Hey #NotificationSquad! This video is meant to wrap up 2023 in a nice neat bow, a lot has changed in the streaming space, and you guys have a lot of opinions! So I wanted to break them down, since I can't include everyone, what is your Streaming Hot Take of 2022? 🕘Timestamps: 0::00 Twitch Partner Has Become Useless 1:04 Own3d Pro Sponsorship 1:50 Streaming Is Easy, Streamers Are Just Bad 3:05 Streaming Is EASIER Than A 9-5 Job 4:50 Streaming As A Job RUINS Streaming 5:33 Small Streamers Aren't Underrated, They're Just Bad 7:28 Your Stream Community Is A Family 8:50 Shout Outs Are Literally Useless 10:05 Why External Platforms Don't Help You Grow 11:32 Don't Expect To Grow On A Platform You Don't Watch 13:00 You Should Stop Streaming In 2023
You forget that different countries have different laws! For example in germany, when you stream Twitch on a regular schedule, and you achieve a number of subs, don`t it exactly right now, you are fined extra taxes because your channel counts as a TV Station! Yeah its stupid I know. If you want to know more you have to google Montana Black, he is germanys biggest twitch streamer and had problems with this!
My hot take is that most people don’t want to be streamers or content creators they just want a quick buck. They don’t value the time, creative output, or hard work that goes into doing things consistently and rather than admit that it’s not a good fit for them they call it “easy” or “trash” or “not worth doing” instead 🤷♂️
Ding Ding Ding! My friends are prime examples of this. I started streaming a long time before they did, I got Affiliated after 9 months of hard work and commitment yet my friends made accounts and within 2-4 weeks and playing games with barely any viewers had made Affiliate status - does that sound iffy or legit to you? Probably not. Their answer is always "plugging on socials", okay dude I see the game you want to play here. You saw my growth and thought I could get that a lot sooner than you and decided to buy viewers and followers because you let your jealousy take over you and think you are better than me? Nah fam I ain't standing for that. Looking at their channels now gives me strength and makes me laugh inside, no content and dropping "followers" like flies 😂🖕 if you ain't prepared to do some heavy lifting, you ain't going to succeed as my grandparents used to say to me.
It's incredibly true. I help run a few streamer Facebook groups and the amount of "I'm live, come chill" posts followed by "there's x amount of people and no one comes to my streams, screw all of you" posts we get is laughable. Meanwhile their bio is their cashapp, they have only a donation panel, and stream for like 8 hours a day, insisting that more streaming should mean more viewers
Thanks for putting this out there! I think a sense of self pity in smaller creators might develop in part to a lot of time invested for things that probably won't see a return on investment. Putting in overlays, plug-ins, chat bots and all that certainly can make the stream more entertaining, but most viewers stick around for the creator, not the stream itself. I'm guilty of doing this too, it's easy to put a ton of frosting on a cake, but if the cake itself isn't baked well...serious doubt that the frosting can save it. Just a thought.
From what I've learned helping out fellow streamers and potential streamers, it's actually astonishingly hard to hit go live in some cases! Even THAT is a hurdle to get over when someone has minimal technical skill, possibly garbage internet, a potato PC or no PC at all, no webcam, no microphone, and generally no money. I almost want to congratulate people that make it to the point of successfully setting up OBS and going live for the first time, because that is an ACCOMPLISHMENT. Backpats all around, good job you guys, keep at it, etc etc. Great video, Eljay! Your videos have been absolutely essential to getting off on the right foot on my streaming journey almost two years ago. I've made mistakes along the way, but I know I'd have had a much harder time of things without you and people like you pointing the way.
Sometimes i miss being on twitch but, i realised my mental health feels more stable on youtube because i don't need to stream almost every day around 4 hours. ❤ And i can focus on doing animations and take all the time i need without feeling stress.
my biggest problem is to stick to a schedule and im very introvert and need to pratice with how to interact with my viewers. The tip about turning off the view count helped me alot but still need to practice and to get my schedule together and stick with it :) thank you for all the good tips and information :)
I've been watching your content a lot recently in hopes to get better at streaming myself. I've found so many of your videos helpful and I have been slowly doing things differently. I have finally after streaming very inconsistantly for the last I believe 5 years reached 100 followers. It may not seem like much, but it felt like an accomplishment to me. A lot of the recent growth was because of your tips along with a few other creators that offer advice for streamers. I'm finally growing in a way that I am proud of and It really has given me more confidence in myself and my personal approach to my brand and content I put out. I finally subbed today, and had to laugh cause right as I went to click sub you plugged yourself by saying "Sub to Stream Scheme, I mean another content creator". Well played.
People on the 'outside' never see how much work gets put into streaming, or content creation. I see streaming/content creation as an iceberg. The audience sees the part that sticks out of the water, but they don't see the vast mass underneath the surface. A 30-second TikTok video, or RUclips short, where you've taken content from a stream; people think "Ohh, that's taken them 5 minutes to make". What they don't see is the hours of gameplay before that point, the downloading of the clip, the editing process, and the reupload, making sure it has a description and relevant tags. What looks like something that has taken 5 minutes, could actually be the amalgamation of hours of work...and that's not even accounting for all of the mental processes that it takes to decide what content to use, how/what to edit, what tags to use...it's exhausting.
Streaming is a 50/50 for me. There are days where I’m really happy and excited to meet with everyone again, and there are days where my social battery is dead but I’d still have to do it for consistency (and because twitch and their unreasonable requirements) I am an introvert, which is why my social battery always depletes fast, but I love going on screen as talking to people makes me feel shy.
"I don't wanna WATCH famous streamers, I wanna BE a famous streamer" "I don't have time to watch other streamers, too busy grinding to be a streamer" -Greg (Probably)
I agree with the self pity part. I am in the community of growing streamers and I HATE people telling me I only grow because I am a woman. It downplays the immense effort I put into my streams, RUclips and even my Twitter. I always try to connect and network, analyze the statistics, and try my hardest to make myself known. It is so bloody exhausting and it annoys me. I am so happy that you actually understand that. Thank you for that
I've seen plenty of women not grow because they're not putting in the work. Every time I see someone complain that women have it easy, it's some dude with a bad attitude, playing an oversaturated game, who puts in zero effort and wants to blame someone else
I feel ya... im super super new to all this and have been putting so much work into learning a million new things to be a better streamer. Im sure that if i tried to just cash in on being a woman and not put effort into learning learning to create better content through overlays and social media and learning how to improve audio quality and xyz, i wouldnt have had nearly the amount of success ive had so far. And im still very new, my stream is still very small and i think considering that im still so new to everything and cant improve my quality much with the skills i have right now, i deserve to be the size i am 🤷♀️ every day i put effort into trying to improve my streams and learn new things, and its super annoying when people try to say the small amounts of growth I've managed have nothing to do with mh hard work -.-
Reason why I didn’t watch streamers was because I saw a lot of them as boring and, my thought was, “ why watch when I can play” but it’s not about watching boring streamers it’s about watching what you enjoy, and watching to learn, if you get 5 “go live” notifications at the same time and you click a streamer that you enjoy every time, un follow the ones you don’t enjoy. I unfollowed 200+ content creators because I didn’t enjoy them, they were promoting themselves while promising your success, or just promoted bad behavior in gaming . But yes Watch others to gain knowledge on what to do and what not to do. 13:17
I personally think external platforms have good potential to grow your streams/community, for example i have no prior knowledge or following, and I took some of my clips and converted them to the vertical format for TikTok and RUclips Shorts, on RUclips they got around 50 views and 1 like, where as on TikTok they get 300+ views and 20+ likes and i'd find myself getting a follow or 2 per video (On TikTok not Twitch) now sure i haven't gained any followers on Twitch from those platforms but the fact I'm getting such views with no prior experience or following amazes me and shows good potential. Also I'd like to take this time as my first comment to thank you for your videos, I've learnt so much and I'm trying the best i can to put the knowledge I've learnt from you into my streams, its still a big learning curve for me but i'm determined to improve in time and I'm enjoying every minute of it so thank you! 💞
5:33 was me for many MANY years. It took a lot of work and honestly, therapy for other issues, for me to take an honest look at myself and reflect on my content. I often gaslight myself, built up my own anxiety and became impatient with learning. I still do some times but we're always growing as humans. And when I put in the effort to make a short video that's funny, at least to me, then I do see a big uptick in viewers, comments and overall engagement along with an uptick in my mental state. Compared to when I put in low effort and low energy in to some thing, got no engagement and would ask myself "But its JUST LIKE blahblahblah" Thanks to people in my life and this channel, you learn to take hard looks at yourself as a small streamer or content creator in general. You stop recognizing your failures as faults but as opportunities. So thanks @StreamScheme, Eljay. All those "tough to hear" videos were tough but needed.
About the streamers who don't watch streams one: I technically do watch streams but I mainly only watch them as Vods because 1) timezones, its rare people I watch will stream at my time 2) my attention span is really bad (+ i cringe a lot 😭) so I tend to skip around and 3) I like to be able to pause at anytime (I have alot of times where I need to suddenly do something like help my parents or pets lol) and not miss anything. I do still watch streams live sometimes buts its rare because of those things. I stream because the ability to talk to a chat (no matter how small it is or if its just my friends) while doing something is fun! I mainly watch videos while drawing and gaming in my off time so being able to instead talk about random stuff until I get tired is super fun! Plus, I need better people skills and help my social anxiety (especailly since I am starting Uni all alone next month qvq) so speaking to chatters and my online friends while live, where anyone could come along, really helps me!
I agree with you, I don’t enjoy watching other streamers. It’s a lot like music to me, I spend so much time practicing or making my own that I don’t listen to new bands that often. If I do watch, it’s for the engagement and if the streamer has too many people in the chat or is ignoring it, I get annoyed and leave.😂😂
I’m a little torn on the whole “Streamers and Content Creators are not your friends”. I agree and disagree to an extent. Here’s why. I think building a community, hanging out off-stream via Discord, or any other social media platform in a way, can build a friendship among them, but it takes a lot of time to earn that trust/friendship. It’s the same thing as having online friends. Even if you don’t live close to each other, you can still remain closer online. But as a streamer/content creator of course a boundary has to be set. I know there are “out there” individuals who would donate tons of money to a streamer only to ask them to do favours for them, and it can come across as really creepy and predatory. Streamers are not your therapists either. They’re not here to listen about how crappy your life has been, or the problems you’re facing. Same thing goes with the streamer too. Your community is not your therapist either. You can still talk to them, ask questions, give advice, etc. but they’re not there to help you get better. As Eljay said, streamers/content creators are there to provide entertainment. At the end of the day, I think you can build a community and build friendships between a streamer and a community. But boundaries need to be set between the content creator and the viewers. If you see red flags in a viewer or streamer, you know where to draw the line.
An automated shout out in chat does nothing. A shout out, talking about the streamer who raided you (if you know them), or checking out their page live does WONDERS. Raiders are so much more likely to stick around, follow, and become part of the community if you hype up the guy they've just been watching for 4 hours... instead of welcoming them by telling them your name and that you're a "varity streamer"
I think one of the biggest things people who want to do content creation need to hear is this: Every platform is constantly changing and if you don't self evaluate and adjust with the changes you won't grow. You could've streamed every day for a whole year but go watch your last VOD and find out your mic is muted or the bitrate is too high or low and the video quality is trash. Go look at your last month of RUclips stats and find more people watch your content between X time and Y time or that your shorts do better than long form videos.
TikTok has worked amazing for me to convert to twitch followers on my vtuber account and I’ve only promoted my twitch once in a video. I cut up silly moments that I think people will find funny and it naturally converts to people following me on twitch and elsewhere. I get at least a few people a week who come into chat and say something along the lines of “I saw this clip on TikTok and now I’m here!”
Being a good Streamer is not easy but everyone can work and improve if they set their mind to it. I also do not think you always have to be talking. It depends on your personality are you more energetic, are you more chill and laid back, etc? I think the best way to learn is to try and improve as you go. It is hard for me to watch my content because I am very critical and negative of my own content. Even when I know it is fine I always see how it could be better.
Thank you so much Ejay for another video, you have helped me so much with content creation and I always look forward to the next video to help me grow. I just wanted to let you know that many things that you have mentioned to do like, setting up a schedule, being on several platforms (not just go live), fixing microphone stuff etc a lot of things has helped me grow and I got a very tiny community now and hope to grow bigger as time goes on. Not in a rush, taking my time, making sure I am improving my content and myself as an entertainer. I am having a lot of fun with it ~ so thank you!
>_> as a emote junky. BTT doesnt let me use my favorite streamers emotes in other chats. Edit: I'm a heathen apparently because I usually do click on shoutouts, to see what sorta content they make/do. some of my favorite vtubers I've found this way.
Totally disagree with the friends thing. I have met a bunch of people IRL that are actual friends now. And as someone with mental health issues and an older guy, I have a lot of experience with life that has actually helped various people. Not everyone is my friend, I get it, but saying it’s not right is wrong in my opinion. And there’s nothing wrong with calling the community a family since we honestly see these people more than our actual families lol. I think a lot of viewers are getting sick of content creators, especially the, larger ones, that treat them like a number. Some people just want to make a connection with a larger streamer and actually be noticed instead of being treated like the streamer is some exclusive celebrity that wants nothing to do with them. I know I understand, that I’m on the low end of the totem pole as far as my twitch channel goes, but a lot of my viewers that come into the chat have expressed these exact points.
Interesting hot takes 😁 I'm not steaming yet, but I am working on a schedule that includes streaming, RUclips videos, shorts and community posts. I feel RUclips is a more rounded platform than Twitch, while Twitch is specialized in streaming. I've been wondering if I should stream to both Twitch AND RUclips (and ignore the affiliate/partner thing from Twitch, I guess). I do enjoy others streams on Twitch as well 😀 Which platform do you advise a newbie content creator (both on author things and game design in two separate channels, not playing games) to choose for streaming? Thanks for the advise!
when it comes to relationships with viewers, i make sure to emphasize my APPRECIATION for the support they show me. I am grateful for their follow or sub or dono, nothing less. but also nothing more.
I hung out on twitch for so long before I finally started streaming myself. I had to decide twitch was fun for me before I wanted to commit to streaming! If you don't like watching this kind of content yourself, why are you trying to make it!? Blows my mind!
Holy crap dude ….thank you for making this one …. Everything that we talk about here your pointing out and breaking down…. This is the best one I’ve seen yet and couldn’t be more true. It’s not to hear a larger content creator breaking down some of these points.
Love how you handled these hot takes, Eljay. I've been following your advice from some old videos of yours, and my stream has started growing as a result. The craziest part is, on the Path to Affiliate, I hit 3 average viewers well ahead of 50 followers. If that doesn't prove you know what you're talking about, I don't know what does!
I used to stream Minecraft because I always enjoyed playing it almost daily for over a decade. I figured that I might as well stream it and see what happens. When I started, I was surprised to get as many as 3 people watching. At first I was thrilled. Later I was disappointed to see I had not grown. After that, I did start to grow to almost 5 people watching, but I realized I don't really want to stream any more. It was too much pressure to come up with something compelling to watch me do in Minecraft. I never signed up for Associate even though I technically qualified because that would make it a job instead of a way to pass an evening. Screw that. I quit streaming and have been happy ever since.
Love your videos and love your advice. Thanks for all the hard work and time. Just started streaming and I started applying some of the tricks you give. Such great ideas, I already improuved and its just the start. Do you have a video about the best ways to make highlights video?
I don't agree regarding the "uselessness" of shout outs. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I do click on shout outs and have often stayed with a channel for months to see what content was there and to see what would be produced before making a final judgement. However, I've learned a lot from the information you've put forth and really appreciate your opinions. Thank you for giving a good critical point of view on things. 💙
As a content creator, I only use Twitch to stream because the highlighter tool is so much better along with the discoverability; if I could own good editing software. What people don't realize is that the spotlight isn't for everyone and it's not for the faint of heart. What people don't understand is this..."good publicity is good publicity" but regardless it's not even about that, it's about the beautiful community that comes together and the friendships you make and beautiful people you meet along the way and the fun you have doing it. You have to have a purpose, goals and overall know how to have fun and interact with your audience.
On the shorts topic, I get really frustrated because all my shorts get zero to 10 views, when those same videos get hundreds on tiktok…really unsure what I’m doing wrong here. That few amount of views just makes it feel like RUclips isn’t recommending it to people. (I have a shorts channel so you won’t see them if you check this account btw.)
