Creating Twitch Emotes: The Basics

When you've been streaming for a while and you have at least fifty followers, as well as a few other checkboxes ticked, you'll be able to sign up for the Twitch Affiliate Program. This is a contract you enter into with the Twitch platform which allows you to offer subscriptions for your viewers, along with some other fun features. When a user is subscribed, they have extra privileges on your channel, many of which you're able to set and customize, but my favorite of these is the ability use custom channel emotes.

When you're a Twitch Affiliate or Partner, you can upload a certain number of custom emotes to your channel, which can be used only by your Subscribers. This gives your viewers a way to show their pride for your community, and it also gives you the ability to spread your channel's branding. When someone is subscribed to your channel, they can use your emotes anywhere on Twitch, even in other streams. I've met people who subscribe to certain channels and don't even watch the shows- they just want access to the amazing emotes! So if you make your emotes compelling enough, it could help others really take notice of your shows. In this entry, I'm going to give you some basics tips to create the best channel emotes possible.

➢ PLANNING YOUR EMOTES

Like I mentioned in the previous entry Create Your Own Stream Graphics, I highly recommend you create your channel's emotes yourself- at least at first. You can find more details in that entry about why you'd want to do this before paying for someone to do it for you, but suffice it to say that it's always worth giving something a try before you assume you can't do it. You don't need Adobe Photoshop or any expensive software- there are plenty of free alternatives out there that can serve you just as well. And you don't need to be a trained designer either- you just need to apply yourself.

Make your emotes specific to your channel!

First, remember that making an emote isn't permanent. You can delete any emote and replace it with a new one at any time with no penalty, so there's really no pressure to make it perfect at first. Just execute your idea and put it out there- don't get bogged down by constantly second guessing yourself. Many streamers will end up wasting an extraordinary amount of time just noodling with their design at the eleventh hour because they're nervous that it isn't exactly right, which usually causes them to break down and simply commission someone else to do it for them. Try to limit your emote creation time so this doesn't happen. You don't want to build this task up in your head as something more difficult than it actually is.

As I mentioned, channel emotes are a great way to let your Subscribers show their love for the community. What better way to do this than to incorporate your channel's identity into your emotes? When thinking up emotes to create, try to make them unique to your channel without being such an inside joke that no one else would understand them. Maybe it's the face of a character from your favorite game, maybe it's a funny photo of you, maybe it's a phrase you say often on stream, or maybe it's just your channel logo. Whatever the emote, I recommend choosing ideas that signify what your channel is all about, rather than checking off all the standard boxes that other channels have for emotes. Your emote catalog will be more unique that way!

➢ DESIGNING YOUR EMOTES

There are three sizes to keep in mind when designing your emotes, which are squares of 112, 56 and 28 pixels. The one you see in chat most often is the smallest of these, but when you're creating your image you should of course be working at the largest size. The reason for this is simple- if you create your emote at the size of 28 square pixels and then enlarge it to 56 and 112, those sizes will be blurry. Beginning with the biggest version and then saving smaller copies is always the way to go.

Unlike in Katamari, with emotes you want
to start big and get smaller.

What you'll notice pretty quickly about emotes is that the default size of 28x28 is small. Really small. I mean so small that whatever you design at first almost certainly won't be visible. You'll look at other Twitch emotes and wonder how they're so easy to recognize within such tiny screen real estate. This is a major challenge, but not one that you can't overcome. The first order of business is to ensure that your emote design is filling as much of the canvas as possible. It should be touching all four sides of the square bounding box somewhere, or as close as you can make it. Size is going to be your enemy, so make things as large as you can. Similarly, try cutting down on complexity- if there is too much detail at such a small size, things can start to look muddy.

Many emotes include text as well, which is even trickier to make visible in such a small format. There are many factors which dictate whether you can read what an emote has to say. In addition to the text size, things like color, font and positioning of words can also have a significant impact on legibility. Ensure that you're displaying words as simply as possible, and in very high contrast compared to whatever is behind them. Grey words on a black background are going to be much more difficult to read than white words on a black background, for example.

➢ ENHANCING YOUR COMMUNITY

When your channel has its own emotes, it's a good way to bring your most dedicated fans together. There are even some features recently added to Twitch which can allow non-Subscribers to temporarily use your emotes in chat as well! You'll be able to show your brand's personality, while providing a fun feature for people to use whenever they want to, even when they aren't watching your shows. Don't feel pressured to join the Affiliate program just to access the channel emotes feature though- deciding whether to join should be a measured decision and only you will know if it's right for you. But if you do, I hope these tips will help you to create great emotes for your channel!

