Hello friends! This article is about my journey in Live Broadcasting, or Streaming as most people know it as. My journey began way back in 2011 when I first found out about Twitch through a cosplayer I followed on Facebook, Pokket. When I first caught one of her streams, I thought that what she was doing was amazing and that I would like to try my hand at streaming one day, but life at those times was a little rough, so I made the mistake of not creating an account with Twitch at that time and forgot about the whole thing for years.
We now jump to 2017 with me watching a very popular YouTube star for a few years, Markiplier, and I had some upcoming major time off of work due to a surgery I had to have on my cervical spine. I decided that I wanted to finally take a shot at making YouTube videos. I had a spark of clarity and remembered about Twitch from all those years before, so I decided to do some research on live streaming instead. I watched tons of YouTube videos on streaming and all the different tips and tricks of how to grow a successful brand and Twitch channel.
After months of research, and my neck surgery allowing it, I had my very first stream on November 11 2017, playing Subnautica. I had poor internet ,very little equipment, and a 5 year old computer, but I had a great time even though my quality was bad. I started off strong and had some viewers in the beginning, but I was soon having to go back to work as my time off was coming to an end. My stream schedule then became very erratic and I could only stream once or twice a week and I started to see the numbers begin to fall. Which brings me to my first tip of Live Broadcasting
- Make a schedule and try to stick to it.
One of the major things I heard during my research was to make a schedule and try to stick to it. They would say the you are like a person favorite TV show and if people are expecting to watch you on X day at X time, then you will grow and keep your audience. This hurt me quit a bit as I work in a retail environment with a random schedule week to week.
I would continue to stream here and there over the next few months, starting to build some momentum with my numbers beginning to rise again. That’s when life took a turn for the better and my son was born. I then had to take an extended break from streaming, and when I was able to finally come back, I had to start completely over as my momentum was halted. Moving further over the next few years, with times I would build momentum, then had to take more extended breaks, brining me to my next tip:
- Consistency is key
This has been my biggest channel killer, as taking extended breaks, will completely kill your channel when you are a small streamer.
Finally we are at today, December of 2021, I have been out of work on a medical leave since April, giving me much more time to stream and try to build back my channel. The biggest hurdle I have been faced with now is the over-saturation of content creators on Twitch. I have taken some time to think, strategize, and do more research to decide what I want to do for the future. I have been on Gamactica for roughly about two months now and having listened to other peoples stories and advice I have decided that my future will be with YouTube Gaming. My road has been a long path, with many ups and downs, having learned a lot I finally feel hopeful for my future as a content creator.
I have many more stories to tell, but I will leave those for another time, so stay tuned to Gamactica and Portals!
