Category: Content Creation

Content Creation is a very broad term for anything posted on the internet for the world to consume. Content creation includes livestreaming, video posting (long form and short form), graphic design, writing content, photo posting, and more. There are many platforms content creators can use to boost their content, from Twitch and YouTube to TikTok and Instagram, and many more lesser known platforms. This category is all about the different forms of content creation, and how you can grow as a creator.

How to Create the Most Engaging Community Discord Server

A start-to-finish guide to set up a fun and engaging Discord server for your community, from channels and roles to moderation and safety.

As a content creator, it is very common to have a Discord server to bring your community together from multiple platforms. This server allows the creator to connect with their community on a more personal level, meeting them in voice chat lobbies and maintaining conversations in text chat channels.

Starting a Discord server is easy and doesn’t take much time, and you can make your server as simplistic or detailed as you’d like. I’ll show you how to create a new server, and then how to fine-tune it to meet your needs for your community.

Create a New Discord Server

On your Discord landing page, go to the bottom-right, below your list of active servers, and click/tap the plus symbol labeled “Add a Server”.

From there, you can decide whether to start from scratch or use a template. The templates are simple, providing you with a few text channels and voice channels.

If you’ll only be using your discord server for a small group, such as your close friends, you may not be interested in the Community features. However, if you plan to include a link to your server on your social media platforms, then the Community server would be ideal for you.

Finally, name your server and upload a photo to identify it. My community server is called Vilendria’s Army. Feel free to join it and inspect the layout!

Ta-da! You are now the proud owner of your very own Discord server! Now we’re going to get into the fine-tuning, establishing channels, roles and setting up the moderation settings.

Server Settings

In your new server, there’s a dropdown window next to your server’s name. This window is the control panel for your entire server, containing everything from roles and invites to audit logs and moderation settings.

Your server will need certain channels and categories based on the needs of your community. You may already have an idea of what these needs might be, which is fantastic. If you don’t know yet, that is perfectly acceptable too, and you can keep the server very simple until you learn those needs.

Channels and Categories

I started as an Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim streamer, and my heart belongs to the Thieves’ Guild, so I made my discord server follow a guild theme. I titled my personal role “Guildmaster”, and my moderators in the server are titled “Guild Officers”. My “rules-and-guidelines” channel is located under my “Lobby” category. My “announcements” channel is located with other channels under the “Message Board” category, and my general community chat channels and voice channels are under the “Guild Hall” category. Finally, my moderators have their own category called “Office”, where we can discuss important matters without involving the entire community.

My Discord server has been around since the beginning of 2021, so of course it has years of fine-tuning. When I first created it, there was a text channel, a voice channel, and a channel specifically for pet photos (that is still around btw). Don’t aim for perfection right away; I promise over time it will grow into itself.

Roles

To follow suit with the Guild theme, I established roles for my community members. I already said my role is Guildmaster and my mods are Guild Officers. The rest of my community is broken down into 3 roles – Recruits, Members, and Veterans. Recruits are members that accepted the rules after they joined. Once they show some interaction and engagement, I promote them to Members. Those that stick around for a long time get promoted to Veterans and are generally among my closest friends because we’ve had that amount of time to bond.

Making Private Channels and Categories

I wanted my server to have a few channels that are private to specific roles. For instance, my veterans are my closest friends, and sometimes I want to be in voice chat with them, but not necessarily any member in the server. So I created my Vet voice channel, and made it private. In the privacy settings, I permitted the roles of the moderators, myself, and the Veterans to the channel. There are many configurations you can choose for private channels, but I keep mine simple and make my private channels invisible for the roles that do not apply to them. I also made my moderator category and all of its channels private to myself and my moderators.

Moderation Settings

Now that you have your channels, categories, and roles established, we can set up the moderation settings to keep your Discord server safe. As a content creator, you may have a public discord link. A public discord server means there may not always be innocent users joining. Some users create a mass amount of bots and add them to your server. These bots can wreak havoc, posting inappropriate links and content in various channels. Without the proper safety settings in place, this can be a stressful situation to deal with. Let’s avoid those issues and get our backup plan in place.

Safety Setup

In a community server, there are 4 sections in the Safety Setup category. Each of these sections covers an important part of moderation. From Raid Protection, DM and Spam Protection, AutoMod, and Permissions, you can establish security checkpoints in your server to block potentially catastrophic events.

Raid Protection and CAPTCHA

Raid Protection and CAPTCHA allows you to opt in to notifications if activity is unusually high. I chose to send these notifications to my moderator channel, because I don’t want to disturb my community, but I do want my mod team to be aware of the issues. CAPTCHA is required for any suspicious users (new users, unverified users, etc) and users trying to join during a potential bot raid.