Using Twitch Clips to Their Fullest

If you've been streaming for a while, your shows are probably pretty polished by now. But a Twitch stream is long- the average broadcast lasts for hours at a time. Isn't there a way to convey to people how fun your streams are without them having to catch you live or wade through a massive Past Broadcast video? Welcome to the wonderful world of clipping!

One of my favorite features on the Twitch platform is a remarkably robust editing system which allows viewers or streamers to immediately capture the past minute of a stream, even while the show is still in progress. They can then edit and name this snippet on the fly, and once it's saved, their clip will live permanently on the channel for anyone to see. All this happens within Twitch itself, on both desktop and mobile, without the need for any external software. I've found that Twitch clips are a fantastic way to entertain viewers, strengthen your community, and even attract new followers. And in this entry, I'll show you some of my favorite ways to use your channel's clips to their fullest.

➢ ADDING VALUE TO YOUR STREAMS

When clips are made of your streams, it becomes very easy to use them to make your live broadcasts even more entertaining. On my shows, I have down-time moments where clips will play to keep the energy levels up. Many streamers will also have clips queued up in their streaming software, so they can pull up a specific funny moment at any time. As I mentioned in the previous entry Spice Up Your Stream's Chat, many streamers also have 'clip commands' in their chatbot, so viewers can write a specific command to pull up a clip, which encourages anyone else watching to take a look. There are many ways in which clips can actually enhance your live shows, even though they themselves are non-live videos. It's worth exploring a few of these options on your own channel.

➢ A LIFE OF ITS OWN

Make your movies!

While clips mainly show up in the 'Videos' tab of your channel, they aren't only confined to your corner of Twitch. There's a whole ecosystem of discoverability for clips on the platform, which can introduce potential new viewers to your shows. When browsing a game's 'category,' next to the usual 'Live Channels' tab there are also areas for 'Videos' and 'Clips.' This means people browsing for funny moments in their favorite game can find your content without even knowing about your channel! Your clips can also show up as recommendations after someone has finished watching another clip or video on the platform. Plus, clips are easy for viewers to share on other platforms like Facebook or Twitter, increasing their potential to be seen or even go viral. Keep making clips and you might just get noticed by more people than you expected!

It may sound stuffy, but formatting when creating clips is actually really important. By default, if someone clicks the 'clip' button on your Twitch stream, the previous 30 seconds will be captured, and the clip will be given the same name as the stream itself. This means the clip likely didn't capture the moment effectively, and it won't have an eye-catching title. Both of these make it almost certain that your clip won't be seen or shared. Make sure when you're capturing clips that you trim them to fit the moment. You don't want the comic timing of your joke to be ruined by the video dragging on long after the funny bit has passed, or by your words getting cut off mid-sentence. The same applies to the title- try to come up with something short and witty that captures the essence of the clipped moment. These two simple factors will make your clips much more eye-catching to potential viewers.

➢ EXTRA CONTENT

In addition to using clips on your streams and letting them live out in the wild, they have a third function which may have been even more useful to me personally than the other two. Clips are a great way to speed up the editing process when making content outside your Twitch channel. For example, if you want to make a funny YouTube compilation featuring your best on-stream moments, this would typically be a daunting task- your streams have an insane amount of footage to wade through, and it's almost impossible to know where to look for the best moments. But if you've been clipping your shows effectively and often, you'll already have this footage of your best moments pre-made, which you can save and edit into your videos. I can say from experience that this speeds up the post-production process by orders of magnitude.

Put your most entertaining clips on your
satellite channels

If you want to get even simpler, clips can be saved directly from your Twitch channel, and posted natively onto video platforms like Instagram, TikTok or even YouTube to increase your channel's reach. If you're keeping an open mind about their potential uses, there's no limit to the amount of content you can extract from your Twitch clips. Remember not to get overly ambitious with opening new social channels however- see the entry Twitch is the Only Social Channel You Need for more details about how expanding too fast can actually sink your livestreaming efforts. Only make satellite channels when you're able to populate them with quality content consistently and easily.

