Part 1 - Getting It Going
So here is me and streaming/twitch in a nut shell... I know how to set up my software. I can get a video of me and my game, the audio, and all that stuff to shoot from my capture card, my webcam, my mic, all the way through OBS and unto twitch. Hey, yeah, that is all cool and stuff but what about making a twitch that people will actually watch? I mean, I could very easily stream to nothing like I have so many times before and burn out (burn out) so easily. HOW DO I MAKE THIS THING ENJOYABLE, PRODUCTIVE, AND SUCCESSFUL?
Well, I started from the bottom, no I hear... still at the bottom. Yeah, lets document the adventures of trying to grow and build a good channel on twitch. Really, I want to showcase what I'm looking at for tips on making this channel work and grow and how well those things are working, the effort it takes to do such, and the results of those things.
So first off, I'm just going to start with the obvious tip I started with I'm sure is on a list somewhere I haven't sourced yet: Play What You Enjoy
Well, I can't say that is entirely what I do during my streams, but I enjoy what I am doing. My main games I play are ones I enjoy, and the other games I enjoy not enjoying them. Make sense? See my streams of "Nat Sucks At" for examples of not enjoying the game I'm playing. I play them because I enjoy showing how terrible I am at a game.
Ok, so I started streaming a game I like to play. That's all great but no one is watching. How do I get people to watch? How do I make something people want to watch? Well... what do I want to watch? It occurred to me that, while I was trying to stream game play, I've never actually went and watched a stream. Hmm... That would make sense as to something I should do. I mean, you want views and followers and subs, yeah? Do you view and follow and sub? Do you even know what people are doing out there? So that was the next thing I actually did: Watch Streams
Being the total twitch noob I was, I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, I see the videos they highlight on the main page, but those were not really my thing. So, I did a little browsing. In the browse tab of twitch. Splatoon 2 is a game I'm very into, so I clicked on that and saw what was all playing. Honestly, at first I lurked on a channel who I by chance faced a hoard of followers in a random game and were seeing posts in the plaza promoting the channel. It kinda made me mad at first that I was "seeing this spam" but I checked it out anyways. They were ok enough people so I did a follow and watched a bit, albeit I still didn't even really know what a follow even was. But yeah, from there I went on to just parooze what was broadcasting. Click a link, sit down, watch a while, get on the chat and interact. Pretty soon I found myself with a handful of channels I enjoyed what they were doing. Then I just started letting the rabbit hole take me wherever it was going: Engaging
So, during my travels I came across one channel I was enjoying and was impressed and connected to the things being broadcasted. I clicked with the content, from the game play to the notifications. "Wait, you have a BMO on your screen? How do you make a BMO on your screen?!" This was an on screen notification for new followers. So, i clicked follow. "Gnats thank you for the follow!" Shout outs... nice! Interaction! My comments are getting people talking both on camera and in chat. It was good. Then Rhett and Link from Good Mythical Morning pop up. "Wait... GMM? This place gets better!" The clip being for a channel host. I didn't know what a channel host was, but I looked it up then did it so I'd see the clip and my name pop up followed by the on air thanks. I start hearing about joining this discord thing. I kinda knew about discord, but am noob at that too. "Yeah, ok, why not." I dive in, ignorant, and just let the rabbit hole keep going. Then I hear something about a dog. "DOG?!" I exclaimed in chat. "SHOW DOG! WILL SUB FOR DOG!" Subscriptions being different in follows in that you are actually monetarily supporting the channel and get perks I find. I knew subs was a paid deal, but I get a sub included with my amazon prime, so, ya know, i might as well. So there I am now. Got all the things for this channel. Oh yeah, plus playing game as well. Was great to connect to people in game and play.
So, lets see... that all started about a week ago today. Started completely ignorant. I still threw some streams onto the world wide airway, but I'm going to get to that adventure in a different blog post. I think those things above are really the best start I can suggest. Grab on to something and learn.
Well, I started from the bottom, no I hear... still at the bottom. Yeah, lets document the adventures of trying to grow and build a good channel on twitch. Really, I want to showcase what I'm looking at for tips on making this channel work and grow and how well those things are working, the effort it takes to do such, and the results of those things.
So first off, I'm just going to start with the obvious tip I started with I'm sure is on a list somewhere I haven't sourced yet: Play What You Enjoy
Well, I can't say that is entirely what I do during my streams, but I enjoy what I am doing. My main games I play are ones I enjoy, and the other games I enjoy not enjoying them. Make sense? See my streams of "Nat Sucks At" for examples of not enjoying the game I'm playing. I play them because I enjoy showing how terrible I am at a game.
Ok, so I started streaming a game I like to play. That's all great but no one is watching. How do I get people to watch? How do I make something people want to watch? Well... what do I want to watch? It occurred to me that, while I was trying to stream game play, I've never actually went and watched a stream. Hmm... That would make sense as to something I should do. I mean, you want views and followers and subs, yeah? Do you view and follow and sub? Do you even know what people are doing out there? So that was the next thing I actually did: Watch Streams
Being the total twitch noob I was, I had no idea what I was doing. I mean, I see the videos they highlight on the main page, but those were not really my thing. So, I did a little browsing. In the browse tab of twitch. Splatoon 2 is a game I'm very into, so I clicked on that and saw what was all playing. Honestly, at first I lurked on a channel who I by chance faced a hoard of followers in a random game and were seeing posts in the plaza promoting the channel. It kinda made me mad at first that I was "seeing this spam" but I checked it out anyways. They were ok enough people so I did a follow and watched a bit, albeit I still didn't even really know what a follow even was. But yeah, from there I went on to just parooze what was broadcasting. Click a link, sit down, watch a while, get on the chat and interact. Pretty soon I found myself with a handful of channels I enjoyed what they were doing. Then I just started letting the rabbit hole take me wherever it was going: Engaging
So, during my travels I came across one channel I was enjoying and was impressed and connected to the things being broadcasted. I clicked with the content, from the game play to the notifications. "Wait, you have a BMO on your screen? How do you make a BMO on your screen?!" This was an on screen notification for new followers. So, i clicked follow. "Gnats thank you for the follow!" Shout outs... nice! Interaction! My comments are getting people talking both on camera and in chat. It was good. Then Rhett and Link from Good Mythical Morning pop up. "Wait... GMM? This place gets better!" The clip being for a channel host. I didn't know what a channel host was, but I looked it up then did it so I'd see the clip and my name pop up followed by the on air thanks. I start hearing about joining this discord thing. I kinda knew about discord, but am noob at that too. "Yeah, ok, why not." I dive in, ignorant, and just let the rabbit hole keep going. Then I hear something about a dog. "DOG?!" I exclaimed in chat. "SHOW DOG! WILL SUB FOR DOG!" Subscriptions being different in follows in that you are actually monetarily supporting the channel and get perks I find. I knew subs was a paid deal, but I get a sub included with my amazon prime, so, ya know, i might as well. So there I am now. Got all the things for this channel. Oh yeah, plus playing game as well. Was great to connect to people in game and play.
So, lets see... that all started about a week ago today. Started completely ignorant. I still threw some streams onto the world wide airway, but I'm going to get to that adventure in a different blog post. I think those things above are really the best start I can suggest. Grab on to something and learn.
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