How to Become a Successful Streamer

Whether it be Twitch, YouTube, Facebook, etc. These steps will help you become a more prominent streamer

So who am I to be telling you how to become a successful streamer. Well I have streamed from 2014, pretty consistently up until my son was born in 2019. I had achieved a decent sized community, some decent people, some good friends, and of course made some cash. All-in-all the grind had paid off. The thing is, there are things looking back, if I spent more time doing, it would have exponentially made my stream take off a lot faster. When I started streaming the whole platform started getting saturated with streamers. It hasn’t died down much since than either.

You are, first and foremost, going to have to define what kind of success you want. Sure your end goal can be the stars, but it is going to be way better to make more realistic stepping stone goals. Aim to get your first 100 followers, first 10 regular viewers, a small amount of monetary goals, etc. This may be the most important step in all of the streaming journey. People are driven to meet new goals and achievements so go ahead and set the bar wherever you like.

1. Be Live

First and foremost every minute you are not live, is another minute you aren’t working on your progress as a streamer. Notice how I didn’t say “always be live” because that would be counter-productive honestly. Step 2 will show you why it would be counter-productive.

2. Network within the Streaming Platform

Networking in general is awesome. Sure if you have a decent footing in an outside social media, feel free to promote yourself there to pull more traffic.

This step specifically says to network within your streaming site. This is honestly one of the best things to do to grow your audience. Going around, viewing, cheering on other people around your success level, will help appeal to the streamer and their community that you’re worthy. You have to do this right though. You cannot just link spam a person’s stream. You must communicate and articulate to the point that it is appropriate to introduce the fact that you are a streamer of sorts as well. Following up by highlighting some of the things that you like personally about them, after you drop the bomb, eases the self promotion. These are just the unspoken rules of streaming culture. To appeal to the streaming platform, you must integrate and make yourself known through that platform in itself. Those people are there already and will most likely remain there in the future for your own success.

3. Focus on always being interactive, even if no one is talking

Be honest, would you enjoy opening someone’s stream and sitting there for 3 minutes, just to not even hear a single word said. If you said yes, then hopefully that person was doing some amazing things in game. If you aren’t a pro player then the audience is going to be moving on. Being present in the moment of the stream, is what is ultimately going to sell you as a streamer to your prospects of an audience. You can talk about actions in the game you are playing, current events, a story about your life, cool trivial facts, etc. Just being kind and a bit quirky at first will help tremendously to get those lurkers to come out and speak up.

4. Choose what you stream wisely

Wouldn’t it be amazing to play the most popular game, and rack in views simply because you’re playing the coolest stuff? Sadly for streaming, that is unfortunately not the correct move. The way algorithms work on streaming networks, is to show highest viewed streams first and least viewed last. When you are submerged in a popular category, it takes a whole lot longer to scroll down to even witness your stream as a selection. That being said, you still want to play something you enjoy, and isn’t totally a boring game.

The way to do this is to look through the browse section and find a game somewhere between 400–2500 viewers. I have found this is kind of the sweet spot for viewers to come across you as a choice. I’m going to guarantee there are at least some fun games in this viewer range to play. I have honestly found some of my most usual regulars just from this step alone.

5. Worry about quality of gear as a marathon, not a sprint

Yes it is a fact that having good gear is going to aesthetically please your audience a little more. That being said, a cheap 50–70 headset can be an amazing tool that works just fine instead of a $100–$800 microphone setup. Webcams can be acquired w/ decent ones starting at $40. I do recommend using a face cam because people like to know the person behind the voice. It not only enlightens the stream, but it gives people an extra reason to stay around. You can use gaming consoles to stream to a streaming platform pretty easily. I do recommend a decent PC with at least an i5 7th Gen Intel Processor, or an AMD Ryzen 5 or better. A decent graphics card helps also. I recommend a GTX 1070 or better. Now I know that these minimum requirement specs are pricey. They are definitely in the $700–$1200 range just for a pc to properly stream. If you are just starting, console streaming works fine. Some consoles allow for external webcams to be utilized. That will help a ton.

6. Layouts set you apart from the competition

If you get the capabilities to stream from PC I highly recommend integrating some nice overlays for your streams. I’m going to be straight up here and tell you my favorite broadcasting software. I use Streamlabs OBS and I also pay for the Prime service it provides. Having that allows you to acquire high quality animated overlays that will set you apart from any other streamer. There are free overlays also of course, but I just dig the prime ones.

7. Integrate more stream rewards for your communities

Whether it be better channel points reward systems, better emotes, apps/visuals that reward the viewers, subscriber goals, giveaways, etc. Implementing taking time to make a reward system for viewers will allow you to acquire more regular viewers. Just taking 30 minutes of your time to set up some reward systems will honestly only help your stream quality and rewatch value. I highly recommend at least setting up channel points system and splurging a little on emotes.

8. Set yourself apart

I bet if you made it to this blog post in general, it isn’t your first time seeking advice. Everyone of those other “become better” posts tells you to find your “niche” or set yourself apart from the competition. It does help. DrDisRespect made a name for himself for making a whole persona that made people interested in what he was going to do next. If you have amazing gameplay, that will set you apart. Even just kindness will set you apart from at least 60% of the other streamers. Some people are crabby and I try to avoid them. If the are genuinely nice they have me more hooked. Being positive and bubbly, creating a special theme, creating a tribe for people to be apart of, streaming a special talent you have, etc. will all set you apart from the competition.

9. Avoid follow 4 follow, or lurking communities

This is kind of just a waste of time. Sure it will help you hit twitch affiliate status faster. It will not acquire real, genuine people that like you for you.

10. Start with publicizing your stream to your friends and family

If you already have close friends and family, go ahead and try to allow them to view your stream. It is honestly the most fast paced route to acquiring a mini-viewer base that has potential to make regulars. I mean only do this step if you’re going to be a reasonable, responsible person. If you’re trying to make a niche persona of being a total crazy person, then I don’t recommend inviting your family at that point.

11. Post when you are live

If you have Twitter, IG, Facebook, join groups, and make creative imagery. When you go live make sure you let your communities know. When you post your link, always embed it with creative content that you make. It is guaranteed to have 70% more interaction than just link dumping. Being live all the time is one thing, having it publicized is another.

These are just some of the basic steps to growing your streaming career. If this blows up, I will supply you with more fine tuned details to a successful stream.

Stream responsibly and don’t always be live, without putting in the work first.

Clap dem cheeks, and follow for more content!