Last year I wrote a post listing some streaming tips nobody tells you. I then ended up coming up with way more streaming tips after I finished that post! So, I figure it was time for part 2 (and maybe even a part 3 eventually)! If your New Year’s resolution was to become a streamer, then this might just be the post for you! So, here are 5 more tips for when you start streaming…
5. Put effort into your emotes
Once you reach affiliate status, you can have custom emotes for your channel! Emotes are an amazing way to help form a strong community and add to your channel’s uniqueness. Additionally, emotes can be a great way to promote yourself. Anyone who subscribes to your channel can use your emotes anywhere on Twitch, and basically promote your channel all over the platform. So, make an effort with your emotes! If you are good at drawing, drawing your own custom emotes is a great idea. Not only would you be showing off your own artistic talents, but it’s a cheap and effective way to get unique emotes. If you aren’t artistically inclined, there are also tons of artists who take emote commissions also. Otherwise, even just screenshots of yourself doing expressive faces are a great idea! Remember though, make the emotes usable! You want to give your subscribers bang for their buck, so giving them highly versatile emotes is another incentive to support you.
Remember though, it’s not OK to copy other artists’ work! You can take inspiration from an artist, but you can’t just take an emote to use for yourself. That is stealing! Even if you trace over it, it’s still stealing! Additionally, if you’re talking with an emote artist, don’t be rude! The amount of awful stuff emote artists deal with is ridiculous. They deserve fair payment for their work, end of story!
4. Make friends! (Hosts/ Raids)
One of the best ways to grow as a content creator, is networking! This doesn’t mean you should hang out in big streams begging for them to notice you. It’s more like genuinely hang out in other content creators streams and get to know people. But don’t just do it for the purposes of networking of course. Having friends in the community is a great way to meet new people, and in return for your support, many will support you too. However, you should never offer support purely so that it’s returned, because then your support is disingenuous.
Another way to network and meet people apart from just hanging out in their streams, is to host or raid someone you don’t know. Hosting or raising someone is a great way to support them, and helps you make new friends. It really benefits both parties, so it’s very much worth doing, even if you only have a handful of people in your chat.
3. Focus on 1 game (for at least a while at a time)
One of the hardest things to do on Twitch is be a variety streamer. People like routine, and when they boot up your stream to see you playing something different than last time, it can turn people off. Some people will watch regardless of what you play, however often the game is what people want to see you play. So either spending a good few weeks on the same game, or dedicating certain days to certain games might also be a good idea.
Your goal is to make people come back to your streams over and over again. The only way to really do that is by making people want to come back for YOU! Your goal is to get them to watch you enough that the game is not the reason they want to come back. Sticking with the game that they met you with for a while is a great way to achieve this.
2. Engage with your viewers
I can’t tell you how many times I have joined a small stream and the streamer has barely engaged with me. In fact, I’ve gone into streams where I was the only one engaging at all, and the streamer themselves made absolutely no effort to return it. You know what I did then? Left. Because at the end of the day, if I wanted no engagement in return, I’d go watch a YouTube video.
If someone new comes into your stream, you have about 10 seconds to convince them to stay. So, make the most of that 10 seconds! Welcome them in, ask them how they are, and express an interest in the things they say to you. Make an effort to get to know your viewers, and they will want to stick around to get to know you too. Because at the end of the day, there is COUNTLESS other things they could be watching, but they have clicked on YOUR stream. Make it worth it for them.
1. ALWAYS be on
The gist of this point is: even if you have no viewers, pretend like you have a thousand! At any point someone could stumble into your stream and if you’re just sitting there, not talking, looking incredibly disinterested, they will leave pretty fast. Several times I’ve stumbled into a stream where the streamer is barely lit, barely interested and not even talking. I’ve even seen some where the streamer is literally watching ANOTHER person’s stream! If you’re bored enough of your own stream to watch someone else’s steam, then that’s saying something about you and your stream.
If you feel a bit awkward talking to nobody, a good tip is to just talk about what’s happening in the game you’re playing for example. Talk through your thought process: like what you want to do next, why you’re doing what you’re doing now etc. The more you do it, the more comfortable with talking to no one you’ll become.
Hopefully, these streaming tips will help you in achieving your dreams!
Remember, streaming should always be a hobby first and a career second. Do it for fun, and to meet new people. If more comes then awesome, if not, it can still be an enjoyable, rewarding experience. Feel free to share your streaming tips down below!
