How to Get a Good Start Twitch Streaming
You may find this post helpful or interesting if you've wondered about streaming on twitch or any other platform. It covers my experiences and tips thus far in my streaming journey
I've been streaming since November 19, 2017 so not even a month as of the time this post will be going up but I've reached Twitch Affiliate with an average of seven viewers with a high of around 38 and in my past three streams I've gained four subscribers. These numbers aren't too outlandish; however, they are very well off in comparison to the majority of twitch streamers out there so I figure I might as well explain how I began and had my minute amount of success thus far.
Tips & Advice
Everyone is caught up in the numbers & statistics when it comes to streaming but they will come with time as will everything else with streaming The biggest tips anyone can give you is simple, start streaming, stay consistent, and most importantly make sure you're enjoying yourself. It might sound dumb that the biggest tip is "make sure you're enjoying yourself" but viewers can tell if you're playing a game because it gets great views. Truth is I played Wolfenstein The New Order as my first game on stream and I held an average of nine viewers with and even a max or around 25. My point is, if you play games you enjoy and your viewer base will find you. You shouldn't be trying to find your viewer base otherwise you'll never find them. If you hate PUBG but you play PUBG because it's what's at the top of Twitch's 'Browse' function you might have a few people stop by and watch you for a little while but if you play something you love that isn't so popular such as 'The Binding of Isaac' you won't have as much competition plus you'll be passionate about the game. The key isn't to play what everyone else is playing; the key is to play what you love and the views will come.
How to get a strong start
Getting a strong start in streaming is huge and can make the difference in your channel growth from stream one. The first thing I did was tell my friends about my stream. Some of them said they could make it, some said they might, and some said they couldn't this stream but could next stream. Getting just a few people in your stream even if they're just your gaming buddies who have you on in the background while they grind out some ranked play in Overwatch it still counts and each of them gives you that +1 viewer which is crucial to your growth. Another way that I've found to be of very little help but does factually get a large amount of people into your stream is a site called Pwning which is a vote based system between of a handful of viewers where streamers who have opted in can be chosen to be displayed. If your stream gets the votes needed everyone who is watching on Pwning moves to your channel to watch you for a 10 minute period. This is meant to allow you to show them what your stream brings to the table. Sometimes you gain a handful of followers & chatters off it and sometime you gain nothing but the eyes on you can always help. The final tip to starting your stream strong is this: always cross promote. If you're streaming on twitch post it on YouTube, your Facebook page, Twitter, Instagram, and wherever else you can also promote (Reddit can be good but you have to be careful.)
These things are what I've done so far to get to affiliate & build my stream to where it is now. It's not massive and it's not even a very quickly growing stream. However, I wanted to share my experiences and practices with anyone out there who is interested in listening to them.