Being a professional streamer can seem like it’s all fun and games, but ask any of the best players and they’ll tell you that it always takes blood, sweat, and energy drinks to make it happen. It's not just about being extremely good at the game you’re streaming; you also need to be a skilled entertainer, competent technician, and passionate promoter.
Building a following on Twitch can be difficult, but not if you have the right resource (i.e. articles like this one!). Here at StackUp, we want to make things as easy as possible for you and also help you to connect with fellow streamers.
Choose The Right Game
If you’re serious about building a successful Twitch stream, it’s important to choose your stream content wisely. One of the first things that will draw in new viewers is a game you’re streaming. It may be tempting to stream popular titles in the hopes of attracting more users, but if you don’t already have a substantial following, your channel will quickly get lost among the hundreds of other more successful channels out there.
Instead, check out the list of top Twitch games and scroll down until you find a title with around 100 current viewers. This will ensure that your channel will be way more visible to the public. You might even climb your way up into the top 10 for that particular game!
Make A Schedule And Stick To It
Unlike on-demand streams, Twitch live streams are live. This means that for viewers to tune into your channel, they need to know when you’re streaming. Creating a schedule is the most efficient way of broadcasting your stream and letting others know when you’ll be live. A good schedule should include the days and times you intend on streaming as well as the titles of each upcoming stream so that people can keep track of what’s airing on your channel at any given moment. Also, make sure to inform your viewers about other ways of following you outside of Twitch!
Creating a schedule for yourself is a very good way to chart your progress and help you achieve the goals you set in the first place. However, creating the schedule is one thing and sticking with it is something else entirely. Consider this: if you let your viewers know that you won’t be able to live stream on certain days of the week, then you’re more prone to irritate them than anything else. On the other hand, if you were to have some unexpected extra time and surprise them by streaming long after they thought they would get a break from it, then they’ll appreciate your efforts much better because consistency is what matters above all else.
Set Up Your Profile
Livestreaming is all about connecting with others who share similar interests and passions as you. Make your profile a great way to let your audience get to know you better by using that space to include completed stories, videos, or media that can tell them more about what makes you tick.
If you love to be creative, there are great free options for graphic design software for creating your visual imagery! You can use sites like Canva or Crello to create custom graphics for everything from layouts and banners to profile images. This is a great way to build your brand and get things looking professional in a cost-effective manner.
Twitch has a ton of useful features that streamers can take advantage of to keep their audience interested and coming back for more! For example, Twitch panel extensions allow your stream viewers to vote in polls, view your donation amounts, subscribe to your channel, or view a list of everything currently playing on your channel amongst other things. It's easy to spend a little extra time making your profile look engaging because you want to make sure people stick around longer and exceed the average viewer length!
Use Professional Equipment
The production quality of your Twitch stream is a crucial factor in whether or not you draw more people in. While it’s easy and convenient to fist-bump with your friends over a podcast on Skype, turning that into an appealing stream could take some serious investment—a professional-grade webcam and microphone, decent lighting, maybe even a tripod.
That's right! You can stream like a pro without breaking the bank. Upgrade your equipment starting with a great webcam and continuing onto a decent microphone and some smart home lighting.
Users seeking to upgrade their Twitch streaming equipment can learn more about the best microphones for live broadcasting with this detailed guide.
Trick Out Your Twitch Stream
Two more powerful ways to improve the production value of your stream are to use the full potential of streaming software like Streamlabs OBS and integrate Twitch extensions to make your stream more interactive and engaging.
It can be difficult to do multiple tasks simultaneously when streaming on Twitch. But we have found a solution! Twitch extensions come in handy for doing shout-outs and showing off donations, as well as keeping an eye on chat. Browse the Twitch Extension section in your Dashboard to find useful features like custom CSS, video clips, social media feeds, and much more.
Make Yourself Easy To Find
When you're browsing for something to stream on Twitch, there are many amazing choices full of breathtaking entertainment. But how do you go about finding your storytelling platform? Make it easy for potential fans to find your content by creating a title that explains what kind of show you're trying to put out. Taking the time now will result in a more impressive social following later on!
Another very important aspect of live streaming is tagging, and the viewer can choose to watch the channels based on their favorite streams. They can come across all kinds of content on Twitch from music to people playing an instrument. This feature helps viewers find the content they want easily.
Interact With Your Audience
Yes, it is possible to attract viewers to your stream but what's the use if you don't have any followers? You need a way of building a fan base, and one of the best ways is by engaging with your audience. After all, live interactivity is most of what sets Twitch apart from other forms of online streaming, so it has its advantage over things like "let's play" videos on YouTube.
But, at a certain point, you can’t follow things in the chat window. That’s when moderators can help. It can be your friends or even a bot; this is something you will have to decide depending on how frequent your audience is online, and how active they are.
){kind=link}
Top comments (0)