Ready To Start Your Twitch Channel? Read On

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Ready To Start Your Twitch Channel? Read On

It’s the dream, right? Making a living from the thing you love. It might be that you have been an avid gamer for years, or that there is just one game that you can’t get enough of. It might be a while before you manage to make a living from it, but it’s not out of the realms of possibility – but it takes work.

Streaming has been around for many years now, it actually goes back to the mid-90s. If you have been watching streams and playthroughs in recent years, you’ll more likely know YouTube and Twitch, but Justin.tv was the original Twitch! Justin.tv disrupted the news corporations being able to have a monopoly on gaming reviews and content, and handed to the people who would make the most of it – gamers.

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Photo by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash

In 2008, once the platform with heavy with gaming content, they added a Gaming category and very quickly this became the most popular category. In 2011 it was so big, it was split off and is now what we know and love as Twitch.tv.

So if you have been patiently waiting to pluck up the courage to make your own stream, there is no better time than now.

Before You Start

You already know that the quality of your stream is going to matter. But you don’t have to price yourself out before you start. A mid-range microphone will be fine, to begin with. Eventually, you can go high-end but for now, don’t worry too much. In the end, user experience is what counts here, so focus on that in all things. Most streamers have a camera also. It makes the streamer more ‘real,’ and people are more likely to come back. A Logitech c922 Pro has a friendly price point and works well enough for those early streams. Download Youtube videos to watch for reference.

OBS Studio is the most popular software for streamers. It’s easy to use, has plenty of functions and you can quickly personalize your setup. This is especially useful for setting up Twitch overlays.

Have a few trial runs. This will make sure that your computer can handle everything going on, and will enable you to provide the best user experience.

Consistency Is Key

Choose set times and days to stream. This way people will know when to expect you to be live. Greeting people, in the same way, will become your tagline too.

Be Social

When you can make sure you respond to the chat. After all, they are there to see you. Say thank you for donations, bits, subscriptions and follows too. It is also a good idea to have social media running too. So you can promote your channel, and set up auto-tweets to help you.

Relax

It is easy to get deflated and give up when you’re not making thousands an hour, or when you only have a few regular viewers, but don’t. Don’t focus on the numbers and money, concentrate on creating entertainment you are proud of.

“The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success.” – David Sarnoff

Corey Pollack
Corey is a team member of one of the world's largest esports organizations. Corey is also the founder of Wave Digital Media, one of Canada's 60 fastest growing companies. You can learn more about Corey via our About page.