Creating content sure is hard! About a year ago at the age of 47, I got an ADHD diagnosis. I always suspected, but it was good to just have some facts to back up feelings. I started on some medication, and I immediately started to do things I’ve always wanted to do but always put off.
I am an extrovert. I love engaging with people. Once covid hit, my normal outlets for social interaction went away. No more bowling, or playing cribbage on Friday nights at a bar on a warm summer night. By the time 2022 went around, the online portion of my social interaction was bearing a heavier load than I liked, and if you know me, I’m a talker.
It was then that I decided to start streaming at https://twitch.tv/TitoSantanaHS. There were several reasons for this, on top of the lack of social interaction. I play Hearthstone, and I want to improve. If I talk through my plays it might make me play slower (so far we are middling on that), and it might make me think through my plays more and look for other lines. In the last year, I have become better at the game, and a lot of that is because I started streaming and making other content.
Ah yes, other content. For most of us, it’s not enough to hit the ‘go live’ button. You need to bring people in. I just looked at Hearthstone on Twitch and 32.9K people are watching Hearthstone at eight in the morning on a Thursday. Seems like there should be plenty of people to go around, but just like in the real world, if there aren’t people there, other people most likely don’t want to be there either.
There are ways to bring people in artificially. You can advertise yourself on Twitter. Or X. Or BlueSky, or Threads, or… this helps, but most people that consume content on those platforms in your game of choice are more likely to watch established people. Completely understandable because we all want to spend our time wisely when we consume content, even if we sometimes find ourselves doom scrolling at two in the morning.
You can make youtube content, which also helps, but you also run into the same issues; You have to get eyeballs on that content which is NOT easy. The term viral isn’t new, and I think people think most things can go viral if it’s done well. This is false. You could make the best video of all time, and if nobody finds it, and nobody shares it, then you get no return out of it. Most of my youtube content gets 10-30 views, and sometimes I get over 500 views, which is such small potatoes it’s hardly worth mentioning. The more you put out there, if you work at it though, the more people will start to follow. I have just hit 50 subscribers, and that’s because I recently made a push to put out more content.
You could join a team like I have joined Hype Horizen. When you have a community around you, not only do you build up social networks and support systems, but you have a place and home to share your good and bad with, and work together to help each other hit their goals.
You could start a podcast, and I did that too. Honestly, this has been my most successful endeavor to date. Because I have spent the last few years being engaged in the Hearthstone community, we’ve been able to translate that to help from folks to get us off the ground and fantastic guests every week. While we still have less than 100 weekly listeners on the Bread and Butter Podcast (go sub now please!), we are growing and we are a known quantity to many in the community.
I also have run events where we have had popular people in the community compete against each other. The number of viewers I have had at these events has been good, but not what I have hoped for.
So to recap, I stream, make youtube content, do a podcast, and put on custom events. Sounds like I should be rolling around in viewers right? Most nights I stream to 4-10 people. Sometimes I spend the first 30-45 minutes streaming and talking to myself, because the people that regularly frequent my stream are busy, or didn’t notice that I went live.
I’m reflective now because I’m coming up on one year of doing this content thing. I want to be clear about a few things. I don’t do it for the money. I am a hobbyist, and I treat it as such. If I can’t prioritize something I want to make content on, it doesn’t mean I can’t put food on the table, it just means that’s one more idea that gets put in a box.
It is frustrating though when I see how little I’ve grown. I put time and work into what I do. So why am I not seeing the rewards? I know lots of amazing people and I’ve gotten raids from huge names in the community. So where are the results? Also if I’m not worried about making money why do I care?
Everybody who makes content does it for their reasons. Some people think that playing video games for a living is a dream they want to make happen, and honestly, most of them fail. Not because they aren’t talented or hard-working, but because it also takes a lot of luck. Others make content because they just want to do creative things and share them with the world. Even more, just want to play their favorite games with other people.
I have big plans for the next year. Will I realize those plans? Who’s to say, but for me, this content creation thing is more of a Journey than a destination.
This is my content creation story. I am one person in a sea of people online trying to make something happen in the content space. Every person out there has a story has dreams, has goals, and is looking to make a connection with a community they can call their own. If every once in a while you decided to take a few minutes to watch and interact with somebody that only has a few viewers (or no viewers!) you could make somebody’s day. You could find somebody that is thinking that they might give up on Twitch or youtube, and just a small interaction with them could inspire and motivate them. Perhaps you find somebody you enjoy watching as well.
Making content is hard, and most people just want to be seen. So if you give them a look, you could be doing more good than you realize. Until you try to make content yourself, you’ll never know how hard it is to be successful at it.
For some though, just having somebody stop by to talk for a few minutes while they are live, might be good enough.
Like what you’ve read? You can support TitoSantanaHS but purchasing some Hype swag from our shop using his referral link. Tito gets credit for the sale!
