How to Build a YouTube Community From Scratch (Without Losing Your Mind)
A practical guide to building a YouTube community from scratch, covering where to start, how to show up as the host, and how to reward the members who keep it alive.
If you want to have a successful YouTube channel or business (maybe both!), you'll often hear that community is the most important thing you need to work on.
But if you're starting from zero with little to no knowledge... where do you even begin?
It starts with creating a dedicated space. Somewhere your viewers can connect with you, connect with each other, and feel like they belong beyond the comment section.
The most successful creator communities start on free platforms like Discord, Facebook Groups, or Reddit. They grow through consistent creator presence and retain members through clear rules, active moderation, and meaningful rewards.
The good news? You don't need a huge audience to do it. You just need a welcoming page, a visible host, and a reason for people to come back.
Want to turn your YouTube audience into paying members? Uscreen lets you build your own membership site, launch an app, and keep more of what you earn.
Make it free and easy to join your community.
Where are you starting your community?
- Discord
- Facebook or Instagram Groups
- YouTube Communities
- Forums
- Etc.
All of these are free to use, but not everyone allow free members to join.
This isn't to say that paid communities are a bad thing, but not when you're just starting out.
For the Kan Do Creators Community, we have a Discord server that anyone can join for free. After establishing a name for ourselves and gaining over 1,000+ members, we began our membership and a paid community, because OUR community asked for it.
All people need is to sign up for a Discord account to join our server. We don't make people jump through multiple hoops (like getting their email, personal info, etc.) before letting them in.
The lesson here: start free, lower the barrier to entry, and only introduce a paid tier once your free community is actively asking for more.
This will help a lot when you're at creator events (like VidCon or VidSummit), and when people are browsing your channel on their PC or TV.
Talk about your community in your content, your socials, and share it whenever you can!
If you don't tell the world about your community... how are they supposed to know?
Now, we don't recommend spamming it all over the place because that's just a quick way for people to turn a blind eye.
Here are a few ways you can talk about your community:
- Make a quick mention about it in your video, whether it's at the beginning, the middle, or the end.
- Make a lower-third graphics that leads people to your community.
- Put it on your YouTube banner and any other social media where you can add banners!
- Add it to your YouTube descriptions and pinned comments.
- Post about it on social media.
You're the host. If you don't show up, why should they?
Imagine you get an invite to a party by someone you're excited to see. Your enthusiasm rises as the date gets closer. When it's time, you make your way to the party. And when you show up...
The person you're expecting isn't there. Instead, someone else you've never seen before is in charge of the party.
Maybe you might still have a fun time, but you can't help but to feel disappointed.
This will be what your members feel when YOU don't show up in your community.
How many times have you joined a creator's community, and then realizing you've never once seen them in chat? Their moderation team sure is active, but not the creator themselves.
We've seen this happen a lot, and as a result, new members are often surprised when they see that Andrew and I are active in our Discord server.
We first learned that from the Uscreen Connect LA event.
Ike
Read what we learned at Uscreen Connect LA.
It's the reason why when people join our Discord server, we have a #🚨-start-here channel that goes over the first 10 minutes in 4 easy steps. We make sure to greet them when they make an introduction post.
We keep people engaged with daily check-ins and questions; see what they're up to.
"What if my community's REALLY new? Like, there's only me and one other person..."
Here's a piece of advice from live streaming that also works well with community. No matter how many viewers you have (whether that's 1 or no one), the show must go on!
If you wait around for viewers to come in, by the time someone does show up... they just see you twiddling your thumbs and doing nothing.
What do you think they'll do next? MAYBE they watch, but most likely they click off.
Don't put the responsibility of engagement on other people.
Be active and engaging so that when people do join your community, they won't see empty channels with no noise.
Can it feel discouraging and maybe even little embarrassing to do this? Yes.
But you won't get anywhere if you stay inactive.
"Closed mouths don't get fed." A quiet community doesn't go deeper. So give them a reason to.
Reward your community members for their time.
There's nothing better than being appreciated for your work. Having your viewers tell you that you're their favorite YouTube channel or that your YouTube video, short, or livestream was amazing can be gratifying.
But don't make it a one-way street.
Reward the viewers who are the most active, the most helpful, the most engaging, etc.
"How do I know who are my top contributors?"