➢ A WIN-WIN SCENARIO

Clips are one of my favorite features on Twitch because they're fun for everyone involved. The streamer has an easy way to show their channel at its best, new followers might use them to find a channel they love, and viewers who make the clips can be proud and take ownership of having captured a great moment! On my streams I make a ceremony out of clipping a stream moment. We have designated segments of the broadcasts when we'll show at any new clips someone took on stream, and I'll award the sender a certain amount of channel currency based on their editing, naming and comic timing skills. Clips are a win for everyone involved, so make sure you're using them to their fullest!

Streaming Under Quarantine

We're living through a strange time in human history. Many of us are at home all day, most of us are working fewer hours or not at all, and just about everyone is uncertain about their future. Even our favorite livestreaming platform is affected in its own ways, due to increased viewer traffic and an influx of streams. If you're listening to this entry at or near its release, you likely have more time on your hands than usual and may have been thinking about either finally getting into Twitch or dedicating more time to your existing streaming career. In this entry, I'm going to give you tips for streaming under quarantine.

➢ IS IT EASIER TO STREAM? 

First we must recognize what hasn't changed. In the previous entry 'How to Find the Time to Stream on Twitch,' I shared with you the mantra I repeat to myself any time I want to start on a new project:

You'll never have more time than you do right now. 

Our strange situation has caused me to realize just how true that statement was. Think about it: right now you have an unprecedented amount of time. The whole world is at a standstill and you’re being given a golden opportunity: free time to craft your dream. But it probably still doesn’t feel like an opportunity, does it? Because you’re fearful for your future, you might have reduced or uncertain income, you're having a hard time adjusting to being isolated, or any of a dozen other very valid concerns. Don't forget however, that there will never be a time to stream that doesn’t come with associated problems. This is still the best chance you’ll probably ever get, purely from a standpoint of physical availability if nothing else. I urge you to take advantage of it.

When you're staying inside, it's a perfect time for
video games!

Do what you can to push through your fears and discouragement to simply make your dream happen. Don't wait until 'everything calms down' - think about how many times you've said that before, when referring to work deadlines, family engagements, or general stress. As I mentioned in previous entries, the Hedonic Treadmill phenomenon will never stop causing you to feel like you can't start on your dream, no matter what things are like outside your door. The world has changed, but the difficulty of streaming hasn't- you will truly never have more time than you do right now.

➢ START SPRINTING AND PLAN A MARATHON

You may be thinking about starting your Twitch channel, or you may already have one and be thinking of ramping up your output. Either way, just start. Jump into your goal head first and don't think about it. Don't worry about whether it can work in the long term, don't worry about whether it'll look good, don't worry about whether anyone will watch, don't worry about anything in the beginning. Take advantage of your extra time and physical availability and really push forward with your goal, no matter the concerns.

Once you've done this, after you've streamed a few times on this newly free schedule, then you should start thinking about how to make it sustainable. You'll never stick with this goal if you can't figure out how to fit it into your life.

"Wait a second," you might be saying. "Nick, you're giving two completely contradictory pieces of advice! On the one hand, I shouldn't plan anything, and on the other hand I should be planning far in advance." That's right, but what's crucial is the order in which you execute these two steps. Think of the last time you had a long vacation, or a 3-day weekend, or time over the New Years holiday, and you suddenly had a flash of inspiration to write a novel, or paint your masterpiece, or get in shape. Did you end up following through with these projects all the way to their conclusions? If you're like most of us, you probably didn't. That's because inspiration isn't enough to form a habit, it's only enough to light the fuse. Plans relying on inspiration alone are typically dead within a week. Similarly, many people will over-complicate their dream, thinking hard about every logistical factor of how they'll integrate that big project into their lives, and buying new equipment to facilitate it. All this before actually writing the first word, making the first brush stroke, or doing the first push-up. They plan and plan and plan so much that they plan themselves right out of ever starting.

Jump in!

When talking about how they begin their projects, Silicon Valley entrepreneurs love to use the Ray Bradbury quote, "Jump off the cliff and learn how to make wings on the way down." This is the only way I've found to get any major habit formed. You have to first dive in recklessly, and then start planning once you've proven you can do it consistently. Specifically in that order. The trick after using that initial spark is to figure out how to keep things running even when you're not inspired. Because eventually there will be days when streaming won't be fun. It won't be every day, but they will come, and these days are the ones that unmake most streamers. One of my all-time favorite quotes is from artist Chuck Close, who said, "Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work."

