I have not been the best at just writing stuff here, giving tips in general etc. So i thought maybe i should do it.
I have a stream with 35000+ followers, my toprecord of subscribers is about 1200 (im currently at 700) that has to do with other stuff, but i guess you could say i have at some point ”Made it” as streamer.
Here is my list of things that i think everyone should consider to become better, and more successful.
1. USP – Unique Selling Point. You have to create something with ur stream that differs from others. A misstake here is to think it has to majorly differ, dont think like that. Find ur own way into this, lets say The best Quakeplayer in the world. Thats a great way, but we cant all reach there, and then we struggle to find our way into it. You dont need to be best, but you need to be unique. My stream is in Swedish, thats unique in a sence. I am a parent. I have a beard. And if you put these things together, it might end up pretty unique. Use that to make people wanna click. ”Father of 3, speaking only Swedish and 5000 rating in Dota2” All of a sudden its no longer 10 000 people who can say that about themselves. You understand?
2. Find a way to be natural around the stream – Sell urself, probably a positive happy part of urself, but sell urself. Dont try to be someone ur not. In a 15 minute segment of a TV-show thats not an issue, but if you go for a 4 hours streamsegment it is. So find a way to be urself that works. Some of ur things might in the end be what people comes back to see again. And some of the things people will hate. So you can use it also to make a upgrade of urself, like me, i suck at loosing, i spend 3 years trying to become a better looser. I failed, but still. Some people love when i loose games for that matter.
3. Dont just post here, post there, and there, and there and yeah there aswell – You need to work wide. First of all this group is awesome. Use it, but at the same time use more places to share ur stream. Its not only that you wanna spam posts with ur logo or twitchadress, thats something, but tell someone at ur karateclass, put a sticker on ur cellphone, dont be afraid to mention it to people, talk about it and be proud about it. Also make sure to learn howto make ur posts better, see what kind of pictures makes people interact, what u gets likes on. And use instagram, twitter, learn to hashtag. It takes alot of work, but its needed. And its great for point other reasons too futuremore in ur career.
4. Make ur stream look good. Sound is key here, people cant stand if you have bad sound. It might be an issue bringing in money to get good sound, and i feel ya. But then atleast make sure to put the setting on ur current sounds in a decent manner. People might wanna fall asleep to ur stream, are they able too? In this also overlay and how ur streamquality looks comes into play. If you play a fpsgame you cant have 30fps stream, the whole feeling of speed is lost. If you play a gmae where there is alot of small things on the screeen you need quality. But this is risky aswell, if you go to high you might loose viewers because their internet is too slow. So find someting in between that works, and dont make overlays in paint. There is thousands of streams out there, dont give the viewer a reason to leave in the first second. Be serious about this.
5. Interaction – Remember to be natural as we spoke about earlier. Dont fake these reactions, some days a donation of x amount feels more fun then some other day, you always have to be greatful, and that should be ur genuine reaction, but in the middle of a fight in dota2 you might be less – explain that for the person donating or following or just chatting. Excuse urself – but be urself at the same time. Dont try to start crying or acting overly grateful tho, its stupid and its fake.
When it comes to chat it takes a while to really grasp how to interact with it, practice makes you better ofcourse. If someone joins and say hi, you should always respond hi back, when ur viewers gets larger its gonna be harder, and then if you miss it you might miss a viewer, so you need to get better as time goes by.
6. Schedual and grinding. Having planned streams gives more then not having it. I suck at planning and i loose alot on that. Make sure to give people something to get back to. Grinding for viewers and followers is a part of streaming, but a huge misstake here is to grind to much. Rather aim for quality 4 hours, then 2 hours extra where you cant perform. People joining at that time might be lost viewers forever. When you grow you can afford having downtimes, and beeing more tired and stuff, but not in the beginning. We all know that alof of streamers have very few viewers in the beginning. Make those few viewers happy.
7. Networking and sponsors – i believe you should early start looking into networking with other streamers. Do it in a smart way, be on their instagram, twitter, learn from them passivly, but also watch their streams and comment on their stuff. Its a way of making urself visable, but never ever use their sources to promote urself more then in this way. Dont go overboard and ”Im streaming now” talk in their chat. Thats just wrong, but try to play with people who have a running channel helps, and just hang around them, they have contacts aswell. And you want to have connections with other streamers.
Sponsors; Actually landing a sponsor in the streamworld is not as hard as it might look. Sponsors i divide into 2 categories. Those who pay, and those who you should pay. Meaning, those who pay probably work for a company where their branding doesnt really help you to seem more serious or cooler or hotter as a streamer, they are more of a burden. THese sponsors you need to wait with until you can get paid from. Other sponsors in the gameindustri for example might give you a shoutout, might give you some products, and might give you a cooler look since the brand itself makes you as a streamer more interesting and valuable in a marketingsense. Find some of these and sell urself cheap in the beginning, it might be a good thing.
Wow this post got really long, i hope it helped atleast 1 of you. Please ask questions in this post, and i will respond to every single one of them. Just give me time.