Anything less than 1000 views on TikTok or Shorts is considered not working sadly. You have to remember on short format such as TikTok/Shorts, Views are impressions, or tests. The platform tests the content, to a few hundred people, and if it is good, it goes out to THOUSANDS! TikTok is just testing it to more people than RUclips. I'd take a step back and look at your content again.
I would say there is definitely such a thing as an underrated creator. A good friend of mine, posts shorts everyday, streams regularly and consistently, posts to tik tok regularly, posts to Twitter and IG regularly, posts to his discord everyday and he has great content I'm a regular viewer. He puts in so much hard work. Vs me who does it mostly for fun and isn't as consistent but we bring in a similar amount of viewers.
Been streaming for a few months, I 💯 agree with everything you said. Streaming is difficult when starting out, I've had shout outs and everything but I'm still sitting at 1 or 2 viewers per stream. What I've been told from fellow streamers is keep going, it didn't take a day to build a city. Keep working at it and eventually something well happen.
Streaming really isn't that easy. At least, if you're actually trying to be entertaining. I did my first stream just a week ago and just trying to keep myself talking, commenting on stuff happening as opposed to the sitting-in-silence I would do when playing normally, it was kind of nerve-wracking. I was really quite fortunate that my friend was watching and chatting so I could have someone to talk to and respond to, I can't imagine yammering to myself for so long. Speaking of which, all these streamers who do 8-hour streams or longer are nuts. I wanted to see just how long I could go, which was about 6 hours in, but I had no idea how hard it would be. I thought, "I sit around and play games for 8 hours all the time. Sometimes longer!" But I really don't. I get up, pet the cat, lay in bed and read comics, take my headphones off and browse memes, all these little breaks that I totally forgot about that I can't realistically do on a stream. And this is all ignoring the amount of setting up I had to do for it. A large amount of time was just watching youtube videos on how to do this or that or how I SHOULD do this or that (psst, that's you. Thanks for all your helpful content by the way!) What kind of music can I play, where can I find it, how do I get overlays, alerts, how does OBS work, can my computer even handle this, noise gates, suppressors, screen resolutions, scenes, sources, GEEZ! Granted, I really only have to set all of this up ONCE, but having to do it all myself has certainly given me a MUCH greater appreciation for streamers, and I'm still nowhere near the quality of the ones I watch. All that said? Streaming was KINDA fun, I guess. I do think a large part of the fun of streaming comes from the chat moreso than whatever you're actually doing. Also I have to learn video editing now. I've given myself so much work by trying to become a streamer.
Honestly, if my growth is purely tied only to how entertaining of a person I can be, it takes the heart and soul out of what I do. People can become my friend under the right conditions, but there's a difference between being friendly, and being friends. No one wants to watch an asshole (unless you're one of those dark humor types).
Hey Eljay, after watching lots of your vids on how to grow as a tiny streamer, mistakes smaller streamer makes, this video etc. i've noticed that you talk about how streaming oversaturated games is a bad idea but i have a question, I used to upload this game called darkorbit (can check the vids on my channel) which has almost no other youtubers nor streamers (actually in twich no one streams it and when i do it wont get past 5 viewers likely bc i dont have a scheudle for it and most of my viewers are form south america and i stream for europe common hours lol) and i get lots of views from it but i dont really enjoy it as there is not much content to make, but i really enjoy streaming valorant and making content of it, so, should i quit uploading this other game and keep going with valo or should i keep up with the other game content to grow my community? ik that i should be the one deciding it but i'd like to hear a suggestion from somebody else (sorry for bad english lol)
In my case, I never watch streams due to time zone differences, and there are alot of parts of big streamer's content which doesn't appeal to my interests. So I just watch the RUclips highlights of that one particular streamer's content.
"why dont people watch streams" This is my own problem, but I try to hand out in channels with lower to single digit view counts. Mostly, because I'm not out there watching streams for homework, which I should do sometimes, but usually, in my own experience, smaller streams mean I have an actual opportunity to chat with the creator and I like to engage and ask questions. Its much harder to impossible to do with bigger streams. But, listening to this makes me realize I should go do so some homework and watch what established streams are doing.
Hey bro, thanks for the content :) I appreciate your down to earth and realistic hot takes/commentary/advice about the streaming. It's super refreshing and insightful All the best to you and your crew in 2023 mate.
I always search for inspirational videos and this is one of em~ Thanks for making this~ I've been doing content creating for over 5 years, not fruitful, but I am too passionate to stop~ do wish well to everyone out there starting out, on-going!! Peace~
Might just be me, but I've been really interested in trying to start streaming, mainly for fun, and doing a ton of research to decide if I should or not but one of the big things holding me from pulling the trigger is that taxes in the US where I live suck ass and I don't fully understand how I should set up where I should have twitch send my money if I'm lucky enough to make some cash on it and how that needs to be set up. If You have made a video involving how this works or how this works in your particular circumstance that would be hugely helpful to avoiding making government man angy.
I think my personal favorite hot take I've seen is people saying "I hate social media" and like when those same people complain or are looking for growth advice for their streams and someone suggests Tik Tok or something.
I think the "streamers are not your friend" take is always a bit difficult because when you're a small streamer, and you have 10-20-50 viewers... It's hard to not become close to these people because there's just a few of them and they are the ones who stick with you no matter what. Being a bigger streamer now I still can't tell my day one viewers that are still here 2 years later that they're not my friends. I cherish them and would be devastated if they suddenly disappear. I think it's a double edged sword and you can't really find a solution to it. Just have to deal with it the best you can
I agree with the "no need to be a twitch partner", I'm enjoying creating so keeping my shows multiplatform & ad free for the forseable future. Will be expoloring everything thats possible for that format this year
12:00 I always think this is super weird. You'd be hard pressed to find a famous musician who doesn't listen to music, or a famous artist that doesn't look at artwork, etc
I have to disagree on the shoutouts. Maybe it's a different experience for larger creators but I've had shoutouts from raids create regular viewers. I wouldn't say it's valuable as a "growth strategy" though, more of part of the ritual around raiding and more indicative of gratitude. I think it would definitely by foolish to only do raids to try and get followers and I hope that's not how people see it.
I agree. When my motivation was money, And I turned what I loved doing into my job, it sucked. Now my motivation is just hanging out with my community and having a good time And I know what is meant for me will come soon enough as long as I put in the hard work.
I have a confession. I like streaming on Twitch, but I would love to make gaming content on RUclips instead. I'm guilty of not watching much Twitch, but I'm constantly watching YT videos. I started on Twitch and never made the switch to YT because I feel like there's no room for Let's Players on YT anymore but on Twitch it's still a possibility? I know it's faulty thinking and I'm letting my fear get in the way, but I'm afraid I just won't grow because I don't make "how to" videos or anything with educational value, only entertainment value.
I recently got to affiliate. Now I focus more on quality streams and content over quantity of streams. Growing an organic following is hard! Realllyyy hard. You can join discord groups and get to affiliate pretty fast. After that, the real grind starts. Creating your personal brand. We'll get there ladies and gents. Be patient and consistent!
I just started streaming with a regular schedule but I’ve been a self sustaining freelance writer for the last seven years. It’s a different skill set but content is content at the end of the day. I’ve had articles blow up and get a million reads before, and just having those experiences I feel like will help me with the streaming thing.
I still have a lot to learn. Always will. Right now, I am trying to figure out what I need to improve on since my growth has been kind of the same. View counts are slowly growing, so I am doing something right.
I want to respectfully disagree with the whole idea that streamers and viewers can't be friends. I don't know if it's just me, but a lot of the people who helped me build my stream started out as viewers who found me on Twitch, joined my discord and interacted with me after the show. Those people became my mods, my go-to artists (who I of course pay), and the technicians for my stream's automated features and game server. They gave me their advice, their talent, and their time to help me improve my stream and I wouldn't be where I am now without them. When you're a small streamer, letting some of those parasocial relationships grow into genuine friendships can be very important. No, I'm not saying you should try to connect with every single person who watches your stream (beware of red flags) but don't just ignore every DM or @ you get when you aren't live.
There are one or two aspects on which I'll differ from the titled hot take. Partners generally don't get randomly throttled and plagued by dropped frames on nearly the same scale that we Affiliates do. And no, it's not just a "connection issue". My network monitor has shown optimal ul/dl speeds while it was happening and I've seen it happen to my friends out of nowhere - unless they are a Partner. That and collab streams natively within Twitch remain easier to do if you're Partnered, even though they added the "Guest Star" function. It's not on the same level as the Twitch Teams one.
