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Bored of your ‘real job’? Out of work because of COVID-19? Love playing video games and wish that you could do it all day and get paid for it?
Stepping into the world of online streaming in 2020 may not be as easy as it has been in years gone by, due to it becoming ever more competitive, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to earn yourself a living (or simply have a bit of fun) in the field.
With the right research, equipment and work ethic, you might just find yourself climbing the ranks as a streamers. Who knows, maybe you’ll be asked to join FaZe Clan one day.
The first step? The platform. After you pick a platform, you can use one of the many online guides to get going (this guide is if you’re looking to stream slots, but take care to read Twitch’s ToS, or the ToS of whichever platform you’re using before streaming gambling. For example, a stream cannot exceed 30 consecutive minutes of streaming time on Twitch).
Afterwards? Follow these tips and tricks to make sure you get a head start on the competition.
Select a niche
Play one or two games well? Great, you may have your niche. However, just playing a game well isn’t always going to excite your potential audience. Maybe you’ll wow people with your game prowess for a little while, but if you aren’t exciting to them as a person then you might see a swift drop in viewership.
What this means is that you need to carefully focus on your persona. Bring out your personality to set yourself apart. Get excited, practice talking to yourself, make jokes. Be the extrovert that’s inside of you.
Sort out your internet connection
Sure, your hardwired internet connection may be strong enough to have you gaming online all the time without lag, but is it strong enough to upload your streaming in near realtime? Some platforms like Twitch, for instance, recommend that you have at least a 5Mbps upload speed to be able to stream. Ideally it will be higher than this to avoid any issues.
If your current service provider can’t offer the speeds that you need to stream, then it’s worth taking a look around at other ISPs in your area. Make sure to check the average speeds at various times of the day.
Get the right equipment
You’ll need two screens. One for your game, one for your channel. You’ll likely need a gaming PC to run both of these instances at once, as it can be a heavy workload for other machines, which may struggle. A controller, keyboard and mouse and webcam are essentials.
You’ll also need a good headset/mic and lighting for the audio and visual for your streaming channel, as well as ergonomic equipment, like a decent gaming chair, if you’re playing hours and hours at a time. You don’t want to injure yourself on the job!
Style your environment
A blank white wall can be super boring as a backdrop. If you don’t want to green screen it, then consider putting something up in the background, like a shelf full of cool nick nacks, some posters, or even something super nerdy like your huge collection of manga comics.
Make sure that your background suits the persona that you’re crafting, and feel free to reference it in your streaming at times – particularly if you’re stuck for talking points.
Changing out small background details can also intrigue viewers.
Screen makeup counts
Whether you’re a guy or a girl, screen makeup can make a difference. It’s not the be all and end all – many streamers don’t use make-up and that’s fine. It isn’t so you look glam, it’s so that your face shines on camera. Like actors and actresses wear ‘natural’ makeup in movies, you can do the same. It’s usual for esports hosts to be given make-up ahead of a top broadcast for example.
There are plenty of makeup tutorials on YouTube that show you how to do makeup for screen and you can find brands within your budget, whatever that may be.
It might be a pain to learn how to do your makeup when you’re starting out, but after a bit of practice, you’ll be able to slap on a face for streaming in no time at all.
Work out your hours
Who is going to be your audience? Are you catering to UK viewers? The US? Down under? Finding out the timezone in which you can be most popular in is key. Obviously, the population of the US is very large, which makes them an easy target market. But will your persona resonate with that audience? Maybe east coasters like you but west coasters don’t?
Playing around with streaming at different hours can help you identify which markets you will be most successful in. For some players, this means waking up at early hours to start the day. Dedication to streaming is key here if you find that you have to do ‘shift work.’
In the beginning, stream as much as you like, and if you say you’re going to be online and playing during certain hours, make sure that you are. But, be mindful of your free time and make sure you don’t burn yourself out.
Tweak as necessary
Once you have all these elements in place, you need to put in the hard work and stream, stream, stream. Pay attention to people’s comments in the chat, ask for feedback from your viewers, switch up your hours and simply listen and learn.
If something isn’t working then switch it up. Log your numbers, comments, subscribers etc against each change that you make, to see whether they are more or less effective than before. And good luck! Don’t forget to have fun.
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Really like this guide, looking forward to starting soon (: