Make the Most of Your Streaming Setup

Whatever equipment you may acquire for streaming, there comes a time when you need to stop purchasing new things and instead optimize what you have. And whether you stream from a top-notch studio, a no-frills laptop, or a home console's built in Twitch app, the things that matter about your stream itself stay exactly the same. In this entry, I'm going to help you to make the most of your streaming setup, no matter the scope of your tech.

➢ WORKING WITHIN LIMITS

Not these kinds of limits...

In order to begin, we need to make sure your head is in the right place. Many streamers will assume that once they've acquired a new piece of hardware or software, their stream has mostly plateaued, and it won't improve in any real way until another major purchase has been made. This is, in my opinion, the worst mindset you could have about streaming, and you'll never do any real problem solving with this attitude. Always think in terms of what you have, rather than what you don't have.

You may feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of factors facing you, and not really know how to attack any given problem. This is normal, and it happens to everyone at times. But you can easily solve any stream issue by using only the tools available to you if you think in terms of these three top-tier concepts: clarity, setup, and style.

➢ CLARITY

The most important factor of a Twitch stream is also the most deceptively simple. You want to make your stream, in all its aspects, as clearly understandable to the viewer as possible. Make sure the main subject of the stream, whether it be the game, your craft table, or your face, is large on screen and clearly visible. For more specific details on general visual clarity, see the entry Easy Ways to Make Your Stream More Watchable, but this doesn't just apply to visuals. It's also true when you want to communicate concepts to the viewer. Consider this example scenario:

Creating clarity will typically cost you nothing,
so make it a priority.

You're doing a challenge run in the new God of War game, trying to complete it on the hardest difficulty without ever upgrading your character. The problem is, people continuously join your show and wonder why you're having such a hard time with many of the bosses. New people keep asking why you don't just use a skill you would have gotten when your character upgraded early in the game. These people aren't aware of your stream's base concept, and in this scenario you need to more effectively communicate the details of your challenge run to viewers.

How would you solve this problem? Take a second before moving forward to come up with your own idea for a solution.

If it were me, I might place a graphic on-screen explaining the challenge run's rules, but I'd also create a chatbot command that people can call up to learn more, change the stream title to explain the run itself, and put a description of the run in the info panels at the bottom of my channel. Plus, word of mouth is always helpful: I'd make sure to explain the challenge run out loud more often on stream, and ask mods in chat to explain the run to newcomers.

There are countless ways to solve the same problem, and the point is not to know which of these was correct, but to ultimately communicate your stream's goal clearly, even if it means creating multiple options for different viewers. Some people only listen, and some watch without sound; some viewers read the title, others don't. There will never be one single type of communication that clearly conveys information to every type of viewer, so make sure you cover as many bases as you can.

➢ SETUP

Your stream setup will define many things about how your shows operate. I've spoken a lot already about both network and computer performance in the entry, Getting Your Stream Output Settings Just Right. But if you don't have stream from a PC or use a capture card, you may think your show can't get much better, that it's a console or phone stream's lot in life to look a certain way. Some of this is true- you can't implement many of the fancy graphical options or on-screen widgets that PC users have. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't take these same concepts to heart, adapted to fit the scope of your tech. In fact, learning to think in terms of what you have rather than what you don't have is even MORE important for you, as you don't have many things to work with in the first place.

Even if you don't stream from a computer, you likely have a PC or laptop available somewhere, from which you can host chatbot software. If not, there are cloud-based chatbots out there as well. Load these up with commands and fun minigames for your community to play during streams. Get creative- invent a personality for your bot, come up with fun responses for it to give, and have it do unique things during your streams. If you stream from a console, the audio mix is tweakable as well- make sure to use the concepts laid out in the entry Optimize Your Stream Audio Without Buying a New Mic to get your vocal mix on point.

Always make sure your camera is optimally placed too- get it as close to you as possible to give a clear image of yourself without having to zoom in. You might even have to move the camera or phone from its usual perch to achieve this, but your viewers will thank you. Use everything around you to make your stream shine- oftentimes with these kinds of non-PC streams I will take some time before my show and stack books to place the camera, rearrange lamps to create better lighting, or scotch tape my microphone or charger cables to hide them behind various objects. There's no excuse for a bad looking stream, only a lack of creativity in the streamer.

➢ STYLE

STYLE!

An important aspect of anyone's stream is its style. This is what will differentiate you from the crowd, and it will be the most easily recognizable thing about your shows. There are lots of things you can implement to create interesting concepts on your streams, all available to anyone clever enough to utilize them.

Someone who streams from a computer can add different kinds of channel graphics, transitions, effects, and on-screen chat minigames. All of these things, if implemented correctly, can enhance your channel's persona. Less is typically more here, but a few well-chosen widgets and graphics can go a long way, so try all kinds and refine them down to a select few that you really like.

If you're streaming from a console, phone or other device that can't use effects or graphics, you aren't out of luck either. There are all sorts of things you can do to enhance your stream's sense of style, as long as you're thinking about what you have rather than what you don't have. Maybe you wear costumes, speak in different voices or read passages from a book during loading screens. Maybe you ask your chat to place bets on multiplayer matches or influence your in-game decisions in singleplayer games. Maybe you hold tournaments with your community, chat with them through the console's built-in chat software, or decorate the wall in your room behind you with the names of community members. Of course, someone streaming from a PC would do well to use these kinds of non-technical strategies as well, but these will be most important to someone who has no other tech options available.

➢ SEEK CREATIVE SOLUTIONS

Some of the ideas I've mentioned above, like stacking your camera on a bunch of books, might be stopgap solutions, but you'd be surprised how many PERMANENT fixtures I came up with purely by thinking in terms of what I had rather than what I didn't have. I became so good at placing household lamps to light my stream that I never had to buy anything better. Over 1,000 stream-hours in, I still only use a $20 Amazon Basics desk light and an IKEA standing lamp. I use a $15 external number pad on my PC to switch OBS scenes instead of a $100 Stream Deck, and it works perfectly. Plus, always announcing my show's intro verbally instead of commissioning a high-quality intro video has forced me to become significantly better at speaking on camera. In the end, it's not about saving money (though that's always a good thing), it's about always keeping your mind sharp.

There will always be new things to buy for your stream, if you allow yourself to keep coming up with excuses to buy them. Not only will this burn a hole in your pocket, it'll cause your overall problem solving skills to atrophy. If you truly believe in the back of your mind that your channel won't get much better until you buy that next wishlist item, you'll never come up with any really creative ideas for your stream's clarity, setup or style. So before you take out your credit card, make the most of the streaming setup you already have!

Surviving Your First Ten Streams

Let's say you're ready to do your first ever Twitch stream. You spent hours laboring over the graphical treatment, camera settings, microphone, and game volume levels. Now, feeling completely prepared, you finally press that Go Live button for the first time. And the stream is a disaster. Unforeseen technical problems crop up almost as soon as your show starts, and you wrestle with them throughout your broadcast. Watching back, you realize your audio sounded weird the whole time and nobody in chat told you. Plus, you look so self-conscious on-camera that it makes you want to cringe. What went wrong here?

Nothing.

You should expect your first several official streams to be terrible, no matter what you do or how much you prepare. This is normal. Learn from each cringe-worthy mistake, but don't let it affect your drive to keep pursuing your passion. No one is immune to having bad first streams. Even if you think your first stream went well, a year from now you'll find things about it to be embarrassed about. This is why I always advocate streaming before you think you're ready.

Just jump right into streaming.

Most people define being 'ready' to stream as having good looking tech, graphics, sound and camera layouts. But what actually matters in the beginning- really the only thing that matters about streaming at all- is your experience gained by being on-camera, and you can only get that by being super awkward for hours on end. You want to improve your ABILITY to stream, not necessarily the stream itself. Since bad streams are unavoidable in the beginning, you should get yours out of the way as quickly as possible.

➢ THE PLACEMENT STREAMS

When you want to play Competitive Matches in Overwatch, you first have to go through a series of placement matches to determine your rank. I've noticed that a very similar concept holds true in Twitch streaming as well.

You need to have made 10 complete streams before you're officially a streamer.

Thinking this way will allow you to become more experienced faster in the fields that actually count. If you force yourself to power through 10 cringey, disaster-riddled 'Placement Streams', it guarantees that you'll be better at a few key categories right out of the gate:

1. TRACKING DATA: You'll have several days' experience, likely over multiple weeks. This means you'll be better at tracking trends, such as which days of the week, times of day, and categories work best for your chosen stream type. 
2. CHAT INTERACTION: Since you'll be doing multiple broadcasts and not just one big one, this ensures that different kinds of chatters will come through your shows, ensuring that your experience talking to chatters isn't skewed by one fluke stream where all your friends show up or a big raid comes in. 
3. SETUP/TECH SNAGS: Since you have to go live on 10 separate occasions, you'll notice which things in your pre-stream routine are more difficult or time consuming, and which one you regularly forget to do. This will help you to iron out potential problems for future streams more quickly.
4. ON-CAMERA CONFIDENCE: When you spend a bunch of time trying to make everything perfect before your first stream, each little misstep feels like it's tarnishing your own self-worth. You'd be surprised how much more confident you can be when you're doing a stream that you know will have problems. And you WILL have problems, whether or not you take my advice. Now, when those problems arise, you won't be hung up on how stupid you were for allowing them appear.

Clear your placement streams before thinking
about anything else.

All of these traits will help you become a better streamer more quickly, but they'll also carry over to all your future streams. The ability to track trends, interact with more diverse chats, fix setup issues, and have confidence on-camera will only compound as you do more and more shows. But by taking your first ten streams off their pedestal, you will be free to quickly gain many skills that other streamers take much longer to acquire.

➢ THE PROGRESS BAR

When starting out streaming, there are so many factors to consider. Keeping track of what is or isn't working is extremely difficult to do, because everything is so new. On top of all that, there are dozens of little mistakes (and a few really big ones) you'll make in the beginning that will fill you with self-doubt, and make you wonder whether you're even cut out for streaming at all. But when you think of your first ten streams as Placement Streams, you won't fret about the issues in these first shows- you'll have a definitive goal to strive toward. You can even keep a tally of the streams you've done so far, filling up a video game-style 'progress bar' until you reach your goal.

It's the same as any 'kill 10 enemies' quest in
an RPG. Just get those streams done.

When trying stream types that I've never done before on my channel, I still use the Placement Streams concept to accept my mistakes even to this day. For one IRL stream, my directional mic had come unplugged at the beginning and stayed that way for 90 straight minutes, having gotten low-quality in-camera audio for the entirety of what I had thought was a much more professional broadcast. I was crestfallen, realizing live on stream that so much of my hard work had been wasted. But then I thought back to the fact that I hadn't done ten IRL streams yet, and thus didn't deserve to make a perfect stream- I simply didn't have the experience. Even for seasoned streaming veterans, the idea of Placement Streams can help you to continue expanding outside your comfort zone, and stay humble about each of your new endeavors.

Make sure you aren't actually calling your early shows 'Placement Streams' out loud on camera either, or titling your broadcast that way. This might change the way viewers chat during your show, creating interactions that aren't indicative of what you'll really get out in the field. In order for a stream to count as one of the ten streams in your progress bar, it has to be an authentic attempt at an 'official' one of your broadcasts.

Once your progress bar is full, take a look back at your past ten streams. Look at how much you've improved since the first show! Even in this relatively small amount of time, you will likely have made lots of discoveries, found tech optimizations, and learned new ways to interact with chat. Many of these things likely couldn't be caught beforehand, no matter how much prep time you had- they're lessons that could only have been gleaned through experience. Of course, you won't be the greatest streamer of all time after only 10 shows, but you'll have enough knowledge and experience to know what works, what needs improving, and what needs to be removed from your future broadcasts. This method will force you not to make kneejerk reactions, and allow things to fall into place naturally. Plus, if you ever want to try a new type of stream in the future, just remember the Placement Streams concept and you'll have a much easier time!

➢ EARN SUCCESS, DON'T EXPECT IT

In one of the earliest entries, Build Your Twitch Channel Like You're a Secret Agent, I advised you not to tell anyone about your Twitch channel when you're starting out. You may have been confused by this directive at the time, but this entry should have made the logic behind that suggestion even more clear.

Your first stream will be garbage, and the ensuing nine won't be much better. So don't bother telling anyone about your streams until you're confident and competent enough to actually put on a good show. Armed with the knowledge that you won't be perfect at first, you should be less surprised when everything goes wrong. Using the Placement Streams concept, and having a timeline for when improvement might appear, should help you to avoid the major dejection that causes most streamers to quit before they finish their first week. Malcolm Gladwell famously posited that true mastery of any subject can be attained after 10,000 hours of deliberate practice are dedicated to its craft, but we can worry about mastery later. First, you just need to get in the game. And for Twitch, all that takes is 10 full livestreams. Your first ten streams WILL be bad, so you might as well make those bad streams now, in order to start making good ones as quickly as possible!

How to Get in the Habit of Streaming

You're excited about streaming on Twitch, and you spend a bunch of energy setting up your channel. You go live for a few days, but before the week is out, something comes up and you've missed one of your scheduled broadcasts. The next week you're busy at work and you miss two or three streams. The week after that, family is in town and you miss even more. Eventually you decide that you just don't have the time to stream, and put it all on hold for a while.

Has this happened to you? It's sure happened to me on previous projects. If you swap out the Twitch stuff, you could apply this same story to working out, dieting, painting, writing, learning a new language, any new skill you might try to learn in any field. In previous entries, I've discussed How to Find the Time to Stream on Twitch, and How to Stay Motivated About Twitch Streaming, but what if you've carved out time and feel motivated to start your streaming career, but simply can't stick with it? I'm going to talk about how I got into the habit of Twitch streaming.

Making your Twitch streaming into a habit is an immense help. It's perhaps the only important thing about streaming- that you're able to do it every time, without fail, until it's as natural as breathing. When streaming is a habit, you won't have to battle with yourself to actually sit down at your computer. You'll be able to keep yourself in check, control your day no matter how crazy it becomes, and never miss a scheduled broadcast.

➢ THE BATTLE YOU'RE FACING

There are all sorts of distractions out there.

Anyone reading this who has never actually tried to sit down and stream for weeks on end probably doesn't know why I'm making such a big deal out of nothing. If you're still trying to perfect all the equipment or graphics you need in order to START streaming, you may think that what you're going through is the hard part- that once you've finished putting all the pieces together, it'll be smooth sailing. This is the miscalculation that dashes the dreams of so many hopeful streamers. Every time a Twitch streamer wants to go live, they must first fight a pitched battle against themselves.

There's a force inside all of us, which actively tries to stop us from doing whatever it is we truly want most in life. I've referred to it in past entries as ego, I've referred to it as self-doubt, I've referred to it as Gear Lust; its names are numerous. I will refer to it here as The Enemy, because that's exactly what it is. It's a malevolent force that takes many forms, each trickier and more seductive than the last. It will fight the prospective streamer every chance it gets.

Let's get one thing out of the way first: You will never stop having to fight this battle. 

The fear, the self-doubt, the desire to be anywhere but in your computer chair will come back every single time you want to stream, no matter what you do or how experienced you are. I've streamed a minimum of 3 times daily for the past 12 months, over 1,000 individual broadcasts, and I still encounter it. Don't expect to ever be rid of this enemy, but you CAN make it easier to fight. Like leveling up in a role playing game, every time you're able to stream without missing your scheduled days will increase your ability to resist its offensive. You're still battling the same monster, but your attack, defense and hit points have increased. Just don't count out The Enemy's ability to summon allies: busy days, tech issues, lack of sleep, feeling sick, and any other real-world problems. These are The Enemy's best friends, and they're all understandable excuses not to stream. But whether something is a good excuse or a bad one, missing a stream is missing a stream at the end of the day.

➢ TAKE UP ARMS

The Enemy will trick you. It will cloud your memory so you forget an important engagement. It will coerce you into doing any other 'productive' task EXCEPT streaming. It will keep you from having a handle on your day so that you feel overwhelmed and tired out, constantly swimming upstream against the current of its lies. But there's something I've discovered that has helped me to consistently defeat my Enemy each day. This high-level weapon has not only helped me to stream more consistently, it's helped me to improve several aspects of my daily life:

I keep a very organized calendar.

Be ever vigilant. The Enemy is within us all.

Everything I do on a given day has been laid out on my Google calendar the night before. I consult my calendar constantly, to make sure everything I'm doing that day is on track. This habit increased my efficiency, which was to be expected. But what I didn't expect was how much more lucid I became throughout the day. Knowing exactly what I can AND CAN'T do on a given day helps me to get more things done, while still keeping my eye on the prize and doing what's important.

Oftentimes The Enemy will try to trick us into thinking we're being productive. Yes, creating channel graphics or updating social feeds will improve or help our channels, but sometimes the energy all these actions take will sap our future energy for streaming. With a well-organized calendar I can schedule blocks of time for these improvements, but they have to compete with the blocks of time set aside for streaming, family time, food, personal commitments, and other top-tier things that are non-negotiable.

I thought this rigidity might make me into a robot, or detract from my personal life, but it actually helped in that department as well. How many of us have been late for dinner or a movie because we were too engrossed in our stream to end the show? This is The Enemy up to another of its tricks: allowing our streaming habit to slowly chip away at our personal lives. It could takes months or years, but if you miss out on enough family or relationship time because of your streams, you'll eventually be forced to make the tough choice to give it up altogether. Breaking down your day into chunks will make your streams start and end punctually, leaving more time that you can dedicate fully to the people most important to you. For anyone who works crazy amounts of hours per week, you know that every extra moment spent with loved ones is a very precious commodity.

➢ WIELDING YOUR STRONGEST WEAPON

The calendar in itself is an effective weapon against your inner Enemy, but you'll find that it becomes even more effective as you learn to follow it more rigidly.

The Enemy hates clarity. It hates when you have a
handle on your day.

If you're planning to stream at 8pm for example, know that you will absolutely start preparing your show at 7:30pm, or whatever gives you enough time to prepare. It doesn't matter what else you're doing, that time is already pre-booked, pre-determined, and non-negotiable. 7:30 is when you start doing ONLY the things that are required to make the stream go live. If you were updating channel graphics or changing your chatbot at the time, save your work and add it to your calendar for the next day, or for after your stream. There are no exceptions. The Enemy loves when you're pulled in so many directions that you forget to turn on your camera, set up your greenscreen or install an important game patch before your show, because feeling self-conscious after one of these slip-ups could prevent you from going live tomorrow. Setting aside time before your stream will help you to have designated 'breathing room' beforehand. You'll be surprised how much this cuts down absentminded mistakes.

If you're planning to meet a friend for dinner, celebrate an event, go to a concert, or any other one-off activity during a scheduled stream time, that goes on your calendar as well. Being able to see this block of time in your day, you can then plan for your show to be pushed back to a later hour or pulled forward so you stream before going out. Don't simply cancel your show because your plans would clash with your regularly scheduled stream, do the show anyway at an unscheduled time. Life isn't the same every single day. Be willing to shift your schedule, but realize that aside from a family emergency or the end of the world, there are no excuses not to go live.

Then, when it's time to start streaming, it doesn't matter if you haven't figured out which game to play yet or perfected your description. You go live. Once again, there's no arguing, no time extension, it's simply a done deal. This has helped me root out the crippling indecision that would come right when my finger was on the 'Go Live' button. Anyone who has streamed before knows the sensation I mean. Indecision about games, laboring about descriptions, perfecting the copy in your 'going live' Tweet- these are all last-ditch efforts by The Enemy to stop you from doing what you love. If you can press that single, decisive button, you will have won the battle- at least for now.

➢ KEEP FIGHTING EVERY DAY

Just be aware that this same Enemy will come back tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that. Each time, it might bring new friends. Surprise engagements, overtime at work, waking up sick, self-doubt, bad weather. As long as you're equipped with the knowledge that this force will never stop hunting you, you'll always be ready for it. And now you have an arsenal with which to conquer The Enemy in whatever form it appears. Turn streaming into such an unwavering habit that no one- not even you- can stop you from pursuing your dream!

Easy Ways to Make Your Streams More Watchable

Every game you might play on stream has its own visual identity. It might be a top-down adventure or a close-up action game. It could have bright, cartoony graphics or a dark and dreary look. It might be covered in menus, or have no HUD elements at all. Most of you by now may have noticed that certain games, or even certain genres, perform better on stream. What you may not know is that there are elements of how you display the game, as well as how you actually control it, which could be holding you back.

In this entry, I want to share with you my three favorite methods for attracting more people with your gameplay, allowing them to engage more actively with what they're seeing, and keeping them around longer. Some of these may require changes to your hosting style, screen filters, or even the way you play games in general, but they all contribute to the same goal: making the stream more watchable for the viewer at home. 

➢ THINK BIG

No matter what you're doing on stream, viewers who are watching for entertainment purposes will always prefer when the subject is as large as possible in the frame. This could be the main character in a third person action game, the model kit you're building at your craft table, or your face during a Just Chatting show. Whatever is the "main event" should be as large as you can make it. The reason for this is deceptively simple: it's just easier to see what's going on. Having large, visible subjects on screen will improve everyone's viewing experience, but one very specific portion of your audience will benefit from these efforts most of all: mobile viewers.

A subject that's large on screen will be
easier to see, and more visually interesting.

Someone watching your stream on their phone will have a hard time seeing your show even under the best of circumstances. While you're playing your game, imagine if your screen were 10x smaller. That's what they're seeing at all times. Anything you can do to make the stream easier for a mobile viewer to see won't go unappreciated. This one simple trick can go a long way: if the game allows it, zoom the camera in closer.

You may say that there are instances when this strategy would ruin your ability to play, and you'd be right. In some games, you can't be zoomed in 100% of the time. But these roadblocks may not be as frequent as you think. If you're in an MMO game for example, it's tactically advantageous to zoom out as far as possible. But much of the time, you're simply grinding basic quests or traveling from place to place- why not zoom in for these moments, and zoom back out when you need to fight an actual tough battle? In a city building game, you can zoom in close to streets or characters while adjusting your economy settings, hiring people or setting a price for the hot dog stands, and zoom back out when it's time to build roads and offices. If you're playing a game that can't zoom in, it could be as simple as making your facecam bigger, or switching to your fullscreen facecam layout during any off-moment, like a loading screen or menu. Don't forget- YOU can be the subject on screen as well. These deceptively simple changes really help. Take advantage of moments where you don't need as much tactical thinking in your game, and use those moments to let viewers enjoy the stream even more.

➢ THINK BRIGHT

Flashlights are a great way to brighten
things up, with the added bonus of not
ruining the scare-factor of horror games.

Here's something unexpected that I've noticed in my time as a streamer: the game will almost always look darker to the viewer than it looks to you while you're playing it. This applies to all kinds of games, but darkness can be especially problematic in the horror genre. If YOU'RE barely able to see what's happening on screen, it's likely that the VIEWER is seeing near-pitch blackness. This will then have crossed the line from being scary to simply being boring. No one is going to be invested in your stream if they can't even see what's happening, and you may notice people tuning out. There's a very simple rule I've discovered through streaming, and I try to keep it in mind at all times:

More viewers will watch your stream when it's daytime in a game, rather than night time.

This may sound completely ridiculous, but over thousands of streams I've simply noticed it to be true time and again. There are two main reasons why I believe this is the case:

1. Lighting effects, shadows, and environments look more interesting in the daytime, meaning the graphics actually look better overall during the day.

2. It's generally just easier to see what's going on.

If you play open world games, there is usually a cycle between day and night. But at the same time, there is almost never a need to complete your objectives in the moonlit hours. This means that simply 'resting' until daytime in these games more often, rather than playing 50% in the day and 50% in the night, could boost your viewership with almost no added effort.

Even if you're not playing a game with a day/night cycle, generally trying to make things brighter will always help. Turn on the lights in a room when you enter, if the game lets you do that. If not, you could always raise the overall brightness by a few pips in the settings. One of my favorite things to do is use a flashlight or torch whenever given the opportunity- this will light up the scene, and create lots of interesting lighting effects. It's also a great way to brighten up horror games, while still keeping them scary.

I've watched many streams where the person controlling the game has plenty of options to create more visible lighting for their viewers without any detriment to their performance in the game, but doing so simply doesn't cross their mind. There's nothing less engaging than watching a jumble of black blobs while hearing the streamer respond to things you can't even see. It's always worth going the extra mile to ensure your viewers can actually see what's going on.

➢ THINK CLEAR

At the end of the day, you want the viewer to understand what you're reacting to on screen at all times, which makes it easier to become interested in the show. There might be a funny glitch happening in your game, a scary hallway, an interesting piece of architecture, any number of things that you might want to compliment, make jokes about, or just generally point out to viewers. Many streamers assume it's obvious what they're talking about when they comment on some visual element in a game, but this is really not the case. There's usually a lot happening on screen, from the game's HUD elements, to background scenery to the expression on your facecam, not to mention what your character is actually doing at any given time. Any of these might have drawn the viewer's attention to a different area than where you happen to be looking. You need to be able to direct the viewer's eye to whatever you're talking about.

Focus your camera, and empathize with
the viewer.

Focus your camera on the item you're pointing out as clearly as possible. If you're playing a first-person shooter and you want to make a joke about an AI character you see, focus them in the center of the screen and leave your view fixed on them while you're talking. Don't whip the camera over to them, and then immediately whip it away to continue exploring while you commentate. In games with a mouse cursor like The Sims, you have a nice advantage- make sure to clearly point at things with your cursor. I even like to repeatedly circle the object in question with my cursor while I'm discussing it. In a game with a fixed camera, like a 2D platformer, or an IRL oil painting stream, it's more difficult to focus on individual things. But on these shows, communicating verbally and telling people exactly where the object is located on screen is key.

Using simple call to actions like "Look at this," or "What is happening here?" are great ways to let viewers know beforehand that you're about to be discussing something on screen. Many people can only half-watch your show, whether they're sitting at work, waiting for a bus, or doing chores. You may think that your entire audience should be focusing with rapt attention during 100% of your stream, but let's be honest: just hearing the commentary alone is fine for most viewers, most of the time. If you're going to point out something they have to SEE, clearly warning the audience that they should look at the screen gives them a chance to stop what they're doing and reopen your web browser tab, look down at their phone, or turn off the sink for a second. Then you can commentate on the item on screen while still having it clearly in the center of your camera's focus. This guarantees that everyone can join in on the fun, by knowing exactly what you're talking about.

➢ EMPATHY IS KEY

If you're an entertaining person, people will be naturally drawn to you. But there may be portions of your audience missing out on valuable content, because they can't see what's happening. The important thing in all of this is to understand the viewer's perspective, and try to make your stream cater to all the different audience members who might be watching. Big, clear subjects on screen help to retain mobile viewers, brighter images allow everyone to get more invested in the action, and clearly pointing things out (both visibly and audibly) will make sure people can understand the context of your commentary. So don't let your hard work go to waste- get out there and make your streams more watchable!

Up Your Showmanship on Stream

Responding to messages in chat and engaging with your viewers is very important on Twitch. Many streamers pride themselves on being available to answer questions and comments as quickly as possible, no matter what they're doing on their stream. In my opinion, much more important than the QUANTITY of chat messages you can address on stream though, is the QUALITY of interactions you can have with each person. For me, this breaks down to three important fields:

Don't just read a comment. Make that viewer feel heard.

Don't just respond to a question. Truly engage.

Don't let a question die with your answer. Build on it.

Practicing these three basic disciplines can help a good streamer to become great. You'll have more interesting conversations on stream, and make your viewers feel more appreciated in the process. It all comes down to the underappreciated art of showmanship.

➢ MAKING YOUR VIEWERS FEEL HEARD

Before you even think about responding to a comment, you should first be aware of how to take that comment. Many streamers will look over at their chat monitor, read a chat message silently to themselves, and then speak their answer. This creates a very one-sided conversation, because the comment itself isn't given voice or weight on the show- only the streamer's response to that comment is featured prominently. If you fall into this category, here are a few of my favorite techniques to make your conversations more two-sided:

Don't just read comments. Read them OUT LOUD.

Read the comment out loud. You don't have to do this blindly, you can scan it silently to yourself beforehand just so you know it isn't inappropriate (see the previous entry about Setting Limits For Your Streams for info about this) but giving voice to a comment on stream works wonders. It will help the commenter feel appreciated because you're truly giving their message its moment to appear on your show. Don't mumble the comment under your breath like you're scanning a legal contract either, make sure to emphasize the main points, get as excited it sounds like the viewer was when they wrote the message.

By doing this, you'll also create much more accessibility for others in the stream. If you respond to chat messages without reading the comment out loud, someone who is half-watching-half-listening to the show while they wash dishes likely wouldn't know what you're responding to. But if you read the comment and THEN respond to it, everyone is on the same page. The same goes for people watching the stream later in video form, or anyone on another platform if you're simulcasting to Twitch and YouTube. For me, always making my viewers feel truly heard by energetically reading their comments out loud is critically important. It's how I'd want to be treated if I was a viewer on my show.

➢ TRULY ENGAGING WITH COMMENTS

Sometimes streamers, especially new ones, are very utilitarian about their answers to questions in chat. Do I like this game? Yes it's fun. What's my favorite game? It's Halo 3. What's my favorite color? Blue. If your 'engagements' with chat are similar to these, consider making a change.

Be able to open up with viewers.

You may say the question is to blame in many cases; "Do you like this game?" isn't giving you much to work with, after all. It implies a 'yes or no' answer. But you should always be capable of unfolding a question, reading between the lines or just plain transmuting it into a more interesting topic, in order to give more personalized answers. Learn to truly engage with comments.

When I take a question, I always try to add some unexpected piece of value to my answer. I add a simple unspoken phrase to every response I give: "Here's my answer. And here's a story about that." The following are a few examples of how I might respond to the previous questions using that framework:

Do I like this game? Yes I'm having a great time. When I was going in, here's what I expected. Here's how I was surprised. Here's an aspect I had a difficult time with.

What's my favorite game? It's Metal Gear Solid 4. Here's a story of how I went to the worldwide launch party in New York City as a teenager and waited for five hours for the director, Hideo Kojima, to sign my copy of the game, only for the line to get cut off right before it was my turn.

What's my favorite color? Green. Speaking of which, let's see if I can equip any green items in the game. What's everyone else's favorite color in chat? Let's make a character decorated with everyone's favorite hues!

These three examples should show how you can use even basic questions as a jumping off point to share opinions, personal anecdotes, or even completely change the conversation to something more interesting. When you're truly engaging with comments, you're not simply reading and answering the words put in front of you, but rather using those words to inspire even bigger discussions.

➢ BUILDING ON QUESTIONS

Being able to tell stories and entertain on your own is certainly important. and it will greatly heighten the level of showmanship on your streams. Just as important however, is being able to bring others into the conversation.

Build on comments and make them into
conversations for everyone!

In the example above about favorite colors, I asked the rest of the chat about their own favorite colors and invited everyone to join in, which then helped to customize an aspect of the game we were playing. This makes it not a one-sided conversation (by answering the question without reading it aloud) or even a two-sided conversation (by talking back and forth with one chatter on that subject) but a completely open conversation. You're building on what was originally a basic question, and getting everyone involved in the interactive process of answering it.

From the previous section, you could follow up your answer about whether you liked the game by asking others if they have it themselves or plan on getting it. What are their play styles? Who's their favorite character? Or if they don't have the game, what do they think of what they've seen so far? The same can be done with the conversation about your favorite game- asking others to share their favorite video games can start all sorts of larger discussions. Always remember that any question YOU can answer on stream could also be answered by others in chat, though they won't always chime in without provocation. Sometimes, people are just waiting for you to include them.

➢ WHAT MAKES TWITCH AMAZING

The major differentiating factor on a livestreaming platform like Twitch is the ability for someone watching at home to directly interact with the person on screen. You should always try to capitalize on this feature, and make everyone who chooses to speak up feel like they're measurably improving the show by doing so. In the entry, 'When Streaming On Twitch, "We" is Better Than "Me"' I spoke about how important it is to realize that you aren't the only one making your show great. So don't rush through your response to a message in chat- the comment itself, as well as its answer, should be a valuable and entertaining part of your show. When you're making the viewer feel heard, truly engaging while answering, and then building on their question afterward, you'll be doing exactly that. Get ready to up your showmanship on stream!

Setting Limits For Your Streams

I've spoken before about always cultivating the kind of community you'd want to be a part of. Creating certain rules and enforcing them with varying levels of strictness can drastically change the way your community acts toward you, toward each other, or just acts in general. Having a strong set of limits for what you are and aren't willing to allow on your channel will strengthen your brand, allow your community to feel more comfortable, and make you less susceptible to trolls or other manipulative chatters.

In the entry 'Your Twitch Chat is a Reflection of Yourself', I gave you some insight into how I like to implement various rules, and the amount of flexibility I give any new rules I'm trying out. But what if you've been trying many things and nothing seems to work, or if you don't even know where to start? This entry will cover some of the specific kinds of limits I set for my own channel, and which aspects of them are important to me.

Before we begin, remember that the exact guidelines that work for my channel won't necessarily work for yours. Everyone's Twitch streams are completely different, and I was only able to arrive at my own limits through trying, failing, and constantly refining based on the kinds of situations I've encountered. What you should pay attention to instead, are the logic and reasoning behind the decisions I've made, and apply that process to your own style of streams if you think it might help.

