers to invest emotionally in yet another platform that might disappear. We've grown so accustomed to platforms shutting down with little notice that many of us just don't want to take the risk anymore. We're tired of constantly having to move our communities around and start over. So we default back to the big players like YouTube or Twitch, even if they're not perfect. This makes it incredibly difficult for new platforms with genuinely good ideas to gain traction. Even if a new service is doing everything right, getting viewers and building features that streamers love, they now have to overcome years of broken trust in the industry. The Evolution of Live StreamingI think the live streaming ecosystem is evolving beyond just gaming, and LiveSpace was actually ahead of the curve on this. They put a real focus on creatives: art streams, music streams, crafting, and other non-gaming content. Gaming will always be a given on these platforms, but it's not the be-all and end-all anymore. LiveSpace had creators like Corey doing amazing visual art streams on iPad using Procreate, integrating with tools like Fourthwall for memberships and monetization. The platform was really good at highlighting that creative ecosystem and bringing IRL creative content into the spotlight. We don't really have a platform that's specifically geared toward that kind of content anymore. Sure, there's Picarto, but as creators have pointed out, it's not exactly family-friendly. You wouldn't necessarily want to bring your grandmother to watch your stream when the platform is full of content that might make them uncomfortable. The AI QuestionLet me circle back to the AI aspect for a moment, because I think it's worth discussing. AI isn't inherently bad. I use AI for writing, editing show notes, creating titles, and various other tasks. It's a great tool when used responsibly, and it's not an end-all solution to everything. The problem is when platforms try to use AI as a band-aid for deeper issues, or when they implement it without thinking through the long-term ramifications. We're still figuring out what AI can and can't do well, and what the potential negative consequences might be. I actually saw some interesting AI implementation from Beam recently. They showed how viewers could use AI to customize their viewing experience individually – removing backgrounds, repositioning camera feeds, switching between game-only and full-camera views. The interesting part is that these changes only affect that individual viewer's experience, not everyone else watching the stream. That's the kind of responsible AI use I can get behind. It gives viewers more control over their experience without fundamentally changing what the streamer is doing or affecting other people's viewing experience. But we've also seen how AI can be misused. There's potential for it to be used to inject more advertising, manipulate content in ways that creators didn't intend, or create experiences that drive viewers away rather than enhance their enjoyment. Looking ForwardI don't want to end this on a completely depressing note, because there are still good options out there for creators who want to explore beyond the major platforms. If you're looking for alternatives, SharePlay is doing some interesting work as a multi-streaming platform. Owncast gives you more control over your streaming setup within your own ecosystem. PeerTube has live streaming capabilities built in, though it's a bit more technical to set up. And of course, there's nothing wrong with sticking with Twitch, YouTube, or using multiple platforms simultaneously. The choice is ultimately yours to make, and only you can decide what works best for your content and community. I'm not here to tell you which platform to choose. My goal with this podcast and my work at Two Ton Waffle is to show you what alternatives exist out there. You don't have to stick with what you've got unless you want to, but it's important to know what your options are. The Bigger PictureThe LiveSpace shutdown represents more than just another platform going away. It's a symptom of larger issues in the tech industry right now: tightened funding, pressure to integrate AI whether it makes sense or not, and the challenge of building sustainable businesses in a competitive market. For content creators, it's a reminder that platform diversification isn't just smart, it's essential. Building your community on multiple platforms, maintaining your own website and email list, and not putting all your eggs in one basket has never been more important. The streaming landscape will continue to evolve, and new platforms will emerge. Some will succeed, others will fail. Our job as creators is to stay informed about our options while building sustainable communities that can weather these changes. This is the reality of being an independent creator in 2024. The platforms will come and go, but the relationships we build with our audiences and the value we provide will endure. That's all for today's deep dive into the LiveSpace situation and what it means for all of us in the creator economy. Stay strong out there, and remember that adaptation and resilience are our superpowers in this ever-changing digital landscape. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Challenges Faced by New Streami...In this episode of the Independent Creator podcast, I discuss the recent shutdown of the live-streaming platform LiveSpace and its impact on content creators. I reflect on the lack of communication...

Good morning! How's it going everybody? Welcome to another episode of the Independent Creator Podcast. It's been a while since we had a little holiday break, and now we're getting back into the thick of things with a brand new episode and a live recording with a studio audience. Tonight we're taking a little break from our normal routine of looking at different platforms and asking you viewers and listeners: what is it that you want from these live streaming platforms? Or let's just say platforms altogether. That's what we're going to be talking about tonight. You and what do you want from these platforms. The One-Way Street ProblemNormally when we think about platforms, streaming platforms or social media platforms, we usually look at those and say "what do you want to do for me? How are you gonna make me famous?" But here's the thing. A great majority of the time, the platforms don't really care about you. They really don't. The only thing they care about is if you as the content creator, the actual viewer, the account holder actually brings any kind of value to the platform. By that I mean ad revenue or bringing more eyeballs to the screen to the actual platform itself. When you think about that, this is not really a two-way street, is it? It's more like a one-way street. If you are receiving something for free, you are the product. And that's the case for a lot of different things like YouTube. Yeah, it's free and you get some great information. A lot of people learn a lot of great things from YouTube, but the fact of the matter is that you are the product. YouTube only cares about you watching ads or taking your information to sell to data brokers or advertising agencies. So it's kind of a one-way street where you give out pretty much everything, and in return you get not much of anything at all except for maybe some content that you watch. That's pretty much it. That's the only reason why you're there on YouTube: to look at some content, some videos. This also applies to Twitter. It's a social media network, yes. Are you getting anything from it? It's kind of hard to say because nowadays there's not much there to give, but you are looking at advertisements. So again, you are the product. The Decentralized Alternative: A Two-Way StreetLet's actually look at what we as content creators or even as viewers want from these platforms. What is it that we want to receive from these places? Most notably from the smaller places or the decentralized places. We'll look at Mastodon, PeerTube, and PixelFed. All these decentralized locations or social media networks have a different approach. It's more of what I would like to call a two-way street where we get something from it and then it receives something from us. By receiving something from us, I'm talking about involvement, the filtering of content that we are actually interested in. Let's take a look at Mastodon for instance. The basis is that there is no algorithm. There is no feed being shoved into your face saying "oh you like cats, okay so here's a whole bunch of cats" or "you like anime shows, here's a whole bunch of anime shows." No, it's more that you are taking control of what you want to see and you have control over the stuff that you follow, the accounts that you follow, the feeds that you follow. Your Mastodon feed is going to look completely different from mine, and that's no problem. What I am telling Mastodon what I want to see more of is Owncast blog posts, PeerTube content, stuff like that. Stuff that I'm interested in is what I am telling Mastodon. "Here, this is what I want you to direct your focus to. Tell me or show me the stuff from here, from these particular hashtags or from the people I follow." There is no algorithm, which is the great thing because you are the algorithm itself. You tell Mastodon what you are interested in and it returns the results that you told it that you're looking for. There is really nothing else to it. It's as simple as it can get really. In my personal opinion, Mastodon is truly a great service. It's a really great decentralized micro-blogging platform that fills the need that Twitter once did. Another great example is BlueSky. When you sign in, you tell it what you're interested in and then, as you being the algorithm, you only get the results that you tell it. And that's a great thing. The Algorithm ProblemLooking at decentralized platforms, there really isn't any other way to increase the volume of posts without an algorithm. We have dealt with algorithms for over 20 years with the likes of Twitter and Facebook. We are kind of moving away from being force-fed stuff that a platform thinks that we might be interested in. Yes, it might have been a few nuggets of gold here and there, but the majority of it was garbage. That's the unfortunate fact with an algorithm-based social media network: you really are force-fed a lot of stuff that you might not be interested in. It's on the fringes of what you're looking for. With places like Twitter and Facebook, you can't say "hey I want this from you" and have it respond back. It doesn't happen that way unfortunately. Same thing with YouTube. YouTube gives you what it believes that you are interested in because it looks at what videos you are watching, which ones you click on and then instantly click away from. It remembers everything you've been doing. With places like PeerTube, there isn't any kind of algorithm at all. With these decentralized platforms, you kind of have to give what I want from you. That's the gist of this episode. You have to think about what you are actively looking for. If you're continuing to be on places like YouTube and Twitter, Facebook, you really can't say "I want something more. Give me something more. I don't want this, I want this other thing." But you're not gonna get it. The Live Streaming Platform DilemmaThis also applies to live streaming services and platforms. Take Twitch, for example. A lot of people say that there is some discoverability. Yes there is, it's just not as robust as YouTube or other places. With Twitch, it gives you recommendations based on what you've been watching: the streams you've been watching, the genres or games you're interested in, the categories you've been watching. It kind of gives you a recommendation like "oh this category, these streamers in this category might be interesting for you." But it's really kind of hit and miss. Sometimes it can be good. Sometimes it gives you stuff or channels that you're already following as a recommendation. You're like "I'm already following these people. Why are you recommending me to watch their channels? I'm following them." I have to say with Twitch, they're trying to shoehorn you into looking at advertising. Everything comes down to advertising to an audience. It's unfortunately late-stage capitalism. That's what's gonna happen to most of these places after a couple years of this: shoving advertisements and more advertisements. If you want to watch this content, you have to be a subscriber. It just pushes away the viewership to a place that isn't where they want to be because they're tired of looking or watching advertisements. They want to watch the content that the content creators are making or the live streamers are making. They really don't care about the Doritos ads or the Amazon ads. They want to watch the content creators or live streamers and the content that they do. What's eventually gonna happen is that those audiences, those viewers, are going to leave to other places, especially if a creator or a live streamer is streaming to another place that has no ads or a limited number of ads. The Monetization ChallengeAs a content creator and live streamer, I know that having to re-engineer or relearn how to do a show, a run of show, is challenging. Having to do 45 minutes to 50 minutes of content and then take a break every hour kind of ruins the flow of the live stream, unless it's a podcast like this where maybe we'll do an hour of content, take a break, and then continue on for the next segment. I watch the streamer Flats every once in a while. He does a lot of Overwatch 2 stuff, and the amount of ads he runs is like two minutes of ads every 30 minutes or an hour and a half of ads every half hour. It's just constant. It ruins the flow of watching a stream. That's the thing we have to ask ourselves: what do we want from the platform? Do we want more advertisements like this? Or do we want to have our viewers be able to have a better viewing experience? For us to make this content, we do have to ask for something in return, something more of like a monetary value. For a lot of content creators, that is a very big ask. I know for myself, I really don't say "hey if you want to support me, I have a fourth wall. There's a link in the bottom." I really don't do that much, if at all. If you're watching any of my streams, I do have a bot that runs a timer that posts up "hey if you want no ads, there's turbo or subscribe." That's really my way of getting around it because, to put it truthfully, I feel like I'm trying to say "hey if you want more of this, give me your money." This is not something that comes naturally to me because I'm not a salesperson. I'm far from it. I'm more interested in doing the actual content and creating the content and getting the word out there about all this wonderful open-source alternative platform stuff. The Business RealityWe have to actually look at the platforms as a business. Even though a lot of them are exactly that, we have to have that mindset that platforms' number one thing is to make money. Let's take the Livespace platform as an example. They have implemented the Livespace Plus program where you can pay eight dollars a month and you can get ad-free viewing. You can get unlimited VOD storage. Your VODs aren't removed after 30 days. You can also do custom thumbnails and some other things as well. That to me is perfectly fine. With the caveat about custom thumbnails: I posted in our newsletter that you can get by going to indiecreator.space and signing up. Last week, Todd, the co-founder of Livespace, was asked a question from the live audience about whether custom thumbnails will become part of the free version and not locked behind a paygate. His response was that it has been in discussion and continues to be a discussion. So at this time, that particular perk is still locked behind a paywall. Unfortunately, prior to this, for a good month and a half, you could add a custom thumbnail, but they put it behind a paywall. Something that was free got moved behind a paywall. That's a really hard ask of the audience and your live streaming community because it's easy to get something from behind a paywall to move to free, but to go the opposite way, to the community it feels like something's being taken away. Which it is. The Amazon Prime ExampleThis reminds me of what happened with Amazon Prime. When you pay for Prime, especially at the per-year price, you don't expect anything to happen until the next renewal. You can see a change of price: "oh we're gonna bump it up a couple more dollars next year," and that's fine for the next renewal date. You can either make the choice to continue with the product or say bye-bye. But when they come in halfway through and say "oh yeah, if you want to get rid of ads, give us three more dollars," it's like changing the deal halfway through. The experience is much worse. I was watching The Expanse, and for almost a good week, the pre-roll for each episode was nothing but "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3" trailers. Every single episode. It's kind of like a hostage negotiation: "hey if you want the experience that you were paying for back, you gotta give us a little bit more cheddar and then we'll give you that experience back." When you pay per year, nothing should change until next year. That's how they went about it, and it was disgusting in my humble opinion. The Ad Experience ProblemThe issue I have with Twitch ads is during a live stream when the host is engaged in a conversation and answering my question, I can't hear the answer because of ads. Then I have to ask them to repeat themselves. I've had that happen to me many times. You get involved with whatever is going on in a stream and all of a sudden, ads. The only recourse you can do is either make a clip and go back to watch what you're missing, but then you still miss some stuff there. Twitch clips are maybe two minutes at most. The thing with Twitch and how they have implemented ads is that it's not good for ads in a live streaming environment unless the live streaming is directed or the run of show integrates ads. The experience for the viewer is gonna be subpar. As a viewer, you kind of feel like you're being rude when you have to ask them to repeat themselves, and you feel bad. The streamer is like "well I just said it, why should I say it again?" It's a rock and a hard place. Better AlternativesFrom my experience, YouTube has a better ad setup because within the live stream, the streamer has control of when ads are run. They're not set up like Twitch where every hour, here come ads whether you like it or not. It's like "you know what, after two hours of doing whatever I'm doing, I'm gonna take a break. Here are some ads, and if you're subscribed or you're a paid member of the channel, you don't get ads. Awesome, I'll be back." That's a great experience, and the creator has more control. Other places like Livespace don't really have ads that I know of. Kick will never have ads because a lot of companies don't want to touch Kick with a 10-foot pole. Owncast, which is a single-channel live streaming service that you have full control over, lets you do whatever you want. If you want to do an ad, hit a button. It's not gonna do much for you monetarily, but it's for you. I know from my own experience: if I know someone's coming in, I don't run ads. It's just the pre-rolls because I am a monetized Twitch streamer, so someone coming into my stream will get hit with 30-second pre-rolls. I tell people if you want an ad-free experience, I have options. I know I'm not supposed to do this on Twitch, but whatever: watch me on YouTube, watch me on my Owncast server which is completely ad-free, watch me on Livespace. I give them options if they want to watch my content without going through the ads. What We Should Ask ForYou have to ask yourself what you want from platforms. A lot of platforms do provide places where you can give suggestions. I know User Voice on Twitch, especially now after all the layoffs, doesn't really have many people involved these days. You can make your suggestion, but is it gonna come to fruition in 20 years? There are some places where you can make your voice known and say "hey I would like to see this come to fruition" or "I believe that this could be a great feature set for the platform." Don't demand: "oh you need to implement X, Y, and Z right now or I'm leaving," because they're gonna look at you and say "see ya" and then take your suggestion and put it in the circular file. You have to actually think smartly about what you are wanting from these platforms, not just as a viewer but as a content creator or a live streamer. What do you want to see out of these places that you go to? Really look at the different platforms. Do they provide you the benefits or the features that you're looking for? Think about it: if you want to stream on Twitch, does it provide you everything that you want, or are there some things missing? Are those missing things available on another platform? If they are, great. Try it out, use it. If it's not what you thought it was, that's okay. Experiment and try different things. That's the name of the game as a content creator, as a live streamer, and as a viewer: experimentation is the best thing that you can do. The majority of us content creators are doing this completely for free. We're pro bono. In fact, many of us are losing money doing this. The large production value shows that content creators are doing, we're taking the hit out of our own pocketbook. All we're doing is doing this for the love of creating content and making a community that our viewers can be involved in, where they can look at other viewers or other community members and have fun and talk to each other and learn from experiences or learn from resources given. It's just a whole different mindset. The best thing you could do is join the ToonTown Waffle community. I have a great community that is talking about different things within our Discord server, and we also have a Matrix server set up. We have forums, we got the newsletter that goes out every week called The Weekly Waffle. You can get all of this by going to indiecreator.space and signing up there. If you're listening to this podcast episode after the fact or watching the live or the replay on video, do give it a thumbs up and leave a comment. Let me know what you think. Thank you for coming out tonight, and I'll see you on the next episode of the Independent Creator Podcast. Until then, have a good night and later taters! The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | The One-Way Nature of Mainstrea...In this episode of the Independent Creator Podcast, I discuss what content creators and viewers want from live-streaming platforms. Highlighting the one-way nature of many platforms, where users ar...

Welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast. Tonight, we're diving into some topics that some might deem dark and mysterious. That's right, we're talking about AI. I know, I know. AI has pretty much been the topic of conversation everywhere you turn. You can't avoid hearing about it on websites, podcasts, and discussions across the internet. That's exactly why I'm bringing AI to you guys as well. So tonight, let's dig into why AI might be important for your workflow procedures. More importantly, let's talk about why you shouldn't be afraid of it because AI is not going to take your jobs. When used correctly, it can help you cut your podcast editing or video editing process in half. What usually takes you an hour could become 30 minutes or even 20 minutes because AI can handle a lot of the repetitive stuff that would normally bog you down. The Video Editing RevolutionThere are plenty of tools out there that help with video editing, and most of them use what's called text-based editing. Let me explain what I mean by that using Descript as an example. Descript is a powerful tool where you can record directly into the platform or upload your existing video podcast. What it does is analyze your file and automatically remove silent parts, ums, and filler words. Then you can edit your video like you're editing a Word document. It's actually pretty cool, and I've used it in the past. While it takes some thought in how to approach it, it definitely speeds up your workflow. Here's how it works: you have your video player with a timeline at the bottom and a transcript of your video on the left side. You can delete entire sections, and Descript will perform what we call in the business a "ripple delete." It removes the deleted portion and moves everything up, making your video shorter. You can export directly to YouTube or create video files for further editing in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, or similar programs. But here's where it gets interesting and, admittedly, a bit creepy. If you mess up or want to change something, you can type out what you want it to say and insert your digital AI voice. Yes, I can say that's on the edge of creepy town. The platform can learn your voice, your mannerisms, and how you speak by having you read through a script. It records this, sends it to Descript's servers, and processes it through AI to make it sound like you're speaking whatever you type. There are also free voice examples available, including some famous voice actors. I'm sure you've heard those faceless YouTube videos with that distinctive AI sound where the speech pattern goes, "And it's also going to be a very good time at the pilgrims." The tone and connotation don't really sound human-ish. I know I go that route too, but at least I'm human, last time I checked. Descript isn't the only option for text-based video editing. You can do similar work in the paid version of DaVinci Resolve. It's about 300 bucks, but it's a one-time payment, not a subscription like Adobe. Premiere Pro offers similar functionality for around $20-22 monthly, but that's subscription-based. Gaming and Live Streaming ApplicationsMany people in the gaming and live streaming space use services like CapCut or newer platforms that are still in development. There's River.com, which I believe is still on a waiting list and not fully available to the public yet. It uses AI to analyze your live stream videos and pull out clips it thinks would be interesting, like clutch game plays, headshots, or last-man-standing moments. This type of service has been around for years in the form of Athenascope. If you've been live streaming since before COVID times, Athenascope was the go-to AI clip generator. It did an excellent job going through hours of your live stream content. You'd tell it what game you were playing, say Overwatch, and it would know to look for victories, defeats, kills, deaths, and similar moments. It would create little snippets that you could use for TikTok, Twitter, or wherever you wanted to post them. Smartly, it would also take those clips and create two or three-minute montages with DMCA-free soundtracks. You could post these as "best clips of the week" content on your social media networks. Unfortunately, Athenascope disappeared for reasons I'm not sure about. One week everything was going great, then they posted a tweet saying they were closing shop. The next month, users had to scramble to download anything they wanted to save. There wasn't really anything at that level available for a couple of years until CapCut introduced AI features, and now we have River and other platforms that are building on what Athenascope originally offered. Podcast Production Made SimpleWhen it comes to podcasting, like what I'm doing here, AI can be incredibly helpful, but the workflow is a bit different. One of the best applications is using AI generators for transcripts, blog posts, newsletters, LinkedIn posts, chapter markers, and title ideas. This is where I think you can save yourself hours per episode instead of doing everything manually. Programs like Podium will take your audio file, run it through their AI system, and produce a transcript, episode summary, keyword listings for YouTube, and different show note options. It typically gives you three different versions based on what it thinks your episode was geared toward. For this episode, it might give me a casual style option, another that's friendly, and a third that's professional. You can choose which style fits your episode guide or description best. Podium also includes chapters and something called Podium GPT, where you can say, "Take this episode and write me a blog post describing it," and it'll do that for you. Then you can say, "Take this blog post and truncate it to less than 500 words," and you can edit the most relevant parts from there. Now, these services aren't cheap because they're using significant system resources to do all this work. Podium gives you at least three hours free to try it out, but if you want just three hours a month, you're looking at $14 monthly. That only works if you have very short episodes. I was using it on early bird pricing before they increased rates. I was paying about $30 a month for 10 hours, but now it's $47 per month for 10 hours, or $40 monthly if you pay yearly. There are alternatives like Cast Magic that work similarly but with different pricing structures. They charge by minutes: 300 minutes for $23 monthly, or 800 minutes for $100 monthly on their starter plan. I know what you're thinking: "Holy crap, that's expensive. I might as well do it myself." Yes, you can do it yourself for free, but you have to consider what it's actually costing you in time. The Time Value EquationLet's say you do a one-hour podcast like the Independent Creator, which typically runs 35 to 60 minutes. After editing and cleaning everything up, you want to create good chapters, figure out which sections work for chapter breaks, type out the transcript by listening, stopping, starting, and typing it all out. That's going to take hours. When you look at podcast production, the transcription, subtitles, chapters, chapter notes, keywords, and everything else for one episode could take you several hours. Or you can pay someone to do it, and they'll spend several hours on it too. Or you can use AI. When I was using Podium, I'd upload a one-hour podcast, and it would take a couple of minutes to upload, then 10 to 15 minutes for processing, depending on the episode length. At most, 30 minutes, and it would produce a complete transcription, various show note options, and chapters. So for 40 to 50 bucks a month, you can save hours per episode. I can see where my time is saved. While it processes for 30 minutes, I can start building up next week's episode, work on clips, or handle other tasks while it does the boring, tedious work. That's why I say AI is a tool. Use it smartly, but don't rely on it completely because it won't get everything correct. There will be spelling mistakes and hearing errors. In my case, when I say "Guilded," it types "gilded" (G-I-L-D-E-D) instead of the correct "Guilded" (G-U-I-L-D-E-D) for the company name. Sometimes it spells "OwnCast" correctly halfway through but starts misspelling it later, or vice versa. You have to be its editor. It's doing the hard work, but it will make mistakes. You still need the mindset that you'll have to review and edit to ensure it's working correctly. The good news is that it can learn from your edits and try to improve itself. Browser-Based SolutionsThere are also browser-based services that integrate AI workflow on the backend. One of these is Riverside. If you watched my last episode live or caught it later, you might have noticed something different: I used Riverside to record that particular episode. Riverside is a great service if you don't have the computer capability for live streaming and recording, and you don't want to purchase or upgrade your computer. You can use a browser-based service like Riverside FM for recording and live streaming. The nice thing about Riverside is that you can produce content for live streaming while also using your computer resources to create higher-quality recordings that eventually upload to your account. You can set up streaming using your laptop's camera and a $30 Fifine microphone plugged into USB. That's really all you need for a great podcast. Too many people get hung up thinking they need the latest and greatest equipment: a $2,500 camera setup with the correct lens, proper mounting, a $400 Shure SM7B plugged into a Rodecaster Pro 2. Just stop. Really, you don't need all that. You just need a camera (you don't even need one if you don't want video), and you can use your phone, laptop camera, or pick up a C920. They're cheap, less than a hundred bucks, sometimes less than 50 if you buy from Facebook Marketplace. You don't need the latest and greatest computer either because most of the processing and recording, especially with Riverside, happens on their servers. Going back to AI, Riverside does transcription for you, provides subtitle files, and will remove silent parts from your episode using AI. They also have AI for creating clips. It analyzes your episode, identifies segments about specific topics, and creates 30 or 60-second clips that you can edit and post on TikTok, Twitter, or wherever you'd like. Honestly, if someone asked me what to do if they don't have a great computer but want to start a podcast, I'd direct them to Riverside. I'm not paid or sponsored by them, but the pricing is affordable. The pro plan is $30 monthly and gives you 15 hours of separate audio and video tracks per month for recording on their website. If you record elsewhere and upload your videos, you get all the same AI transcription, subtitles, and editing features without affecting your time allocation. If you do an hour-long podcast weekly, you're only using four hours of your 15-hour allocation, giving you plenty of buffer for other projects using their AI system. Writing and Content CreationAI also provides great options for writing assistance. Magic AI (I'm not sure exactly how to pronounce it) does excellent work for writing, title ideas, and content generation. It's based on ChatGPT but adds their own features. I use it frequently for video ideas. I can say, "Give me 10 video ideas on Guilded," and include Guilded.gg so it looks at the website and provides relevant suggestions. The nice thing about Magic AI is that it incorporates personas. Instead of manually telling ChatGPT to "pretend you are a YouTube editor" or "pretend you are a copywriter," Magic AI has these built in. You can select from different profiles like YouTube professional, copywriter, or script writer, each putting a different spin on what it presents based on your prompt. You can create custom personas and upload files to feed the AI important context by uploading documents directly into the chat. This is similar to what you can do with paid ChatGPT. I know Leah LaPorte on Twitter wanted to learn a programming language called Lisp. He created a persona that would only look at books he uploaded and stay within that specific context without gathering information from elsewhere on the web. It only knew the information he provided, which prevented it from being "tainted" by random web content. Magic AI has similar pricing to other services. They recently updated their rates. The professional plan offers 80,000 words and 20 workspaces, which is typically what you'd want. Personal Plus provides 50,000 words for about $20 monthly. It also includes some image generation capabilities, similar to Midjourney or DALL-E, with different pricing tiers for agency, enterprise, and professional plus plans. Embracing AI as a Creative ToolDon't be swayed into thinking AI will replace content creators. I know recently, with Sora's release, Tyler Perry mentioned he was going to spend $800 million on studio improvements in Georgia, but after seeing what AI could do, he decided against it. That's kind of fear-mongering, in my opinion. Yes, AI can do many things, but it doesn't have the human touch that we can recognize. We can spot when a portrait has six fingers when we know the person doesn't have six fingers. Going into 2024 and beyond, AI will continue improving. Look at how much it's advanced in just the past five years. It's going to get better and better. We can use these tools to make our workflows faster while AI handles the boring, tedious stuff that would normally take us hours. We can work on setting up new episodes, writing scripts, or handling other creative tasks. You have to think about it this way: AI can do much of what we can do, but it's not necessarily better. It's just capable of doing it. We still need to review what it produces to ensure it meets our quality standards before we're proud to post it. Just recently, YouTube announced that anything you post using AI for image generation or video must be marked as AI-generated. There's a large part of YouTube's audience that has concerns about AI capabilities, and yes, there are legitimate things to be cautious about. But don't let that fear dictate how you interact with the world or create your content. I've seen some fascinating applications, like technology that can change movie dialogue from R-rated to PG-13 by replacing F-bombs with "freak" or "freakin'," or translate content into Japanese or Spanish while making the lips look like the actor is speaking the language correctly, not just dubbed over. Mr. Beast and other YouTubers used to create separate channels in Spanish or French, but they don't really need to anymore. AI can scrub through their videos and make it look like they're speaking Japanese, catering to audiences they'd normally need to outsource translation for. Sometimes human translation gets messed up or doesn't sound correct due to cultural differences in how words and phrases are used in different contexts. The Future of Content CreationWe have to learn to embrace AI because it's not going anywhere. It's here to stay. We can either let it take over and worry about Terminator scenarios, or we can embrace it as another tool in our toolbelt to make our lives easier. Remember when computers and the internet were supposed to make our lives so much easier that we'd be drinking mimosas on the beach while technology handled the hard work? Unfortunately, that didn't happen. Instead of doing less work, we decided we could do more work in the same amount of time. We kind of screwed ourselves in that aspect. Hopefully, people smarter than me will use AI as a tool to actually make our lives easier and offload some of the work we usually do. Just make sure to review what AI produces to ensure it's correct. I want to be transparent: I use AI in my workflows constantly for writing, figuring out ideas, titles, and descriptions. I can have it read my transcript and summarize it, add time codes for YouTube videos, or create keyword listings under 500 characters. Of course, you have to review it because AI will misspell things. I misspell things too. I'm not perfect, and neither is AI, but we can use it to make our lives easier. If anything from my rambling tonight, I want you to know that AI isn't to be feared. Just use it to help yourself create better content than you normally would without overwhelming yourself or burning out. Wrapping UpIf you enjoyed this episode, make sure you visit twotonewaffle.com. I have a weekly newsletter called the Weekly Waffle that covers different aspects of content creation, alternative platforms, and indie gaming, delivered straight to your inbox. I'd also love it if you'd write a review on Apple Podcasts. It can be anything you want, even a single word like "Apple" or "poop" with a poop emoji. I don't care. Just write something, please. Thanks for watching or listening to the Independent Creator Podcast, and I'll see you next time. Later taters. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | AI and Content Creation - Embra...Welcome to the Independent Creator Podcast. In this episode, Josh dives into a topic that's been on everyone's lips: Artificial Intelligence (AI). He demystifies AI, explaining how it can be an ass...

Welcome back to another episode of the Independent Creator Podcast. Tonight we're diving into a platform I've covered before but think deserves another look: Guilded. In my humble opinion, Guilded beats Discord in pretty much everything that matters. Let me walk you through why. What Exactly Is Guilded?If you haven't already guessed, Guilded is very similar to Discord. It's a chat app that provides channels and categories where people can talk amongst themselves within servers they've joined. But here's where it gets interesting: Guilded offers a lot of different options that are, in my opinion, much better than what Discord is offering. When you sign up at Guilded.gg, you can download the desktop app for whatever platform you're on. Right now I'm on Mac, but they've got Windows covered too. The nice thing is you don't even need to download anything. You can visit any servers you want via the web browser, which is pretty convenient. The Setup: What You Get Right Out of the GateLet me show you what I mean. I started up a Guilded server a couple days ago called the 2TonWaffle Community, got everything set up with groups, which I'll talk about in a bit. What you'll notice immediately is the main look when you visit any Guilded server. At the top, if the server owner has decided to create a server avatar, that'll be displayed prominently. There's also the banner surrounding it that you can upload or create yourself. This brings me to one of the biggest differences: Guilded gives you way more options as a server owner than you'd normally get in a Discord server. Here's the kicker: pretty much all the options, all the perks, everything you get within Guilded is completely free. You don't have to pay anything. There's no Guilded Nitro or anything like that. Everything is given to you right off the bat. You don't need to have a certain number of people in your server. You don't need to worry about activity levels or getting seven boosters to reach level two. It's very interesting how they've changed the script, saying "we give you everything you need to create a community, and you don't have to worry about the business side of things." Room Types: Where Guilded Really ShinesThis is where things get really interesting. Guilded gives you ten different channel types, and you don't have to use them all. You can stick with normal chat channels if that's your thing, but look at what's available: You've got your standard chat channels for conversations and discussions with threads. There are dedicated announcement channels and forums, which is a nice touch because we've seen over the past year how Discord has "miraculously decided to gift us" with these particular options. Well, Guilded has had these types of channels for years. Discord only recently decided, "Oh yeah, that looks cool, let's copy that." You also get streaming pages, voice channels, listing channels for to-do lists, documents, calendars (an actual built-in calendar that you don't need a third-party bot for), scheduling, and media channels. Groups: Better Organization Made SimpleGroups are fantastic because they provide a better way to organize things instead of having a long listing of categories that would require some serious scrolling if you have a lot going on in your server. Let's say you're running a gaming server and you have categories for Fortnite, Minecraft, and Overwatch. Normally, you'd have three different channels in each category, so that's nine channels people would have to scroll through, click out of, mute, or request access to with particular roles. With Guilded, you can create groups that keep everything much more organized and appealing. I've set up a podcast section where I have a media channel for Independent Creator content. I can upload content by simply copying and pasting a YouTube link into Guilded, and it automatically sets everything up. You get a place for comments, tags, reactions, and you can link directly to YouTube if you want. The Built-In Bot SituationThis is where Guilded really shows its value. They have built-in bots that you'd normally have to pay for elsewhere. You get a welcome bot, Twitch live notifications, YouTube new video notifications, and an XP bot for those who love getting levels and that dopamine hit of progression. Let me show you how easy the Twitch bot setup is. Guilded has what's called "flows," which work like "if this, then that" scenarios. The Twitch bot comes with flows already set up: when someone subscribes to your channel, follows, unfollows, or when you go live or offline, you get notifications in your chosen channel. Setting it up takes literally minutes. You can customize the wording however you want. For example, instead of the default "stream offline" message, you could change it to "check out the VOD later on my dudes!" You can send without notifications, as private messages, or however you prefer. The best part? You don't have to invite a bot to your server or pay for premium services. It's all right there, built into the platform. The Reality Check: Discord's AdvantageNow, I should clarify that Discord does provide a lot of great things. The biggest advantage Discord has is public mindshare. It's probably easier to get someone to join your Discord server than a Guilded server. That's just the nature of the beast when Discord has been around for almost eight or nine years while Guilded has been around for four to five. The problem is how some people perceive Guilded. Since Roblox acquired Guilded a couple years ago, people see it as just some plaything attached to Roblox. They don't take it seriously or even bother looking at it because they think it's garbage. People come into the Guilded official server and immediately dismiss it as a ripoff. For years since the acquisition, people have been saying, "Oh, it's just Roblox, it's absolute garbage, you shouldn't even bother, it's not gonna be around much longer, just go back to Discord." The thing is, people get set in their ways. They don't really think about alternatives other than what they've been used to. With Guilded, you have so many options available to you, and again, they're all free. I don't know why it's such a hard sell sometimes. The Bot Ecosystem ChallengeHere's where I need to be honest about Guilded's limitations. They recently released their public API about a year ago, which means bot developers can now create bots for Guilded. Unfortunately, the number of bot developers is still relatively low compared to Discord. This is partly because Discord has been around longer, so there's more established infrastructure. You might have a bot you use on Discord that you or your community can't live without. You could try setting up a flow bot to get comparable functionality within Guilded, but you'd have to put in more work. It's just not a one-to-one comparison. The bot developer ecosystem is tiny compared to Discord's, and we haven't seen much growth in recent months. In fact, a great developer who had a bot called Parrot decided not to continue development on their Guilded bot. They've gone into maintenance mode, which is unfortunate but understandable from a business perspective. Making the Move: Community ConsiderationsStarting a new community on Guilded is one thing, but bringing an established community from Discord to Guilded might become a complete roadblock. In the end, it's your community that has to make the decision. If you put it out there and say, "Hey, I'm interested in seeing if you guys want to move to Guilded because they offer us so much more for zero dollars," and your community flat-out refuses and says "Discord or death," well, your community has spoken. You're gonna stay on Discord. That's the case for almost 90% of communities out there. They have to make that choice, and when the community says no, you can't force them. If you do force them, they'll hate you and find someplace else, and your community dies. You can't force people to learn, download, or create new accounts on a completely different system. It's your community, you can't force them, and if you don't listen to your community, you're done as a community leader. The Partner ProgramsOne thing Guilded does well is their partner programs. While Discord has dropped their partner program (there's no way to become a Discord partner anymore), Guilded maintains both a partner level and something called the Guilded Gang. I'm part of the Guilded Gang, where I serve as a trusted ambassador. We help answer questions in the official Guilded server and try to maintain a positive outlook on the platform. We invite people to try it out, and if they don't like it, that's fine. We're not going to force anyone to stay. It's a great program that helps with community outreach, and there are people constantly asking about it. Sometimes we have a little fun with it, but it's all in good fun, and we direct them to the application if they're interested. My RecommendationDefinitely check out Guilded and give it a chance, especially if you're starting or wanting to start a community. What can go wrong? If no one joins after a couple months or up to a year, and you've tried different things, then pivot and try something new. If that doesn't help, try Discord. You might have better luck there. There's no magic formula that says if you follow steps one, two, and three but skip four, you'll have problems. Give it some time. It's a completely different animal for people who are in the Discord lifestyle, and they might immediately reject it because "it's just a ripoff." But that's intentional design to make the transition from Discord to Guilded easier for people who have been in the Discord life for quite a long time. It's not like we're going from Discord to Matrix, which would be a completely different system. You really can't get angry at people who outright dismiss it because they don't know any better. It's up to you as someone who appreciates what Guilded offers to say, "Hey, just give it a chance." If you love giving a big corporation ten dollars a month for features that you can find on another platform for free, that's on you. I can lead you to water, but I can't make you drink. For content creators looking for a platform that gives you professional-level features without the subscription fees, Guilded deserves serious consideration. The built-in functionality, unlimited emotes, better organization tools, and zero cost make it a compelling alternative that's worth exploring. Remember, whether you choose Discord, Guilded, or any other platform, what matters most is building a community that serves your audience and helps you grow as a creator. The platform is just a tool. The real magic happens in the connections you make and the value you provide to your community. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Revisiting GuildedIn this episode, I explore the features and advantages of Guilded, a chat app that offers a range of options for free. I compare Guilded with Discord and highlight the benefits of using Guilded, su...

Welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast. Tonight we're actually going to be taking a look at a merch shop membership monetization feature, store, page, whatever you want to call it, that you can basically monetize your content, your live stream to your heart's content. That's right, we're going to be talking about FourthWall tonight and let's actually get into it. What is FourthWall?Well, FourthWall is a store and merch store, a place that you can set up monetization for your live streaming space so that you can offer an alternative to instead of, especially on Twitch, especially now that Twitch has just announced that they're going to be raising the subscription pricing in many different countries. So, and it's a given that they're going to be also up, up, up in the price of subs for the US as well. So it is a good idea to move away from first party, especially if you're like, like I said, streaming to Twitch to a third party, which I would highly suggest, like that's what we're going to talk about is a service called FourthWall. Well, FourthWall takes care of everything that you can think about for monetization, your content. One of those is creating a website for you. Well, most of the time, which you would have to do in the past, you would have to go into like Ko-fi or you would have a Patreon or some other kind of service that you would have to sign up for and get started. The thing is though, is that most of your data and your content would only live in that particular platform. There was no really way to take it somewhere else. And your website, I'm using air quotes, really did not look any much different from other Patreon or Ko-fi sites that people will design. Now, FourthWall does give you the option to have nine different themes that you can choose from and you can customize those in many different ways. So you have like hundreds of combinations that you can use on your particular website that you want to use. Website Builder and CustomizationLike I said, we had our ultimate website builder. So like I said, you have nine different ones, different themes, but you don't have to use their themes. If you have the code and you made your own kind of site, you can use that as well within FourthWall. And the nice thing, it all integrates with a merch store. So I know a lot of content creators and live streamers love, you know, to offer a t-shirt with a logo, their logo on it, or if they had a custom design graphics designed, they can put that onto a shirt, coffee mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, mouse pads, hats, whatever you name it. And it's all print on demand. So you don't have to really say, "Oh, well, this is going to be a limited line. I'm going to have to order like a hundred shirts." No, all you do is set it up, just put your design wherever you're made onto wherever you want on the shirt and then sell that. And whenever someone visits your site says, "Oh, I like that shirt. I'm going to purchase it." They put it in a cart, go through the process of buying it. And then FourthWall takes that order, sends it off to the print on demand. And then as the name and title, it's print on demand. Link Management and Platform IntegrationYou also got your homepage for your links. So a lot of people like to use Linktree. Linktree is a great service, but it's one of the things where it's not customizable unless you want to pay the extra per month to get a custom domain or have something customized for it. So here on FourthWall, you can have your custom domain. So for me, I have shop.twotonwaffle.com goes to my store. And right there, just right there at the header, just below the header is all my links that I have set up ready to go for when people visit the shop, they'll be able to see it. Now, for other things, I know we talked about just recently how Lifespace has introduced a pages feature, which takes the basis of like Linktree, but if for your Lifespace account. So whatever you have put into your Lifespace account shows up on this page and it's completely free. It's as long as you have a Lifespace account, you got one. So I think what you have to see is that FourthWall is kind of geared more for a Twitch audience and streamers. That's not to say that it's only dedicated to just people who stream on Twitch. We see that with Lifespace, with the direct integration with your FourthWall shop into your page, that it shows up as a tab and also into the Lifespace. Your Lifespace pages, as well as links to your shop, like your products. And it's all right there, just below like your Discord, Twitter, you know, the rest. Platform Compatibility and FeaturesSo there is options that you're not stuck to just Twitch to use a service like FourthWall. You can use it on Lifespace. You can use it on Omcast. You can use it on YouTube, TikTok. As we see here, it has e-commerce integrations to TikTok, Twitch, Gifting, YouTube, Merch Shelf. You can do thank you notes. So if somebody buys something from you or does a giveaway through your shop, you have an option in your dashboard to send a thank you notice, a post, or you can also do a video as well to say, "Hey, thank you for buying the t-shirt. Awesome." And ideas are just off the wall of what you can provide to your community, your customers, and thanking them for buying your stuff or buying a membership. We'll get into that a little bit. But you can also set up promo codes. You can do giveaways, which is a great thing. I would love to see that integration come into Lifespace as well. You can do donations to your favorite creator through FourthWall. You have stream alerts and Instagram checkout. So there's a lot of connections to a lot of social networking that is highly, highly useful. Product Catalog and Merchandise OptionsNow, they have on here that you can do, especially for merch. For merch, you can use their products, and they have a lot of products that you can choose from. Like I said, there's hats, t-shirts, hoodies, ugly Christmas sweaters, mouse pad stickers, and a lot of other things that you can choose. You think of it, they pretty much have it. And you can design your merch through their pretty much, their easy to use merch builder. Think of it like a Wysiwyg kind of editor. But you can also use FourthWall if you have your own website, and you are a maker and you create artwork or custom crocheted items or wood carvings or something. You can use FourthWall to sell those handcrafted items that you have locally through FourthWall to your customer base, your community, your viewers, and they can purchase. You can also use FourthWall to sell your own products. I have a phone case that I custom make that is all designed and be perfect for you to purchase for your iPhone or your Android device. And you can also sell digital products. So let's say I actually, I did do this. I had another shop through FourthWall.com. And I had a overlay pack that you can use for Ecamm. Of course, I set it for free because I was just testing things out. But you can do digital goods, like MP3s, PDFs, zip files, and many different file types as well. You can sell that through your shop. So you're not just you have 40 products that you can slap your logo on and that's it. You can't do anything else. No, you're pretty much wide open doing a lot of different things that you can sell on your store. Pricing and Business ModelOf course, easily customize your design. We talked about a little bit. You can use custom domains. So like I mentioned before, I have my shop is shop.twotonwaffle.com. And it takes you straight to my store. And as you can see here from different examples, you have different customizations that you can make your store yours. It's not going to have the same look as 100 other people, or 1000 other people. It's going to be like small variations here and there. You can customize it to make it your own brand and fit your own personality pretty much. So they got it's free to use. There's no monthly fees, there's no upfront cost. They only make money when you do so there is a little bit of a I believe you get like 85% of the profits. Let's take a look here. Of course, you know, it says pricing for creators, it's free. And there's like I said, no monthly fee, no upfront cost. So they take 3% on digital products, 0% on physical products, which is great. The memberships, we'll get into that a little bit, is you can you they take 5% of the membership. So you get 95% of the subs that come through of your community and want to sub to you through your fourth wall shop. So they only take 5%. You get unique tools to the light engage your community 24/7 customer support, quick reliable payouts. You can do accept donations with no fees. You get a lot of analytics. So with also ownership of your data fourth wall, you are the owner of your data and brand, you know, they'll never send marketing to your supporters or sell your information, which is pretty much pretty good. Extensive Product CatalogSo let's take a look at the product catalog. I'm sure a lot of people are very interested. And let's put some stuff on some stuff, but my logo on some stuff. So of course, here we got you know, your tie dye or not tie dye, but garment dyed heavyweight t shirts, and many different colors. It's from 1495. Of course, you can bump the price up to get some more profit for yourself. You don't have to sell it at 1495. You also get a unisex premium hoodie. You get trucker hats, kiss cut holographic sticker sheets, a desk mat. And that's the what would you like to create as like the top. It's pretty much like the feature what a lot of people do or use. You got knitted v neck vest, or cardigan without pockets, sweaters, and relaxed fit classic fits, t shirts, joggers, hats. These are the best sellers so you can the beanies. You got coffee mugs, picture frames. So like I said, whatever you think about is pretty much that's what they have available. Wall calendars. You got see like in a wellness like a duffel bag, visors, sports bras, yoga leggings, shorts. And they also have nice thing it's the all over the all over print yoga or all over prints, which is pretty cool you got like if you have a design that is a repeating pattern that you've had commission or you designed yourself. You can use that and on that as well for the all over prints. Yeah, mouse pads, joggers, you get tie dye hoodies, desk mats, eco friendly essentials. Yeah, bags, tote bags. Now, I do have to say, a lot of this stuff. There are no minimums, so you don't have to worry about it. But they do offer other things as well like lapel pens. These. Yeah, there are minimum on the lapel pens like you have to have at least 300 orders or 300 ordered before it's printed, which is a great thing to think about and say, we have this, this pen design that we want to it's a limited limited edition. It's only going to be available for the next month. To have the design, we need at least 300 orders or three yet or pre orders for 300. And then once you get the 300, and then anything over it's great. So you kind of like got to think about like, oh, that'd be a great thing to do is, or like the plushies plushies are depending on which one like the custom this custom plushy is a minimum of 300. So if you have someone that has designed and you commissioned a someone to make you a plushy fourth wall can do it for you, it's just you know you just have to have at least 300 orders or 500 for the squish plush, or the custom plushy with small accessory. Again, that's 300. So they offer a lot of stuff I know a lot of streamers and content creators love you know to have a plushy I would like to have one to like a waffle one. That'd be great. But not at this time. So yeah, like the product catalog is very extensive, there is a lot available. Let's, let's take a look at hats you have all different types of hats. This is one of the hats that you can get. This is which one is this. I think this was the vintage dad hat. I'm showing up one of my, my hats with my logo on it on the front. It's embroidered. And they also do embroidery. So that's, it's just not screen printing it's also you can do embroidery, which is a great thing because opens up even more options that are available to your, your community. Membership Features: The Game ChangerNow, let's actually move away from March because March. Everyone can do March. That's great. And this is this is a great feature that they provide. But let's actually take a look at memberships, so I'm going to have to go into mine. So you can also set up a what's called a third party. So instead of people subscribing to you through like YouTube or Twitch or LiveSpace or anything like that, you can offer, hey, subscribe to me on my fourth wall account, just go to shop.twotonewaffle.com and you can set up a tiered system that is perfect for your community instead of you know, the 499 sub tier one sub on Twitch. Here you can also, let's see where perks and tiers right. So right now I have a 499 per month, that I can, which is also another great thing here let me let me explain is you can have integrations with Discord. So, let's say someone goes to my shop. And once and joins up on the membership pays five to $5 per month, they get access right into my Discord that I have a category that is just for paid members or I call VIP members. So it's automatically taken care of, you don't have to keep a spreadsheet of who's paid for that month who is no longer, I was about to say no longer viable but no longer paying. And you don't have to keep track of it, it's fourth wall does all that for you, you don't have to worry about keeping a spreadsheet going. And it's integrated in with Discord. Let's actually create a new tier here. And let's see, you can also do a one time discount for new members. So, for first time members, let's do like a 30% 30% discount. And we're going to do for like time limited so starts and ends for the next for the next two weeks, you can have this 30% discount for first time members that join up. Now, let's actually I know $200 Yeah, but let's go ahead add tier I have to title it test. And let's take off the time. So I have this 200 per month, let's go ahead add a perk. It's a custom perk, I can do a Discord role, I can do members only discount. So if you become a membership member within my community, you get like 20% off all merch store items. You can also do members only products that are available to the members, you can do a private RSS feed. So if I wanted to do this podcast, or something else that is only available to people that are a member through my fourth wall account, then they'll get access to that feed. So in the curse, custom perk is you can do whatever you want, like supporter, let me put a title there. And you can also do a supporter that different this thing, that's what is included, I'm getting ahead of myself, you can have like tier one, it offers two items or two different perks. Tier two offers everything that you get in tier one, plus, you can do two more perks that added bonus tier three, so on and so forth. Membership Strategy ExamplesSo you can see that there is a lot of things that you can tie into it just right off the bat, especially if you have a lot of merch items, say like if you have a lot of limited time merch that Oh, if you become a member, you get an extra 20% off of the merch line. Okay, great. So I'm paying $5 a month, and I get $20 off my merch products or my product purchases. Great. That's, that's double bonus for me. And I'm also in their private discord. Great. So there's a lot of things that you can do. So they also have a couple ideas. So let's take a look at five membership strategies from fourth wall creators. So you can do merch clubs. Like this one person, Miss Megzi does a like a gun squad. So if we can look into it, but so they do they do different tiers, they got like a $5 per month of 15 per month, and a $30 per month. So for $5, you get a discord special role channels and events, and members only goon squad products, which you can you can also provide, you know, handcrafted like, I had like an idea of is one signs up as a sign signs up for a particular tier. Send out a postcard, thank you get like a personal message and stuff like that. But of course, that'd be like on like a 20 or $30 tier. Because you know, price of sending stuff to the mail gets pretty high. But it's a good idea that not many, not many people do. You also get discounts, early access and exclusive merch drops the 5% discount. So unlike their 15 is pretty much the same, but they get a 10% discount. 30 is you get a 15%. Yeah, but sweet, simple and digital have a digital product your community loves give them a simple option unlock even more access, stay up to date on the latest and show their appreciation for what you do. Patrick Sterling, a great content creator. If you are looking to find more information about DaVinci Resolve, he does a lot of stuff with DaVinci Resolve. And of course, he has here is a $5 per month. Support the channel on an ongoing basis $100 worth of DaVinci Resolve products and Discord premium access. Manuel Gardner Fernandez is a $10 per month you get private member feed, unlimited tabs more perks coming soon. They are a musician and content creator with a thriving creative community offers digital products in the form of unlimited guitar tabs to members, adding value and accessible price without stretching his bandwidth. So as you can see, you can just go through and get some ideas. Say, Oh, this would be perfect. I can. I would love to do that. Like this one. It's like a ASMR baby or $11 a month, a one non ASMR vlog a month, three videos a month, three audios a month, three members only live stream one archive Patreon, a behind the scenes post and 10% merch discount. Sticker clubs, which is great because if you do like 250, you get a monthly gift giveaway, entry junk box updates. I don't know what that is, but it sounds pretty interesting to me. Monthly newsletter products. See what's coming soon behind the shifty sheens. So I would suggest if you're really interested of monetizing your, your, your content, definitely, I would say, give fourth wall a look and go through these, these ideas and just write down, Oh, this would be interesting. What can I do? Or what can I provide my community to, for them to want to subscribe to me on a membership tier through fourth wall. Giveaways and Gifting FeaturesNow, excuse me. The giveaways is another great idea that they do. Let me see. Go through to Twitch because that is integrated mostly through Twitch. Let's see. Yeah. Oversized feet, oversized t-shirt features. So you can do a gifting and sub discounts. So you can do live merchant memberships gifting. So you can let you can, you can do it, or you can let your viewers do it as well. So if you're, if you're running a stream on Twitch, one of your viewers can go to your shop, order product and have it gifted to a member of somebody in your chat, which is great. And that person will get a link to your shop to claim the free item. So, and you can also do that as a giveaway too. It says, give away for three subs on my fourth wall shop says enter type in exclamation point, enter and do it that way. And your viewers can do the same thing is you, you're not having to do it all the time. You can rely on a, on the generosity of your viewers to give your give back to the community as well. You also get stream alerts. You had to set it up, set that up through stream labs or stream elements. They at this time don't currently have a service that is from fourth wall for alerts. I believe they probably going to be working on that, but at this time they have other things or they're wanting to get taken care of first. So you got a lot of people that are Twitch centric that has just basically just for, you know, the merch, the giveaways, the gifting, sub gifting, the merch gifting and, and stuff like that. That's all through Twitch. I would love to see something come to live space where you can have that capability as well. I know with live space opening up their API, more than likely we might see something like that come down the line. Hopefully this year I have not seen it requested on the discord. I might just go ahead and put that. It's like a, Hey suggestion, since the API is open, let's get some fourth wall integration, more integration to make life space a little bit more. And that does, that does not sound good. More better. And it's just, you know, get, get to going, make sure it's going good. I don't know where I was going with that, but yeah, I'm sticking to it. My Personal Store SetupSo you can see that there is a lot that is available for a content creator through, you know, fourth wall. So let me go ahead, open up my shop here. So this is, I, it's not fully customized. I made some changes here and there, but you know, it's not what you would see from people who have a team that can do this stuff for them. I don't have a team. So I do this all myself. So here you have know that the top of heritage is one theme that you can use. You have your, your social links here, right? Just underneath the header. You also have members only postings that is only available to members, to your members. You have recent videos. So right now this live stream is showing up there. So you can also have it where it shows your latest YouTube videos, latest Instagram reels, and Tik TOK shorts. If you want to have all three, one or two, whatever you want. You have your become a member, you have your, your tier levels here, then your shop, your, your merch store. So I have a couple of different ones I set up real quick just to have, it's not really placeholders, but you know, it's there. You can also do make a donation. It's a one-time donation. You can put your name, a message, the amount you do a custom amount. And then when you send it, if I was on the, my other profile, it would come up with a alert and chat or a TTS. You can have it read. So it's great. You can have that, that done as well. So there is a lot of things that you can do with your, with your short, short, your store. I know earlier that the little technical difficulties is totally threw me for a loop. Now I was just on a roll. I was going through all of a sudden, Oh, you're on mute. Great. Number one issue that all affects all streamers and content creators can't have a stream without something going wrong. Analytics and Business IntelligenceSo let's take a look at our analytics. Shall we? So you can see if your, your profit margins, the line goes up, right? So you have your total members that you have members change, which means churn rate. So you have people coming in as new members and the ones that are dropping off, they're not renewing their subs. I can do how many orders have been placed through average order value. So if you get like people are buying like a $22 t-shirts, but not the $30 limited time one or the highly customizable, highly customized one, then you may want to start changing out your, your product plans, whatever it is in the industry sales by country unit sold top tiers. So you have, like I said, you have a lot of analytics that you can use. Platform IntegrationsConnections or integrations with outside parties. So of course you have your YouTube product shelf. If you're a part of the YouTube partner program, you have the capability to have just underneath the player. Are you probably seeing it on many creators or many different channels products that are being sold like t-shirts, whatever ads, mugs, fourth wall does provide you that option to if you're in the YouTube partner program to have your shelf. So that's another option. That's another avenue to advertise your store to people who are watching your videos or your live streams and on YouTube. Same thing for Tik TOK. You have Twitch gifting. And so as you allow your viewers to give products and memberships for chat when you're live. And there's also a little indication on your website that tells people who come to your site that you're live on Twitch, and they can click on that and it gets taken to your Twitch channel. You also have a stream alert stream elements alerts. I had that connected stream labs. We don't talk about stream labs. You have your membership discounts for Twitch subs. So let's say somebody subs to your Twitch channel. You can offer them a discount on your fourth wall membership or whatever. So, you know, for whatever reason, they want to pay twice. Okay. Because you know what, they want to get those sweet emotes in Twitch, but they still want, you know, the fourth wall stuff that you offer. You got members only discord server. So let's say you have your discord server is completely locked down. Well, yeah, you can do that too. You can have it. Well, if you join up my membership, you get access to our community only discord server, which is a great option. Instead of having it open to the public, you can provide a better product offering to your membership tiers. You have highlight Tik TOK videos on your homepage and share thank you notes to your Tik TOK audience or account. You have same thing for Instagram feed. Clavio. It's a account to sync support emails and send custom emails. Beehive, especially for, I had this set up because I was going to go through Beehive, but I kind of went back on that since I'm going, everything is through ghost. The website blogs and newsletter is all going through my ghost account on two ton waffle.com. Lay low is a, an announcement, promote your drops directly to your supporters. Ship station is managing the shipping experience of products you're responsible for, for fulfilling. That's a tough one. So you have a lot of integrations with different other companies that you can make your business a lot better, smoother, and easier for your audience. Product Creation ProcessAnd going through, let's take a look at promotions really. So right now I have like a, it's the waffle club. It's a promo code. So if you put in waffle code or waffle club as a promo for a merch, you do get a 10% discount. I do have a giveaway. Do not have a giveaway link. So giveaway links, let recipients easily redeem free products from your store. Okay. So that's what you can do as well. You have your products here that you can. So if we want to create a new product, we'll design something new. Choose a t-shirt. Yeah, we'll do this one. So you can have, you know, and of course it's, it keeps up to date. So like this one, we saw that the maroon color is out of stock and this one's partially out of stock. So a lot of these are out of stock, but you know, fourth wall does keep it up to date with their print on demand partners. I think they go through printful. I want to say, I believe that's their, their partner. So you can do a customized, customize the back front inside label left sleeve, right sleeve. And of course, you know, the more that you have on the product is going to increase the price of the product. So let's go ahead design now. And it gives you a easy to use product designer. So I have a couple of images here. I got my sandwich pirate icon or my emote. You just click on it and automatically puts it in here. Then you can change the position, the sizing. And let's also take a look at the preview. What it might look like. I think knowing it gives it a little preview like that. It's all rump crumpled up or you have a model wearing your shirt, the sandwich pirate pirate sandwich. So it gives you an idea what the, your, your design would look like on an actual physical product. And then, so we'll go back to design. You can upload images. You can also do different colors that you want. So we want, okay, so we got black is, is already selected. We can do a brown shirt and then you over here on your right, you can change the look or the color. So you can see what your design looks like on that color. You can do a left sleeve design. So let's go back to artwork and I want to put my logo on the left sleeve. Okay. And let's take a look at a preview. So what it does, it builds the preview. As you can see, since I put that design or that, that extra spot, it was 11 now it's 1399. So you have to keep that in mind. The more stuff that you put on a product, the more expensive it'll be. So had the model wearing, but of course you don't really get a good idea of what it actually looks like, but it does give you a representation of what the product, the final product will look like, which would be pretty cool. So I'm just like, Oh, let's go with that. Go next. So they're generating the product page. And here is where you'd be able to title it, give it a description, a selling price. So right now, excuse me, is it wants to sell this t-shirt for $24, which, okay, it's not a bad price and I'll make $10 per sale. That's pretty freaking awesome. I'll get $10 per shirt, but let's just say, let's do, let's do a $15. Of course it says you're selling price must be at least 1699 or higher. Okay. We'll do 16 or overdue at 1699 or let's do, since it's gonna freak out, there's $17. I'll make $3 per sale. That's a good cheap shirt. You know, you don't want to go too low because people perceive it as, you know, it's cheap means it's garbage. No, not the case at all. And then you can do a little zoom in effect by hovering over the picture. And this is like the last step before you hit publish. So you can, like I said, you can also generate AI, AI is in everything. So you can make AI do the work for you. So that's why I hit the button right now. So it's, I don't know why it's, it gave the product name as a pirate taco adventure t-shirt. That's not a taco as a sandwich, but it's AI it's okay. And it gives you a description as embark on a whimsical journey with our Bella canvas, super soft t-shirt featuring a playful cartoon of a pirate hat on a taco. This light lightweight, comfortable shirt is perfect for those seeking a blend of humor and fashion set sail with two ton waffles, unique creation, which yeah. Okay. It didn't get it right out of the bat, but you can just change it from instead of taco pirate sandwich. So now it's a pirate sandwich shirt and I might actually put that up there, but I don't, I don't know. I'll think about it, but it gives you an idea of course it tells you it's made to order orders arrive within five to 11 days of being placed and supporters pay the cost of shipping based on the weight of their order during checkout. So the customer pays the shipping, which is perfect because you don't have to deal with shipping costs, estimation estimates, taxes is all done automatically. And you're pretty much clear to go. You're you're good. You don't have to do anything else. So creating products are actually really, really easy to do. Final Thoughts and RecommendationSo let's go ahead, get out of here. Not set that up. I mean, it's a good idea to do a pirate sandwich pirate, but yeah, that's, that is pretty much it for fourth wall. It offers you a lot of things that you can offer your, your community. You can do memberships, you can do merch, you can do all sorts of stuff, donations, a webpage for your content as a content creator. If you don't want to create a website somewhere else, you can do it all through fourth wall completely, completely for free. So again, I highly suggest checking out fourth wall for yourself. If you're, if what you've seen right now is great and you think you can make a go of it. Awesome. I will have a link, a like a, a, it's not really, it's not an affiliate. It is affiliate link. So it's a referral link. So I'll have a link in the description that if I, if you refer up to what it is, refer up to three of your friends to fourth wall, you each get $10 once they made three or more sales, which is great because you get, you get free money, which is, which is pretty freaking awesome. Their app as well is great. It gives you pretty much what you see here, but on your phone or your, your mobile device, and there's so much you can do with it. I myself use it. I love it. And I have set up a couple of things as you saw that is available. So if you want to join up the shop link is in description, the referral code there or referral link as well, but that is going to be it for tonight's episode. Do be sure to subscribe on whatever podcast player of your choice. It's available on Apple podcasts, Spotify, pocket casts, and many different places. YouTube, be sure to join our community at two-ton waffle.com. We'd love to see your, your smiling faces there. Even though I won't be able to see your faces, but I know you're smiling there. And thank you for joining me on this adventure of the independent creator podcast. And I'll see you next time. Have a good night, everybody. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Elevating Your Creative Brand w...Ever felt like the digital tides are changing for content creators? Get ready to navigate the vast ocean of possibilities with FourthWall, your new beacon of monetization! Our latest episode is a t...