YouTube highlights your commenters with a badge next to their name, whether they've commented a lot or you've hearted their comments often.
If you're looking for an easier way to see these viewers, head into your YouTube Studio mobile app. Go into the Community tab and you'll find the Community Spotlight tab towards the bottom.
On Facebook groups, you can view your insights to find your top contributors. There, you should be able to DM them if they allow.
If you're on Discord or using a forum, you'll need a leveling bot/system and a leaderboard.
"Okay... any ideas on the rewards?"
In the KDCC Discord server, we have 5 level rewards. Each level unlocks special access to the server.
We also look out for a member who's been active and helpful to the community within the month so that we can make an announcement about them.
We give them a highlight to their channel, a special role that puts them near the top of the member list, and a free piece of Kan Do Creators Community merch.
By rewarding active community members, it give members incentives to stay.
Not all rewards are created equally. If you're a knitting channel, having a private Minecraft server might not be what you're looking for.
This doesn't mean you should throw the idea away. Mold it to fit your niche.
If you're a cooking channel, instead of a private Minecraft server, you could start a cooking club for your top members. In the club, you can post a recipe that your members can make within the month. You and your members can share pictures and what went right or wrong.
Did you know?
Some of these rewards can later become a part of a monetized membership!
For example, the cooking club. You can start a membership on platforms like Uscreen where people can join at $5/mo to be a part of the club.
With Uscreen's calendar feature, members can track which videos they've seen and add in upcoming livestreams to their own calendar. They'll get notifications via email and push notifications (if you have the mobile app) so they'll always be kept on the loop.
ALWAYS REMEMBER: Honor those who came first and those who've gotten into your cooking club because of their engaged activities. Don't throw away their rewards now that you're monetizing.
Disclaimer: The links above are affiliate links.
Your community reflects you.
If you've ever worked in any customer service job, you'll know that there are some mean people out there. They're hard to deal with, but it's often your manager who can mend or break your spirit.
How many times has your manager stepped up to protect you? How many times have they thrown you under the bus?
In your community, you're the admin and owner—the highest position. It is your responsibility on how your community will act or react.
There are bad people in this world, and their confidence in badmouthing others are through the roof when they're anonymous.
If someone is spouting offensive slurs and you or your moderators don't do anything about it... how does that translate to the people in your community?
- It makes them realize that it's okay to say offensive statements.
- It makes certain groups of people not feel safe.
If you do respond, what will you say? Will you be aggressive or will you be assertive? Maybe these are somethings you don't often think about, but your community does (consciously or unconsciously).
When you think about toxic communities in the creator space, you'll often find that it's because of the content the creators make and how they respond or not respond to things.
Your actions or inactions will pave the road for your community, and teach your moderators how and when to enforce the rules.
In the Kan Do Creators Community, we have absolutely no tolerance for toxic behavior, intimidations, harassment, hate speech, or exclusions. If we catch anyone disrespecting our community, it is grounds for an immediate ban.
Our goal is to build a space where creators can grow without fear of judgment, gatekeeping, or discrimination. It's in our Code of Ethics.
Last, but not least, keep your server tidy! If someone came in and started spamming through multiple channels, ban or time them out and remove those messages.
Think of unsolicited advertisements or spam as the trash in your home. What would people think if they enter your house and see garbage everywhere?
Who Is Behind the Kan Do Creators Community?
Andrew Kan and I (Ike Do) have spent a combined 15+ years building creator communities together.
It started all the way back when Andrew was working on the Freedom! Forum, and me being an active member. Later, Andrew moved on to building the TubeBuddy Forums from the ground up. Around this time was when I started working at TubeBuddy and helped the forum grow past 100,000 members.
I advocated for a TubeBuddy Discord server, and grew it to 15,000 members before leaving.
Everything in this post comes from experience, not theory.
We know that building a community takes time and effort, but it shouldn't be confusing. We hope this blog helps you jumpstart your community journey!
🚀Ready to put this into practice?
- Join the Kan Do Creators Community Discord for free. Say hi in the introduction channel, and see how we run the space!
- If you want to go deeper on creator terminology as you build, the free KDCC YouTube Glossary and Creator Dictionary has over 250 terms to help you speak the language of YouTube.
If you want to OWN your community, another great way is through this post sponsor: Uscreen.
Thanks for reading 👋