DM and Spam Protection

Select your verification level for new users joining your discord server. I opted for high security, requiring a user to have a verified email and have their account registered for 10 minutes before they can join my server. I opted for new members to be blocked from viewing channels and interacting until they accept the server rules. DM and Spam Protection also puts suspicious DMs into a separate Spam Inbox as opposed to your inbox. Unknown users’ DMs are requested rather than immediately listed in your inbox, and the server sends a warning to every user attempting to click a link.

AutoMod

AutoMod gives you the ability to block specific words, phrases, and spam. I organized my member roles specifically to avoid the @everyone spam mention that is so common in discord servers. These spam settings also report to your selected channel when suspicious activity occurs.

Permissions

Permissions allows you to require your moderators to 2FA before they execute moderator actions such as banning, kicking, and timing out members. I opted out of this option, because I feel that if my moderators are taking action, it’s likely serious and requires immediate action. Therefore, I don’t want them to have to take those extra steps to protect the community. Permissions also removes risky permissions from the @everyone role. This is also why I organized my members all into different roles. @everyone is never used in my server.

Audit Log

You can view every change that’s been made in your server here. From name changes to bans and kicks, every moderator action is listed with timestamps. If anything happens without your knowledge or permission, there’s a paper trail.

Bans

This simply lists banned users from your server. You can add notes to these users so your mod team all knows why they’re banned.

Additional Options

Now that you’ve finished the basics of setting up your Discord server, you can invite your friends, add your invite link to your social media platforms, and start building your community. There is plenty more you can do with your server, and you can tinker with it and really make your brand shine with it. Enjoy your safe and organized server!

February 13, 2025
Variety Streaming Actually CAN be Successful

Various Types of Streamers

Streamers grow their communities and their careers by streaming similar content every time they go live. For most streamers, that means they’re playing the same game, drawing in viewers that also enjoy that game. These viewers return every stream to watch this specific game being played, and also draw attention to more viewers by putting that streamer higher on the recommended broadcasts feature presented by the streaming platforms.

But what if a streamer decides not to play the same game every stream? What if they play a different game every time they go live? Variety streaming is very common, because variety gamers are very common. These gamers don’t enjoy playing the same game every day; they get bored and burnt out, and in general prefer changing things up often. There are many variety streamers that have sizeable followings and brand recognition.

There is strong evidence that variety streaming is not feasible for creators wanting to grow their brands and communities. This is because viewers that enjoy specific games won’t watch the streamer when they play something other than the viewers’ game of choice. Many small streamers are stuck trying to grow their communities while playing a variety of games when they’re live. How did the large creators gain their popularity by variety streaming? Unfortunately, many of these large streamers started as niche streamers, playing the same game on stream and growing their communities. They only started variety streaming after they grew their popularity.

There is a way to grow and succeed as a variety streamer.

Although variety streaming has significant challenges, there is a secret to growing your community and your brand as a variety creator. You can play different games every stream and see the same viewers every time.

Something has to be consistent every stream.

If you’re variety streaming, then your game is not consistent. You’re losing out on the viewers that enjoy one specific game, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still grow as a creator. As long as there is something prominent in your stream that is consistent, you can succeed as a variety streamer. You could play games in one specific genre, such as horror or strategy games. Competitive games can also be a specific niche for your streams. You can build your brand around a specific theme or aesthetic, such as as dark, cozy, or fantasy. If you have pets, or you collect things, those can be regular features on your streams that keep viewers coming back. As long as there is one thing that’s consistent every single stream, you have the opportunity to grow your community and your brand.

To further establish that consistency in your streams, you should make your brand assets reflect it as well. Whatever your chosen form of consistency is, your stream panels, emotes, overlays, alerts, and other assets should point it out. This develops your brand around your niche, which is the key to succeeding as a streamer. Your viewers will grow into community members eager to see your content.

Variety streaming can be successful, as long as you have one thing that’s consistent every stream. Find your consistency, and go for it!

January 28, 2025
StreamLabs or StreamElements: Which is Better for the Best Stream?
A general comparison of both platforms so you can make the best decision for your stream.

If you’re a streamer, you may feel the need to integrate a system on your platform to improve the look, feel, and functionality of your streams. You might see other stream channels with fancy overlays, special stream alerts, and fun chat commands. These assets generally come from one of two platforms: StreamLabs or StreamElements. Both of these platforms are great for streamers, and there’s no unanimous favorite between the two; each creator selects the one that best meets their needs.