➢ STAY-AT-HOME STREAM REALITIES

During this time, you're going to notice a few things different about Twitch streaming itself. You're not the only person who's at home all day, after all. Everyone is in the same boat. That means your whole household and and all the households nearby are also on their couch downloading and uploading to their hearts' content. Your internet speeds won't be the same as they were a month ago- you'll likely have to lower your bitrate or resolution settings to make your stream avoid cutting out.

The Twitch servers are experiencing a similar concept on their side too. Because so many people are at home now, many of them are using their increased hours to stream more than they usually would. This huge boost in activity means your streams are much less likely to be given variable quality settings for viewers with slower internet connections. Did you ever notice on some streams that you can change the video resolution from 1080 to 720, 480, 360 or 160p to help the stream load, but sometimes on a stream it only says 'Source' resolution is available and you can't change it? That's because having multiple quality options is a privilege to everyone but Partnered streamers, not an expectation. Whether you get these settings is randomly selected each time you go live, based on the current Twitch server load. And the server load is heavy right now, so your stream is likely to be available only at the exact resolution and bitrate you're outputting during the quarantine, without the ability for viewers to turn it down. Another reason not to overdo it with your output settings.

During this time, you may also receive fewer audience members than you would have a month ago. This will either be due to more choices for viewers because of increased saturation of streamers going live, or your stream not loading on viewers' computers due to a lack of variable quality settings. Don't let this discourage you. As we've established in previous entries, you're not streaming for a fickle viewer number, you're streaming because it's what you love to do. Let this be your time to decompress while enjoying a video game or favorite activity on camera, appreciate and engage with the viewers who do join, and build rock-solid streaming habits so you'll have them in place once everything is back to normal. Even if you have lower numbers, people are looking to be entertained right now. Those few people on your stream today might really appreciate you taking their mind off their troubles for a while. So don't let the quarantine's disadvantages stop you from doing what you love doing. Stay at home and build your Twitch streaming dream!

Dealing with Disruptors in Twitch Chat

Twitch is amazing, and you're going to meet so many great people on the platform as you continue streaming. But as many of us know, being a streamer isn't always a pleasant experience. Many times, viewers will join your shows only to cause trouble, or even to be intentionally mean or hateful. I've seen streamers break down on camera, and I've seen even more announce hiatuses from the platform due to the stress of dealing with negative people. I've seen streamers get into arguments and lash out at chatters after being goaded for long enough, and I've seen people end their streams early because their chats were getting out of hand. If you haven't been streaming for very long and haven't run into this, it may simply sound like all these broadcasters have thin skin, but every seasoned streamer has their own stories of how their chat has wounded them. And if you do it long enough, some comment will get through to you too. In this entry, I'm going to help you deal with disruptors in your Twitch chat.

➢ KEEPING THINGS POSITIVE

When dealing with disruptive chatters, I try to remember one concept before moving forward: no matter what kind of behavior someone else is displaying, always respond with positivity. It doesn't matter how 'justified' I would be to get angry with them or to put them in their place, I am unwavering in my attitude. I spoke about this topic a lot in the entry The Power of Positive Streaming - I think this mindset not only helps keep my chat more upbeat in general, but also helps me to always see the bright side through a cloud of bad vibes. Even if someone is being outright mean on your streams, don't forget: they likely don't know anything about you. They don't speak for everyone else who watches your streams, and they don't decide your value. Don't let their comment about your looks, your voice, your stream, your gameplay, or anything else seep into your own measurement of your self-worth.

These guys always know how to keep things positive.

It's important to have rules in place laying out the values of your channel. Everyone's shows are different, and the kinds of accepted behavior can differ wildly between channels, so you'll avoid confusion by making your rules easily accessible. You can display them on your channel's 'panels', which show up in the area below your stream to anyone watching on a desktop computer, and you can also put a shortened version of the rules in the one-time message that appears when someone joins your chat. In addition to this, make sure you have a command that can bring up the rules in chat whenever you want to show them- then you'll be able to point someone to the exact rule they're breaking so there's never any confusion.

After your rules are in place, be smart about enforcing them. Many streamers will compromise their values and let a chatter continue saying negative things that make them uncomfortable, just because the streamer is afraid that standing up for themselves will cause the chat activity will dry up. I try to stick to a mindset of, 'down to the last chatter.' Meaning, if someone is saying things that go against my community's guidelines, even if they're the only person speaking in chat all stream, I'll still remove them. The moral values of your stream are never worth compromising for a bit of fleeting validation.

