This is an unofficial page, however these are helpful tips and tricks that can guide you towards success of streaming.
Getting Started: Streaming On Console or PC?
So you decided to start streaming. That's awesome! The question is, where is the best place to start. The first thing to consider is the platform. It would be ideal to do research and see which place is best to stream. There's the top 3; Facebook, Youtube, and of course, Twitch. The next decision to make is what you are going to use to stream.
Some inspirational streamers use the console they usually play with to stream. This is possible, however, it is limited to what you can do. For example, if you stream on an xbox, you can only use a camera and display the game you are playing to stream. If you stream on pc, using OBS for example, you can do more with the stream. You can input images, videos, gifs. You can do different scenes, transitions. The best part is the alerts from streamlabs. If someone follows you or raids you, obs will use streamlabs to alert you about the event.
What do I play when streaming?
This questions is kind of a hard one to answer. Many other streamers/gamers have said that you should play unsaturated games to help get you noticed. What this means is to play video games that not many others are playing. This could help to increase your chances of getting noticed. One of the drawbacks of doing this is that you might end up playing a game that you won't actually enjoy. A lot of gamers play whatever game they want and they succeed in the stream because they are enjoying what they are playing. The viewers will see the streamer enjoying playing video games and, in turn, they will enjoy watching the stream.
Streaming Equipment: What should I get to make the stream go well?
If you are streaming on a console (xbox, playstation) the main two pieces of equipment recommended are a camera and a microphone. That way, viewers can see you while you play, and the microphone is so that viewers can hear you for commentary, communication, or any form of response to the viewers.
If you are streaming on a pc, you should start with camera and microphone at least, but there is a lot more that can be purchased to flair up the stream. Some examples of equipment are lights for both the front (to light up you as the streamer) and lights in the back of the room to make the setting more interesting. A lot of streamers have their cameras angled to show them, but also their gaming pc (usually rgb). Gaming Chairs, Flood Lights (to show different colors), rgb keyboard and mouse, big or small tripod for camera to sit on (unless you want to put the camera on one of your monitors).
Streamer Ettiquette: Things to keep in mind and do while streaming
When it comes to streaming, there are a good handful of things that must be done while streaming. This will help with the success of the stream, and increase your chances of keeping viewers in your stream!
Streamer Ettiquette Pt. 2: What NOT to do while streaming
Imagine your streaming and playing with your friends who also stream. During the session, you hear your friend say hi to a viewer that pops into their stream and they kind of talk to them for a bit. During this session, you decide to try and promote yourself and try to convice the viewer to come watch you by saying something along the lines of, "hey [viewer's name], why don't you come watch me too! I'm streaming as well!".
This is an example of VERY BAD streaming Ettiquette. It's a very wrong way of getting out there and making it as a streamer. Not only does it make you look bad and desperate for viewers/followers, but it also can irritate your friend. It can make them regret playing and streaming with you. It can make them feel like you are stealing viewers from them.
If you're wondering, there are some ways that you can have your friends help promote you and get you viewers without you crossing the line. Here are some recommendations.
The Attitude of a Streamer
Viewers are drawn to positivity. When it comes to being a streamer, it helps if you are upbeat and positive during your stream. Do not sound monotone. Have confidence in your voice. If you are nervous or feel desperate to get viewerds, the viewers will most likely be able to see that. Your Aura MUST be a good one. A welcome one. Most viewers get online to watch streams that want to get away from what ever is going on in their lives. If your stream isn't positive and/or upbeat, they probably won't watch you. They will find another streamer to watch.
The Attitude of a Streamer Pt. 2
Don't damn yourself with negativity or wanting to give up. If you are negative on stream, this will drive viewers away, not just for that session, but most likely for good. Also, do your very best to not be negative for streaming towards your fellow gamers/friends. This can possibly drive them away as well. AAAAND best of all, don't be negative towards yourself. If you do this, you will not want to play, much less stream. This will make you want to give up streaming much too quickly.
A good way to get past this negativity is to take a little break from streaming/gaming for just a moment. Do other things to take your mind off of it.
