Yup, we screwed it up…

In April of 2015, a few high school friends and I started a Twitch Channel called GamerPalooza. It was just something we wanted to do for fun as we finished high school.

GP turned out to be successful – very successful. In our first 6 months we gained well over 1,000 followers, and were continuing to grow.

Yeah, don’t believe me? Then look at the graph below… (Courtesy of Socialblade)

Notice that? The growth in the first 6 months? Yup, we were on the eventual path to long-term success on Twitch. I don’t even think that we streamed every day. When we would stream it could last anywheres from 1 to 6 hours, with a couple 12 and 24 hour streams in between.

Now, we’re at a standstill. We’re losing more followers than we’re gaining, we barely get viewers whenever we stream, we are running out of ideas. We have basically given up hope on streaming altogether, but I don’t want anyone else to suffer the same fate that we did.

So, don’t wanna end up like we did? Then take this advice:

This list doesn’t have to apply to groups. Even individuals can benefit from these tips. These aren’t even all of the tips I have to all you wannabe streamers out there. That is for another day…

1. Make sure everyone contributes (In some way…)

When we first started GP there were 4 members; now we are down to just 3. What happened? Well one of our friends was unable to contribute due to his own work and activites. After an 18-month long hiatus from streaming, watching, or doing something, we decided to part ways with him in the world of GP, and thus we became a trio.

Example of good use: If your group is a trio, divide the responsibilities. The person who isn’t available to stream the most can focus on running the social media pages, as well as come up with ideas to improve the stream or possibly work on the GFX (that was practically what I did in GP).

2. Have a schedule

One of our fatal flaws was that we did not have a set schedule. We just started streaming without notice. A schedule allows those most committed to watching your stream set the time aside to watch you.

Example: On your channel create a “Schedule” panel and have it contain “Every night starting 8pm CST.” Go live 15-20 minutes before then to test your equipment, and leave a countdown on stream until 8. It’s as simple as that guys.

3. Increase community interaction

Don’t be exclusive on just one platform. Expand your presence online and have different ways to interact with your viewers. Focus on gaining friends rather than fans. Twitter is an absolute must for anyone that wants to be a part-time or even full-time streamer. Perhaps even Instagram or Snapchat would be fun to incorporate but not as near necessary. A Discord server is another cool way for your viewers to talk to you when you aren’t streaming.

Example: Tweet out to your followers 1 hour and 30 minutes before you stream. Especially helpful if you are not on a schedule.

4. Don’t stop, just please, don’t throw it all away.

For the majority of 2016, we stopped streaming altogether. In turn we’ve lost some of our most loyal viewers, we also lost our newest viewers as well due to our sudden stop on streaming.

Example: DON’T STOP STREAMING! If you must, change your schedule, or alert your viewers via Twitter or another platform that the stream for the day is canceled

Conclusion

Don’t do what we did (or didn’t do).