➢ KEEPING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE

Despite being quite firm in enforcing my own rules, I always try to keep things in perspective. Just because someone is negative in chat or breaks your rules doesn't mean they're a bad person. For example, on my streams I don't like to be given hints about how to beat the various levels in the singleplayer games I play. It's a pretty common concept on Twitch, to not allow what's called 'backseat gaming,' and most people joining story-focused streams know what this is. I have rules in place which say you'll be timed out or banned if you try to tell me how to play, but not everyone has a chance to read those rules. Sometimes someone will join and their first comment in chat will be some piece of advice about the game itself. They clearly think they're helping, and in such a scenario it's unfair to immediately ban them for doing this. So I'll usually calmly delete their comment, thank them for their enthusiasm, and tell them we don't do it that way on our streams. Then I mention the rule and I post it in the chat.

Sometimes it can be difficult to keep things in perspective.

But some people simply join a stream to flaunt what they know, or they don't care about my rules, so they'll post hints again. At this point they're becoming a disruptive influence on the chat itself, and they're compromising everyone else's enjoyment of the streams. But even after this second infraction I don't get mad at them- unless it's a major spoiler I simply execute a timeout, an action that silences them from chat for ten minutes but still lets them watch. I tell them that according to the rules I showed them earlier they are to be timed out, but that I hope they still enjoy the show, and if they choose to stick around then I hope to see them again soon. I don't say anything more on the subject or lecture them about what they did wrong. I don't let other chatters complain about the timed out viewer either. It's important not to make offenders feel like they're being ganged up on. I've had many viewers who were timed out for backseating return after ten minutes to participate in positive ways, because they saw that no one on the stream was mad at them, and they saw that the stream could still be fun without backseating being allowed.

It's important to me to empathize with the people watching my shows, even if they don't hold the same values I do. I'm aware that some people don't like to watch streams where they can't tell you how to play your games, but my streams simply aren't for those people. Many streamers will get mad when these kinds of rules are broken, and they'll go on long rants with their chat about how annoying it is that people come in and spoil or backseat their games. This might create discussion, but I feel it's a very negative way to approach the problem, and in my opinion it's not even a valuable discussion. It only breeds bad vibes. On my streams I simply communicate my values as best I can, enforce my rules, and continue making someone who broke a rule feel like they're welcome. Unless they did something really bad, they can decide for themselves whether it's a place they want to be.

➢ TAKING THE HIGH GROUND

Everyone has their reasons for being the way they are. You never know what's going on behind the scenes. Even if someone is intentionally being mean or annoying in chat, don't forget to keep everything in perspective. They could be going through a rough time in their life, they could have problems at home, there could be any number of life factors happening with them. This doesn't mean you have to keep them around, but don't get mad at them or rant about how much you disliked their behavior. It's possible to be stern but still treat everyone with respect!

Making Twitch a Part of Your Life

There are two major problems Twitch streamers run into as they grow, both of which are detrimental in their own ways. In the beginning, they have a hard time making streaming into a habit and sticking with it. Then, as they get better at being consistent, they have a hard time making a habit out of everything else. Finding that balance is a constant struggle- if you can't bring yourself to do enough streaming your creative life could suffer, and if you don't know when to stop streaming your personal life could suffer. Whether you're not yet consistent in your streams or you're having a hard time prioritizing activities outside of Twitch, I'm going to help you find a middle ground and make Twitch a part of your life.

➢ DON'T LOSE SIGHT OF STREAMING

Stay on target.

Before bothering to worry about cutting back on your streaming, you must first make sure you're actually streaming consistently. Thinking about moderation in your streams too early can cause your channel to never get off the runway, for fear of flying too close to the Sun. If you're having trouble streaming every single day you plan to stream, then becoming consistent should be your first priority. I've covered several topics in the past on how to find time, motivation, or consistency in your streaming life, and this would be a good time to revisit those entries.

It really comes down to not questioning yourself. You have a dream. You want to become a Twitch streamer. The road ahead will have its ups and downs. Some days it will be easy and some days it will be hard, but you simply have to trust your original feelings. Try all sorts of ideas within your streams and don't be opposed to altering or ditching them, but don't ever give up on being a streamer.

