Independent Creator Podcast
Uncover the hidden gems of the digital landscape for independent creators. Join us as we navigate the exciting world of alternative platforms and services, empowering you to forge your own path. Each episode reveals invaluable insights and tools to help you break free from conventional constraints and thrive as a truly independent creator. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just starting out, our mission is to equip you with the knowledge and resources to turn your creative vision into reality.
31 episodes in this category
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YouTube creators were in panic mode over mysterious view drops, but the real story isn't what you think. This week we expose the truth behind the YouTube drama that had major channels like Linus Tech Tips and Markiplier reporting massive analytics drops, plus reveal the game-changing platform updates you need to know about. What You'll Discover: The restricted mode myth that spread like wildfire across YouTube turned out to be completely wrong. We break down the actual cause behind the view co
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This episode of the Independent Creator Podcast examines the troubling rise of exploitation-based content on live streaming platforms, sparked by the recent death of French streamer Jean Pormanove during a live broadcast on Kick. Host Josh explores what he calls the "digital colosseum economy," where audiences pay to watch creators suffer for entertainment. The discussion centers on the growing phenomenon of IRL (In Real Life) shock content, where streamers endure physical and psychological abus
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Hey everyone! Wanted to share something that's been bugging me about our open source communities lately. The Problem: You know that moment when someone escapes big tech, tries Linux or other FOSS alternatives, asks a simple question in forums, and gets hit with "RTFM" or "let me Google that for you"? That's the elitism I'm talking about. My Wake-Up Call: Recently tried Fedora 42, had some gaming issues (Secret World Legends was a slideshow, Marvel Rivals wouldn't work), so I posted "Linux gaming
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Hey creators! Just dropped some thoughts on podcast stats and honestly, the numbers are wild. The Big Takeaway: 55.9% of Gen Z listens to podcasts via Spotify. That's MASSIVE when everyone keeps saying podcasts are dying because of TikTok and YouTube Shorts. Spoiler alert: they're not. Platform Breakdown: • Spotify: 55.9% (Gen Z powerhouse) • YouTube: 20.6% (climbing fast) • Apple Podcasts: Under 10% • Everything else: Small slices What's interesting: The 12-34 age group is glued to Spotify, whi
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Hey creators! Quick reality check: what happens when the algorithm changes overnight and your content just disappears? Most of us post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter thinking our content lives there forever. Wrong. You're posting to rented space that you have ZERO control over. It's at the whims of corporations that don't care about you or your content. The Apartment Problem Take Substack for example. Your URL is substack.com/yourname, not yourname.com. When people think of your content, they t
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my recent journey completely rebuilding my content creation workflow and file organization. Maybe this will help some of you who are struggling with the same mess I was in. The Breaking Point I spent years with a chaotic system of hard drives, random folder structures, and broken links everywhere. I finally hit the wall and decided to burn it all down and start fresh (well, moved everything to archives, but you get the idea). What I Tried: The PARA Method Start
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Hey everyone! With all the recent changes on Twitch and YouTube, I thought it'd be helpful to share some alternative live streaming platforms that might work better for your content creation journey. The Big Names Have Issues Twitch's new "monetization for all" sounds great, but let's be real - most streamers don't have the viewer numbers to make it profitable. Plus, discoverability on Twitch is practically nonexistent. YouTube Live has a better video player, but it's still not ideal for many cr
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Hey everyone! Wanted to share some thoughts on bringing people over to Mastodon, PeerTube, and other Fediverse platforms without burning bridges. The Reality Check Remember when Elon took over Twitter and we saw that massive influx to Mastodon? Servers crashed, people got frustrated asking "Why do I need to pick a server?" Most folks were so used to centralized platforms that the Fediverse felt alien, even though they'd been using similar federated systems (like email) for years. Start Small, St
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Hey everyone! Wanted to start a discussion about something that's been on my mind lately. AI is absolutely everywhere now, and it's wild how we went from almost nothing to this complete monsoon of AI in just a couple years. The Good, Bad, and Ugly We've seen some major fails recently. Remember that Coca-Cola holiday ad? Instead of paying actual artists, videographers, and designers, they went the cheap AI route. The result was terrible - six-fingered people, mangled logos, misspelled words. Peop
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Hey everyone, wanted to share some thoughts on the LiveSpace shutdown that just happened. This one hit different. What Actually Happened LiveSpace basically flipped a switch overnight. One day we got a notification saying they're shutting down, and boom - no more streaming. The writing was on the wall though. The past few weeks had been radio silent from their team, which was weird since they were usually super communicative. Why They Really Shut Down From what I'm hearing in their Discord, it c
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Hey everyone! Just finished recording another episode of the Independent Creator Podcast and wanted to bring this discussion here too. We spend so much time talking about what platforms can do for us, but here's the thing: most platforms don't actually care about us. We're just the product being sold to advertisers. It's a one-way street where we give everything and get almost nothing back except content to consume. The Algorithm Problem Places like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook force-feed us c
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Hey creators! Just wanted to share some thoughts on AI since everyone's either terrified of it or completely dismissing it. Here's the reality: AI isn't going to steal your job, but it can absolutely save you hours of boring work. Video Editing Game Changers: Descript lets you edit video like a Word doc. Upload your content, it removes ums and silence automatically. Yes, the AI voice cloning is creepy, but the time savings are real., CapCut and upcoming tools like River.com pull highlight clip