➢ SWEARING AND OTHER LANGUAGE

Just because the games you play have profanity
doesn't mean your community has to follow suit.

Many people have different stances on swearing in their chats. Personally, I like to keep swearing, sexual references and other inappropriate language to a minimum. Many of the games we play on my channel are rated 'Mature' and involve heavy use of foul language, but we've always made sure to draw a distinction between what is said in the games on screen and how our viewers actually interact with each other. This may just seem like a personal preference, but I think it does help cultivate more positive vibes within the community. You never know who is made uncomfortable by rude language or certain kinds of jokes. You may find that staying within the bounds of a PG-13 rating helps to keep people around overall.

➢ CHARGED COMMENTS

Pay attention to the subtext of comments and interactions in your chat. It's obvious that you shouldn't have any overtly racist, sexist, or homophobic comments (or at least, I hope it's obvious) but that doesn't mean that people won't still say things that are charged in certain directions. Stand up for the things that matter to you, even if they're limits not typically enforced by other streams on Twitch. Is there some stereotype you particularly dislike? Make sure you're not letting it slide just because it's used commonly or allowed in other channels. I personally have been shocked by the amount of harmful stereotypes people throw around other Twitch chats without anyone batting an eye.

Always take time to actually read things BEFORE you read them out loud. Many new streamers will take a 'leap without looking' approach to reading comments, simply repeating back whatever's put in front of them before they actually comprehend it. You don't want to accidentally end up saying something that violates your personal values on stream just because someone put words in your mouth.

➢ BAD CONVERSATION STARTERS

If you can't bring it up at a party, it's probably
not okay for people to bring up in your chat.

There are three things you're never supposed to discuss in mixed company: religion, politics and sex. Unless your channel is centered around your identity as a minister, or arguing politics is the only thing you want your channel to be about, I strongly recommend you stay away from these topics. These are what I call 'bad conversation starters' - once you get going with these, it's only a matter of time until the discussion turns ugly. Not only will you be potentially alienating MAJOR portions of your audience faster than Thanos can snap his fingers, but you will notice a huge shift in your community's disposition. People will be more argumentative, negative and divided. Plus, you will oftentimes wish you didn't hear the answer. Make sure you're thinking two steps ahead, and look for the red flags signaling a bad conversation. The way I look at it, we all get enough of the real world in the actual real world. Let your Twitch streams be neutral territory.

➢ PERSONAL DETAILS

A major part of Twitch streaming is sharing thoughts and experiences with everyone in the community, and hearing their own stories in return. But how much about your personal life are you comfortable sharing? Do you talk about what you do for a living? Do you talk about your love life or relationship issues? How specific are you about where you live? Some streamers are completely transparent about all of these topics, and others would be mortified to go near them. Just because there is no wrong answer doesn't mean you shouldn't have a plan for how many answers you're willing to give.

You don't have to share everything on your Twitch streams, solely in the name of building a closer community. One streamer I watch does live broadcasts from a small restaurant he owns. He openly discusses all sorts of topics, but has a rule about never revealing the location or name of the shop itself- you could imagine the kinds of issues that could crop up if he didn't have this limit in place.

So make sure to take a few minutes and think about how much you're willing to divulge about different aspects of your life. People will understand- they know that you're a real person, and you have things that you're not comfortable talking about. The only truly wrong thing to do here is to not have a plan for when some of these topics appear.

➢ MODERATION

Twitch's AutoMod is great for many common
taboo topics.

Now that you have limits for some of these major categories set in your head, it's time to put them into action. Make sure you have chat commands that explain some of the rules you would like people to know about. In the entry 'Your Twitch Chat is a Reflection of Yourself', we covered how to communicate the intricacies of these rules, and how best to implement them. For many topics, Twitch's expanded AutoMod settings can detect red flags, offering slider bars for profanity, sexual content, discrimination and hostility that you can adjust behind the scenes. If your channel is large enough, having trusted users to whom you can grant 'moderator' status will help immensely as well.

In addition to all of this, sometimes the best way to discourage a certain topic is to just ignore it. There might be personal things that you don't want to make overt rules about, but also likely don't want to discuss. Telling one person out loud that you don't want to talk about your breakup, your job search, or your upcoming final exam for example, will inadvertently cause others to inquire about it because they're concerned for you. This will then become its own 'Bad Conversation Starter' like we talked about earlier. You're not obligated to respond to 100% of the comments in your stream after all. If something makes you uncomfortable, it's your right not to have to put it in the spotlight. You can even silently delete that comment to make extra sure others don't start asking as well.

➢ LEADING BY EXAMPLE

Don't forget, it's also important how you conduct yourself on stream. You're not likely to be able to uphold a 'no swearing' policy if you yourself are speaking like a sailor the whole time. Chatters will take their cues from how you are acting in addition to how the community itself is acting. People want to be a part of the larger group after all- most of us don't want to enter someone else's Twitch channel and start causing trouble.

It might sound like setting rules and limits on your channel will create less interesting conversations or make your channel feel too strict. Just know that it's something that everyone on Twitch has to do eventually as they grow. Your community will turn into whatever you allow it to be, so make sure that the edges of the mold are in place before anyone actually crosses the line. Having strong values isn't about being completely wholesome. It's about knowing exactly what you are and aren't willing to bring to the forefront of your streams. No matter what kind of channel you have, storms of challenging, toxic and inappropriate topics are waiting over the horizon. If you've established limits beforehand, you'll already be equipped to weather those storms whenever they appear.