StreamElements

StreamElements is a cloud-based streaming platform that allows you to connect to your OBS as a plugin, managing all of your stream assets without downloading them.

StreamLabs

StreamLabs is a streaming platform with options to use as a cloud-based OBS plugin or as a fully functional streaming software by itself. You can use StreamLabs as an addition to your broadcasting software or download it to your desktop and not need any additional software to stream to your channels.

Similarities

StreamElements and StreamLabs have a lot in common as far as assets they provide for your streams.

Overlays

StreamElements and StreamLabs both offer a variety of overlays and themes to choose from, including specific games and genres to make your overlays match your overall brand.

Alerts

You can create a unique collection of alerts and variations with StreamElements or StreamLabs. The most common alerts for streams are follows, subscribers, bits, donations, and raids. Users can add variations to these alerts as well, like new subscriber vs returning subscriber (resub) or different alerts for higher bits or donations .

Chat Commands

You can add chat commands into your stream, with absolutely endless possibilities. StreamElements and StreamLabs offer easy commands to start with, and allow you to create your own. These are the most common commands streamers add to their chats:
- Shoutout: a shoutout command recognizes a friend or fellow creator to the streamer or their community, and links their channel in the chat for viewers to click
- Discord: links the streamer’s community discord server for viewers to join
- Lurk: allows viewers to send a message to chat that they’re going to “lurk”, or keep the stream window open to count for a view, even though the viewer may be stepping away or otherwise not engaging in the stream chat
There are plenty of other command options, but these are a great start to get your viewers engaged in your stream.

Donations

StreamElements and StreamLabs offer donation or tipping settings. They create a safe link between you and your viewers, so you can receive donations without compromising your viewers’ information or your own.

Merch

Both platforms allow you to design your merch store, creating items specifically for your brand that your community may want to purchase.

Loyalty

StreamElements and StreamLabs offer loyalty programs for your community, allowing you to develop contests, giveaways, and rankings.

Goals and Labels

You can add labels and goals to your stream, such as a donation goal or a recent followers label. You can create these goals and labels on either StreamElements or StreamLabs, and they will add those into your stream for your community to see live, with live updates.

Moderation

Moderating a stream can be hard when your focus is already on several things, like your content, your chat, and your activity feed. StreamElements and StreamLabs offer some moderation help, like banned words in chat to keep your community safe.

Differences

Cost

StreamElements prides itself on being 100% free, while StreamLabs has their Ultra membership that gives users unlimited access to every tool on their platform. As of January 2025, StreamLabs Ultra is $27/month or $189/year, the annual membership being the cheaper option for users.

CPU Usage

StreamElements is cloud-based, using less CPU usage as a plugin for OBS. Meanwhile, StreamLabs can be used as a plugin, or you can use it as a complete broadcasting software, which would be heavier on the CPU usage.

Multistreaming

StreamLabs offers multistreaming, also known as simulcasting, where streamers can broadcast their livestream to multiple platforms at one time. This feature is not offered by StreamElements.

User Experience Level

StreamLabs is designed more for beginners, with everything in one place and easy to use. StreamElements has more adjustment features, making it great for more seasoned creators that have experience with OBS.

App Add-Ons

StreamLabs has an app store that allows you to integrate more features into your streams, while StreamElements does not offer an app store.

Customization

StreamLabs has limited customization options, while StreamElements allows you to customize nearly everything in your stream.

StreamElements or StreamLabs?

Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide which platform would better suit your streaming needs. Try each of them out and see which one has the options you need. If you’re looking for a platform that will get you some assets quickly and with minimal effort, then StreamLabs may be the better option for you. Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a platform that gives you complete freedom with your assets, you may want to look into StreamElements.
January 23, 2025
How to Begin a Career as a Content Creator

Some Basic Do’s and Don’ts of Content Creation

Becoming a content creator as a career became a popular idea when COVID-19 shut down the world. Millions of people suddenly found themselves at home with more time on their hands than they ever thought they’d have. Gamers suddenly had all the time in the world to game. People who never played video games before started gaming.

More free time also meant more time to scroll on social media, make connections with people, and find safe spaces and communities with others. These communities connected people with content creators, showing them a potential business opportunity for themselves. Content creators started popping up from all over the world, on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitch, among other platforms. The content varies from video game live broadcasting, also known as streaming, long-form and short-form video content, and graphic design content.

If you want to know how to get started as a content creator, I can help you. There is a lot to consider, but I’ll keep it as simple as possible for starters.