Another thing to try is to psych yourself out. Just tell yourself that you can do this and that its all in your head. Sometimes, the perspective can be changed and that can improve the outcome a lot!
Don't Stream to get rich
Firstly, the success of streaming is not an overnight push. As a matter of fact, there's no guarantee of success, but that can also be measured on your goal for streaming. Some streamers' ideas of success can be to get steady streams of 1,000+ viewers. Others' can be to make money so that they can quit their jobs and stream full time. When you make the decision to become a serious streamer, it should not be for the money. You will get disapointed too fast. There is some money involved in streaming when you hit affiliate, but even then it can be an uphill battle.
Try to keep in mind that you play video games because you love playing and you stream to entertain people.
Pushing For Affiliate: The Basics
At some point while streaming, you decide that you want to get affiliate so that you can do more with the stream. There's bits, channel points, sound alerts, emotes, and BEST of all, Subscriptions! There is the potential of getting paid as long as you meet certain criteria for your twitch.
So what to you do in order to get affiliate? Well, there's three things that need to get done in order to hit it. You need 50 followers, Stream for 7 days, and need to get an average of 3 viewers in your streams. The average means, that you need to get an average of 3 viewers every stream you do for a month. I know what your thinking, how do I get affiliate? This seems hard.
Here are some things recommended to get the ball rolling a little better.
Pushing for Affiliate Pt. 2: Discords
There are a TON of discords that exist that can help you to push for affiliate. All you hae to do is post in the correct channel the link to your twitch and that you are going live. One thing that is recommended is to NOT just use these discords to only post going live. These are communities of gamers and streamers just like you. Feel free to chat and converse about things to get to know people and vibe.
You don't want to fall into the "Link Farm" category. If you just post going live into discord servers, people will see that and there could be repercussions. People might not actually come watch you stream, or you can get kicked or worse banned from the discord. To sum it up, it looks bad to just post when going live. Try to do more.
After Affiliate: what to expect
Before I get into it, when this happened, it hit pretty hard and I was lost for almost a week. This happened to me and it might happen to you too.
when you hit affiliate, it feels amazing! You got there! But then you start to notice somethings. You might notice that the support isn't there as much as it was when you were pushing for affiliate. You hit the goal so some people don't feel they need to be in your stream so they don't need to be there anymore.
Well I've got a silver lining for you! this is where the fun really begins to streaming. The REAL deal for streaming. This is the point where its up to you to get success. It's up to you to do the work.
When you hit affiliate, here's a few things that you'll want to start doing to succeed as a streamer.
Discord: Joining Servers and Making your own
As a streamer/gamer, it's ideal to join servers to help get yourself out there. Do this to make friends, find people to play with, and also get help with streaming or gaming if needed. A very important tip: if you are looking for a Discord to support your stream, test them out by supporting people in their streams and seeing if they support you back. You can do this with discords by seeing who in what discords support you the most.
Some discords say they do follow for follow, or support for support. This can all be dangerous depending on how they function. I'm not saying to NOT do support for support but defintely show support to people when you can, and they will most likely show support back to you.
If you decide to make your own server, make a decision on whether this will be a personal server or a community one. What's the difference? Well, the difference is this.
Supporting Other Streamers: The Benefit
Try to free up some time during the day to watch other streamers in your discord communities to support them. Watch them play, chat it up, sub, give bits, play with their channel points, just spend a good amount of time in their stream to give them the support they need! It will make them feel good about themselves!
Doing this could improve the chances of them coming around and doing the same thing in your stream!
Even if you let them know you are lurking is good. Just make sure you actually watch their stream while doing it. Don't just say your lurking and then leave
If you are noticing that your streams have been lacking of viewers coming in, consider the possibility that you need to be supporting other streamers before they come and support you.
If you are wondering what to do about not getting support from a discord community no matter how hard you try, I would recommend giving the community a month or two and if there's no support from them, feel free to leave, you don't owe them anything. There ar PLENTY of discord communities to join, just need to go looking for them.