Hello, welcome to another episode of the independent creator. Tonight we're going to take a little bit of a break from looking at different projects, software, or platforms. Instead, we're going to examine the hard lessons learned from trying to make a community around whatever project you're working on. This is also a bit of self-reflection for myself, because I know many people out there are probably dealing with the same issues and trying to figure out what to do and how to get past these roadblocks. One of the things that many creators, community managers, and creators of all sizes struggle with is trying to get a community to grow around your project or whatever you are trying to do. For myself, I'm trying to get a community growing around the independent creator space for people who are actually interested in alternative platforms like LiveSpace, OwnCast, SharePlay, places that are not Discord or Guilded. I'm also trying to build out websites and forums or community software. Getting a community to grow on any of these particular avenues is probably one of the hardest things that anybody can do really. You pretty much have to believe in what you're trying to build yourself, and you're trying to convey that to other people to see what you are wanting to build. You're trying to get them into your community and have some kind of faith that they can see this working out. The Reality of Self-PromotionOne of the hard lessons I've learned so far is that no matter how much you think you're doing, it's not enough really. I can say that I am really, really poor at doing any kind of self-promotion. It's just not in my personality. I'm really not the type to go out there and say, "Hey, you got to come to this place. If you want to do this, you really need to do this." The problem is, as I know with a lot of you out there as well, you find yourself spread very thin trying to do all of the things. You're trying to be a jack of all trades, but master of none really. That's one of the guiding factors of why I wanted to do this episode. I want to bring to light that yeah, I know I suck at a lot of things, and you're probably thinking the same way. You're not alone. There's many of us that are just flying by the seat of our pants and trying to figure out what the hell to do. There really isn't any kind of playbook that one can go to a store and pick up at Barnes and Noble that says if you follow steps one, two, three, you'll receive success within a month. There's no way that anything like that is going to happen at all. The Problem with Generic AdviceI know a lot of people on YouTube constantly harp on the fact that if you just post on TikTok or if you do this on Twitter, you'll see success in no time. The problem is that yes, a large number of people do that and have received some success, but not everyone will see the same success by following those procedures. I think it's kind of disingenuous for people who are YouTube creators or stream coaches and content creator coaches to be putting out this information. I don't want to say anything negative about them because I believe their heart is in the right place, but I think their actions are not in the correct place for a majority of people. I've tried TikTok many times. I've tried different ways of going about it, posting videos every other day. I've tried it with a couple of videos, with basically small clips of previous episodes or shows or streams I've done. I got some movement on that, but TikTok is kind of like a hellscape. I saw a post on Blue Sky earlier today where someone posted a TikTok and only got like six views, while others were getting like a couple hundred or a thousand. This is crazy. This person puts so much great content into it, but they're going to get much less viewership while other people are putting out copies upon copies of other people's content and getting millions of views. Setting Realistic ExpectationsYou have to put in your mindset that no matter how much hard work and dedication you put into a piece of content, you kind of have to expect that it is going to fall flat. Set that bar pretty low. If it goes above it, hey, that's great, but set your expectations low so you don't have that feeling of failure. I know a lot of people say don't look at the numbers, but I want to say that in itself is probably not the best advice because you want to understand what the numbers are. If you're putting content out there and it's getting millions of views, you want to understand why this is working. Let's capitalize on it. Try to make some small changes or keep working on creating the secret sauce or whatever you did to capture that lightning in a bottle. When numbers start falling, many people are going to go into freak out mode when they start seeing one, two, three videos or streams where the numbers start not getting as high as the previous one. That's why I think they say don't look at the numbers. Yes, I want to say don't look at the numbers, but try to understand why what you're putting out is not working. You have to understand that your numbers will start to fall at the tail end of whatever you're putting out there. Don't expect to constantly have numbers beating previous numbers and those numbers beating previous numbers. That's not going to happen. It's not going to happen forever. You will have dips and valleys, and you just have to learn to not see yourself as a failure if you start seeing dips. It's just the nature of the beast with content creation. Embrace Experimentation as a New CreatorThe hard lessons that all of us really have to take into ourselves is to put out the best content that you really can and work on trying different things here and there. Especially as a new creator, because that is the best part of being a new creator: experimenting, trying things that you might enjoy doing or editing styles that you might enjoy playing around with. If you started playing around with DaVinci Resolve, that's great. Try Premiere Pro for a week or whatever the trial is. See if you like that better. Not everyone is going to have the same flavors and tastes that you have. You might be a wizard at DaVinci Resolve and think editing is the best thing ever, while somebody else is going to see that and think, "What the hell are you doing? This is not how you edit video." They might prefer Adobe Premiere or Figma or any of the multitude of different editing software. You just got to have that mentality that okay, this is what's working for me. It's not going to work for you. It's not going to work for everybody else. And that's a great thing to have because as content creators, we have to juggle so many different things that it's kind of ridiculous really. Give Things Time to WorkA hard truth is to figure out what you want to do. If you like to do something, let's say somebody who likes playing Baldur's Gate 3 and they're good at it and they like to help teach or show people different builds or different ways to go about it, try that for a couple months. A lot of people try new things, but what I see is that they only give themselves a week, maybe two at the most. You can't really base what's going to work or what's not going to work off of two weeks of experience, especially if you're doing maybe three days a week. Six live streams or six experiences is not really going to decide your fate for the next six months. I know some people back in last year tried streaming on YouTube. Don't get me wrong, streaming on YouTube is a completely different animal to streaming on Twitch or LiveSpace or SharePlay. But they gave themselves two to three experiences to stream on YouTube and then said, "Oh, it's not for me." It's like, well yeah, because you never really gave it a chance. You didn't experience everything that you go through. YouTube is a completely different animal. There are ways of going about it and different things that you have to do, thumbnails and titles. It's a different world really. But they just said, "Nope, it's not for me. I'm going back to Twitch." Avoiding the Wheel of PainThat's why I don't like the term "grinding" with content creation. When people say "I'm grinding on Twitch" or "I'm grinding on such and such platform," I envision them stuck on a wheel of pain, going around in circles until they break you. You're not really learning anything. All you're learning is to go around in circles painfully. You're not trying different things. Recently there was someone who was touted as having streamed to zero people for years and then all of a sudden found success. On Twitch, if you're streaming to zero people, you're not doing something right because all you got to do is have your Twitch streamer dashboard open and automatically you're at one viewer. So you're already above the zero viewers. But they touted this as a great thing because he persisted on that wheel of pain for so long. What did they learn? Just to keep going. If you're going that hard for zero viewers for so long, you have to change something. Something is not working. After six months at the latest, if nothing's changed, change because you're not learning anything new or profound about you or your streaming career. You're just on that wheel of pain going around in circles, bleeding. With content creation, you have to constantly be doing stuff, trying new things and learning. It's not doing the same thing over and over again, because that's the definition of insanity: to keep doing the same thing over and over but expect different results. Finding Success in Helping OthersFor a long time doing this, I was thinking to myself that I'm not helping anybody really with this alternative platform content, but there have been these little nuggets here and there. People leave comments on YouTube videos or I talk to people outside the sphere of what I do. Even if I can reach one person, I'm doing something that I know I enjoy doing and it's actually helping other people. For example, there's Corey on LiveSpace who also does videos, painting, artwork and stuff like that. He wasn't enjoying his streaming experience with Twitch and was trying to find different things. He didn't want to go to Kick because of the reputation that Kick has. I saw him post on Mastodon about looking for alternatives, so I suggested he try OwnCast, something that he can quickly spin up that's self-hosted and he can control from the very beginning. He says himself that he's not very technically inclined, which a lot of people are not. There are a lot of things I'm not technically inclined in either. The information about how I tried to explain OwnCast didn't click in a way that made sense for him. It's no fault of mine, it's no fault of Corey's. It's just that the way I tried to convey the information didn't make sense for his particular use case. But what did make sense is that he found out about LiveSpace through my episodes and videos. One thing led to another and he found his new home. I believe he enjoys the live streaming experience on LiveSpace much more than he did elsewhere. Even though the OwnCast thing didn't work out, it's not going to work out for everybody. And that's what I try to emphasize a lot: this thing is out there but it may not be for everybody. Avoiding Unhelpful ComparisonsSomething I have to get out of my own mind is to stop comparing myself to somebody else or another community. Stop comparing what community you're trying to build to another community that is more successful than yours. You got to stop that because you're not only self-defeating yourself, you're giving yourself anxiety, self-doubt and frustration. Currently, I've started up Indie Creator Hub as a place for alternative platform exploration. Just before I started the show tonight, I answered two new comments on older YouTube videos, which is a great thing to see. People are still finding these videos and having some issues, and I'm trying to help them as best as I can. But YouTube comments are not a great place to do any kind of tech support really. Building Community is HardIt's really hard to get people to not only view your content, but also to comment or interact with it, and even harder to get them to go to your website. And it's even harder still, after they make it to your website, to have them make an account on that website to start interacting as a community member. People are so ingrained into the culture of the social networks they use, like YouTube or Twitter or Facebook, that it's just something difficult to overcome. That's the struggle that if not all of us constantly go through, from the very beginner just starting out to the seasoned expert. Once you get people in, it's a great feeling to see that the work you do actually has helped other people or has helped people look for these alternative platforms or other places that, if they were just left on their own, they would have just been staying on Twitch or stopped streaming or creating content altogether. To see that people are finding these alternative platforms is actually a really great thing. It's something that I am extremely proud of, to know that just a little bit of work that I do to try to get this stuff out there has just a little bit of influence. I'm not going to call myself an influencer, that's a disgusting word. No, I'm just bringing to light what a lot of people actively ignore, don't know about, or have no knowledge of it ever existing. Learning from Platform HoppingI think what might have hurt my potential growth was the constant moving between different platforms. I know that now, but at the time I was thinking I should try new things because I heard from people on YouTube about first mover advantage on new platforms. I fell into that rabbit hole big time. I could have been in a better position, but I'm also thinking that if I did not go through that struggle, I would not be where I am right now. I would have been still on Twitch, doing the same thing over and over again, continuing on that wheel of pain for years with no real improvement. So in the end, I think the struggling helped a little bit. I would never have given Trovo or Mixer or SharePlay or LiveSpace a shot. I would never have looked for alternatives for live streaming. I would never have found OwnCast and started my journey on doing alternative platforms. If I did not go through the struggle bus at the beginning, I probably would not be here. To think of it that way is kind of like a blessing in disguise. The Importance of Helping One PersonWhat I'm doing is helping at least one person. With Corey, helping him find LiveSpace and him having a better live streaming experience there, that's a great feeling to have. If I'm helping just one person, that's great. If you help just one person, that kind of snowballs. It helps two people, then four, then eight, and so on and so forth. Eventually, after years of doing this, gaining more knowledge of alternative platforms like OwnCast, LiveSpace, SharePlay, PeerTube, Castopod, and failing at trying to get those items working and figuring out what's going on and what's new, over the course of learning, I can try explaining it a little bit better to other people. That first step to get somebody into the door is the most important thing, and that's the hardest thing to do because there are so many people who say, "Oh, I don't want to do it. I got to work with a command line. I'm not a hacker. I can't do this. It's too scary." You have to fail in order to succeed. That's something I'm learning. I'm still learning how to fail gracefully. There are some things where it's frustrating, like when I've been working on something for two hours and I have to walk away and get some lunch because I'm not working with a clear head. Looking ForwardMy plan for the next couple of months is to start branching out into small little branches here and there. I'm still focusing on independent creators in the content creation and live streaming space, but I want to find other people who are passionate about other avenues of independent creators and artists. I want to start moving things into a singular umbrella called the Indie Basement. I'm thinking about having everything underneath that naming because it's going to make things a lot easier for myself if I'm focusing on that one thing instead of three or four different domains and brand names. I want to start doing some other projects that are going to help me learn about different aspects, like a podcast idea I've had for a long time about looking at old TV shows, focusing mostly on canceled shows or ones that were canceled before their time. If you're an indie creator, artist, or a person that's passionate about this creator space, you can join up at thisindiecreator.com. It's completely free. You don't have to start paying monthly. There's no subscription models or anything like that. Thank you for joining me. If you learned anything, please let me know, or if you have any ideas about what we talked about today, definitely let me know in the comments on YouTube or on the podcast player of your choice or within the community itself. The audio version will be up on the podcast player of your choice tomorrow morning, and the video will be up on the PeerTube instance at video.theindiebasement.com. I hope to see you on the next episode in two weeks. Have a good night and see you later. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Shaping the Future of Digital C...Navigating the labyrinth of content creation and community building can feel akin to orchestrating a symphony with a hundred instruments, each vying for attention. I've walked this path, grappling ...