Do’s and Don’ts of Content Creation

Don’t: Quit Your Job

Growing as a content creator takes time and dedication. If you’re thinking “I’m going to invest in a professional-grade streaming setup, go live, and quit my job the next day”, I have to hit you with some reality. No one succeeds at content creation overnight, and you will not be the exception to that rule. Creators don’t become popular just by playing video games. There is much more to it, and it takes time.

Do: Create Content on Multiple Platforms

The creator space is highly saturated with creators of varying niches and sizes. This market, while friendly to newcomers, is not going to flood you with viewers, followers, and subscribers. Your massive community won’t come stampeding in with fan-made picket signs. You have to work on multiple platforms, maintain consistency with your brand and your content on each platform, and people will start to notice you. The best platforms to create content on are TikTok, Twitch, YouTube, and Instagram.

Do: Network with Other Content Creators

Making connections with similar creators is a very important aspect of content creation. You want to meet creators like yourself, at various points in their content creation career, from veterans that spent years building their brand, creators that are grinding but haven’t quite met their goals, and new creators like yourself. Evaluate their brands, and see what sets them apart from every other creator. You want to see how they engage with their communities, what incentives they have for their viewers, their followers and their subscribers. You also want to determine what you do and do not want to do with your own brand. This isn’t an objective of comparison. You’re not deciding what you’re going to do better than these other creators. You’re deciding what you’re going to do differently that will set you apart from them, along with other creators.

Don’t: Promote Your Content in Other Creators’ Communities

You can gain attention on social media and direct it to your primary creator platform in various ways. You can post trendy videos promoting your channel and profile, describing your content, posting clips of your content, etc. What you shouldn’t do is infiltrate another creator’s space with the sole intention of promoting yourself to their community. These creators put so much time and effort into their work to build their communities of supporters. For a new creator to enter these communities, play the part of a supporter, and then drop links to their own profiles and content is disrespectful to those creators. You don’t want to be known as the creator that tries to steal supporters from other creators.

Do: Find a Niche for Your Content

The content creation market is highly saturated with creators. This means that it’s going to take a lot of work to draw in supporters, because there are so many other creators they could be supporting. You can more easily grow your brand and your community of supporters is by finding a niche, or a much more narrowed down category of content. Popular niches for content creators are cozy, horror, strategy, adventure, multiplayer, and so on. You could even niche yourself down to one specific game, which might make starting out as a creator even easier. If you create content for one single game consistently, fans of that game will likely find you and start following your content. From there, you may decide to expand to a specific genre, or even variety, but starting out with as narrowed of a niche as possible will improve your chances of growth greatly.

Do: Stay Consistent with Your Content

In order to succeed as a content creator, you need to be consistent. That means maintaining your content on a regular basis. Publish your content schedule on your social media platforms, and stick to that schedule. When supporters find you, they will look for your content at those scheduled times, and if you’re not consistent with it, they’ll find another creator that is. Many platforms have algorithms, and if you maintain that consistency, you will be inserted into that algorithm and pushed out to users with similar interests to your current followers. That means you’re expanding your reach, and growing as a creator.

Do: Make Sure You Have What You Need

Every creator has their “dream” creator space – their stream setup, their video editing space, their gamer space. I have a post that lists the 10 things you need as a streamer, and most of these things branch out to most other forms of content creation as well. You don’t need all the professional quality tools to get started – just some basic utilities to make your career easier.

Get Started

These are the small basic points of content creation as a newbie. If you stick to the basics, keep your brand simple but unique, and maintain your network and connections, you’ll start yourself on the right foot as a creator. Content creation is a fun experience, even if you’re trying to make it a career. Make sure you’re always having fun with it. I believe in you! You’ve got this.

January 16, 2025
10 Things You Need to be a Successful Streamer

10 Things You Need to be a Successful Streamer

Streaming can be overwhelming, especially if you consider everything some streamers use to improve the quality of their streams. Let me assure you that you don’t have to buy into all of these products for your stream to look good. In fact, you can start streaming with just 10 things, and the quality and experience of your stream will be just fine. I try to stay on the minimalist side for my streaming setup because I enjoy having more open space on my desk. And I haven’t felt the urge to add more tech gear to this setup. My basic streaming needs are met, and if you’re a minimalist like myself, hopefully these 10 things will suffice for too.

1. Headphones

A good set of headphones is a must for every streamer. You want to be able to hear new alerts for your stream without those alert sounds traveling right into your microphone and creating an echo on your stream. I strongly suggest acquiring a wired headset, because I personally get flustered when I have to charge more devices.