Your first point on connection isn't true :) That's anecdotal. Partners get Transcoding, but that doesn't improve your connection, just your viewers ability to watch at lower rates. Your second point isn't either because Squad streams have been broken for over 18 months, only the person who started the squad stream would get views, and it would hurt every other partnered streamer in the squad. Guest Star is also fairly useless, and Twitch Teams have become pyramid schemes.
@@StreamScheme Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on the first score because it isn't at all anecdotal. I have an MS in Networking and have empirically verified this using several network monitors. As to whether it is intentional on the part of platform? I concede I can't say that for certain. I do know that despite not being Partnered myself, I have the multiple rates option which is a bit odd. Not having had hands-on with the Squad function, I can't say either way - it just seems like something that would have been nice to prioritize over rolling out animated emotes or instant verification of regular ones to Affiliates instead. Both in terms of making it work properly as well as widening availability. Either way I've managed to jerry rig my own solutions for having a collaborative dual screen setup but that was before my GF at the time and I fell out. Moving on... I also hadn't tied up with a Team due to observing and hearing they weren't worthwhile for the ,most part; the only one I have joined and stuck with is Fallout For Hope which I've only managed to help out modestly with St. Jude or AHA charity work but it's been a good experience. I can't imagine joining an established Team with the expectation of growing from it. Better to do something that benefits those less fortunate! Anyway, thanks for the reply. It's not often a CC (even one who gives pointers and advice) engages that actively.
Hi, I know that you answer comments and i hope you can help me. In my budget i can afford an audio tehnica microphone, so i saw condenser variant which is more expensive and standard audio tehnica microphone, can you tell me the diference?
Hello I need your advice. I have a cpu 5700g, when I turn on obs, I have about 20 percent worse results in games and benchmarks. Only with obs turned on no scenes no recording no streaming. I have a freshly installed system.
Hey there, I just began to watch your vids last week and find them pretty engaging. One of the questions I had was how to start out when 'everything' wants your money? You need X equipment before you can start, Y helped me bring in my followers. You can't hide your real info unless you pay a few hundred bucks, you can't stream in multiple places at once without paying for this, you can't get information or music without paying for that, etc. How does one get comfortable with the streaming life with so many paywalls and lack of safety?
8:17 - 8:26 Although I usually agree with what you mostly say in your videos I would like to argue about not treating viewers as your friends. I feel like when you are a smaller creator, it's alright to treat your regulars that you knew for at least few months as friends. After all they are hanging out with you everytime you stream and they are spending their own free time to be there with you. I can however understand how that could become way harder to do so once you get close to partner threshold or above it. Cuz having so many people watching might make it a bit harder to get to know new people more. Though the one thing I can agree on is that streamers shouldn't be giving a mental health advices. Instead, we should just redirect people to websites that could help them.
I'd say when you're small it is even more important to set those lines in the sand, but I think at the end of the day you'll experience that for yourself, every creator does. Eventually, you'll see why it's so important to understand the difference between a Viewer and a Friend, and if you never have a bad experience, then that's great too! :)
I HATED public speaking ever since I was in elementary school. Absolute hatred. Hate hate hate it. Still do. I won't talk in meetings unless u absolutely have to. But if there's some nice people on my stream, it makes it fun and way easier to be able to talk.
A question not directly related to the video : do you think is better talking or not talking while there are games cinematics? Sure, It depends by your public and your niche, but when you don't have a big public yet? 😅 Maybe the public of the niche you chose prefer not talking. But maybe the people who appreciate not talking are not so much, so It would be better to switch to talking and changing pubblic. What to do? :'3 It would be cool to ask to the comunity.
Honestly sub and bit goals on twitch I think are good for building community! I'm a small streamer and use them for things like "movie night", "new bit alert", etc.
Hey found your content and started doing a lot of you tip and stuff im slowly experimenting with stuff i treat streaming like a hobby and its really fun your tips are heloing a lot im still small but im very much motivated and looking at my content as a viewer and thinking would i watch this and trying to improve it until im happy with it. Tldr thanks for the tips keep it up
hi Eljayem could you make a video on the right type of shorts to make. I make shorts from my streams and videos but the one from my streams are like funny moments kinda but I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do. a video or response would be great. have a good day bro
Bounty boards aren't a thing for 80% of the world, the ad challenges have destroyed entire channels retention rates, and Teams have become a pyramid scheme more often than not.... so honestly we're far worse than if they just didn't exist.
I am a very small time streamer and to be fair I am probably not that entertaining lol. But, I am doing it because I can! I enjoy it no matter how small or big I am. It's not about the money! The enjoyment of meeting new poeple and learning where they are from is the fun of it for me! I work full-time and have to kids. The time i have to put into streaming and creating isn't as high as I would like. But, it is not a job for me and more than likely never will be.
"To be a big or full time streamer, you shouldn't be a streamer" ~ Yes. Imagine putting in 5-9 hours a day of just streaming like XQC. Jesus Christ how horrifying.
its weird to think that people think youtube doesnt help them grow, i myself am a youtube frog, i dont do much twitch watching, whilst im still following them and check in, but normaly youtube videos are more digestible and funnily enough, most streamers i watch, ive found on youtube
I think streaming and RUclips are for people who can be social irl or know how to use social media pretty well. I'm neither one and so, while I've seen some growth, there's also been a bunch of unsubs for both, though mostly on RUclips as my Twitch has been stagnant with subs for months now. The only thing that talking for an hour to four hours straight is getting winded because of my asthma and waste CPU. To begin with, I just wanted to create art in front of other people but maybe it's time to focus on RUclips or other social media for now.
the better quality of streams due priority makes a bit of a difference I think. I also think whether partner is worth it or not, I think pushing for that goal isn't bad either?
True to the word of hottakes. Niether disagreed or agreed with the submissions or StreamScheme completely. Always exceptions to the takes in both directions. Still an interesting watch.
As a small streamer... I see a lot of other small streamers that are... full of self pity. I know Im small because its my own fault though lmao. I just dont put the effort in as much I think, though having people tell me what I could improve on would be good. Do kinda feel attacked on not watching streamers, but I also work two jobs and stream so I unfortunately dont have as much time as I'd like to watch streams... I try my best though
You made some great points! I stream for my community! Every day is community day anyone can join me live! I have also found after 2.5 years streaming I tend to make more on avg than most partnered streamers! But ill admit partner is a goal a goal for my community and there growth. I run a 100% charity stream all the time! I'm in a very lucky position owning a successful company that offers me the freedom to stream 4-5 days per week. I would also say the twitch community is very toxic as an older streamer it reminds me of a high school click sometimes! All I can say IS work hard and it will show, NO ONE is going to do it for you!
"treat your viewers like family" hm. I treat most as friends, chatting with em, helping em if they ask for help and such, with the exception of one specific guy who is annoying and random as all hell, we all collectively take a dump on him. Fun times.
Hey #NotificationSquad! This video is meant to wrap up 2023 in a nice neat bow, a lot has changed in the streaming space, and you guys have a lot of opinions! So I wanted to break them down, since I can't include everyone, what is your Streaming Hot Take of 2022?
🕘Timestamps:
0::00 Twitch Partner Has Become Useless
1:04 Own3d Pro Sponsorship
1:50 Streaming Is Easy, Streamers Are Just Bad
3:05 Streaming Is EASIER Than A 9-5 Job
4:50 Streaming As A Job RUINS Streaming
5:33 Small Streamers Aren't Underrated, They're Just Bad
7:28 Your Stream Community Is A Family
8:50 Shout Outs Are Literally Useless
10:05 Why External Platforms Don't Help You Grow
11:32 Don't Expect To Grow On A Platform You Don't Watch
13:00 You Should Stop Streaming In 2023
Ah thank you for putting the timestamps for some reason my phone wasn't allowing me to see them, very much appreciated!
You forget that different countries have different laws! For example in germany, when you stream Twitch on a regular schedule, and you achieve a number of subs, don`t it exactly right now, you are fined extra taxes because your channel counts as a TV Station! Yeah its stupid I know. If you want to know more you have to google Montana Black, he is germanys biggest twitch streamer and had problems with this!