Welcome back to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast. Tonight we're taking a break from our usual live streaming topics to dive deep into something I'm genuinely passionate about: forum software. Specifically, we're looking at open source and free community building tools that can help you create thriving online spaces. Let me get straight to the meat and potatoes here. One thing a lot of people are forgetting is that forums are incredible places to gather information that's easily searchable and doesn't get lost to the annals of time, unlike places like Discord, which I call "gravity wells" or "black holes." The Discord ProblemNow, I know a lot of people are gravitating to Discord because it's free, it's easy, and everyone else is using it. Sure, those are positives, but there are serious problems with this approach. Any information in Discord is completely siphoned off and blocked behind a gate from the rest of the world. Even if you do find your way into a particular server, good luck trying to find anything through search because Discord's search functionality is really not that great. Discord isn't open to the wider internet. It's a black hole, and unfortunately, a lot of companies and game publishers are starting to abandon their forums to move to Discord. Some bean counter on the payroll says, "Oh, we're spending a couple thousand dollars a month on hosting our forum, and we can use Discord for free!" But they're losing sight of the fact that all that information and knowledge is being lost forever. Take RuneScape as an example. They're transitioning from forums they've been running for decades to a Discord format. All that information from old guides, walkthroughs, power builds, and character sheets is going to essentially disappear from the internet. You can save your old posts and threads, but what would be even nicer is keeping that information accessible on the internet where people can actually find it. I've been shouting from the rooftops about this to what feels like an empty audience because everyone thinks forums are "dead technology" or "old boomer stuff." But forums are still around and actively used, and they serve a vital purpose for community building. The Free and Open Source OptionsLet me walk you through some solid options that won't cost you anything upfront. Simple Machines Forum (SMF)Simple Machines Forum has been around since the early 2000s, around 2001, and believe it or not, it's still being actively developed. These developers are volunteers doing this work because they love the software, not for monetary gain. SMF runs on a typical LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) and has plenty of themes and plugins available. Sure, these themes aren't going to win best in show, but some actually look quite nice. There are gaming-related themes available too, which makes sense because not everyone has the budget to spend hundreds of dollars on premium software like Xenforo or Invision Community when they're just starting out. The platform includes essential features like stop forum spam protection, which is crucial because free boards often get hit with spam unless your admin and mod staff are really on the ball. MyBBMyBB is another free, open source option with the tagline "the free and open source forum software powering thousands of engaging, vibrant and unique communities across the Internet." It has been on a slow development cycle, but they recently released a security and maintenance update and redesigned their installer with a much better web interface. MyBB was probably the easiest to work with when I first started my forum adventures many years ago. There was a growing community of plugin developers and theme makers, so it felt like the early days of forums with lots of potential for customization. PHPBBPHPBB is probably the oldest of the three and definitely looks the most antiquated. It really looks like a forum from the 90s or early 2000s, and they haven't changed much visually. But they did have a maintenance release in October 2023 that increased the minimum required PHP version and added security hardening. The advantage of PHPBB is that it's commonly available on shared hosting plans as a one-click install option in cPanel, right alongside WordPress. While it can be a pain to install custom themes compared to other options, there are some decent themes available that can help move away from that classic PHPBB look. The Modern Approach: Discourse and FlarumThese platforms represent a newer generation of forum software that's still free and open source but requires a bit more involvement to set up and run. DiscourseDiscourse has really changed how forums look and function. Instead of the traditional category blocks, Discourse puts posts front and center. When you visit a Discourse forum, you see the most recent activity immediately rather than having to navigate through categories and subcategories to find actual content. Big companies use Discourse, including Unreal Engine and Asana. While they offer hosting for $50 a month if you don't want to manage your own server, the software itself is completely free if you want to self-host. The hosted option gives you 50,000 page views per month and 10 gigs of storage, plus mobile app support and global CDN. However, you don't get custom themes, custom domains, or some advanced features on the basic plan. If you're using blogging software like Ghost, Discourse has great integrations where your blog posts and newsletters can use Discourse as the comment system, creating a seamless experience between your content and community. FlarumFlarum is similar to Discourse but less well-known. They don't offer hosting, so you're on your own for server management. The interface looks very similar to Discourse with the same front-and-center post approach and history slider functionality. They did have a security breach recently, which they handled transparently by notifying users immediately. That's actually a good sign because security issues will happen, and the important thing is how they're handled. The Premium OptionsIf you're ready to invest in paid software, you have some excellent options that generally offer better support and more frequent updates. XenforoXenforo was created by two former vBulletin developers who struck out on their own. Internet Brands (which owns vBulletin) actually sued them claiming Xenforo copied vBulletin, but they lost the case. This created a great awakening in the forum community because, at the time, vBulletin was pretty much the only game in town for large forums. Xenforo offers cloud hosting starting at around $60 per month, which includes their complete suite with media gallery, resource manager, and enhanced search. They've been a bit slow with updates lately, but they're picking up momentum again. Invision CommunityThis is what I use for the Independent Creator community. Invision Community evolved from the free Invision Powerboard software and offers incredible integration options. They have blogging capabilities, integrated calendar, e-commerce features, galleries, clubs, and a custom CMS. Their upcoming version 5 introduces a hybrid approach that combines traditional forum categories with the conversation-focused approach of platforms like Discourse. It's pretty innovative. Pricing starts at $54 per month for basic forums, or $100 per month for the full suite including blogs, galleries, and live chat features. They also offer courses and lessons functionality at higher tiers. WoltLabWoltLab is a German option that's very similar to Invision Community. Their cloud hosting starts at $40 per month and includes forums, blog, calendar, and file-based gallery. The interface looks similar to Xenforo but can be customized to match different styles. My RecommendationsIf you're thinking about starting a forum, here's my advice: start with the free options first. Don't put too much of your budget at risk when you don't know if your community will succeed or fail. I'd specifically recommend starting with Discourse if you're going the free route. It has much better support than SMF, PHPBB, or MyBB, and the modern interface approach tends to be more engaging for users who are used to social media platforms. The key is to focus on building your community first, then worry about upgrading your software later if needed. All of these platforms can be customized extensively with enough CSS knowledge, and the most important factor in community success isn't the software you choose but the value you provide to your members. Forums aren't dead technology. They're still one of the best ways to build lasting, searchable, and valuable online communities. Don't let the Discord hype fool you into thinking otherwise. What platform would you choose to start your community? Let me know in the comments, and if you want to see our community in action, check out indiecreator.community Thanks for reading, and remember: be good to your community, and they'll be good to you. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | The Forum vs. Discord Debate an...Unlock the secrets of thriving online communities as we traverse the evolving digital landscape, contrasting the enduring value of forums with the dynamic nature of Discord. Discover why forums lik...

Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Independent Creative Podcast. Actually, this is our first episode of 2024, and tonight we're diving into something pretty exciting. We're taking a look at some new up-and-coming live streaming services that are just entering beta. So strap in folks, because we're going to explore SharePlay and LiveSpace and see what they bring to the table. The Current Live Streaming Landscape In the live streaming universe, there are really only a few big places where content creators can go. You've got Twitch and YouTube, and that's pretty much it. Twitch is the king maker of live streaming for gaming, outdoors, and any kind of IRL content. You name it, and you can probably find it on Twitch. But here's the problem: a lot of people are getting disappointed with how Twitch is running things. Many creators are migrating to YouTube, but then you still have the same issue of a large company controlling the live streaming space. With YouTube, live streaming isn't really their priority. They're more focused on short-form content, with long-form content coming in at maybe second place, and live streaming trailing behind that. YouTube has made some great changes to their live streaming features, but the reality is that it's still YouTube. It's a massive, multi-billion dollar conglomerate. And while Twitch isn't necessarily better in that regard, YouTube commands a much greater mindshare of the world market. Twitch is big in North America and some parts of Europe, but the majority of Twitch's audience and content creators are concentrated in North America, including the US, Canada, Mexico, and Central America, with some presence in South America, particularly Brazil and Argentina. Why Creators Are Looking for Alternatives The recent changes Twitch has implemented are pushing creators to look elsewhere. They're essentially saying that if you want more money, you need to run more ads on your live stream. You have to create content around ads, with at least three minutes of ads per hour. If you don't comply, you won't earn as much. They're also pushing creators to encourage viewers to subscribe and use bits. While monetization is great, the problem arises when you're forcing content creators to shoehorn ads into their content. This goes against Twitch's culture, which has traditionally been about lower production values and a more spontaneous, ad-lib mentality. When people are being told they have to do ad breaks and follow specific monetization requirements just to get paid, many creators find themselves on the outskirts of what they thought Twitch was going to be. Past Alternatives and Their Fate There have been other alternatives to Twitch over the years. Mixer was a great option before Microsoft bought it. Originally known as Beam, it had more of a grassroots, content creator-first atmosphere. But when large companies take over, you tend to lose that grassroots feeling. There's also Trovo, which is still around but is more geared toward European, Asian, and South American markets. It does have some English-speaking North American content creators, but the majority of its user base is non-North American. Trovo started out with great potential, but they incorporated too much gamification, which essentially drove away a lot of the English-speaking North American audience and creators. We've also seen smaller platforms like Glimish, which had promise at the beginning but suffered from mismanagement and failed to establish a strong foothold. It lasted about a year and a half to two years before ultimately closing down. Enter SharePlay: A Fresh Beta Experience Now we have two up-and-coming live streaming platforms that deserve attention. SharePlay just entered beta about a month ago, initially opening to a select few streamers before gradually expanding access. One thing I really like about SharePlay is their interface design. On the right-hand side, where you'd normally find live streams from channels you follow, they have these cool graphics featuring the games that streamers are playing as backgrounds for each section. You can collapse these sections and they still maintain that graphic element. Yes, they're using a familiar template that resembles other streaming services, but there's wisdom in that approach. If it's not broken, don't fix it. When Trovo first launched, people criticized it as being "Twitch but green," but the reality is that you need to emulate what works if you want people to feel comfortable transitioning to your platform. SharePlay took a different approach to development. They spent years in closed testing, closed alpha, having only certain days of the week with one or maybe two streamers going live. They've recently opened up more beta spots to people interested in streaming on the platform. Is SharePlay perfect? Absolutely not. That's exactly why it has the beta tag. They're still working on making sure their site runs and functions correctly. While most people can spin up OBS and go live without issues, I personally have encountered some problems. I use Ecamm for all my live streaming and recording needs, and when I hit go live, my stream doesn't always show up immediately. I have to submit a ticket, and then about 10 to 15 minutes later, someone addresses the issue and it starts working. SharePlay's Dashboard and Features What I really appreciate about SharePlay is their dashboard. When you go to your profile and click on Play Studio, it opens up your dashboard with analytics that are quite important for content creators. You can see how your streams are performing, track new followers and subscribers, monitor gift subscribers and play coins, and access other vital metrics. It's great to see this analytics page as the first thing you encounter. They'll likely be adding more features throughout the year to flesh out the streamer dashboard, but the foundation is solid. You also have access to your stream key, wallet functionality, payout transactions, and subscriber spending data. For payments, they're using Stripe, which I believe is a smart choice. Stripe works well globally and tends to have fewer issues compared to PayPal. Your mileage may vary if you're a PayPal fan, but this is something you can discuss with the SharePlay developers on their Discord. Speaking of support, SharePlay has excellent community engagement. Their Discord is the go-to place for technical support, suggestions, and joining the beta waiting list. They're releasing new waves of beta invites every couple of weeks, so if you're interested, make sure to join their Discord and get on the waiting list. The thing to keep in mind is that SharePlay has a small development team, so you need to have patience and understand that they're not a huge corporation with hundreds of employees. If you encounter issues, let them know on Discord. They're very quick at taking care of problems and keeping the community informed about fixes. LiveSpace: The Social Media-Integrated Platform The second platform we're looking at is LiveSpace. LiveSpace has taken the multi-channel live streaming concept and added some interesting twists to it. The front page you see now likely won't be the final version, as they're constantly making changes and experimenting with different layouts. The current design is completely different from what it looked like just a couple of weeks or even a month ago. LiveSpace is also in beta, though it doesn't explicitly show it. What sets LiveSpace apart is its Twitter-like social element. You can access a social feed that shows posts from all account holders on the platform. It functions like a Twitter feed where you can share YouTube links, embed images, post regular content, and share links. I find LiveSpace to be a bit more stable than SharePlay in its current format, so if you're looking for stability, I'd suggest checking out LiveSpace first. LiveSpace Categories and Features LiveSpace offers various categories, primarily focused on gaming, but they also support "Just Chatting" content, sports and fitness, travel and outdoors, music (which is particularly popular on the platform), business and technology, and podcasts. They have a good range of categories available for creators. The social feed aspect is particularly noteworthy. Twitch tried something similar in the past, but their implementation wasn't great, and they eventually dropped it. Seeing a multi-channel live streaming service incorporate a social feed into their platform is refreshing. It allows you to combine community outreach with keeping your subscribers and followers updated without needing external platforms like Discord. Unique LiveSpace Features One feature I really like is the ability to create subscriber-only posts. When writing a post, you can toggle a button to make it visible only to your subscribers. This is perfect for sharing exclusive content or subscriber-only video links. LiveSpace also has a dashboard that provides essential information, though it's not as visually polished as SharePlay's or YouTube's. It gives you watch time data, total viewers, peak viewers, total streams, follower counts, and following numbers. Like SharePlay, they also use Stripe for payments, which seems to be a trend among emerging platforms. Monetization and Customization One significant advantage of LiveSpace is their emote system. Unlike Twitch, where you need to hit certain numbers and achieve affiliate status to upload emotes, LiveSpace allows you to upload emotes right from the start. As soon as you create your account and set up your profile, you have access to emote uploading. LiveSpace also recently released a VOD system with custom thumbnails, similar to YouTube and PeerTube. When your VOD is complete, you can upload a custom thumbnail for it. This is something many platforms don't offer, and it's a nice touch that differentiates them from competitors. They've also integrated with Streamlabs for alerts and notifications, and they support Fourth Wall integration for merchandise and memberships. Fourth Wall is an excellent monetization system that I personally use. You can set up memberships that provide access to Discord servers or other exclusive content. The Shop Integration If you visit a creator's channel on LiveSpace, you'll notice a shop tab that's integrated directly into the channel. This is something Twitch doesn't really offer natively; you have to use extensions, which is a roundabout and less elegant solution. LiveSpace makes monetization more straightforward with direct integration. Why We Need These Alternatives The importance of having alternatives to Twitch and YouTube cannot be overstated. Recent developments, including Twitch laying off 35% of its remaining workforce, show that creators shouldn't rely solely on any single platform. It's encouraging that Twitch finally allowed multi-streaming to other platforms in 2023, but people need to realize that Twitch may not be the same platform in a few years that it was when they started. Cultural changes, increased ads, and policy shifts are making Twitch a less enjoyable place for many creators. Having options like SharePlay and LiveSpace provides creators with alternatives that maintain the community feel of multi-channel live streaming without some of the corporate baggage. Looking Forward Both SharePlay and LiveSpace offer something that's much needed in a world dominated by Twitch and YouTube monopolies. While they may not be perfect yet, they represent hope for creators looking for platforms that prioritize community and creator experience over pure profit maximization. If you're interested in trying these platforms, remember that they're both in beta, so expect some rough edges. SharePlay can be found at SharePlay.TV, and you can join their Discord for beta access. LiveSpace is at live.space and appears to have open registration. These platforms fulfill a need for creators who want the community aspect of multi-channel live streaming but prefer alternatives to the major corporate platforms. While OwnCast serves its purpose for those comfortable with self-hosting, not everyone wants to deal with server management. For those creators, platforms like SharePlay and LiveSpace offer the perfect middle ground. The future of live streaming is looking more diverse, and that's exactly what we need. Competition breeds innovation, and having more options available benefits everyone in the content creation ecosystem. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | The Rise of SharePlay and LiveS...Welcome to the first podcast of the year, where we navigate the turbulent waters of live-streaming platforms. The tides are shifting, and content creators are actively seeking new harbors away from...