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Hey everyone! I've been exploring alternatives to Discord and wanted to share my experience with Guilded. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. What Makes Guilded Different Guilded is essentially Discord's feature-rich cousin. Same concept (servers, channels, voice chat) but with some major differences that caught my attention. The biggest shock? Everything is FREE. No nitro equivalent, no server boosts needed, no member requirements. You get: Custom server banners and avatars immediately, U
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my thoughts on FourthWall after diving deep into this platform. With Twitch raising sub prices globally (and likely coming to the US soon), it's time to consider third-party monetization alternatives. What makes FourthWall special? Unlike Ko-fi or Patreon where your data stays locked in their ecosystem, FourthWall gives you actual ownership. You get: Custom domains (mine is shop.twotonwaffle.com), 9 customizable themes with hundreds of combinations, Full web
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to share some honest thoughts about the struggles we all face trying to build communities around our projects. The Self-Promotion Struggle Anyone else terrible at promoting their own work? I'm really bad at going "Hey, come check out my stuff!" It's just not in my personality. The problem is we end up spread super thin trying to be jack-of-all-trades instead of focusing on what we do best. Generic Advice Doesn't Work for Everyone You've probably heard the "just post on
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Hey everyone! 👋" class="emoji" data-type="emoji" data-name=":wave:" alt="👋" draggable="false" src="https://discord.com/assets/82c4e269c8f910a4.svg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; height: var(--custom-emoji-size-emoji); object-fit: contain; width: var(--custom-emoji-size-emoji); text-indent: -9999px;"> I know we're literally ON Discord right now, but hear me out. As someone
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to share my thoughts on two promising new streaming platforms that are shaking up the Twitch/YouTube duopoly. SharePlay (shareplay.tv) Just entered beta about a month ago, Really clean interface with game graphics as backgrounds for channel sections, Solid analytics dashboard right from the start (followers, watch time, revenue tracking), Uses Stripe for payments, Small dev team but very responsive on Discord, Some stability issues (especially with non-OBS softwar
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Hey everyone! Just wanted to share some thoughts on what an incredible year 2023 has been for alternative platforms and indie creators. OwnCast Had a Breakthrough Year The 0.1.0 update was honestly a game changer. We got appearance customization (no more needing to know CSS!), custom emoji, chat colors, and external action buttons. Plus they removed Twitter integration since, well, we all know how that's going. The latest 0.1.2 version even added chat user leave events and better IP logging. Pee
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Hey creators! With the holidays coming up, thought I'd share some gift ideas for streamers/creators (or their loved ones who ask "what do they even need?") Audio First (Most Important!) Your mic matters more than your camera. Good audio = happy viewers. Budget tier: • Fifine TC777 ($26-30) - Perfect starter USB mic • Rode PodMic ($100) - Solid upgrade option Premium tier: • Beacon mics ($300) • Shure SM7B ($400 + $100+ audio interface) Video OptionsBudget: • Logitech C920/C922 ($60) - The classi
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Hey everyone! 👋" class="emoji" data-type="emoji" data-name=":wave:" alt="👋" draggable="false" src="https://discord.com/assets/82c4e269c8f910a4.svg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: bottom; height: var(--custom-emoji-size-emoji); object-fit: contain; width: var(--custom-emoji-size-emoji); text-indent: -9999px;"> Just wanted to share some thoughts on Owncast - an open-source, self-hos
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Hey everyone! Just wrapped up episode 11 and wanted to share some exciting updates about where we're headed. What's New: • Bi-weekly schedule instead of weekly (Tuesdays 9:30 PM ET, audio drops Wednesdays) • No more pre-show fluff - straight into content after 5-min countdown • Audience integration - your chat questions/comments become part of the episode! • Streamlined production - faster episode releases, better flow Why the changes? Honestly, 52 weeks is A LOT of content. Alternative platform
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Hey creators! Wanted to share my wild ride through the content creation world and maybe help some of you avoid my mistakes. The Platform Graveyard Started on Twitch years ago as "Schroedembert" (yeah, terrible name). Moved to Mixer when Microsoft bought Beam and honestly? It was amazing. Sub-second chat response vs Twitch's 8-10 seconds made real interaction possible. But the Twitch cult mentality killed it before mismanagement did. Then came the platform hopping: Trovo (death by over-gamificati
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Hey creators! Tired of manually typing the same responses in chat? Let's talk chatbots. What Are Chatbots? Think of them as your 24/7 streaming assistant. They handle commands (!discord), trigger walk-on music for regulars, manage channel points, and run mini-games. This frees you up to focus on actual content creation instead of repetitive tasks. Cloud vs Local: Which Path? Cloud-Based (Easy Start) Lives on remote servers, Perfect for beginners, Handles basic commands and automations, Can't
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Hey everyone! I've been diving deep into monetization options lately and wanted to share what I've discovered. We all know the traditional routes, but there's a whole world of alternatives that offer better revenue splits than the usual suspects. The Platform Tax Problem Twitch takes 50% of sub revenue. YouTube has similar cuts. Even worse, Twitch drops your ad revenue from 55% to 33% if you don't use their scheduler. That's a 20% penalty just for wanting control over your content! Better Altern
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Hey creators! Let's talk about something that could save your entire channel: DMCA-free music. Why This Actually Matters Three copyright strikes on YouTube = your channel is gone. Forever. All that work, all that content, just vaporized. As smaller creators, we have zero recourse to get it back. Free Options That Work: Stream Beats (Harris Heller) - Hundreds of tracks, completely free. No credit required. Best part? He gives you sync licenses and copyright forms to fight false claims. BackTrack