My hot take is that most people don’t want to be streamers or content creators they just want a quick buck. They don’t value the time, creative output, or hard work that goes into doing things consistently and rather than admit that it’s not a good fit for them they call it “easy” or “trash” or “not worth doing” instead 🤷♂️
Ding Ding Ding! My friends are prime examples of this. I started streaming a long time before they did, I got Affiliated after 9 months of hard work and commitment yet my friends made accounts and within 2-4 weeks and playing games with barely any viewers had made Affiliate status - does that sound iffy or legit to you? Probably not. Their answer is always "plugging on socials", okay dude I see the game you want to play here. You saw my growth and thought I could get that a lot sooner than you and decided to buy viewers and followers because you let your jealousy take over you and think you are better than me? Nah fam I ain't standing for that. Looking at their channels now gives me strength and makes me laugh inside, no content and dropping "followers" like flies 😂🖕 if you ain't prepared to do some heavy lifting, you ain't going to succeed as my grandparents used to say to me.
That’s not a hot take. That’s the truth
It's incredibly true. I help run a few streamer Facebook groups and the amount of "I'm live, come chill" posts followed by "there's x amount of people and no one comes to my streams, screw all of you" posts we get is laughable. Meanwhile their bio is their cashapp, they have only a donation panel, and stream for like 8 hours a day, insisting that more streaming should mean more viewers
Thanks for putting this out there! I think a sense of self pity in smaller creators might develop in part to a lot of time invested for things that probably won't see a return on investment.
Putting in overlays, plug-ins, chat bots and all that certainly can make the stream more entertaining, but most viewers stick around for the creator, not the stream itself. I'm guilty of doing this too, it's easy to put a ton of frosting on a cake, but if the cake itself isn't baked well...serious doubt that the frosting can save it. Just a thought.
From what I've learned helping out fellow streamers and potential streamers, it's actually astonishingly hard to hit go live in some cases! Even THAT is a hurdle to get over when someone has minimal technical skill, possibly garbage internet, a potato PC or no PC at all, no webcam, no microphone, and generally no money. I almost want to congratulate people that make it to the point of successfully setting up OBS and going live for the first time, because that is an ACCOMPLISHMENT. Backpats all around, good job you guys, keep at it, etc etc.
Great video, Eljay! Your videos have been absolutely essential to getting off on the right foot on my streaming journey almost two years ago. I've made mistakes along the way, but I know I'd have had a much harder time of things without you and people like you pointing the way.
Being a streamer is easy, being great at it is tough. Honestly that applies to anything you do in life. ❤🤘
Sometimes i miss being on twitch but, i realised my mental health feels more stable on youtube because i don't need to stream almost every day around 4 hours. ❤
And i can focus on doing animations and take all the time i need without feeling stress.
my biggest problem is to stick to a schedule and im very introvert and need to pratice with how to interact with my viewers. The tip about turning off the view count helped me alot but still need to practice and to get my schedule together and stick with it :) thank you for all the good tips and information :)
I've been watching your content a lot recently in hopes to get better at streaming myself. I've found so many of your videos helpful and I have been slowly doing things differently. I have finally after streaming very inconsistantly for the last I believe 5 years reached 100 followers. It may not seem like much, but it felt like an accomplishment to me. A lot of the recent growth was because of your tips along with a few other creators that offer advice for streamers. I'm finally growing in a way that I am proud of and It really has given me more confidence in myself and my personal approach to my brand and content I put out. I finally subbed today, and had to laugh cause right as I went to click sub you plugged yourself by saying "Sub to Stream Scheme, I mean another content creator". Well played.
People on the 'outside' never see how much work gets put into streaming, or content creation. I see streaming/content creation as an iceberg. The audience sees the part that sticks out of the water, but they don't see the vast mass underneath the surface.
A 30-second TikTok video, or RUclips short, where you've taken content from a stream; people think "Ohh, that's taken them 5 minutes to make".
What they don't see is the hours of gameplay before that point, the downloading of the clip, the editing process, and the reupload, making sure it has a description and relevant tags. What looks like something that has taken 5 minutes, could actually be the amalgamation of hours of work...and that's not even accounting for all of the mental processes that it takes to decide what content to use, how/what to edit, what tags to use...it's exhausting.
Streaming is a 50/50 for me.
There are days where I’m really happy and excited to meet with everyone again, and there are days where my social battery is dead but I’d still have to do it for consistency (and because twitch and their unreasonable requirements)
I am an introvert, which is why my social battery always depletes fast, but I love going on screen as talking to people makes me feel shy.
"I don't wanna WATCH famous streamers, I wanna BE a famous streamer"
"I don't have time to watch other streamers, too busy grinding to be a streamer"
-Greg (Probably)
I agree with the self pity part. I am in the community of growing streamers and I HATE people telling me I only grow because I am a woman. It downplays the immense effort I put into my streams, RUclips and even my Twitter. I always try to connect and network, analyze the statistics, and try my hardest to make myself known. It is so bloody exhausting and it annoys me. I am so happy that you actually understand that. Thank you for that
I've seen plenty of women not grow because they're not putting in the work. Every time I see someone complain that women have it easy, it's some dude with a bad attitude, playing an oversaturated game, who puts in zero effort and wants to blame someone else
I feel ya... im super super new to all this and have been putting so much work into learning a million new things to be a better streamer. Im sure that if i tried to just cash in on being a woman and not put effort into learning learning to create better content through overlays and social media and learning how to improve audio quality and xyz, i wouldnt have had nearly the amount of success ive had so far. And im still very new, my stream is still very small and i think considering that im still so new to everything and cant improve my quality much with the skills i have right now, i deserve to be the size i am 🤷♀️ every day i put effort into trying to improve my streams and learn new things, and its super annoying when people try to say the small amounts of growth I've managed have nothing to do with mh hard work -.-
Reason why I didn’t watch streamers was because I saw a lot of them as boring and, my thought was, “ why watch when I can play” but it’s not about watching boring streamers it’s about watching what you enjoy, and watching to learn, if you get 5 “go live” notifications at the same time and you click a streamer that you enjoy every time, un follow the ones you don’t enjoy. I unfollowed 200+ content creators because I didn’t enjoy them, they were promoting themselves while promising your success, or just promoted bad behavior in gaming . But yes Watch others to gain knowledge on what to do and what not to do. 13:17
I personally think external platforms have good potential to grow your streams/community, for example i have no prior knowledge or following, and I took some of my clips and converted them to the vertical format for TikTok and RUclips Shorts, on RUclips they got around 50 views and 1 like, where as on TikTok they get 300+ views and 20+ likes and i'd find myself getting a follow or 2 per video (On TikTok not Twitch) now sure i haven't gained any followers on Twitch from those platforms but the fact I'm getting such views with no prior experience or following amazes me and shows good potential.
Also I'd like to take this time as my first comment to thank you for your videos, I've learnt so much and I'm trying the best i can to put the knowledge I've learnt from you into my streams, its still a big learning curve for me but i'm determined to improve in time and I'm enjoying every minute of it so thank you!
💞
5:33 was me for many MANY years. It took a lot of work and honestly, therapy for other issues, for me to take an honest look at myself and reflect on my content. I often gaslight myself, built up my own anxiety and became impatient with learning.
I still do some times but we're always growing as humans. And when I put in the effort to make a short video that's funny, at least to me, then I do see a big uptick in viewers, comments and overall engagement along with an uptick in my mental state. Compared to when I put in low effort and low energy in to some thing, got no engagement and would ask myself "But its JUST LIKE blahblahblah"
Thanks to people in my life and this channel, you learn to take hard looks at yourself as a small streamer or content creator in general. You stop recognizing your failures as faults but as opportunities. So thanks @StreamScheme, Eljay. All those "tough to hear" videos were tough but needed.
About the streamers who don't watch streams one: I technically do watch streams but I mainly only watch them as Vods because 1) timezones, its rare people I watch will stream at my time 2) my attention span is really bad (+ i cringe a lot 😭) so I tend to skip around and 3) I like to be able to pause at anytime (I have alot of times where I need to suddenly do something like help my parents or pets lol) and not miss anything. I do still watch streams live sometimes buts its rare because of those things.
I stream because the ability to talk to a chat (no matter how small it is or if its just my friends) while doing something is fun! I mainly watch videos while drawing and gaming in my off time so being able to instead talk about random stuff until I get tired is super fun! Plus, I need better people skills and help my social anxiety (especailly since I am starting Uni all alone next month qvq) so speaking to chatters and my online friends while live, where anyone could come along, really helps me!
