A tricky question and a challenge for many creators like myself is how to keep in touch with people. Sometimes, I have news to share, but how can I do so?

We've got a notable community right now focused on the Creeper's Lab and its Minecraft servers. Most of you reading this are coming from there. Hi! That's all nice and well, but that's the now, and I'm often thinking about the future. If I was to launch a new thing in say, six months, how do I let people know?

Going back in time, we had an active crowd on the forums, which mostly came for discussion on the Mega Man series. The activity over there died down over time, due mostly to the decline of the Mega Man series itself along with the rise of social networks. Still, there remains a core of activity to this day, and part of that core formed the initial group that played on the Creeper's Lab at launch. They invited others to join, and that new community grew over time!

Right now, my biggest asset would be Discord. We recently passed the 400 users mark, and a rare @all in the #news channel would get people's attention. Still, that's a tool I'm wary of using, because non-active people might decide to leave the server outright if they don't like the news I'm sharing.

One way would involve me being active on social media. For example, I have a Twitter account (and 13 subscribers), despite never posting anything – I use it purely as a notifications system. I could post and try to build an audience there, but then what would I post about? I don't tend to think spontaneously of things that would be relevant. I used to be more active on Tumblr, but that dried up. What other platforms would be relevant that I could be overlooking?

Another method, more traditional yet still useful and relevant, is by email. I started a monthly newsletter for the Creeper's Lab over two years ago, and it recently passed the 1000 subscribers. I can make special issues for breaking news and send that to everyone. This way, people don't need to check a channel or website – the news comes to them.

Thinking along those lines, I have just started a separate newsletter for the wider Interordi network. I don't plan to use that one on a set schedule, only for special releases. For example, last year, I might have used it a total of three times for major updates and additions. Maybe consider subscribing to it if you want notifications right in your inbox?

Of course, all this assumes that people are even reading this. :–) I know some pay attention, I'm aware that others entirely ignore my updates, so I have no way to know the size of my actual audience, even here...!

What about you? Can you think of ways to build up an audience, or possible notification channels that I'm not using? Let me know!

– Doctacosa