Hello, how's it going everybody? Welcome to what's really the last episode of the year. It's kind of weird that we actually are at the end of the year. 2023 went by pretty quick. If you don't know, this is an independent creator podcast where we talk about the alternative platforms of PeerTube, OwnCast, and all the different stuff that are completely different from the mainstream platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, Discord, and the like. We usually go in the weeds in different directions sometimes, but tonight we're actually gonna take a different approach. We'll look back at what happened in the past 360-something days. Whatever. How many days are usually in the year? 365? This is what, 340 something. I don't know, math is hard and I'm not gonna hurt my brain this late. So yeah, we're gonna take a look back at what's actually been happening. There's actually been a lot of stuff that's happened within the alternative platform universe, really the Fediverse, if you wanna go into that route as well. A lot of interesting things have gone on really. We've seen the continuing migration of users from X/Twitter to Mastodon, the opening of BlueSky, and there's been Threads. So much has been going on really in the past year that if you look at it, it's kind of weird that we've gone so much in such a short time within about a year. And there's so much movement on updates for OwnCast, updates for PeerTube and all sorts of stuff like Matrix and different things like that. So we're gonna take a look at a couple of different things in tonight's episode, kind of close out the year 2023 and look at exactly what has gone on this past year. And then look at some things that might be happening in the future for 2024 and on. OwnCast: The Game Changer UpdatesLet's actually take a look at the first thing which is gonna be OwnCast. Now OwnCast is, if you're watching this on our OwnCast channel, inthebasement.live, it's an open source, self-hosting or do-it-yourself live streaming platform really. One of the things that happened is that we got our first update to version 0.1.0. And that was actually a big thing because when it released, it was kind of like, holy crap, this is a game changer really. And of course, I did a video on that where it was kind of like, this is the big stuff that you need to look into and a lot of stuff that's been changed. This one was like the major push to do a lot of improvements that Gabe and everyone else had been working on for quite some time. This one gave us appearance customization. This opened up a lot of different things for people like myself who aren't really schooled into the actual coding of a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes, but this one gave you the ability to actually write your own CSS to make your own OwnCast server instance your own thing. You can change the colors and all sorts of stuff. You could have done that before, but it required you to know HTML and CSS. But you can do this without that knowledge because it gave you those handy dandy color blocks that you can change the different things on. So that was another big thing. Custom emoji, chat colors. This is another thing where they added in different chat message colors that you can change. As a viewer, you can change your color of your name. The selection of colors can be customized via the appearance customization page. Additionally, as an admin, you can change the set of colors available to your users to match your preferences. So if you want the people coming in, watching your stream, to only have access to say three to four colors, you can change it as an admin, or you can have them all, whatever color you want. You can also write HTML for external action buttons. I have a button in there right now to a Steam link where you can add a button that you can set for either to a website, or you can put in custom HTML. It's either or. And you can add multiple buttons as well. So you can have, like I have this week's game when I was doing first two hours, you can put that in there. It has a direct link into the Steam page for that game that I was talking about in that one week. And you can set up another button to do something completely different, like an HTML signup form or whatever that you can think of. Built-in Twitter notifications have been removed because at the time, X/Twitter was continuing. We were seeing the writing on the wall because that's when Elon Musk had bought it back in November of 2022, and then the wave of everybody going away from X/Twitter to Mastodon and other points north. So Gabe and everybody working on OwnCast decided, you know what, let's take out Twitter because they had killed their API. So it was kind of a useless feature. It was like, why do you have this code in here? It was just taking up space. Let's get rid of it. You can also allow hiding viewer count. So if you don't want people knowing how many people are watching, you can turn that off. There was an admin page for customization, mute embeds, provide HTML instead of a link for external actions, webhooks for stream title change, and so much more. Over the past couple of months, they had some more changes, some more updates. We had an option to prevent search engine indexing of OwnCast pages, clean up old stream segments in the S3 buckets, preload custom emoji images, use VA API hardware decoding and scaling, and a pop out chat button, which was a great thing. Now we're on version 0.1.2, where you can stop service from running if you're using pre-installed image, change the directory where OwnCast is installed on your server, which is pretty cool. There was also the ability to log IP addresses, chat display name, and chat user leave events. Some people would love to have that capability to see if someone has come into chat and also if they leave the chat. You can have this on or off simply by going to your admin webpage in your OwnCast instance and changing those settings. The Search for AlternativesThere was one other thing that a lot of people were actually seeing: a higher increase in people looking or actively seeking out OwnCast and what it's actually capable of doing for live streamers and other content creators. Throughout the whole year, there were a lot of controversies coming around, especially with Twitch and just recently with Twitch's artistic nudity implementation that got rolled back like a day or two later, because it's like, oh yeah, we didn't expect this to happen, even though everyone was telling you that would happen. So a lot of people are actively seeking out a means of controlling or taking back control of their own content, not only by creating their own websites to put their actual content on and their actual work and then sharing it from there. I've talked about that in the past of starting up your own website, posting up your blog on there or your video files or your audio or your images or whatnot and sharing out from your site to other social networks. So it's a good thing to see that there are more and more people becoming more aware of alternative platforms like OwnCast and PeerTube as well. PeerTube's Major 6.0 UpdatePeerTube actually released their version 6.0. It's not as easy to get started as OwnCast, but it does provide a way that you can take back control by setting up your own YouTube-like website, your own YouTube server, where you can post up your videos instead of posting up on YouTube. You can post up on your own PeerTube. This was a big update, just like how OwnCast had their big 0.1 update. PeerTube had their 6.0, where they included password protected videos. So if you want to have a video that is password protected, you have that capability now within PeerTube. You can do video storyboard support. It automatically generates a storyboard on video upload or imports. Viewers can see the image around the targeted timecode when hovering the progress bar. They added the ability for users to replace their video file. Now, this is a big thing. You can find my videos and a lot of other stuff that I do within the Indie Creator Hub space on TILVids, which is a PeerTube instance. And this ability to replace your video file when something's already been uploaded is a capability that you can find on YouTube, but the only problem is you won't have that ability unless you're part of the YouTube Partner Program. You can't just be a new channel and say, "Oh crap, I put up the wrong video." People like myself and many others that are not part of the Partner Program, we would have to delete and re-upload a video. Here, you can replace a video file with an updated page. So you take the entry of your video and you just update it with the newer updated version. You don't have to do any of the stupid delete, re-upload, copy and paste the description, keywords, title, thumbnails, and stuff like that. It's all behind the scenes and its capability is part of the PeerTube instance from the get-go. You can also do video chapters. Video chapters is a great thing for anyone who's watching a video to easily get to the particular part of the video that they're more interested in. That's if you have set up the chapters. That's on you as a creator uploading your videos. They also have a better video player. It's more efficient so you don't need to rebuild the player every time the played video changes. Improved SEO and video link sharing. They also fixed client accessibility and keyboard navigation. Improved remote runner management. Added the ability for admins to force transcoding on a specific video, even if it's in a broken state. So that's a lot of great features that they've added. Lazy download remote video thumbnails, reduce storage, download video file directly from S3 using pre-signed URLs. And it just gets better and better for the PeerTube community. I did a live stream where I installed a PeerTube instance or server. It took about two hours. Again, I'm not the most up-to-date and knowledgeable at running these types of services. So I believe there is a group that's out there. I saw on Mastodon that had made an easier way to install. It's like a package to install PeerTube on your own server. I have not worked on that yet. I think in 2024, I'm going to at least attempt to try out their implementation of an install package and see how it goes. The Fediverse MigrationPeerTube has been, again, just like OwnCast has been getting heightened awareness of people coming into the Fediverse to figure out what can I do to get my stuff away from YouTube? Because YouTube has been implementing or is starting to implement some rules and regulations on their platform against ad blockers. And it's something that we kind of saw the writing on the wall that they're going to be doing this. And it's getting to a point where it's not socially feasible as an independent creator to post our content on YouTube when you're being served up so many ads constantly on the service. And it's kind of detrimental to think about it that as a YouTube content creator posting my videos to the service, I don't have access to the ad revenue. Even though YouTube is pushing ads into my content, I don't see any kind of a kickback saying, hey, I created this content that you're watching on YouTube. Now I could say, hey, yeah, that's the thing with a free service. It's part and parcel of the agreement, right? But the bad thing is that they're putting ads on my content and I'm not seeing any kind of money, monetary value coming back to me, even if it was like pennies on a dollar. Still a little bit of something would help out, but I don't see that. That's why going to TILVids or PeerTube or OwnCast, it's taking back your control of the content you're posting out there. And you can monetize it, no problem. You can have a link in the descriptions of your PeerTube videos that you put out there. And also there is monetization available that you can have a button on your video player or your channel page that leads to your Patreon or to your Ko-fi or wherever that you have a donation page or a tipping page, any kind of monetization page set up. Same thing for OwnCast, you can set that up as a link to Patreon, Ko-fi, wherever. And there is LibrePay. It's where you can set it up. It's an open way to set up donations and you can have people give you monetary value for your content. You can also set up your payment processing. They support processing payments through Stripe and PayPal. It's run transparently by a nonprofit organization. Source code is public and relies on your support to keep LibrePay running and improving. The Social Media Shake-UpOn the Fediverse side of things, alternatives to X/Twitter. We saw the rise and fall of T2 when they renamed themselves to Pebble. I believe within two months, it was very short after their renaming to Pebble that they posted out there that they are shutting down. And it was another alternative to X/Twitter. Same thing with BlueSky. Mastodon is still continuing to lead the charge of the actual open source, open platform, federated network for social media, social networking to get together with other like-minded people that you don't have to worry about a large corporation dictating what exactly you are supposed to be putting out there. And if you put something out there that is deemed, oh, not to their liking, at least you have the capability to move your account to another server if the admin decided they're not gonna have this running anymore. Just recently, I've been on all of the alternative platforms lately, like on BlueSky, I'm on there. I've been on Threads, but just recently on Threads I decided to open it up one morning and it said, oh, enter your phone number to log back in. I'm like, what? I've been on Threads since they started publicly a couple of months ago. And now you want my phone number? No, I'm sorry. I like to minimize the amount of times I'm putting my phone number out there. So it's like, okay, I'm no longer on Threads. If you don't want it, fine, screw you. And I'm perfectly fine on just Mastodon and BlueSky. I don't need Threads. I liked Threads because it gave you how Twitter was back in the day. It's the early starts. It was kind of like the midway point of Twitter where you had all the brands and had a lot of people that are there. But it's just rubbing me the wrong way when it says, oh, we need your phone number to log in. No, you had my information from Instagram. Oh, Instagram now requires, well, I guess my account is held hostage until the end of time because I can't, I'm not gonna give you my phone number in order for me to delete my account. No, sorry, that's not gonna happen. So I'm very comfortably, perfectly fine on Mastodon. I love Mastodon. Mastodon has continued to have more and more people come over. Same thing with BlueSky. BlueSky is still on the invite system, but it's growing. It's very Twitter-esque how it feels, how you're immersed into the world. Looking back at it, I'd say that its growth has been hammered down a little bit because of the invite-only system. Again, I keep mentioning Mastodon because since November of last year, it's been continuing. It's been going on for years and years prior to everything that's been going on with X/Twitter. But only from last November, it's just exploded onto the scene where pretty much almost everybody was talking about Mastodon. And of course, you know, I have some people saying, "Oh, it's too difficult. I can't deal with this. I have to actually work. I can't have my hand held to figure out what I need to look at." Well, unfortunately, that's not the case. Yes, there is some difficulty for some people who are not comfortable with that, but you know what? It's getting better. I think more people are starting to come across that line that, "Oh, I actually do have to actually do some work." We've been for a decade and a half, almost 20 years of this stuff, people growing up only knowing how to do Twitter or Facebook or anything like that, and to all of a sudden to have them within the ecosystem of Mastodon and OwnCast and PeerTube, and it's just kind of like they're kind of lost in the wind, really, which is a shame because they kind of lost those skills of how to deal with it. And it's pretty much on us as a community to not make fun and not to belittle them, but actually say, "Hey, if you want to actually try this out, give it a shot, we can help you." More than happy to help. Looking Forward to 2024I can see going into next year, 2024, we're gonna see more and more people that are completely new, have no idea, and more and more of them are coming into Mastodon, and we'll see some more posts like that. But again, like I said, it's on us as a community that are already here, we know what to do, or have a higher understanding of what to do, and show these people coming in. It's not as scary as it might seem. Those postings on Twitter or Facebook saying, "Mastodon is the devil's work. If you go in there, you're a sinner," or whatever. I don't know, I'm just pulling out some kind of over-exaggeration. But I see more and more people going to Mastodon, and even more people are probably going into Threads or BlueSky. Because those are more of how Twitter is for them, with somewhat of an algorithm, but it's just the user experience for people who don't want to do much. They don't want to do too much thinking. They just want to be shown a product and say, "Oh, that's great, yes, no, like," and go from there. And I can see some more people diversifying more into live streaming and PeerTube, or OwnCast, because I think more people are starting to see that Twitch is kind of, it's not on its last legs, but you have to diversify. You can't just stay on one platform and expect people to show up. It's not gonna happen, hasn't been happening for the past couple years, and more than likely, going forward from now, is even more detrimental if you just stay on one platform. The Decline of Traditional PlatformsI think live streaming on these platforms, like Twitch, is gonna be detrimental, as long as you don't have a presence on any other platforms, like LiveSpace, or your own OwnCast. If you don't want to go through and don't want to deal with having to run your own server and stuff like that, that's fine, because there's services out there called LiveSpace. There's another one that is just getting started, it's actually opened up in beta, it's called SharePlay. These are options that are available to you. You're not just stuck to Twitch and YouTube as your live streaming platforms. If you really think about it, in the past year, we've seen the overall decline of Twitch year over year. Yeah, they had a great spike in 2020, in March 2020, when COVID lockdowns all happened. Of course, that's kind of like a non-starter, but ever since then, it has been a steady decline of viewership and people who are live streaming to that service. And even now, with the amount of ads that Twitch wants you to run, I looked at the last time I looked at my Twitch creator dashboard, they want you to run at least seven minutes of ads per hour. And that's kind of ridiculous for a live stream. For the past couple of months, I had an ad scheduler because I had to set it up for three minutes of ads per hour, just to get rid of pre-rolls. And I was thinking to myself, if people are coming into my stream on Twitch in the middle of an ad break, they'll get, even after I've already set it up to run three minutes of ads, if they come in halfway through or three quarters through, they will still get three minutes of ads. It's very confusing, but they get a full three minute block of ads every hour. And I'm like, was that really necessary? I was only getting maybe 15 cents each month. It's not really worth it. I was actually providing an option. It's like, hey, if you don't want to watch this ad-filled stream, come watch it over on my OwnCast server or on LiveSpace. I can see that ads are gonna be pushed a lot more going forward, because this has been like a slow ramp up in the past year of, you need to run more ads. Taking Back ControlFor almost six months now, I've been solely focusing on my OwnCast server at Indie Basement and other places like YouTube and also now with LiveSpace and now adding in SharePlay. I'm pretty much tearing this out as OwnCast server, LiveSpace, SharePlay, Twitch. Twitch is on the bottom. For this podcast and anything I do for Indie Creator Hub, I have a Twitch account, but I don't use it. I'm not streaming on Twitch right now. I'm streaming on just the three platforms: YouTube, LiveSpace, and my OwnCast. And that's perfectly fine. I'd rather have a little bit more control and have a less ad or have an ad-free experience for potential viewers. I see the growing trend over the past year of more people looking into controlling their own content, whether by websites or live streaming platforms like PeerTube, which also has video hosting capability, but it also does live streaming. Or if you want to just do OwnCast, where it's a little bit more, let me put it this way. I put OwnCast over PeerTube. That's just because it's a more simpler and more streamlined, but it also does exactly what it's built to do. It's a focused product to do live streaming. And that's perfectly fine. If I want to do video hosting, I'll go with PeerTube because you can't do that with OwnCast. OwnCast is a live streaming service piece of kit. That's all it does. And it does it quite well. It's not a jack of all trades, master of none type of situation. So it's kind of great to see these focused built services that you can utilize for free. All you gotta do is just take care of, if you have the hardware, host it on your own hardware, or you pay a web hosting or server hosting like Hetzner, DigitalOcean or Linode and go take it from there. But the software is free, it's open source. I like to see this happen more and more coming into 2024, to see more wider adoption. It's great to see. Building CommunityThere's a growing OwnCast community that we're just getting started. We'd love if you're very interested in learning more about OwnCast, check out the owncast.rocket.chat server and join it. It's not just for support. It's actually anything to do with OwnCast. And we'd definitely love to see some more people come in there and give their two bits and to sign up for the newsletter too. The first newsletter was awesome. A lot of great information. And it's every month, so definitely sign up. There is on New Year's Day or New Year's Eve, Federated Radio is conducting a multi-host of multiple OwnCast servers, kind of like a New Year's Eve party throughout the whole day and throughout the evening as well throughout time zones for New Year. So definitely check it out. If you also wanna join a great community, join up at thisindiecreator.com. It's our forums. We do have a newsletter that I send out monthly as well. That also came out this past week. Talking about all the latest stories that in the past month, anything to do with alternative platforms, like I said, OwnCast, PeerTube, Guilded, Matrix, forums software, because we use Invision Community, anything to deal with independent creation, as well as indie game development as well. We have a section there for the indie game developers. We'd love to see more of them come in as well. Wrapping Up 2023That's gonna be it for this episode. Remember that if you're not here during the live, the live taping or the live studio audience, every other Tuesday at 9:30. This is probably gonna be the last episode of 2023. Next episode is gonna be next year because next week is Christmas holiday week. So if you are practicing, or you observe Christmas or anything else, Hanukkah, whatever, happy holidays, Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, and all sorts of other stuff for you. Enjoy next week, the holiday season, and I'll see you into the next year. I'll see you next year. I know that's a really bad dad joke, but yeah. You'll get used to it. I have a lot of bad dad jokes anyways. But until next time, I'll catch you next year, and we'll be doing more alternative platform looks and talking more about independent creators here on the Independent Creator Podcast. Been your host, Josh, and I'll see you next time. Have a good night. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | The Emergence of Independent Ne...Sometimes change is a quiet revolution, humming along in the world of technology while we carry on with our daily tweets and scrolls. But have you stopped to consider the digital exodus from mainst...