I agree with you, I don’t enjoy watching other streamers. It’s a lot like music to me, I spend so much time practicing or making my own that I don’t listen to new bands that often. If I do watch, it’s for the engagement and if the streamer has too many people in the chat or is ignoring it, I get annoyed and leave.😂😂
I’m a little torn on the whole “Streamers and Content Creators are not your friends”. I agree and disagree to an extent. Here’s why.
I think building a community, hanging out off-stream via Discord, or any other social media platform in a way, can build a friendship among them, but it takes a lot of time to earn that trust/friendship. It’s the same thing as having online friends. Even if you don’t live close to each other, you can still remain closer online.
But as a streamer/content creator of course a boundary has to be set. I know there are “out there” individuals who would donate tons of money to a streamer only to ask them to do favours for them, and it can come across as really creepy and predatory. Streamers are not your therapists either. They’re not here to listen about how crappy your life has been, or the problems you’re facing. Same thing goes with the streamer too. Your community is not your therapist either. You can still talk to them, ask questions, give advice, etc. but they’re not there to help you get better. As Eljay said, streamers/content creators are there to provide entertainment.
At the end of the day, I think you can build a community and build friendships between a streamer and a community. But boundaries need to be set between the content creator and the viewers. If you see red flags in a viewer or streamer, you know where to draw the line.
Your videos just always feel like the necessary opinions for streaming. Always appreciate your content.
An automated shout out in chat does nothing. A shout out, talking about the streamer who raided you (if you know them), or checking out their page live does WONDERS. Raiders are so much more likely to stick around, follow, and become part of the community if you hype up the guy they've just been watching for 4 hours... instead of welcoming them by telling them your name and that you're a "varity streamer"
I think one of the biggest things people who want to do content creation need to hear is this: Every platform is constantly changing and if you don't self evaluate and adjust with the changes you won't grow.
You could've streamed every day for a whole year but go watch your last VOD and find out your mic is muted or the bitrate is too high or low and the video quality is trash. Go look at your last month of RUclips stats and find more people watch your content between X time and Y time or that your shorts do better than long form videos.
TikTok has worked amazing for me to convert to twitch followers on my vtuber account and I’ve only promoted my twitch once in a video. I cut up silly moments that I think people will find funny and it naturally converts to people following me on twitch and elsewhere. I get at least a few people a week who come into chat and say something along the lines of “I saw this clip on TikTok and now I’m here!”
Being a good Streamer is not easy but everyone can work and improve if they set their mind to it. I also do not think you always have to be talking. It depends on your personality are you more energetic, are you more chill and laid back, etc? I think the best way to learn is to try and improve as you go. It is hard for me to watch my content because I am very critical and negative of my own content. Even when I know it is fine I always see how it could be better.
Thank you so much Ejay for another video, you have helped me so much with content creation and I always look forward to the next video to help me grow. I just wanted to let you know that many things that you have mentioned to do like, setting up a schedule, being on several platforms (not just go live), fixing microphone stuff etc a lot of things has helped me grow and I got a very tiny community now and hope to grow bigger as time goes on. Not in a rush, taking my time, making sure I am improving my content and myself as an entertainer. I am having a lot of fun with it ~ so thank you!
>_> as a emote junky. BTT doesnt let me use my favorite streamers emotes in other chats.
Edit: I'm a heathen apparently because I usually do click on shoutouts, to see what sorta content they make/do. some of my favorite vtubers I've found this way.
Totally disagree with the friends thing. I have met a bunch of people IRL that are actual friends now. And as someone with mental health issues and an older guy, I have a lot of experience with life that has actually helped various people. Not everyone is my friend, I get it, but saying it’s not right is wrong in my opinion. And there’s nothing wrong with calling the community a family since we honestly see these people more than our actual families lol. I think a lot of viewers are getting sick of content creators, especially the, larger ones, that treat them like a number. Some people just want to make a connection with a larger streamer and actually be noticed instead of being treated like the streamer is some exclusive celebrity that wants nothing to do with them. I know I understand, that I’m on the low end of the totem pole as far as my twitch channel goes, but a lot of my viewers that come into the chat have expressed these exact points.
Being a streamer is easy, being an entertaining streamer is a different story lol
Interesting hot takes 😁
I'm not steaming yet, but I am working on a schedule that includes streaming, RUclips videos, shorts and community posts.
I feel RUclips is a more rounded platform than Twitch, while Twitch is specialized in streaming. I've been wondering if I should stream to both Twitch AND RUclips (and ignore the affiliate/partner thing from Twitch, I guess).
I do enjoy others streams on Twitch as well 😀
Which platform do you advise a newbie content creator (both on author things and game design in two separate channels, not playing games) to choose for streaming?
Thanks for the advise!
when it comes to relationships with viewers, i make sure to emphasize my APPRECIATION for the support they show me. I am grateful for their follow or sub or dono, nothing less. but also nothing more.
I hung out on twitch for so long before I finally started streaming myself. I had to decide twitch was fun for me before I wanted to commit to streaming! If you don't like watching this kind of content yourself, why are you trying to make it!? Blows my mind!
Holy crap dude ….thank you for making this one …. Everything that we talk about here your pointing out and breaking down…. This is the best one I’ve seen yet and couldn’t be more true. It’s not to hear a larger content creator breaking down some of these points.
Love how you handled these hot takes, Eljay. I've been following your advice from some old videos of yours, and my stream has started growing as a result. The craziest part is, on the Path to Affiliate, I hit 3 average viewers well ahead of 50 followers. If that doesn't prove you know what you're talking about, I don't know what does!
I used to stream Minecraft because I always enjoyed playing it almost daily for over a decade. I figured that I might as well stream it and see what happens. When I started, I was surprised to get as many as 3 people watching. At first I was thrilled. Later I was disappointed to see I had not grown. After that, I did start to grow to almost 5 people watching, but I realized I don't really want to stream any more. It was too much pressure to come up with something compelling to watch me do in Minecraft. I never signed up for Associate even though I technically qualified because that would make it a job instead of a way to pass an evening. Screw that. I quit streaming and have been happy ever since.
Love your videos and love your advice.
Thanks for all the hard work and time.
Just started streaming and I started applying some of the tricks you give.
Such great ideas, I already improuved and its just the start.
Do you have a video about the best ways to make highlights video?
I don't agree regarding the "uselessness" of shout outs. Maybe I'm an outlier, but I do click on shout outs and have often stayed with a channel for months to see what content was there and to see what would be produced before making a final judgement.
However, I've learned a lot from the information you've put forth and really appreciate your opinions. Thank you for giving a good critical point of view on things. 💙
As a content creator, I only use Twitch to stream because the highlighter tool is so much better along with the discoverability; if I could own good editing software. What people don't realize is that the spotlight isn't for everyone and it's not for the faint of heart. What people don't understand is this..."good publicity is good publicity" but regardless it's not even about that, it's about the beautiful community that comes together and the friendships you make and beautiful people you meet along the way and the fun you have doing it. You have to have a purpose, goals and overall know how to have fun and interact with your audience.
This info was so helpful ! Thanks ! Subbed and looking forward to learning more from you !
You looked like you had so much fun with this video! Love it!
I did!
On the shorts topic, I get really frustrated because all my shorts get zero to 10 views, when those same videos get hundreds on tiktok…really unsure what I’m doing wrong here.
That few amount of views just makes it feel like RUclips isn’t recommending it to people.
(I have a shorts channel so you won’t see them if you check this account btw.)
Anything less than 1000 views on TikTok or Shorts is considered not working sadly.
You have to remember on short format such as TikTok/Shorts, Views are impressions, or tests.
The platform tests the content, to a few hundred people, and if it is good, it goes out to THOUSANDS!
TikTok is just testing it to more people than RUclips.
I'd take a step back and look at your content again.
Started streaming last week by using all of your videos and following your steps and honestly bro, you’re a god sent. Thank you so so much.
Looking to start streaming soon and found your channel recently. Your videos are super helpful! Thanks for making these bro
Do you still stream? Where?
Never saw you live on twitch agian
I stream on RUclips :) I've made several posts and videos about the move and how successful it has been for me.
I would say there is definitely such a thing as an underrated creator. A good friend of mine, posts shorts everyday, streams regularly and consistently, posts to tik tok regularly, posts to Twitter and IG regularly, posts to his discord everyday and he has great content I'm a regular viewer. He puts in so much hard work. Vs me who does it mostly for fun and isn't as consistent but we bring in a similar amount of viewers.
