If you are still getting started with your Twitch channel, it can feel like you are fighting an uphill battle. You quickly see that it isn’t quite as easy as it looks. You maybe have streamed a few times and not got the traction you expected so far. That is fine, there are still positive takeaways to think about!
1. Nobody cares if you don’t show up
This is a gift and a curse because nobody while nobody is holding you accountable (except yourself and your schedule) it can be nice to take a day off if you catch a cold or are feeling sick. For some of the top streamers, they are constantly being asked when they are going live and if they can stream longer. While this is awesome to have passionate fans, it can be tough to get a break.
One of the huge keys to becoming more successful is to take time off from streaming to set up your panels, come up with new ideas, watch other streamers and more. These are all things you can’t quite to while streaming! When nobody is waiting for you to go live, you can take those first 15 minutes to make sure all the graphics are updated and the stream is looking solid.
2. You haven’t developed the haters yet
One of the absolute best COD players Nadeshot took a break from competitive play this week saying “I felt like I was playing to not lose, so that I wouldn’t have to hear the repercussions of not winning on twitter and youtube, If we are not winning, I just know everyone is coming after me”
This means you can still experiment and explore what you want to do with your channel. People aren’t expecting anything from you, so if you want to play a different game, nobody will be mad. If you want to try a different mode, or use a new angle on a face cam, nobody will be mad. Imagine the stress of being required to play the game at such a high level, or entertain thousands or make jokes all the time. It clearly wears on people!
3. Every follower is a win!
When you get a new viewer in the early days of your channel, it feels great. That first person snowballs to ten and then suddenly you are at fifteen! Everyone gets nervous about losing just one viewer when they get started. The more you grow your channel, you learn to go for quality viewers over quantity.
Imagine being a big streamer with 20,154 followers and going live, you pick up 50 more followers! Which would be great for the average streamer with 100 or so followers, but to that person, it could be a down day if they are used to picking up 100. The viewers just become numbers, which is a bad way to think about your audience. Every viewer is an individual with their own story and feelings, connecting with them is what will grow your channel.
What if you had a big channel that was grown on playing the standard mode of a big game. However, what if you loved playing a specific mode of a game that was pretty niche, but every time you streamed it, you lost followers.
The choice would be stream the mode you like less for two hours and gain 100 followers, or play the mode you like more, but only gain 10 followers. When you don’t have tons of followers, or aren’t relying on the viewers, the answers seems easy. Yet, the longer you stream the more you want to balance fun and providing for the audience you build. If you build an audience that isn’t true to what you do, the results could hurt down the road. If you build an audience that expect you to be funny, but you want to transition to competitive, they may not understand.
Which Would You do?
Building a new channel is great, you have the time and energy to think about what you want your audience to look like and start stacking those small wins! Get ready for the haters, then you will know you’re on the right track!
I’m A 45 year old gamer, doing a lot of legwork before starting my twitch & YouTube. Thanks for the great tips & suggestions. Hope to broadcasting soon.
TGood luck!