Hello, welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator Podcast. I'm your host Josh, and we've got something a little bit different today. You know, closing out the year with Christmas time just around the corner, or if you're reading this at a later date, happy holidays whatever you want to celebrate. We're going to be going over a gift giving guide or holiday season wish list for content creators, or for family members and significant others of content creators who want to know what they might be looking for. We'll be looking at different hardware and software ideas, what to look for in the cheap stuff, and then if you have a spare no expense account, the more expensive options. Start With Your Audio - It's More Important Than You ThinkOne thing that a lot of us constantly harp on about is your audio. Having good audio is pretty important because that's over half of what being a content creator is all about. You're speaking into a microphone and getting whatever you want to talk about out there to the masses or to your community. Now microphones range the gamut of all different kinds of shapes, sizes, and price ranges. The majority of options are actually pretty affordable for a great majority of people out there. I'm not going to look at expensive options like the microphone I use, which is a Beacon mic that costs around $300. You can have a perfectly decent sounding microphone that is around 30 to 40 dollars. It's a USB mic, so as long as you have an open USB port on your computer, you can actually have good sounding production without spending a lot of money on everything else. Avoiding Gear Acquisition Syndrome (GAS)One of the big factors, and I know this is a funny name, but everyone has GAS. I know there's a joke in there somewhere. GAS is gear acquisition syndrome. When you look at other content creators and you're like, "Oh, that person has this particular microphone" or "they got the Shure SM7B, I'm going to get that microphone," then you go through the listing and see it's almost a $400 microphone. Then you need to spend another starting at $100 for an XLR input or interface to get that audio into your computer. So you're already up to $500, let's say $600 of your hard earned money, and you haven't even spent anything on like computer or software or video if you want to include that. Just the audio portion alone puts you at $600. Budget-Friendly Microphone OptionsSome people would balk at the price and say you can't get good quality at $30. Yes, you can. The Fifine TC777 is $26 on Amazon and it sounds great. Fifine is a great company. My daughter uses this particular microphone as well. It's not the best, but it gives you decent quality for someone that's just starting out. For someone who's just saying, "Hey, I want to try this live streaming or be a content creator" and they don't want to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars, this is a good option to get them into the door of getting started. If they start liking it and want to produce better content and upgrade down the line, sure, you can upgrade to a Rode PodMic for $100, which is a USB microphone with great sound. Or if you want to go even higher, get a Beacon mic like I use, or if you want to go even further, get a Shure SM7B for $400. There is a price point for everybody out there. I would suggest if you're just starting out, get a Fifine. It's a USB microphone, and all you need is an empty USB port on your computer and Bob's your uncle, as they would say across the pond. Video Equipment: Starting SimpleVideo, I believe, and this is my personal opinion, is probably more akin to medium-stage live streams. A lot of people go to Logitech C920 type webcams because they're cheap and under 100 bucks. The C922 or 920 uses a different naming convention, but it's a very decent webcam that's been around for a decade now, probably more than that, and gives you decent results. It's not going to give you the best results because especially in low light, it's going to suffer a lot. You want to make sure that you have decent lighting or overhead light. It's not the best, but it's going to be good enough for someone starting out. The Reality Check About Content CreationThis is what we're trying to do for people who want to get started in the content creation live streaming space: getting started with the most low cost options available. This kind of career is hard. It's very cutthroat and it's something that you really have to work at to make a name for yourself or put yourself out there. It's not something where you start streaming and expect to have 1000 people watching your streams within a month or two. That's never going to happen unless you are already a pro league player of Apex or League of Legends or some kind of other eSports. It's really not going to happen that way for 98% of the people who start live streaming. It's a shame that a lot of people have that kind of mentality that if they don't have instant success and don't have hundreds of subscribers or donators or members, they're going to be a complete failure. I hate to break it to you, but that's not how it works. It'll take months, years of dedicated work of actually doing the job of being a content creator or live streamer. And success is not guaranteed. Software Solutions: Free vs. PaidSpeaking of software, OBS is free and is used on Windows, Mac and Linux. So all three operating systems have the capability of using this free software. In the name, it's Open Broadcast Software. It's open source, pretty much, so you can take the OBS software and if you know how to work with it, you can fork it into whatever version that you want, which Streamlabs has done just that. There are other options that are not free, but they do provide great solutions. One of those is XSplit. XSplit has been around for decades, really, since just before the dawn of OBS. They were kind of the leader of the broadcasting software for the prosumer market. The pricing on XSplit is comparably reasonable. You can buy the broadcaster premium for $60 per year. That's not too bad, only $5 a month. It gets rid of the watermark because if you're using the free version, it puts a watermark on your content and has some limitations on the options you can use. My Personal SetupWhat I use is a program that is basically Mac only called Ecamm Live. It's essentially the same thing but geared more for content recording, Zoom calls with live recording capabilities. It also does live streaming, but it's built for the Mac ecosystem. You're not going to find this on Windows or Linux, just Mac OS. I find that I have a better time using this on the Mac because I do two PC streaming. I have my Windows-based machine for gameplay footage and all the B-roll content, and Ecamm handles the streaming side with capability of bringing in guest interviews, up to 10 guests at a time, as long as your bandwidth and hardware can handle it. The Bottom Line: Start Cheap and ExperimentI kind of steer a lot of people, especially if they're just starting out or thinking about getting into this creator space, to start as cheap as you possibly can. Content creation and live streaming is really experimental. There's no book or standard operating procedure for how to do things. You don't go step one, step two, step three. It's completely up to you as a content creator to find out what works for you and what works best for your audience. You have to do a lot of experimentation because there isn't any wrong way to do it, and there's not really any right way to do it. It's just experimentation to do whatever you feel works out for you. If you want to try things, go as cheap as possible. If you know someone who wants to do this, give them the Fifine microphone I mentioned at the beginning. It's 30 bucks, and in my opinion, it's a decent microphone that works for a large range of people. You're not going to have the stunning, beautiful, crisp, bassy tones of a Shure SM7B, but it's not a $400 microphone either. Remember, even a $1,200 or $10,000 microphone will sound like garbage if it's not set up correctly. Take the time when you get your equipment to actually learn how to use it and set it up correctly. It might take you a couple days to figure out what the perfect sound might be, or in the case of video, different settings depending on when you do your recordings or live streams. That's why I like the content creation community. The independent creator community is very helpful. There are some outliers that are not very helpful or downright mean, but you can quickly see who they are and ignore them. The community is generally there to help each other succeed. As long as I can help one person, that's all that really matters. I'm not in this for getting thousands of likes or massive numbers. I'm the worst at self-promotion, but I do try. That's why I started IndieCreator.com, to help people share experiences, resources, and help each other better their experience as content creators and live streamers. If you're just starting out, remember: start cheap, experiment often, and don't let the lack of expensive gear stop you from creating. Some of the most successful creators started with basic equipment and focused on their content and personality first. The gear upgrades can come later as you grow and figure out what works best for your style and audience. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Holiday Gift Ideas for Creators...Are you looking for the perfect holiday gift for the content creator in your life? Or maybe, you're the creative genius yearning for new equipment to boost your production value! Either way, we've ...

Hey there, welcome to another edition of the Independent Creator podcast. I'm your humble host, and tonight we're diving into something pretty exciting. We're talking about Owncast, a brand new community initiative that just launched today, and a little bit about the broader independent creator landscape. So stick around, will you? What Makes Owncast SpecialLet's start with the big picture here. Owncast is really a fantastic place to be if you think about it. Not only is it open source and completely free, but all you need to do is pay for the hardware to host it on. Whether that's your own server or a hosting service, it's pretty much a drop-and-go piece of software. There's not much to it beyond live streaming and chat functionality, but that simplicity is actually its strength. If you're watching on our Owncast server right now, welcome! This is exactly what I'm talking about when I say it's a great way to take control of your live streaming and content creation. Here's the thing: I'm a big proponent of actually owning your content. What I mean by that is creating your own website, setting it up so you can post articles, blog posts, videos, whatever you want to your own space first. Then you share that content out to other social networks like Mastodon, Twitter (if you're still there), Threads, or Bluesky. Your website becomes the hub, and everything else becomes distribution. Why Content Ownership Matters for Live StreamingMost of us know live streaming through platforms like Twitch, YouTube Live, LiveSpace, or Facebook Gaming. These are great platforms, but here's what they don't give you: complete control. When you use Owncast, you have a live streaming setup that's entirely your own. Now, Owncast has been around for a while. We've covered this in previous episodes where I showed you how to set up your own Owncast server on hosting providers like Hetzner. You don't have to use Hetzner though. There's Linode, DigitalOcean, and many other hosting companies where you can run your own Owncast server. The best part? You can run an Owncast server on something as affordable as a $5 Linode instance. It might not run perfectly at that level, but you can always upgrade the CPU as needed since streaming does require some processing power. The point is, it's accessible and affordable. Customization: Making Your Stream UniqueOne thing I've been noticing is that when people set up Owncast servers, most leave them on the default theme. That's a missed opportunity because the customization options are incredible. Let me show you what's possible. I'm currently using a theme called "Twitchy" from Tainted Cipher. It gives your Owncast server a Twitch-like appearance with purple styling and alternating chat colors. I know not everyone wants the Twitch look, but it demonstrates how different you can make your stream appear. Here's how easy customization is. In your Owncast admin panel, go to Configuration, then General. You'll see three tabs, and the middle one is "Appearance." This is where the magic happens. Right away, you can change colors for backgrounds, hover effects, buttons, borders, text, chat backgrounds, and whether you want light or dark mode. You can customize headers, footers, and page content. It's all point-and-click easy. But if you know CSS, that's where things get really interesting. There's a CSS section where you can completely transform how your stream looks. I'll be honest, I don't have much CSS experience, but from what I've seen, once you understand what each section does, it becomes pretty manageable. I'm actually planning to make it my mission to create a custom theme and share it as a free resource on thisindiecreator.com. The great thing is, if you don't like what you've done, there's a "reset to defaults" button that takes you right back to the original look. A helpful tip: look up color wheels online to find complementary colors. You don't want to go crazy with a ketchup-and-mustard McDonald's look unless that's really your thing. Color wheels help you create professional-looking, harmonious designs. The New Community InitiativeThis brings me to the community initiative I mentioned at the beginning. We want to bring more community focus to Owncast because right now, people install the software and then go off on their own. That's great for individual content ownership, but we're missing opportunities for collaboration and knowledge sharing. We especially want to attract people who know CSS theming and customization because that's where we can really help newcomers make their streams unique. There's a Rocket Chat room you can join by going to owncast.online and clicking the Rocket Chat icon in the upper right. It looks like a little spaceship with three dots. You'll need to create an account, but once you're in, there's a new channel specifically for community building. As one of the community members put it: "We're starting a new Owncast community channel that's dedicated to discussing our streaming work, finding ways to help promote ourselves and each other, and in general, grow a social ecosystem around Owncast." This is bigger than just technical support. We're talking about monthly newsletters, content creator showcases, theme builder spotlights, and whatever other ideas the community comes up with. It's a snowball effect situation. One person gets the ball rolling, but it takes everyone to make it grow. Integration with the FediverseOne thing I love about Owncast is how well it integrates with Mastodon and the broader Fediverse. You can set up automatic posting when you go live. In your Owncast admin panel, go to Configuration, then Social. You can customize your "now live" message, and it will automatically post to your Mastodon account a minute or two after you start streaming. Here's a pro tip: follow your own Owncast account so those posts show up in your feed. Then you can boost them to your main followers. But don't just post "going live" messages all the time. That gets old fast. Mix in other content so your feed has variety. The beauty of Mastodon and the Fediverse is there's no algorithm. You see posts from people you follow and hashtags you choose to follow. You're in complete control of your experience. No one's trying to manipulate what you see to keep you scrolling longer. Why This Matters More Than EverSpeaking of algorithms and platform control, YouTube's recent war with ad blockers perfectly illustrates why owning your content matters. YouTube is actively slowing down video load times for users with ad blockers installed. Think about that. They're deliberately making their platform worse for users who want to protect themselves online. The FBI has actually recommended people use ad blockers to stay safe from malicious ads, but YouTube says using them violates their terms of service. It's a perfect example of how centralized platforms can change the rules whenever they want, and there's nothing you can do about it. This is why I'm big on alternatives like PeerTube for video hosting, Mastodon for social networking, and Owncast for live streaming. These platforms give you control over your content and your audience experience. Looking ForwardI'm consolidating my own setup to focus more on what works. I'm closing down my Indie Creator Hub Owncast server and moving everything to the Indie Basement server. All my content creation discussions, indie gaming coverage, and live streams will happen in one place. I'll still stream to Twitch, YouTube, and LiveSpace for reach, but my main focus is on the Owncast server. It's where I get the most genuine interaction and where people actually engage with the content rather than just scrolling past. Getting StartedIf you're interested in trying Owncast, it's easier than you might think. Many hosting providers offer one-click installs, or you can just paste a single line of code on your server and go through the setup process. You'll be live streaming in less than 10 minutes. Yes, there's a learning curve if you're not used to managing servers, but the community is there to help. I've had people walk me through troubleshooting when I hit snags, and that support makes all the difference. The goal isn't to replace Twitch or YouTube. Owncast is about giving you your own space on the internet where you make the rules. You can share the link anywhere you want, but the content and the community you build around it belongs to you. Join the MovementIf you're interested in being part of this community initiative, head over to the Owncast Rocket Chat and join the community channel. Whether you know CSS, want to learn, or just want to connect with other independent creators, there's a place for you. Check out thisindiecreator.com for more resources on alternative platforms and independent content creation. You can find our calendar of upcoming streams, blog posts about platform alternatives, and forums where we discuss this stuff in more depth. The independent creator movement is about taking back control of our content and communities. Owncast is just one tool in that toolkit, but it's a powerful one. Come join us and see what we can build together. Until next time, keep creating independently. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Owncast & The FediverseIn this insightful episode of the Independent Creator Podcast, we delve into the innovative world of self-hosted live streaming with Owncast, an open-source software that's rewriting the rules of b...

Hello everyone! It's been a while, hasn't it? Not too long, really, but just enough to make the heart grow fonder. And yes, as the title suggests, we're making some major changes to the show going forward. The Show Must Go OnFirst things first: the Independent Creator Podcast is not stopping. I know it's been a couple of weeks without new episodes, and that's completely on me. I've been thinking about different ways to improve the show, and I've decided it's time to shake things up. What's Changing?New Episode StructureThe biggest change you'll notice is how we handle the live streams. No more 10-15 minute housekeeping pre-show segments. When the stream starts, you get a five-minute countdown, and then we dive straight into the episode. This means the actual content begins within five minutes of going live. But here's the exciting part: I'm bringing the audience into the episode itself. Instead of saving chat questions for after the recording, I'll be integrating your comments, questions, and insights directly into the show. Why keep the audience out when you have such great contributions to make? From Weekly to Bi-WeeklyWe're shifting from weekly episodes to every two weeks. I know that's 52 weeks in a year, and honestly, that's a lot of content to maintain consistently. The alternative platform space doesn't always have the rapid news cycle of YouTube or Twitch, so spacing things out makes more sense. This change gives me time to collect better stories, discover new developments in platforms like Owncast, Mastodon, Blue Sky, and Gilded, and maintain the quality you expect without burning through all my episode ideas in two or three months. Streamlined ProductionEpisodes will run about an hour, maybe a bit more or less depending on the flow. There won't be separate after-show segments since I'm integrating audience interaction throughout. This makes my editing process much simpler and gets episodes to you faster. The new schedule: live stream on Tuesday nights, then the audio version drops on Wednesday across all podcast platforms. Expanding the Content UniverseWhile I'm scaling down the podcast frequency, I'm scaling up in other areas. I'll be creating more dedicated tutorial and setup videos that won't be part of the main podcast. Think detailed walkthroughs for setting up support bots in Guilded, Owncast configurations, or exploring forum software like Invision Community. Speaking of forums, there's big news: SMF is actively starting development on version 3.0. For anyone who's been in the forum-building space, this is huge. I want to bring more of my experience with platforms like Invision Community and Xenforo into the mix. Where to Find EverythingI'm excited to announce that Indie Creator Hub has been invited to join the TilVids ecosystem on PeerTube. TilVids is a collection of content creators who do edutainment-style content, which fits perfectly with our approach of combining tutorials with community interaction. Our community forum at indiecreator.community continues to grow. I'm still deciding whether to keep it as a separate entity or move it under the Indie Creator Hub domain. The forum covers independent content creation and indie game development, and I'd love to see you there. Future Plans: Interviews and MoreI'm also looking at incorporating interview-style episodes with people from the independent and alternative platform space. These won't be every episode, but special events where we can dive deep into their experiences and projects. The logistics can be tricky with different time zones, so I'm planning pre-recorded interviews that will play during regular episodes. It's all about working with people's schedules while maintaining the show's flow. Social Media ChangesOn the social front, I've completely left X (formerly Twitter). You can find me on Mastodon, Blue Sky, and Threads now. Mastodon and Blue Sky get most of my attention, while Threads is more for occasional fun posts. If you need a Blue Sky invite, I usually have a few available. Why These Changes?This is all part of the natural evolution of any creative project. I'm sure if you look at successful podcasts today compared to their early episodes, they're completely different shows. Nothing stays static, and that's the beauty of independent creation. The key is having fun with what you're doing. If you're not enjoying your creative work, people can tell. Right now, we're still in phase A of this project, experimenting with what works and what doesn't. And that's exactly where we should be. Looking AheadThese changes take effect starting with episode 11. Episode 12 will be in two weeks, following our new bi-weekly schedule. I might need to adjust around the holidays, but that's part of being flexible as an independent creator. The goal remains the same: providing informative, engaging content about alternative platforms and independent creation. Whether it's exploring new features in Owncast, diving into forum software, or discovering the next great alternative to mainstream platforms, we'll continue this journey together. Join the CommunityIf you're interested in connecting with other independent creators and indie game developers, definitely check out thisindiecreator.com. It's where our community lives, and unlike Discord, everything there is searchable and contributes to the broader conversation. You can catch the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Episodes drop every other Wednesday, with live streams on Tuesday nights at 9:30 PM Eastern. Thanks for sticking with us through these changes. I think you're going to love where we're headed. See you in two weeks for our next episode, and remember to own your content and explore those alternative platforms. The independent creator journey continues, and it's going to be a great ride. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Out With The Old, In With The NewWelcome to the Independent Creator Podcast, where we discuss alternative platforms and content creation. In this episode, we announce a major evolution for the show - we're becoming more dynamic, o...

