I’ve known about Twitch and its streaming abilities since I was 15, but I never paid much attention to it as I wasn’t overly interested in streaming and watching streams. That all changed this past year when my brother started streaming in January of 2022. When my brother started streaming, I became his staff manager for his Twitch and Discord platforms and loved every minute of it. I felt that I had learned enough that I could start streaming on my own, which I did in May of 2022. Since then, I think that I have learned some tips and tricks along the way that I feel I can pass along to a new streamer or someone looking to get into streaming.
Don’t stream for views!
My biggest piece of advice that I can offer someone is that you should never stream for views. When you start streaming, you will have very few views unless you already have a group of people planning to watch you. Streaming should be fun and something you want to do because of the games and the audience, not the viewership alone. If you stream just for the views, you can become disappointed quickly if you don’t have a high viewer count.
Stream content that you like!
When you begin streaming, you should be streaming content that you enjoy. Whether playing games or just chatting with people, it should be something you enjoy and can see yourself doing for a long time as most streams average a couple of hours. If you also enjoy what you are streaming your passion will show to your viewers and they will be interested in coming back to watch you as you seem engaging and enthusiastic.
You don’t need to check every stream summary!
One thing I found to be very useful was not constantly checking my stream stats or summary at the end of each stream. Sometimes you will have a great week of streaming, and sometimes you will have a bad week. Checking your stream stats after a bad week of streaming can affect your willingness to stream and your mental health. I recommend checking your stats once a week.
Interact with your viewers!
One thing that can make or break your stream is viewers. If you have viewers ready to engage with your content and are keen to talk to you and have a conversation, I recommend talking to them and keeping them engaged. Ask questions or respond to almost every chat message that appears. It will present you as a caring, engaging and fun streamer.
It is okay to be awkward.
When you first start, having a conversation with yourself can be awkward if you have no viewers or very few. Although, it is very important that you talk to yourself. As people come to watch the stream and you’re sitting in silence and not talking, simply playing your game, it can turn people off. Just remember that it is okay to be awkward at first until you get used to it.
I could provide many more tips and tricks to help you when you start streaming, but I hope these tips and tricks help for now as I know they helped me become a better streamer.