Great points all around! Thank you Eljay
Been streaming for a few months, I 💯 agree with everything you said. Streaming is difficult when starting out, I've had shout outs and everything but I'm still sitting at 1 or 2 viewers per stream.
What I've been told from fellow streamers is keep going, it didn't take a day to build a city. Keep working at it and eventually something well happen.
Streaming really isn't that easy. At least, if you're actually trying to be entertaining. I did my first stream just a week ago and just trying to keep myself talking, commenting on stuff happening as opposed to the sitting-in-silence I would do when playing normally, it was kind of nerve-wracking. I was really quite fortunate that my friend was watching and chatting so I could have someone to talk to and respond to, I can't imagine yammering to myself for so long. Speaking of which, all these streamers who do 8-hour streams or longer are nuts. I wanted to see just how long I could go, which was about 6 hours in, but I had no idea how hard it would be. I thought, "I sit around and play games for 8 hours all the time. Sometimes longer!" But I really don't. I get up, pet the cat, lay in bed and read comics, take my headphones off and browse memes, all these little breaks that I totally forgot about that I can't realistically do on a stream.
And this is all ignoring the amount of setting up I had to do for it. A large amount of time was just watching youtube videos on how to do this or that or how I SHOULD do this or that (psst, that's you. Thanks for all your helpful content by the way!) What kind of music can I play, where can I find it, how do I get overlays, alerts, how does OBS work, can my computer even handle this, noise gates, suppressors, screen resolutions, scenes, sources, GEEZ! Granted, I really only have to set all of this up ONCE, but having to do it all myself has certainly given me a MUCH greater appreciation for streamers, and I'm still nowhere near the quality of the ones I watch.
All that said? Streaming was KINDA fun, I guess. I do think a large part of the fun of streaming comes from the chat moreso than whatever you're actually doing.
Also I have to learn video editing now. I've given myself so much work by trying to become a streamer.
Honestly, if my growth is purely tied only to how entertaining of a person I can be, it takes the heart and soul out of what I do.
People can become my friend under the right conditions, but there's a difference between being friendly, and being friends.
No one wants to watch an asshole (unless you're one of those dark humor types).
Hey Eljay, after watching lots of your vids on how to grow as a tiny streamer, mistakes smaller streamer makes, this video etc. i've noticed that you talk about how streaming oversaturated games is a bad idea but i have a question, I used to upload this game called darkorbit (can check the vids on my channel) which has almost no other youtubers nor streamers (actually in twich no one streams it and when i do it wont get past 5 viewers likely bc i dont have a scheudle for it and most of my viewers are form south america and i stream for europe common hours lol) and i get lots of views from it but i dont really enjoy it as there is not much content to make, but i really enjoy streaming valorant and making content of it, so, should i quit uploading this other game and keep going with valo or should i keep up with the other game content to grow my community? ik that i should be the one deciding it but i'd like to hear a suggestion from somebody else (sorry for bad english lol)
I just reached 1000 subs purely on streaming on YT, and you are a big part of it even you usually give Twitch advices, thank you.
In my case, I never watch streams due to time zone differences, and there are alot of parts of big streamer's content which doesn't appeal to my interests. So I just watch the RUclips highlights of that one particular streamer's content.
"why dont people watch streams"
This is my own problem, but I try to hand out in channels with lower to single digit view counts. Mostly, because I'm not out there watching streams for homework, which I should do sometimes, but usually, in my own experience, smaller streams mean I have an actual opportunity to chat with the creator and I like to engage and ask questions. Its much harder to impossible to do with bigger streams. But, listening to this makes me realize I should go do so some homework and watch what established streams are doing.
Hey bro, thanks for the content :)
I appreciate your down to earth and realistic hot takes/commentary/advice about the streaming. It's super refreshing and insightful
All the best to you and your crew in 2023 mate.
I LOVE the way you explained that shoutout system. That's honestly genius!
I always search for inspirational videos and this is one of em~ Thanks for making this~ I've been doing content creating for over 5 years, not fruitful, but I am too passionate to stop~ do wish well to everyone out there starting out, on-going!! Peace~
Might just be me, but I've been really interested in trying to start streaming, mainly for fun, and doing a ton of research to decide if I should or not but one of the big things holding me from pulling the trigger is that taxes in the US where I live suck ass and I don't fully understand how I should set up where I should have twitch send my money if I'm lucky enough to make some cash on it and how that needs to be set up. If You have made a video involving how this works or how this works in your particular circumstance that would be hugely helpful to avoiding making government man angy.
I think my personal favorite hot take I've seen is people saying "I hate social media" and like when those same people complain or are looking for growth advice for their streams and someone suggests Tik Tok or something.
I think the "streamers are not your friend" take is always a bit difficult because when you're a small streamer, and you have 10-20-50 viewers... It's hard to not become close to these people because there's just a few of them and they are the ones who stick with you no matter what.
Being a bigger streamer now I still can't tell my day one viewers that are still here 2 years later that they're not my friends. I cherish them and would be devastated if they suddenly disappear.
I think it's a double edged sword and you can't really find a solution to it. Just have to deal with it the best you can
When you’re small it’s even more important to draw that line, if you want to grow and maintain an audience, there needs to be a barrier.
@@StreamScheme As a small, begginer streamer I felt into this mistake. I will establish barriers
Love how real you keep it! Always appreciate the reality checks.
I agree with the "no need to be a twitch partner", I'm enjoying creating so keeping my shows multiplatform & ad free for the forseable future. Will be expoloring everything thats possible for that format this year
12:00 I always think this is super weird. You'd be hard pressed to find a famous musician who doesn't listen to music, or a famous artist that doesn't look at artwork, etc
I have to disagree on the shoutouts. Maybe it's a different experience for larger creators but I've had shoutouts from raids create regular viewers. I wouldn't say it's valuable as a "growth strategy" though, more of part of the ritual around raiding and more indicative of gratitude. I think it would definitely by foolish to only do raids to try and get followers and I hope that's not how people see it.
I agree. When my motivation was money, And I turned what I loved doing into my job, it sucked. Now my motivation is just hanging out with my community and having a good time And I know what is meant for me will come soon enough as long as I put in the hard work.
I have a confession. I like streaming on Twitch, but I would love to make gaming content on RUclips instead. I'm guilty of not watching much Twitch, but I'm constantly watching YT videos. I started on Twitch and never made the switch to YT because I feel like there's no room for Let's Players on YT anymore but on Twitch it's still a possibility? I know it's faulty thinking and I'm letting my fear get in the way, but I'm afraid I just won't grow because I don't make "how to" videos or anything with educational value, only entertainment value.
I recently got to affiliate. Now I focus more on quality streams and content over quantity of streams. Growing an organic following is hard! Realllyyy hard. You can join discord groups and get to affiliate pretty fast. After that, the real grind starts. Creating your personal brand. We'll get there ladies and gents. Be patient and consistent!
I just started streaming with a regular schedule but I’ve been a self sustaining freelance writer for the last seven years. It’s a different skill set but content is content at the end of the day. I’ve had articles blow up and get a million reads before, and just having those experiences I feel like will help me with the streaming thing.
I still have a lot to learn. Always will. Right now, I am trying to figure out what I need to improve on since my growth has been kind of the same. View counts are slowly growing, so I am doing something right.
Once again, a fun video. I enjoy lerning from and with you. :3
I want to respectfully disagree with the whole idea that streamers and viewers can't be friends. I don't know if it's just me, but a lot of the people who helped me build my stream started out as viewers who found me on Twitch, joined my discord and interacted with me after the show. Those people became my mods, my go-to artists (who I of course pay), and the technicians for my stream's automated features and game server. They gave me their advice, their talent, and their time to help me improve my stream and I wouldn't be where I am now without them. When you're a small streamer, letting some of those parasocial relationships grow into genuine friendships can be very important. No, I'm not saying you should try to connect with every single person who watches your stream (beware of red flags) but don't just ignore every DM or @ you get when you aren't live.
There are one or two aspects on which I'll differ from the titled hot take. Partners generally don't get randomly throttled and plagued by dropped frames on nearly the same scale that we Affiliates do. And no, it's not just a "connection issue". My network monitor has shown optimal ul/dl speeds while it was happening and I've seen it happen to my friends out of nowhere - unless they are a Partner. That and collab streams natively within Twitch remain easier to do if you're Partnered, even though they added the "Guest Star" function. It's not on the same level as the Twitch Teams one.