My Gear: I use the Razer Kraken Ultimate (discontinued). Razer has several series of headphones available, but I love the Kraken series for their sound settings and how well the headphones fit my head.

2. Microphone

You don’t want to stream with the microphone that’s built into your headphones, trust me. If you want to hear the sound quality difference, check out this video with the headphone mic, and this one with the independent mic. In addition to improved sound quality, microphones also have different directional features. Depending on the style of your stream, you might want a bidirectional, omnidirectional, or cardioid microphone.

My Gear: I use the Razer Siren V2 Pro, connected to a mic arm so it doesn’t pick up all the little sounds on my desk.

3. Mouse

A wired mouse is best for gaming and streaming, because you have a faster response time than you would with a wireless mouse. This difference may not be entirely noticeable in some games, but in multiplayer games, and especially competitive games, you can feel the difference. And again, I hate recharging things, so there’s the added benefit of not having to charge a wired mouse.

My Gear: I play with the Razer Basilisk (discontinued) because it’s smaller and my smaller-than-average hands feel much better with it than with a standard mouse.

4. Keyboard

Keyboards are so diverse that it takes some research to determine exactly what you want. Again, I would opt for a wired keyboard, due to response time, and of course, to not have to charge it. Beyond that, there are different switch types in keyboards you need to consider. There are 3 types of switches: linear, tactical, and clicky switches.

✵

Linear Switches

Smooth and quiet, not audible clicks. Even pressure throughout the keystroke.

✵

Tactical Switches

Have a small pressure point about halfway down to show you that you’ve successfully pressed the key.

✵

Clicky Switches

Similar to tactical switches, but with a noticeable clicking sound when the pressure point is met.

My Gear: I use the Razer Huntsman V2 with clicky switches because I love the light feel of the keys and the clicking noises.

5. Controller

If you don’t want to play and stream with a mouse all the time, getting a comfortable controller is a necessity. I was a PlayStation girl before I switched to PC gaming, so sometimes being able to sit back with that Dualsense controller feels much more relaxing than forward-leaning mouse gaming.

My Gear: I use a Sony PS5 Dualsense controller.

6. Dual Monitors

Having more than one monitor is almost a complete necessity for streamers. You have to be able to see what you’re playing on one screen, and your stream on the other, complete with your stream’s chat, your activity feed, and your stream stats (connectivity, frames, etc). You don’t have to have two high-end gaming monitors, use what you’re comfortable with. Your video quality doesn’t impact the stream’s quality.

My Gear: I have a 27″ and a 23″ (discontinued) ASUS gaming monitor. Both of these monitors can pivot from landscape to portrait orientations.

7. Capture Card

If you’re streaming content from another device, you will need a capture card to connect that device to your streaming device. A capture card connects via HDMI and captures both the display and the audio of the game you are playing, and transfers it to your streaming computer to broadcast it.

My Gear: I use the Elgato HD60 X when I’m playing games on my switch that I want to stream.

8. Desk Switchboard

A desk switchboard will make streaming much easier. You can have a button for every streaming need right at your fingertips. You can have a button to create a clip on your stream, one to mute and unmute your microphone, buttons to transition your stream scenes, and buttons to start and end your stream.

My Gear: I use the Elgato Stream Deck MK.2, though I would love to upgrade to the larger Stream Deck XL in the near future for more buttons per page.

9. Webcam

If you want to show your face on your stream, you’ll need a webcam. The primary things to look for in a webcam are resolution, frame rate, and basic adjustment properties. A good webcam resolution starts around 1080p, and a frame rate of 30fps is smooth enough starting out, as long as you keep quick and sudden movements to a minimum.

My Gear: I use the Razer Kiyo Pro. It has bright light and low light settings, along with narrow and wide field of view settings, plus advanced adjustment settings for the real video savvy users.

10. Lighting

Having good lighting on your face will make your stream much more visually appealing to viewers. I wouldn’t recommend a ring light, because the light it casts on you is quite inconsistent. Instead, I would get LED light panels, one for each side of your setup so the lighting is more even and consistent on both sides of your face. Having just one light will cast a shadow on the other side of your face, and that is quite visible to your stream.

My Gear: I use a generic ring ling from Amazon, but when I make my next upgrade, it’s going to be the Elgato Key Lights.

These 10 products will help keep your streaming process smooth and make your stream look and sound good. I’m not one to get the high-end product lines, really ever. If it functions and the quality is good, I’m happy with it. I hope these recommendations make your streaming easier as well!

January 10, 2025