Learn to Love the Grind of Twitch Streaming

Many people get into Twitch streaming and feel like they're immediately at a disadvantage. They look at other streamers' setups and grow dejected. "It seems like everybody else is already ahead of me," they say. "If all the other streamers have better equipment, graphics, hosting techniques, or video game skills than I do, then why should I even try?" This dark rabbit hole has been the reason that many potential streamers never even started their channels, and it's been the downfall of established streamers of all sizes. Twitch is hard, and it will never stop presenting you with challenges, no matter how large you grow. Instead of looking at what others have and measuring yourself against them, you need to enjoy the process of growing your own channel. You may not last long otherwise.

➢ CHANGING YOUR DEFINITION OF SUCCESS

Here's something about my channel: it looks and sounds worse than many other similarly sized channels. I have fewer followers than others who started at the same time. I have fewer subscribers and donations than some others at my level. And I'm aware that this will ALWAYS be the case- someone out there will always be better than me in some specific field.

It's about the Journey. Heh. Get it?

I don't sign onto my Twitch streams every day hating what I do, just because I know I'll never truly measure up against all other Twitch channels. I've learned to love the JOURNEY, not the DESTINATION. Every second of building my channel is the exciting part. The problem solving, the sleepless nights, the thousands of combined hours logged on-camera, those are what I find fun. Overcoming those challenges isn't just a means to an end. The menial, repetitive, and frustrating tasks ARE the end unto themselves.

➢ IGNORANCE IS BLISS

Twitch streamers are constantly under a heavy amount of peer pressure, whether they recognize it or not. Many think that if they don't have the microphone, camera, capture solution, chatbot features, social media options, or games that their contemporaries have, that their streams must be inferior. They become insecure on their shows, complaining about their equipment, apologizing for something they don't do on stream, or growing frustrated with the size of their community. This thought process is obviously illogical. How one person stacks up to other streamers in some arbitrary category has nothing to do with that person's worth as a streamer, but peer pressure on Twitch is very real all the same. How do you combat this? The answer is clear, but I bet you never thought to do it:

Don't watch a lot of other Twitch streams. 

Focus on your own work.

I've never seen anyone recommend this before, but it's actually been one of the most crucial things in learning to love the grind of streaming for me. Think about it. You're watching another streamer whose shows look and sound way more professional than yours. Reaching their level would be like scaling a twenty story wall. You just can't do it. Now you get home, and you have to do your own stream, with its own walls to scale. Even though these walls are only one story high, they are still very difficult for you to climb on your own. "At this rate, I'll never be able to scale a twenty story wall like the other streamer," you say to yourself. You can't see your stream ever getting as good as theirs, and you become demotivated. Then you slowly start missing more and more of your scheduled stream days until you're no longer streaming at all. It sounds ridiculous, but this is a VERY real phenomenon. It's happened to me before I started my Twitch channel. And it can happen to anyone, at any time.

The problem in the above example isn't the fact that this person is growing too slowly, or that they can't scale their own wall. The problem is that they're being distracted by someone else's wall, completely unrelated to theirs. They have no concept of how much work this other person put in behind the scenes, and they shouldn't care either way. The reason they became demotivated was because they weren't focusing on their own work. They weren't interested in the grind itself, they were interested in the reward that comes at the end: in this case, an amazing looking stream.

Of course it's important to sometimes watch other channels- I've advised you do it in several entries before. The difference is, you shouldn't binge on their content, or you'll subconsciously start measuring your stream's worth against theirs. You should get to know other streamers, get inspired by small ideas they use on their channels, and meet their communities, but don't fall into the trap of consuming so much content that you forget how much work is required to create your own.

➢ UPGRADE YOUR CRAFT, NOT YOUR CRAFTING TABLE

Let's return to the metaphor of the twenty story wall I described earlier. What if there was a trampoline you could buy, which could bounce you SO high into the air that it would immediately get you to the top of that twenty story wall? Would you buy it? Based on the behavior I've seen on Twitch, most streamers would say, "Yes."

Here's the problem: What happens when you have to scale the NEXT wall, which is thirty stories high? As we established in the metaphor earlier, your own skillset can barely get you ONE story off the ground. Guess you'll have to get a better trampoline.

Buying things is a slippery slope.

This is the most basic way I'm able to explain why you shouldn't buy things to improve your stream. There will always be bigger problems to overcome, and more pieces of equipment to buy. You won't feel better by artificially boosting the quality of your stream, because once you buy one $200 microphone, it will feel out of place without a $200 camera, or a $200 stream deck. And then once you've gotten all of those things, there will be $500 versions with even more features that you could buy to get even bigger improvements! All the while, your personality on camera still lacks confidence, your Fortnite win/loss ratio hasn't improved, and your channel hasn't grown any faster since making all these purchases. Essentially, your tech has gotten better but YOU haven't.

I've mentioned this opinion about not buying things in almost every single entry, but I suspect it's still not enough to sway some listeners. Gear lust is one of the most pervasive and hard to shake things in the Twitch community, after all. Be honest: since following The Twitch Playbook, have you bought any equipment, software, subscriptions, or other items for the specific purpose of improving your stream? If you did, don't worry. I'm not saying you've failed or that you didn't really need it, but consider having that be the last purchase you make for your channel until you've done significantly more streams- let's say 100-200 more combined hours on-camera.

➢ THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION

Just because something is difficult doesn't mean it isn't fun. Some levels in Super Mario will be a real challenge to get through, but that only makes it more rewarding to overcome those challenges. When you're at the store, you don't think of getting a Super Mario game because you want to beat it, you think of getting that game because you want to play it. The part that happens BEFORE the ending is the fun part, not the action of filing the completed game away on your shelf. You should think of Twitch the same way- each follower, viewer or subscriber milestone you reach is like beating a game, but everything you do leading up to those milestones should be the actual fun part. There's no gratification in the number itself. If you want to truly last in the long haul, fall in love with the mundane grind, not the far-off rewards.