Your first point on connection isn't true :) That's anecdotal. Partners get Transcoding, but that doesn't improve your connection, just your viewers ability to watch at lower rates.
Your second point isn't either because Squad streams have been broken for over 18 months, only the person who started the squad stream would get views, and it would hurt every other partnered streamer in the squad.
Guest Star is also fairly useless, and Twitch Teams have become pyramid schemes.
@@StreamScheme Well, we'll have to agree to disagree on the first score because it isn't at all anecdotal. I have an MS in Networking and have empirically verified this using several network monitors. As to whether it is intentional on the part of platform? I concede I can't say that for certain. I do know that despite not being Partnered myself, I have the multiple rates option which is a bit odd.
Not having had hands-on with the Squad function, I can't say either way - it just seems like something that would have been nice to prioritize over rolling out animated emotes or instant verification of regular ones to Affiliates instead. Both in terms of making it work properly as well as widening availability. Either way I've managed to jerry rig my own solutions for having a collaborative dual screen setup but that was before my GF at the time and I fell out. Moving on...
I also hadn't tied up with a Team due to observing and hearing they weren't worthwhile for the ,most part; the only one I have joined and stuck with is Fallout For Hope which I've only managed to help out modestly with St. Jude or AHA charity work but it's been a good experience. I can't imagine joining an established Team with the expectation of growing from it. Better to do something that benefits those less fortunate!
Anyway, thanks for the reply. It's not often a CC (even one who gives pointers and advice) engages that actively.
Hi, I know that you answer comments and i hope you can help me. In my budget i can afford an audio tehnica microphone, so i saw condenser variant which is more expensive and standard audio tehnica microphone, can you tell me the diference?
Hello I need your advice. I have a cpu 5700g, when I turn on obs, I have about 20 percent worse results in games and benchmarks. Only with obs turned on no scenes no recording no streaming. I have a freshly installed system.
Hey there, I just began to watch your vids last week and find them pretty engaging. One of the questions I had was how to start out when 'everything' wants your money? You need X equipment before you can start, Y helped me bring in my followers. You can't hide your real info unless you pay a few hundred bucks, you can't stream in multiple places at once without paying for this, you can't get information or music without paying for that, etc. How does one get comfortable with the streaming life with so many paywalls and lack of safety?
8:17 - 8:26 Although I usually agree with what you mostly say in your videos I would like to argue about not treating viewers as your friends. I feel like when you are a smaller creator, it's alright to treat your regulars that you knew for at least few months as friends. After all they are hanging out with you everytime you stream and they are spending their own free time to be there with you.
I can however understand how that could become way harder to do so once you get close to partner threshold or above it. Cuz having so many people watching might make it a bit harder to get to know new people more. Though the one thing I can agree on is that streamers shouldn't be giving a mental health advices. Instead, we should just redirect people to websites that could help them.
I'd say when you're small it is even more important to set those lines in the sand, but I think at the end of the day you'll experience that for yourself, every creator does.
Eventually, you'll see why it's so important to understand the difference between a Viewer and a Friend, and if you never have a bad experience, then that's great too! :)
I HATED public speaking ever since I was in elementary school. Absolute hatred. Hate hate hate it. Still do. I won't talk in meetings unless u absolutely have to. But if there's some nice people on my stream, it makes it fun and way easier to be able to talk.
Thanks for the awesome videos! They always help with my content creation and I have you to thank!
Really love the talk at 8:45
A question not directly related to the video : do you think is better talking or not talking while there are games cinematics?
Sure, It depends by your public and your niche, but when you don't have a big public yet? 😅
Maybe the public of the niche you chose prefer not talking.
But maybe the people who appreciate not talking are not so much, so It would be better to switch to talking and changing pubblic.
What to do? :'3
It would be cool to ask to the comunity.
Honestly sub and bit goals on twitch I think are good for building community! I'm a small streamer and use them for things like "movie night", "new bit alert", etc.
Regarding shout outs, I sometimes use them. Depends on a few things, but I've certinly added a half dozen people this week purely via shout outs.
This was a very good video and definitely opens up a lot of conversations. Starting streamers would do well to listen to these.
Hey found your content and started doing a lot of you tip and stuff im slowly experimenting with stuff i treat streaming like a hobby and its really fun your tips are heloing a lot im still small but im very much motivated and looking at my content as a viewer and thinking would i watch this and trying to improve it until im happy with it.
Tldr thanks for the tips keep it up
hi Eljayem could you make a video on the right type of shorts to make. I make shorts from my streams and videos but the one from my streams are like funny moments kinda but I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do. a video or response would be great. have a good day bro
Sure thing!
It was funny to hear you talk about the hot take of RUclips not hoping anyone grow because it's the only reason I've ever seen you! Haha.
I absolutely loved the energy in this video!
Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Man the title of your video made me think they were removing bounty boards, those fancy ad challenges, teams, etc
Bounty boards aren't a thing for 80% of the world, the ad challenges have destroyed entire channels retention rates, and Teams have become a pyramid scheme more often than not.... so honestly we're far worse than if they just didn't exist.
People who want to be streamers that don’t watch streams are just money hungry.. not content creators, they don’t respect the craft.
I am a very small time streamer and to be fair I am probably not that entertaining lol. But, I am doing it because I can! I enjoy it no matter how small or big I am. It's not about the money! The enjoyment of meeting new poeple and learning where they are from is the fun of it for me!
I work full-time and have to kids. The time i have to put into streaming and creating isn't as high as I would like. But, it is not a job for me and more than likely never will be.
Streaming is as hard as you make it. Some people take it chill, some people go over the top. There is no wrong way to stream :D
"To be a big or full time streamer, you shouldn't be a streamer" ~ Yes. Imagine putting in 5-9 hours a day of just streaming like XQC. Jesus Christ how horrifying.
its weird to think that people think youtube doesnt help them grow, i myself am a youtube frog, i dont do much twitch watching, whilst im still following them and check in, but normaly youtube videos are more digestible and funnily enough, most streamers i watch, ive found on youtube
Someone had a blast with this one
I think streaming and RUclips are for people who can be social irl or know how to use social media pretty well. I'm neither one and so, while I've seen some growth, there's also been a bunch of unsubs for both, though mostly on RUclips as my Twitch has been stagnant with subs for months now.
The only thing that talking for an hour to four hours straight is getting winded because of my asthma and waste CPU. To begin with, I just wanted to create art in front of other people but maybe it's time to focus on RUclips or other social media for now.
the better quality of streams due priority makes a bit of a difference I think. I also think whether partner is worth it or not, I think pushing for that goal isn't bad either?
Push for things you control, you don't get to control being a Partner.
You could have thousands of viewers, and Twitch still reject your application.
True to the word of hottakes. Niether disagreed or agreed with the submissions or StreamScheme completely. Always exceptions to the takes in both directions. Still an interesting watch.
As a small streamer... I see a lot of other small streamers that are... full of self pity.
I know Im small because its my own fault though lmao.
I just dont put the effort in as much I think, though having people tell me what I could improve on would be good.
Do kinda feel attacked on not watching streamers, but I also work two jobs and stream so I unfortunately dont have as much time as I'd like to watch streams... I try my best though
I dont agree with the last one I dont watch youtube shorts a lot but when I post them they do well
Can you still make money on Twitch now a day(s)?
You made some great points! I stream for my community! Every day is community day anyone can join me live! I have also found after 2.5 years streaming I tend to make more on avg than most partnered streamers! But ill admit partner is a goal a goal for my community and there growth. I run a 100% charity stream all the time! I'm in a very lucky position owning a successful company that offers me the freedom to stream 4-5 days per week. I would also say the twitch community is very toxic as an older streamer it reminds me of a high school click sometimes! All I can say IS work hard and it will show, NO ONE is going to do it for you!
Right now I'm just struggling with finding out what content I wish to make. I've built a little community off DBD but I don't enjoy the game anymore.
That is rough to hear! And I feel you! Hope you find your passion :)
Learning a lot from your videos!
"treat your viewers like family"
hm. I treat most as friends, chatting with em, helping em if they ask for help and such, with the exception of one specific guy who is annoying and random as all hell, we all collectively take a dump on him. Fun times.
Sounds like you’re bullying someone who is seeking a connection online
@@StreamScheme sounds like it yeah, but we're chill with each other.