➢ MAKING IMPORTANT DECISIONS

If you ever find yourself lost and don't know how you'll find the time in your day to stream, there's a simple time management strategy you can turn to. It's called the Eisenhower Decision Matrix. This axiom is based on a quote attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower, who remarked, "I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important and the important are never urgent." For our purposes, the 'urgent' problems are the everyday trials of the real world (work deadlines, chores, anything that doesn't further our ultimate goals), and the 'important' problems are our creative aspirations like Twitch streaming. The key to properly utilizing this mantra is to always address the important problems before the urgent ones.

This may sound counter-intuitive. After all, the urgent problems have to be done right now, and as soon as those are done you'll be free to work on all the creative endeavors you want! But in reality, it never actually goes that way. If it did, no one would ever have a problem following their dreams and sticking with their life goals. In reality, most people simply spend their days addressing their most urgent problems, clocking in and out of work, getting housework done, organizing things, answering emails, shopping for supplies, and everything else that seems so important in the moment. Here's the thing: if you can carry out the things important to your life's ambitions first, you'll still find time to do the urgent things afterwards too. If they're really that urgent, you won't have a choice- you'll simply have to find time to do them, right?

This kind of prioritizing is what will help you to make sure Twitch is solidly embedded into your day-to-day. It's a matter of turning the non-urgent into the urgent by shifting around your schedule. If you use this technique, as well as many of the time-saving and distraction removing strategies I've laid out in previous entries, you should be well on your way to embedding Twitch into your lifestyle.

➢ CREATING SPACES

Try to stay balanced.

While many people struggle to make Twitch a consistent part of their lives, others who have already been streaming consistently will struggle to bring Twitch back into balance with everything else. On a platform like this, extreme effort over a long span of time is what gets you rewarded, because  success is mostly driven by who is able to keep creating content the longest. And to reach this point, we typically send ourselves into a state of overdrive. This is natural- it requires a disruption in the daily routine in order to make anything into a habit, and as long as you're honest with friends and loved ones about what you're trying to do, they are likely to support you. But when is the right time to ease away from this state of hyper-efficiency? This is where it becomes trickier.

If you do anything long enough, it will become a habit. And once Twitch takes the place of all those old habits you used to have a hard time breaking, you'll find that your streaming lifestyle can cause you to spiral out of control just as easily as Netflix binges or 3am Wikipedia deep dives. Ironically, I had more of a problem reining in my streaming habits than I did actually bringing Twitch into my life in the first place. There was a point where I was shunning so much of the outside world that I barely saw anyone important to me. I'm not proud to say that in my quest to grow as quickly as possible, I damaged some of my most important personal relationships. I realized I was experiencing something like what a gambler feels, always hoping the next stream would be 'the big one,' and not wanting to let anything jeopardize my chances. It simply wasn't sustainable, but I couldn't see that from where I was standing at the time.

Eventually I realized that I should be using the Eisenhower Decision Matrix not just for streaming, but also for my personal life. Netflix, chores, emails and other busywork tasks were still to be done last, but along with streaming I needed to also make more time for the other things that were major priorities to me, like family and friends. I also realized that I was more interested in growing my stream than in the pure act of streaming itself, and that was a problem. So I stopped focusing so intently on the rapid expansion of my brand, and instead became more at home with just doing what I wanted to do. I scheduled my streams more strictly, giving them very little wiggle room for where to end, so I wouldn't always be late to things. I'd shift start times and even shorten my streams more aggressively when I had plans to see people, so I wouldn't be cutting it close. Even during this time of re-envisioning my channel's plan I never missed a stream or took a break, but this transition was an important time for me to reflect on how I wasn't making Twitch a part of my life- Twitch was becoming my life. And that's dangerous.

➢ FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS

At the end of the day, if you want Twitch to become a part of your life, it's not just about letting it into your daily routine, but also about not letting it dominate your every waking thought. Anyone who's been following The Twitch Playbook for a while will recognize that I've been talking about not chasing followers, and not losing sight of other things important to you for a while. But I've never shared my personal story of just how dangerous it can be to leave the dial at 11 for too long. Many streamers at this point become burned out and give up. I was lucky enough to simply realize my mistake and change course. But if you can find a way to consistently stream with Twitch as a part of your life instead of letting it take over, you'll be avoiding many of the biggest hardships on the platform.

Spice Up Your Stream's Chat

On Twitch there are many options for engaging viewers. We've talked in previous entries about things you can do and say to get all the different kinds of viewers interested in your shows. In addition to your own actions as the streamer however, there are many things you can do with your chat itself to attract viewers and convince them to stick around. In this entry, I'll show you a few of the best ways I've found to spice up a stream's chat.