Hey there, fellow creators! I wanted to take some time today to share my personal journey as a content creator and talk about the different platforms, tools, and techniques I've discovered along the way. Maybe some of this will resonate with you or help you find your own path in this wild world of content creation. The Early Days: Starting Small on TwitchMy journey started years ago as a tiny broadcaster trying my luck on Twitch. Back then, I was using a different account called Schrodember (yeah, I know it's a mouthful). I was going for that family-friendly content creator vibe, playing games like Minecraft, Roblox, Fortnite, and Overwatch. The name was actually a play on words combining Schrödinger's cat and ember, like fire embers. Pretty nerdy, right? But here's the thing about Twitch, even back then, the discoverability just wasn't there. You had to already be popular or really know what you were doing to get noticed. After a year or two, I was ready to try something different. The Mixer Era: When Things Got ExcitingThat's when I discovered Mixer. Microsoft had just bought Beam and rebranded it, and I thought, "Let me try this new thing." And you know what? It was actually pretty great. I found some success there, especially through a group called The Shed. We had collaboration nights and built a real community. What made Mixer special was their FTL protocol. We're talking sub-second response times, compared to Twitch's 8-10 seconds (and even worse on mobile). When someone typed in chat, I could respond almost instantly. It was a game-changer for real interaction. But here's the sad part. People on Twitch had this cult mentality, instantly writing off Mixer as "just a rip-off" without even giving it a chance. Instead of checking it out with an open mind, they dismissed it completely. That kind of thinking keeps you stuck in a rut. Unfortunately, Mixer didn't survive. It got killed by its own mismanagement, and Microsoft eventually pulled the plug. Such a waste of potential. Platform Hopping: The Search ContinuesAfter Mixer died, many of us scrambled to find a new home. I tried Trovo, which started with promise but then went completely overboard with gamification. Treasure chests, embers, sparks, arena battles, team battles, you name it. Everything became so confusing and overwhelming that it lost sight of what mattered: the streamers themselves. Then there was Glimish. Again, looked promising at first, but you could see the cracks early on. Small volunteer team, poor management, lack of consistent communication. They tried to rebrand as a "reimagining" but folded after just a few months. Now we have SharePlay, which announced beta access "in a few weeks" about a month ago. Radio silence since then. The Discord is basically dead, the hype has evaporated, and I'm predicting it'll be DOA (dead on arrival) when it finally launches. Finding Some Stability: LiveSpace and the Big PlayersThese days, I'm multi-streaming to several platforms, including LiveSpace, which I actually like quite a bit. It's more of a true platform than just a service, with community features and a Twitter-like feed. They offer an 85% revenue split and you get your sub button right away after connecting to Stripe. The problem? They need to promote themselves better. You can't just build it and expect people to come anymore. Of course, Twitch is still the king of live streaming, despite all its issues. YouTube is solid too, though they could make some improvements. The reality is, as content creators, we need to diversify and keep our eggs in different baskets. The Podcast Chapter: Beyond the Veil to Zero Point ReportSomewhere in this journey, I also got into podcasting. I became the technical director for a show called Beyond the Veil, which covered Secret World Legends news and updates. When that show ended, three of us continued with a new podcast called Zero Point Report, which we've been doing for a couple of years now. This taught me a lot about audio production, using tools like TeamSpeak initially, then moving to Discord, and eventually settling on Ecamm's interview mode. We've had up to six people in interview mode with no problems, which brings me to my next point. Tools of the Trade: What Actually WorksLet me talk about the technical side for a minute. I started with OBS like most people, and honestly, it's still the best free option out there. No monthly fees, no limitations, just solid, reliable encoding software. But a couple of years ago, I moved to a two-PC setup using Windows and Mac, and that's when I discovered Ecamm. This program has been a game-changer for me. Instead of relying on dozens of OBS plugins, Ecamm has most of what I need built right in. What you're seeing in my streams now, all these overlays and graphics, that's all built within Ecamm using their native tools. I don't need Photoshop or Canva for basic overlay design anymore. I can create shapes, adjust corner radius in real time, integrate chat from multiple platforms, and even do live demonstrations like this. The interview mode in Ecamm 4.1 supports up to 10 people, though your mileage may vary depending on your internet bandwidth. I'm running this on a base model M1 Mac Mini with just 8GB of RAM (yes, I should have gotten 16GB), and it handles three to four people without breaking a sweat. Lessons Learned: Advice for Fellow CreatorsHere's what I've learned after years of platform hopping and experimenting: Give things time. Don't switch strategies after just a week. Give new approaches at least three to six months to see if they work. You don't need the latest AAA games. The indie game market is wide open and often more engaging than big-budget titles. Start with free tools. OBS is incredibly capable, and there's no shame in using free software when you're starting out. Diversify your presence. Multi-streaming might not be for everyone, but having your content on multiple platforms protects you from sudden changes or shutdowns. Be willing to experiment. I've tried everything from family-friendly content to indie game reviews to podcasting. Each experiment taught me something valuable. What I'm Doing Now: The First Two HoursCurrently, I'm running a video series called The First Two Hours, where I dig into my Steam catalog and play games I've never touched (or played for less than 15 minutes). I've got about 300-400 games to choose from, so content isn't a problem. The format is simple: play for two hours, evaluate the mechanics, gameplay, audio, graphics, and give my final thoughts. It airs every Sunday at 9:30 PM Eastern on my 2TonWaffle channel. Looking ForwardThe content creation landscape keeps changing, and that's both exciting and terrifying. New platforms will emerge, others will disappear, and we'll all keep adapting. The key is staying flexible, learning from each experience, and not getting too attached to any single platform or strategy. Whether you're just starting out or you're a veteran looking to try something new, remember that everyone's path is different. What works for me might not work for you, and that's perfectly okay. The important thing is to keep creating, keep experimenting, and keep connecting with your audience. If you want to check out more of my content, you can find the Indie Creator Hub on YouTube or join our community at thisindiecreator.com. We do live recordings every Tuesday at 9:30 PM Eastern, and episodes go up the following Tuesday at 8 AM. Until next time, keep creating, and later taters! The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Streaming, Gaming and Indie Adv...Welcome back to the Independent Creator Podcast! I'm overjoyed to share my latest episode with you, where I peel back the layers of my journey as a content creator. Starting from my humble beginnin...

Hey there, content creators! Let's talk about something that might just revolutionize your streaming experience. If you've been manually typing the same responses in chat over and over, or feeling overwhelmed trying to manage your stream while engaging with viewers, this one's for you. What Exactly Are Chatbots, and Why Should You Care?Think of chatbots as your behind-the-scenes assistant that never sleeps, never gets tired, and never forgets to drop your Discord link when someone asks. These digital helpers are essentially the unsung heroes of successful streams, handling everything from basic commands to complex interactive features. When someone types "!discord" in your chat, instead of you scrambling to copy-paste that link for the hundredth time today, your chatbot instantly responds with your server invitation. But that's just scratching the surface. Modern chatbots can trigger walk-on music for your regulars, display custom graphics, manage channel points, and even run mini-games that keep your community engaged. The beauty of chatbots lies in their ability to free you up to focus on what really matters: creating great content and genuinely connecting with your audience. Instead of being tied to repetitive tasks, you can actually be present in the moment with your viewers. The Great Divide: Cloud-Based vs. Locally InstalledHere's where things get interesting. Not all chatbots are created equal, and choosing between cloud-based and locally installed options can significantly impact your streaming setup. Cloud-Based Chatbots: The Easy Entry Point Cloud-based bots live on servers somewhere in the internet ether, not on your computer. They're perfect for newcomers who want to get started quickly without drowning in configuration options. These bots excel at basic functions like commands, simple automations, and loyalty point systems. The downside? They can't deeply integrate with your streaming software. Don't expect them to automatically switch your OBS scenes when you change games or pull audio files directly from your computer. Locally Installed Chatbots: The Power User's Dream These bots run directly on your computer, giving them intimate access to your streaming setup. They can change OBS scenes automatically, trigger complex animations, play local audio files, and create truly immersive experiences for your viewers. The trade-off is complexity. Local bots come with more options, more configuration requirements, and a steeper learning curve. But for creators ready to level up their production value, they're game-changers. Three Chatbots Worth Your AttentionLet me walk you through three standout options that represent different approaches to stream automation. BeepBot: The Cloud Champion BeepBot represents what cloud-based chatbots can achieve when done right. It's free to use with optional pro features, and it strikes a nice balance between simplicity and functionality. What sets BeepBot apart is its "IF this BEEP that" system (a clever play on "IF this THEN that"). This feature lets you create automated responses to various events. When someone follows your channel, BeepBot can trigger overlays, play sounds, and post messages, all automatically. The platform supports multiple streaming platforms including Twitch, Trovo, and Kick, plus Discord integration. While it doesn't have YouTube support yet (thanks to YouTube's restrictive API policies), it covers most creators' needs effectively. Aitum: The Cross-Platform Innovator Here's where things get exciting for creators with complex setups. Aitum is one of the few locally installed chatbots that works across Windows, Mac, and Linux. For creators running multi-PC setups or mixing operating systems, this cross-platform support is invaluable. Aitum shines in automation. It can detect when you switch games and automatically update your OBS scenes, channel points, and overlays to match. Playing Cyberpunk 2077 for two hours then switching to Minecraft? Aitum handles the transition seamlessly. The bot also offers limited YouTube integration and supports MIDI controllers for advanced scene switching. At $4.99 monthly or $50 yearly, it's reasonably priced for the functionality you get, plus they offer a generous 30-day trial. Mix It Up: The Feature-Rich Veteran Originally created for the now-defunct Mixer platform, Mix It Up successfully pivoted to support Twitch, YouTube, and Trovo. This bot has had time to mature, and it shows in the feature set. Mix It Up offers everything from basic commands to complex mini-games, currency systems, and interactive stream avatars that viewers can control. It supports multiple broadcasting software including OBS, Streamlabs Desktop, and XSplit. The standout feature is its comprehensive approach to stream interaction. You can create inventory systems where viewers collect and trade items, set up elaborate giveaway systems, and even implement translation services for international audiences. Best of all? It's completely free. Making the Right Choice for Your StreamChoosing a chatbot isn't about finding the "best" option, it's about finding the right fit for your current needs and future goals. New streamers might start with something simple like BeepBot to get their feet wet, then migrate to more powerful tools as their channels grow. The good news is you're not locked into any single choice. Most chatbots allow you to export your commands and settings, making migration between platforms relatively painless. This flexibility means you can experiment and evolve your setup as you discover what works best for your content style. The Bigger PictureChatbots represent more than just convenience, they're about creating sustainable streaming practices. When you automate the repetitive aspects of stream management, you preserve your energy for the creative work that actually builds your community. Whether you choose a simple cloud solution or dive into the deep end with locally installed powerhouses, the key is starting somewhere. Your viewers will appreciate the smoother experience, you'll feel less overwhelmed managing your stream, and you'll have more mental bandwidth for the spontaneous moments that make live streaming magical. The streaming landscape continues evolving rapidly, and chatbots are evolving with it. As platforms like YouTube slowly open up their APIs and new streaming services emerge, these tools will only become more powerful and essential. Ready to give your streaming setup the upgrade it deserves? Pick a chatbot that matches your current skill level, start simple, and prepare to wonder how you ever streamed without one. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Maximizing Your Stream Workflow...In this episode of my Independent Creator Podcast, I dive deep into chatbots - what they are, why streamers use them, and the different types available. I explain the key differences between locall...

Let's talk about something that's been on my mind lately as I've been diving deeper into the creator economy. We all know the traditional routes for making money from our content, but what if I told you there's a whole world of monetization options that most creators are barely scratching the surface of? I've been exploring this topic for a while now, and honestly, it started from a place of frustration. When I learned that Twitch takes 50% of subscription revenue, it hit me like a cold splash of water. Think about it: if someone supports you with a $5 subscription, you're only seeing about $2.50 of that, and that's before taxes and fees eat into your share even more. But here's where it gets even more interesting. If you're running ads on Twitch and using their scheduler, you get 55% of the revenue. Turn off that scheduler though? They drop you down to 33%. That's a 20% penalty just for wanting control over when ads play during your stream. These numbers started making me wonder: what alternatives exist that give creators a better deal? The Card Game That Changed My Perspective One of the most fascinating platforms I've discovered is Streamloots. At first glance, it seems almost too playful to be a serious monetization strategy. The concept revolves around your audience buying card packs to interact with your stream in predetermined ways. Think of it as gamifying viewer engagement while creating revenue. The beauty of Streamloots lies in its variety. You can set up cards that range from mild inconveniences like playing a sound effect, to major challenges like forcing you to close your eyes for two minutes during an intense gaming moment. I've watched streamers use these interactions to create some genuinely hilarious content, and their communities seem to love the unpredictability. What really caught my attention was the revenue split. Streamloots offers creators around 85% of the revenue, which is significantly better than traditional platform cuts. They also provide subscription options and reaction systems that integrate seamlessly with most streaming software. The platform comes with pre-built card collections for popular games like Starfield, Valorant, and Minecraft, so you don't need to be creative genius to get started. You can literally pick a pack that matches the games you play and start earning within hours. The Simple Donation Route Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest ones. Ko-fi represents this philosophy perfectly. It's essentially a tip jar with subscription capabilities, and while it might not have the bells and whistles of more complex platforms, it serves its purpose effectively. What I appreciate about Ko-fi is its straightforward approach. People can send you one-time donations or set up monthly subscriptions, and the integration with streaming platforms is smooth. The downside is limited platform compatibility, currently only supporting Twitch and YouTube for chat integration. The All-in-One Solution Fourth Wall has become my go-to recommendation for creators who want to consolidate their monetization efforts. It combines memberships, direct donations, and merchandise into a single platform. The ability to offer exclusive Discord channels to supporters and provide member discounts creates a genuine community feeling around your brand. Setting up a merchandise store through Fourth Wall is surprisingly straightforward. You can sell everything from t-shirts to digital goods like stream overlays, and the integration with alert systems means every purchase becomes a moment of community celebration on your stream. The Integration Challenge Here's where things get tricky, and I want to be completely honest about this. Getting your audience to move away from familiar platform features to third-party services isn't easy. People are comfortable with Twitch subs or YouTube memberships because they're already part of their routine. I've found that transparency works best. Instead of discouraging platform subscriptions, I acknowledge them gratefully while gently mentioning alternative ways to support the stream. Something like, "Thanks for the sub! By the way, for anyone interested, I also have a merch store and membership options that help support the stream even more directly." The key is making these alternatives feel like enhancements rather than replacements. Stream Elements has been particularly helpful in this regard, offering a comprehensive suite that includes alerts, chatbots, loyalty programs, and merchandise stores. It creates a one-stop solution that feels natural to integrate. The Overwhelm Factor I'll admit it: when I first started researching these options, I felt completely overwhelmed. The sheer number of platforms and possibilities seemed paralyzing. Should I use Ko-fi or Patreon? Is Streamloots too gimmicky? Do I need merchandise right away? Here's what I've learned: you don't need to implement everything at once. Pick one or two platforms that align with your content style and audience, give them time to develop, and expand from there. Success in alternative monetization isn't about diversification for its own sake but about finding sustainable revenue streams that enhance rather than complicate your creative process. The Personal Comfort Zone I need to address something that many creators struggle with but rarely discuss openly: the discomfort of asking for money. There's this internal voice that makes you feel like a used car salesperson every time you mention your Ko-fi link or merchandise store. This feeling is normal, and if you're naturally introverted, it can feel even more challenging. The solution isn't to ignore this discomfort but to reframe it. You're not begging for money; you're offering your audience ways to support content they already enjoy. There's a significant difference between desperation and providing options. Making It Work Long-Term The reality is that building alternative revenue streams takes time. Don't expect overnight success or immediate adoption. Start small, be consistent in mentioning your options without being pushy, and focus on creating content that makes people want to support you in the first place. I've found that timing matters enormously. Mentioning your fourth wall store during a natural break in gameplay feels organic. Bringing it up every five minutes feels forced and desperate. The Community Aspect What excites me most about these alternative platforms is how they can strengthen community bonds. When someone uses a Streamloots card that forces you into a hilarious situation, it creates a shared moment that traditional donations can't match. When viewers see merchandise alerts pop up, it often inspires others to check out your store. These platforms turn monetization into community building, which feels much more sustainable and enjoyable than traditional revenue models. Moving Forward The creator economy is evolving rapidly, and the platforms that serve us are evolving too. While traditional revenue streams like Twitch subs and YouTube ad revenue will always have their place, exploring alternatives gives you more control over your income and often better revenue splits. Start small, be patient with the process, and remember that your audience wants to support you. Your job is simply to give them multiple ways to do so while maintaining the authentic connection that drew them to your content in the first place. The future belongs to creators who understand that diversification isn't just about financial security but about building sustainable, community-driven businesses around their passion. These tools are just waiting for you to explore them. The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Monetization Options - Stream I...In this episode of the Independent Creator Podcast, I dive into some alternative monetization options beyond just Twitch subscriptions. We'll explore platforms like StreamLoots, Ko-Fi, and FourthWa...

Welcome back to another deep dive, creators. I'm Josh, and today we're gonna tackle something that's absolutely crucial if you're serious about streaming or making YouTube content – DMCA-free music. Look, I get it. Music is huge for setting the vibe in your streams and videos. But here's the thing – if you're not careful, you could find yourself in a world of hurt with copyright strikes. And trust me, that's not a road you want to go down. Why This Matters More Than You ThinkLet me be real with you for a second. If you get hit with three copyright strikes on YouTube, your channel is done. Vaporized. Gone. And as a smaller or mid-sized creator, you've got basically zero recourse to get it back. All that work? All that content? It's just... gone. That's exactly why you need to diversify your content across platforms, but more importantly, you need to protect yourself with the right music choices. The Free Options That Actually WorkAlright, let's talk about what's available without spending a dime. Because hey, if it's free, it's for me, right? Stream Beats by Harris Heller This guy – the blonde poster boy of streaming – really made DMCA-free music mainstream. Now, I'm not saying he was the first to do it, but he definitely brought attention to what was going on, especially when Twitch was completely fumbling the ball with their copyright policies. Stream Beats has hundreds, maybe thousands of tracks you can use however you want. No credit required, though it'd be nice if you gave it. The best part? Harris actually provides sync licenses and copyright claim forms. So if you do get hit with a strike, you've got ammunition to fight it. Backing Track by EposVox If you're not into the lo-fi beats scene, PostboxPat's got you covered with rock, metal, and beyond. Another completely free option that gives you way more variety if Stream Beats isn't your vibe. NCS (No Copyright Sounds) This is more electronica and drum & bass territory. Great stuff, all free to use. But here's where I need to warn you about something... The Playlist Trap (Don't Fall for This)Here's where things get dangerous, and I can't stress this enough – just because someone makes a playlist and slaps "no copyright" in the title doesn't mean it's legit. You'll see playlists on YouTube and Spotify that claim to be official Stream Beats or NCS compilations, but they're not. Some random person threw together a playlist, maybe snuck in some copyrighted tracks, and now you're unknowingly playing music you don't have permission to use. Do your homework. Use the actual official accounts. Check the artist profiles. Don't just click on the first playlist that looks good because that's how you end up with a completely muted VOD wondering what the hell happened. The Paid Options Worth ConsideringSometimes you gotta spend money to make money, and these services are actually pretty solid investments. Epidemic Sound I'm gonna be straight with you – I use this service, and yeah, I've got an affiliate link if you want to try their 30-day free trial. But I recommend it because it's genuinely good. For about $18 a month (they just raised their prices), you get access to a massive library covering every genre you can think of, plus sound effects. The music quality is legit, and you can use it anywhere online. The 30-day trial is solid too – anything you create during that trial period, you can keep using even if you don't continue the subscription. Monstercat Gold This one's cheaper at $7.49 a month, but here's the catch – there are still some tracks you can't use for streaming even with a paid subscription. They call them "non-licensable tracks." It's kind of a catch-22, but the amount of music you do get access to far outweighs what you can't use. Pretzel Rocks This service is really geared toward Twitch streamers. They've got curated stations, which is nice when you just want to set it and forget it. But if you're streaming on other platforms or making YouTube content, you'll have a more limited selection of "YouTube-safe" tracks. The Bottom LineLook, protecting yourself isn't just about avoiding strikes – it's about being professional and respecting other people's work. These artists and services are giving you legal ways to use great music in your content. Take advantage of it. Whether you go free or paid is completely up to you. I'm not saying one is better than the other – they all have their place depending on what you need and what you can afford. But please, for the love of all that's holy, don't be one of those streamers who just plays top 40 hits and hopes for the best. That's not a strategy – that's playing Russian roulette with your entire channel. You've got options now. Use them. Got questions about any of these services or want to share your own experiences with DMCA-free music? Drop them in the comments below. And if you want more content like this, you know where to find me. Until next time, stay smart and stay protected. -Josh The Independent CreatorThe Independent Creator | Maximize Your Live Streams with...Welcome to another episode of the Independent Creator Podcast where it's all about helping you navigate the tricky world of content creation. This time around, I'm tackling an essential, yet often ...