August Challenge: Support a Creator

In June, I gave a challenge to my readers to delete a social media app from their phone for a month. It has been two months and I am happy to say I will never install Twitter on my phone ever again! Heather has also gone strong and finds no need to install Facebook back on to her iPhone! I figured for August I would do something a little bit different and put out a challenge to give back to the community of creators out there. I have been using open source software for years, watching & reading amazing content, and now have the ability to interact with amazing people in real-time on Twitch and YouTube. So, let's go forth and support these creators that are out there every day creating awesome things.

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Let's start with a few ways you can throw a few dollar bills to a creator to help them out. If you are into watching streamers, you can subscribe to their channel or throw a few bits their way. I actively try to subscribe to 3 Twitch channels each month:

GitHub now allows developers to add a beautiful little "Sponsor" button on any GitHub repo where developers can add their BuyMeACoffee, Patreon, or other ways to contribute.

Just a few coffees can go a long way, and look at how happy this contribution screen is:

If your creator isn't on GitHub then make sure to look at their website and surely you will be able to find a way to support them!

SMASH THAT LIKE BUTTON

I don't want you to read this article and think that you have to spend money to support a creator. In fact, you don't have to spend any money at all! Every creator out there always asks for those follows, likes, stars, or subscriptions. On Twitch a follow and notification toggle will be sure you get notified when they go live. It also helps the streamer hit specific goals that the platform has set. So jam on that follow button!

Send a Pull Request

There is nothing like doing a little work on code to help support a creator and a project. I absolutely LOVE pull requests to any of my GitHub repos regardless if they are large features, bug fixes, or just a fix for one of my many typos!

Share The Content

I know this may sound silly, but a great way to support a creator is just to tell other people about them and why you enjoy their content. At the end of every Merge Conflict we ask for you to tell a friend about the podcast to help grow our audience. The best recommendation of blogs, podcasts, videos, etc is word of mouth!

You can also share their content online or give them a nice re-tweet. Look at this rad re-tweet with a comment about a recent Xamarin Show episode:

When I saw this tweet it really made my night.

Say Hello & Thanks

Say hey! I am serious, when people say hello and they enjoy a project or video that I worked on it absolutely sparks joy and keeps me going.

Go Forth and Support!

Those are just a few of my ideas. What do you do to support those creators out there? Leave comments below!