5 Ways To Make Your Twitch Stream Better

As a Twitch streamer for a better part of the last year, I have learned five different to obtain viewers and build a better community. I started off streaming and had only a couple viewers for a 4-hour session. Then it grew to nearly 20 concurrent viewers and active chatters in a few days. However, that was short lived because it dropped. Now, I am back up there with some dedicated viewers and subscribers. Here is 5 tips of the trade that I've learned from streaming:

Have a Schedule + Stream As Often As Possible

There's a reason you don't see people with 100,000 total views and only 4 active viewers. The people who come and watch once, will return if they liked what they saw. The problem is, most streamers will chose to quit because they didn't have 100+ people watching and 1,000 followers in a week. Streaming is not a 'get rich quick' solution.

When I reached 20 to 30 viewers in my first couple weeks, I dropped the ball. I got sick for a day, and didn't stream for almost an entire 2 weeks. When I streamed again, no one showed up. I streamed for weeks, but they were gone. People showed up every morning to watch my programming streams; or tune in once they got to work. But they must have stopped looking after two or three times of unsuccessful attempts to find my stream the next mornings.

Consistency matters in any business, including streaming. If you stream everyday at 9AM, with a few viewers. Those few viewers will look at the clock one day when they aren't watching you and think 'OH! Jacob_McG is live!'. Slowly, you start creeping in the daily thoughts of people's lives.

Streaming as often as possible really allows new viewers to have a chance to see you. It also gives opportunity to find your hot times while streaming. I noticed my streams between 8AM-Noon were far more successful than those from 8PM-10PM. Try out something new, but always stream as often as possible. There's no reason not to!

Networking

I've heard this one a lot. Networking. As an engineer, computer scientist, streamer, college... the list goes on. But what did that MEAN?!?

Let me get right into the examples. You're a streamer, so you probably watch other streamers. Watch them when you're not streaming. Be active in their chat. Donate to them even. Don't be pushy and plain-as-day with spamming your twitch channel in chat or in donation messages. Just let the streamer know, and the other chatters know you exist. When they scroll through the Twitch directory of who is streaming, they'll remember you then for being a nice individual, and not a needy sellout.

Use social media to do the same as above. Contact other streamers on Twitter. Ask people about their days. Express when you go live/miss a day. Talk about life events. Allow other people to come into your circle of friends to BE FRIENDS. They'll come and ask or see your stream eventually. So just keep streaming and building a friendship-base.

Technology and Theme

This one is a little more advanced. When you first go onto a Twitch channel, the first thing you notice is the look of the stream. Is there a webcam? How about nice visuals? The description, its blank? Take a look at my Twitch Page. I have a medium-end webcam(no green screen), and an orange and purple theme going throughout my stream and description. I have a nice logo and custom made pictures for categories in the description. Give the appearance, and hopefully the actuality that you ARE a real professional.

A solid microphone is pretty much mandatory these days. No microphone, or even worse, a fuzzy microphone will certainly lead to a new viewer leaving without saying hi. Intrigue them with your voice.

Forget The Viewers

What? Yes. Stop paying attention to your viewers and start doing your job. Whether its 100 viewers, 10,000 viewers, or 1 viewer, the fun streamers people want to enjoy act the same no matter the viewer count. Do yourself a favor and hide the viewer count in the stream even if no one is in the chat. If the first viewers of the day come to find someone staring at their screen, they won't be intrigued enough to type anything in the chat. Obviously, if someone is in the chat, talk to them! Be their friend, and they will be yours.

Be yourself first. Then Entertaining

There is a fine line of being an entertainer, and being someone you're not. The way you interact with people in your daily life should be similar to how you act on stream. This doesn't mean keep it at that though. Add some energy to your content! Drinking coffee doesn't make you a new person, it just gives energy to your own personality. Figuratively, drink 5 cups right before stream and go to town with chatting and being enjoyable to watch in your own eyes.