[ADVICE] Building a Community
Thoughts and aspirations, in equal measure
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Hi, hey, hello.
Ever since starting on Substack, I’ve considered how I want to “build a community” and what that would look like not just for my sales or products but for creating a cohesive, thoughtful, and rewarding space.
If you've been a creator for a while now, you know engagement and conversion are two of the most lauded-after metrics. On Substack, I’ve found that engagement measures how many people like, comment, or share your work, and conversion is how many subscriptions, memberships, or purchases you earn from your content.
Community, however, is more than reactions and payments—it's an ephemeral thing closer to the idea of ‘belonging’—the sense that you feel like you’re a part of the group or that the creator you’re engaging with seems to understand and fulfill your wants and needs.
True community is magical. It can increase your creative output while making the work itself more attuned to what the people in the community actually desire. That said:
It’s not easy to make a community.
What some people call ‘community’ is actually fandom, which is very different.
What some people do to create community actually ends up doing the opposite.
So how does one go about creating a long-lasting community? You have to provide three things: a place people feel they belong, a place they feel respected, and a place they feel rewarded.
Belonging
One of the hardest aspects of creating a community (in this hobby in particular) is narrowing down your niche.
For instance, most of my subscribers come from past customers who’ve purchased my Dungeoneering ruleset. Does this mean my community wants more Dungeoneering content? Perhaps more importantly, does that align with what I want to do?
People can tell when you don’t care about the project and want to make money. It poisons the work and the community because it effectively turns them from equal members → consumers. Nobody enjoys getting sold to.
So, how do you avoid that trap? The foundation lies in finding and engaging with the right people.
Laying the Foundation of Belonging
At the start, it’s about more than just content—a community’s identity should reflect interests (and values!) that people genuinely connect with.
In these early days, there should be roughly 7-10 starting members of the community that fit your community’s identity.
As a slightly hotter take I’ve alluded to in the past, you also have to be ready to know when people don’t match the community you have in mind. This pruning isn’t meant to be rude or a commentary on the person’s values (at least, not all the time) but rather is a form of triage. You’re trying to keep this fledgling thing alive so it can grow — nothing kills that faster than misaligned expectations.
For example, my niche might start with Dungeoneering, but the real identity could be something deeper, like a shared love of dungeoncrawls, megadungeons, and world-building. Fans of Dungeoneering but not of the other three things above might not be a great fit for the community I’m trying to build.
This core group is the heart of your community. Reach out personally, share your vision, and more importantly—listen.
This is where most communities fail:
Earning trust is about building relationships that make members feel like they’re not just passive participants, but co-creators in the community’s future.
Once trust is established, find ways to bring these members together. Ideally, this is something that either results in a thing (like a collaborative project) or invites everyone to a momeny in time (like an event).
The key is interaction. This creates a bond that turns individual participants or fans into a community that is united in purpose.
Reinforcing Belonging with Appreciation
Another point of failure is in failing to show appreciation to early members. Personal shout-outs, behind-the-scenes access, or exclusive content make people feel valued — public criticism, avoidance, or ghosting doesn’t.
When people feel like their presence is important, they begin to see this community as a place they belong.
As your community grows, inviting new members who share the same values helps enforce that sense of belonging. Gradual growth — where existing members invite others — keeps the culture intact while expanding your community and avoids you being the figurehead of the community, thereby equalizing everyone.
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As a follow-up to this article, I’ve written an [ADDENDUM] where I put this advice to task and actually create a ttRPG community. I walk step by step through the process and, by the end, create a thing that people can actually join.
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Respect
Belonging lays the groundwork, but respect solidifies it. It’s not just about people feeling welcome — members of the community should feel understood and valued as individuals with unique contributions to make.
Building Respect in Your Community
Respect is all about agency. When members feel like their input matters, they’re more likely to contribute. Some methods that provide agency:
Leadership opportunities within the community (such as moderation of content, the technical aspects of managing the community’s members, etc.) not only make members feel respected, it also just makes your job easier.
At this stage, the thing I wouldn’t suggest is to create subgroups within the community that are totally disparate from each other.
Generalized spaces for open conversations where members can express their ideas or concerns without needing prior approval are key. Having those places behind (seemingly) closed doors or in subcommunities within the community can make members feel like they’re not invited or are intruding.
Highlighting members’ contributions publicly shows that efforts are seen and genuinely appreciated. Whether they’re providing feedback, participating in discussions, or helping moderate, people should feel like their labor is helping build the community.
Removing Disrespect and Toxicity
That said, respect also means setting clear community guidelines and boundaries. People posting things that feel antithetical to the goals of the community and their values can very quickly sour the experience.
By enforcing guidelines and boundaries to the point where you need to remove someone, it can feel like you’re ostracizing members who may have fringe opinions or, perhaps, seem like they’re the ones who need community the most.
There are two things you have to drill into your brain, however, that prevent you from allowing bad actors to use your community as a vessel for their intentions:
It is not your responsibility to provide a place for EVERYONE - it’s only your responsibility to provide a place for people who agree with your community goals and values.
You are, most likely, not a licensed therapist or psychiatrist. It’s not your responsibility to reorient someone to your values if they’re not there already.
It’s important to remember that while, yes, it DOES SUCK having to reject and remove members, it ultimately helps create a safe environment for everyone who is invested in the values you all set out for in the beginning. People are more likely to engage when they trust the space is respectful and free of toxicity.
Reward
Right out of the gate, reward is more than prizes or freebies — it’s about recognition, feedback, and creating an environment where members feel that their efforts are appreciated and reciprocated.
Incorporating Rewards into Your Community
Free stuff certainly can be a hook to get people to check out your community, but as soon as you run out of stuff to give out and don’t have the structure to capture those people and convert them into genuine members of the community, they’ll leave.
For example, someone offering quick-start rules for their game can certainly introduce people to a community but if it stops there and there’s no on-ramp into further creative outlets or recognition, they’ll just take their free PDF and move on.
The best rewards (from a community-building perspective) isn’t material product — its recognition. Highlighting engaged members, showcasing their contributions, or giving them special roles within the community are all rewards that focus on intentionality and future growth.
Other rewards could look like:
Involving members in the creative process. For example, inviting community members to contribute ideas to a project or participate in shaping future content makes them feel like their engagement has a direct impact.
Acting on member feedback and suggestions shows the impact of their contribution, therefore reinforcing their value. This feedback loop becomes a form of reward in itself as members feel that their voices matter and their opinions shape the direction of the community.
Celebrating achievements with your community rewards them for their ongoing support and makes them feel invested in future successes. It could be an anniversary, a milestone completion for a project, or just showing off someone’s hard work.
The important thing to remember about rewards is that they should feel like they feed the overall community and create more opportunities, rather than simply giving away product. People want product, but they need a sense of purpose. Your community should offer both but focus on the latter.
If you’ve done it right, they both should come naturally.
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Brilliant, as usual. I hope that Watch Well Games will one day reach its goal of being a true community 🤍