So you want to create the perfect channel for live streaming your games, and monetize on Mixer.
While YouTube has recently restricted its policies with regards to monetizing videos, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be able to succeed, even if it might take a while before you reach the kind of viewership that you’ve dreamed of. This is why I would look at Mixer or Twitch for live streaming.
We all begin somewhere, and it’s imperative that you have the right kind of mindset to keep on keeping on with your dreams of being a successful Mixer act.
Here are our tips to make your live streaming of videos more engaging and interesting to your videos:
1. Do it like the champs
The best gamers on Mixer have a lot of views and subscribers simply because they love the games they play and they can entertain the viewers at the same time.
Watch how the older channels did it and emulate from the point that they began attracting millions of views.
There is a period of learning required before gamers get the hang of it, but this learning curve doesn’t have to take months or years. By paying attention to the best practices of other channels, you stand to succeed more quickly than others who want to reinvent the wheel.
2. Have a solid concept every time
People click on videos because they find the premise or concept behind the video interesting.
So you can’t just publish the same type of stream again and again without at least highlighting what is important or memorable for that particular stream. Whether it’s a fierce battle or a weird occurrence on Minecraft (this really depends on what you’re actually playing), give the viewers something to be excited about even before they watch the video.
3. Try to be as unique as possible
While no one can be completely unique especially if they are just streaming games that other gamers are already streaming or recording, you can be unique in how you present your perspective of the game itself.
People love perspective, because it gives them something to focus on. Even if the execution is less than perfect, selling a concept to people or perspective, at least, will go a long way. While it’s true that people don’t watch other gamers play badly, “playing well” can be recast again and again in different ways.
4. Develop a skill for creating killer thumbnails
While this doesn’t have anything to do with the actual streaming, your video thumbnails actually play a huge role in determining the success of a video if you are after a lot of views, fast.
People expect to see a summary of sorts of the video when they look at the video thumbnail. In short, they want to get a feel as to what the video is about by gauging the only image they have prior to clicking the video link. As much as possible, get them in the mood for watching by presenting something odd, crazy, unique, or funny that has occurred in the video itself.
We want people to think that they are in for a treat when the click the video link. However, we do recommend to live streamers that they should be careful about overpromising. We don’t want to overpromise – we simply want to entice people to click and watch.
If your video thumbnail and the actual content of the video are two planets apart, people will likely be angry and you will have no control on the dislikes. You can turn of commenting on the video, but we don’t really want that. Comments are a signal for ranking videos on Mixer and as much as possible we want people to interact with you or with other viewers in the comments thread.
5. Pay attention to how you project yourself
You don’t have to be ruggedly handsome or extremely pretty to get views (though we can’t deny that these help build a following, especially in the gaming community). What you may lack in rugged handsomeness or prettiness, you can definitely make up for in personality.
People love personalities in the online world and it doesn’t matter if the personality that you are using while gaming has nothing to do with your real life personality.
Think of yourself as an actor in a movie and just perform for your viewers. This is a good mindset when diving into this world because ultimately, we want to be people pleasers as much as possible. People have to love the character you are projecting and the accompanying personality before they can be loyal to your channel and the video content that you are producing.
6. Be a natural
Yes, we know that not everyone is a natural when it comes to being on camera, and gamers can be really demanding. But that’s the thing: if non-actors have done it in the past, why can’t you? The trick is to be comfortable in your own skin.
You can’t really offer the world anything that you are not, you can just show them the products of your creativity. But as to who you are on camera, that’s totally, one hundred percent you.
If you feel that it’s tough being alone in a room and trying to entertain a crowd that you can’t see, think of the process this way: you have a friend in the room (the camera) and you really want to hold an entertaining and light conversation with this person.
Think of the other person as someone who is really interested in what you have to say and you should be good. If your mind is in the right place when you shoot videos, your verbal language and nonverbal language will follow suit.
You will smile more frequently; you will try to make “eye contact” with your viewers, etc. These are the basics of a good conversation in the real world, and the rules don’t change when you are shooting a video of yourself playing a game.