Building a Stream: Rock Bottom
Hello everyone,
About a week
ago I made a decision to begin streaming regularly. I figured that since I was
on my computer for a few hours just about every night, that I might as well
give streaming a shot. I also believe that I am a fairly funny and entertaining
person. That is, once people get to know me. I enjoy laughing and more
importantly making people laugh. Since joining the Twitch community about two
years ago I have frequented many streams and the ones I continually go back to
are the streamers who provide a fun-natured environment. This is the type of
stream I’d like to create for my audience.
Perseverance
So far
streaming has been very disheartening. For the past three days no one has come
to my channel while I was streaming and on my weekend streams, only people I
know in real life have come to my channel. I’ve never had more than four people
in my channel and two of the four people did not appear to have Twitch accounts
so I was unable to communicate with them or add followers.With little to no
results the notion to “just quit” has emerged nightly (after completing a
stream) and hourly while streaming.
I’m realistic and believe I am just
an average looking guy with little to no visual stimulation being initially
generated for viewers. I also am not a professional in any of the games I play.
Therefore, I do not believe I have a strong-initial pitch for people to watch
my stream. That’s not to say that other streamers with these same qualities
have not been able to achieve successful streams. All I am saying is that I do
not believe I have a huge “click/what’s that/ watch me” factor. Thus I believe
my only course of action is to stick with it and try and build an audience, one
viewer at a time.
Connecting With My Audience
Not being
able to connect with my audience is probably the most frustrating thing. I try
and say “Hi” whenever I notice a new viewer has joined the channel but when
they don’t have an account and/or don’t say anything in chat, I really have no
idea how to reach them on a personal level (and reaching people on a personal
level is the only way I believe I am going to generate an audience). Thus, I
have determined that I need to just start being myself regardless if someone is
watching or not. This means looking like a crazy person and potentially talking
to myself and laughing at my own jokes. If I remain quiet and wait for viewers
to show up before being exciting and entertaining I will never have highlight
clips to promote and share.
Support
Another
thing that I have relied on early on is a strong support system. For starters
it is always nice hearing from my friends and family that I am a great person
and that ultimately I do have things to share with others. Not to mention these
friends and family are the ones that will most likely be the ones to help
spread the word about my stream by re-tweeting my stream, playing with me while
I stream or be my initial audience. Every successful streamer I have seen has
always had helpful people around them to assist in making their stream a hit.
So I’m going
to continue my grind and hope I start reaching viewers. I’ve got some
additional content ideas that I may or may not get around to. On Thursdays I
plan to play some old school games for #TBT. This Thursday I plan on playing
Final Fantasy III, which I am very much looking forward to. I had a copy for my
SNES with near maxed out characters. Unfortunately someone I knew stole it from
me years ago and I’ve forgotten much about the game.
Thanks for your time and I hope to see you in my channel or
reading another one of my blogs.
I’m on the West Coast and do a
majority of my streaming during the hours of 7:00-11:00 PM PST. This is after I
have had family time and put my child to bed for the night.
Stream: http://www.twitch.tv/mccl0udy
Twitter: https://twitter.com/McCl0udY
- Jeremy ‘McCl0udY’ Muller
