If you’re searching for ideas on how to better yourself as a twitch streamer then you may have what it takes to eventually become successful.
So many people who start streaming think it’s as simple as getting your stream setup, just start playing your favorite game and the money will just start rolling in.
Unfortunately it’s not this simple, which you’ve probably already realized if you’ve searched this topic.
This is why I decided to write this article to help give those who truly want to make something out of their stream.
There will be a mix of my own tips, along with other recommendations that I’ve gathered from other streamers that I’ve reached out to.
Some of these tips may be obvious to you but to others they may have no clue about it, just wanted to throw that out there before we got started.
Engage With Your Viewers
This is the most common thing that I see a lot of new streamers do that turns away many potential followers/viewers.
A lot of viewers don’t just want to watch you play the game unless you’re insanely good at PVP type of games to where they are trying to get better by watching how you do things.
For a majority of viewers they like to ask questions and see you chat back with them. Some even take it personally if you don’t answer or respond to their chat.
This obviously becomes much more difficult to do as you grow in viewers and have constant items to respond to in chat. This leads me to my next point..
Don’t Neglect The Game You’re Playing
On the flip side of things, when you see all of those viewers start to chat with you it can be easy to get so wrapped up in talking with them that you forget to focus your attention on the game you’re “playing”.
Being able to manage your time and multi task between the two is something that actually takes some practice to be able to be fluent with it.
Put A Face To The Voice
If you look at a majority of the top streamers you’ll notice that they all tend to have their webcam showing themselves on the screen (usually in a small box in the bottom left). This helps a lot with engaging with your audience.
If you’re decent looking then it may bring in a few extra viewers as well.
Don’t Be To Stubborn To Ditch Your Music
I’ve been in some really cool twitch channels where I enjoyed their stream but could not stand their insanely bad music. Most viewers won’t be afraid to tell you that you’re music sucks so you may not have to guess on this but this is something to keep in mind.
Possibility: If you refuse to either turn the music off or change the style then you may hit a roadblock in your stream growth.
Take The Time To Set Up Your Stream Layout/Channel
I get you want to get to streaming as quickly as possible but make sure you set up a decent on screen layout at some point. After that make sure to focus on designing your overall channel layout.
Make Connections With Other Streamers
A feature that I really like that Twitch has is they give streamers options to host other streamers channels.
This helps by giving some exposure to all of the followers that one streamer may have to a new channel that they may like but not know anything about.
Set Up A Streaming Schedule
One of the best ways to keep your followers coming back is by having them know when you’re streaming.
There are a few ways to do this but the main way is set up a streaming schedule and try your hardest to follow it as close as possible.
Some viewers log on just to watch certain streamers then log back off after they get through, just like many folks do when waiting for a certain TV show to come on.
Setup A Social Media Presence
Setting up a social media page will allow you to not only update your viewers on when you’re going live but also a potential way to get new followers.
This can also be a good way to let your followers know if you have a change in your streaming schedule come up.
Be Prepared To Grind
Growing your stream is similar to grinding out levels in a video game. You’ll slowly keep growing your followers but it takes putting in time consistently to get there.
Don’t expect much success if you just stream whenever you’re bored just once or twice every couple of weeks.
Have A Decent Computer
No matter how good of a streamer no one will want to watch you if you’re constantly lagging up or your computer keeps shutting down because it can’t handle everything that you’re trying to throw at it.
This doesn’t mean you need to go out and buy a 6k gaming machine but you should at least have something that follows twitches recommend PC specification or better.
Here are the minimum recommendations for your system from twitches website.
- CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 or AMD Equivalent (Compare your CPU)
- MEMORY: 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
- OS: Windows 7 Home Premium
Mic Check!
Be aware of how your mic sounds to your viewers. Even if you sound great on skype with your buddies while playing WOW, still make sure to check how you sound on your stream.
You can do this by asking your viewers how it sounds or by bringing up your own stream and testing it on a separate computer.
Upgrade Your Microphone
A lot of gamers just use the mic that is attached to their gaming headset, which is fine for the most part. However every little bit counts when streaming so if upgrading your microphone to a desktop type of mic can help you then keep that in mind.
Also looks more professional when you don’t have a mic in your face on your webcam.
Set Up A Follower/Donation Alert
This is where the persons name and/or sound plays whenever they follow/donate/subscribe to you.
Don’t under estimate this because so many people will do this just so you acknowledge them on your stream. I’ll admit if feels pretty good when someone directly thanks you on their stream.
Making it noticeable that they will get a shout out gives a little incentive for them to do one or all of those things I mentioned above.
Check That Internet Connection Bro!
Having that best computer in the world won’t be worth squat (in terms of streaming) if you have crappy internet. Just make sure you have decent internet and that your bandwidth isn’t getting soaked up by others in the house or from your neighbor (wifi password!)
Have A Friend To Chat With (To Begin With)
When you start up your stream and don’t have anyone in chat to answer question then just sitting their playing not talking can be a turn off for some viewers just stopping by to see what your channel is like.
This is why I recommend trying to get a buddy to either play a game with you or just be in some sort of voice chat so y’all can communicate about something gaming related.
Once enough people are in the chat talking with you then you can substitute talking with your friend to talking with viewers by answering their question/responding to comments.
Have Tough Skin Trololol
Trolls are everywhere on the internet and Twitch is no exception. Don’t take any trolls personally by getting upset or they’ll feed off of it and enjoy coming back to make your life hell.
Just try to have a good mod in your chat to be able to keep chat clean, which leads us to our next tip.
Pick Your Mods Wisely
For the most part this isn’t a huge deal but every once in awhile I’ll see a mod in the chat who thinks way to highly of their “mod powers!”
They’ll be way to quick to ban just about everyone which can kill any chances of you building a community of followers.
On the flip side make sure your mods aren’t to nonchalant putting someone getting out of hand in chat in a timeout or a possible ban. Being a mod takes a good balance.
Pick A Niche In Your Streaming
Playing different games every time you stream may seem like a good way to keep your viewers entertained with unique game play but it really determines on how much they are on the stream for your personality or more for the game your playing.
Allow me to explain, if you have gotten most of your visitors from playing multiple games and providing funny commentary while playing it then swapping games a lot is fine because they are most likely their because you’re entertaining.
If you got most of your followers while streaming competitive PVP type of games then your followers may want to see you play those types of games.
Write A Interesting Title For Your Stream
As an example instead of put your title as “Warrior Doing Arena” write some like “Warrior Doing Competitive Level PVP “. There really isn’t a wrong way to do this but it’s more of being creative.
Just read the titles of streams you click on and take note of how their titles read compared to others that you passed over.
Try To Avoid Getting Burned out
I know easier said then done but you need to know your limits. If you’ve been streaming consistently on your schedule and you start noticing that you’re become more annoyed when having to stream than actually enjoying it.
This is where you might need to either look for a new game or take a little vacation from streaming. It will help you better in the long run because if you’re not enjoying streaming then your viewers can see it as well.
Let Your Viewers Know You’re Taking Some Time Off
If you do decide to take a break then give your followers a heads up.
How would you feel if you came on expecting your favorite streamer on their scheduled times and were a no show over and over again. It’s almost like being stood up!
Seriously though, I’m not saying send an individual message to each of your followers but make some sort of effort to let them know.
You can do this by letting them know ahead of time on your streams, you can post it to your social media pages and also put something on your twitch page telling them your on a slight break with your anticipated date of return.
If I Follow These Tips Will I Become A Good Twitch Streamer?
I can’t say whether or not it will make you a good streamer but I will say that you will be a better streamer if you apply these tips to your stream.
I hope at least one of these tips helps you out in some way on your streaming journey.