Keep in mind however: you'll notice me recommending a few pieces of external software you can use to improve your streams, but I'm not going to give a tutorial on all the features involved, or the technical aspects of how to implement each idea. Use this entry to decide which things you might want to use for yourself, and whenever you arrive at that decision there's plenty of documentation on the software's website to tell you specifically how to embed each feature into your channel.

➢ SHOW DON’T TELL

One simple change which can increase engagement with minimal effort is displaying your chat messages on-screen during a stream. This can be achieved using various kinds of widgets through your stream software. Having streamed with and without an on-screen chat before, I’ve noticed that people tend to do more chatting when they know their messages will be visible on the show. I imagine this is due to the fact that they feel more ‘heard’ on the broadcast, so they always know their messages are going through and becoming a part of the show itself. It may also be a way for people who have the chat hidden to notice who is chatting or what they’re chatting about, and decide whether they’d like to join in. Whatever the reason, this technique generally keeps everyone more aware of what's happening in chat and brings it to the forefront of the streams.

Show don't tell!

Having said that, on-screen chat isn’t for everyone. Depending on what kind of show you’re trying for, you may find it best to leave your chat separate from the stream itself. On my streams for example, despite having good results with on-screen chat, I ended up removing it from all sections where I was playing a game. This came down to the direction my shows were headed. The more my channel evolved into a place where we appreciate video game storylines, the more intrusive it started to look to have the chat popping up during emotional moments. If your streams are about conversation above all however, this is a great method to boost your chatting numbers.

➢  CREATING COMMANDS

I’ve spoken in previous entries about many of the commands I’ve implemented to improve various aspects of my shows. Using external streaming software called a chatbot, viewers can type commands into a stream's chat to be given a programmed response from the bot itself, and your decisions in how to set up the bot's responses can really set your channel apart. Nightbot, Moobot, Streamlabs Chatbot and other free tools can give you lots of options for activities in your chat, so it's worth checking out a few of them and seeing which you like best. The following are a few types of commands that I’ve seen work before, whether on my own streams or those of others:

Informative Commands: The most basic command is also probably the most useful to your viewers. Make sure you have some informative commands for people to learn more about your channel when they want to. Separate commands to tell people about your Twitter, YouTube, and other satellite channels are always great ways to let people joining your streams know about your other projects. Commands talking about your channel or its rules are also majorly useful. All of these commands will be your bread and butter, and if you watch enough other streams, you'll start to notice the patterns for which are the most commonly requested.

Create commands that are unpredictable.

Randomized Commands: This is my personal favorite kind of command. When you use Chatbot software, you can have the app pull randomly from a list of potential responses whenever a viewer inputs certain commands. This can be used to great effect on stream, and makes it a lot more exciting for viewers to engage with your Chatbot. The classic example of a randomized command is a Magic 8-Ball feature. It functions similar to the real-world equivalent- chatters can input a command to contact the 8-Ball and ask a question, then they will be given a random response. At this point, there's no limit to the amount of fun answers you can program into it. I've made all sorts of games and stories that come out of randomized features like this, which have hundreds of potential responses in total. Go crazy with it!

Viewer Commands: On many channels, I've seen instances where viewers have been able to create their own commands. Then when one of those viewers first joins the stream, they can use their personal command to announce themselves in chat. It's even possible to give one viewer exclusive access to a certain command, so only they can use it. You can create whatever criteria that you want in order for a viewer to earn one of these commands, like collecting enough channel points or being a subscriber for a certain length of time. These kinds of exclusive commands can make individual viewers feel much more special on stream- just make sure everything stays within your guidelines for what's appropriate!

Clip Commands: Twitch as a platform has many fun features, but the 'clipping' function is something you may be overlooking. At any time, viewers or streamers are able to immediately capture a short snippet of the stream, which will be saved for anyone to watch later. It's a great way to show off some of your channel's most fun moments, and it's very simple to do. Many channels have some of their best clips saved into commands as well, so that viewers can type in a specific command to immediately bring up that clip in the chat. This is a great conversation starter for new viewers, as they can easily see one of your favorite clips, and veteran viewers can have fun finding opportune moments to bring each clip to the forefront.

Quotes: This is a really fun feature to use on streams, because viewers can help to create a part of your channel. Anyone in chat can save quotes from your stream to your chatbot by using a 'quote add' command, which will compile a big list that others can pull from at any time. On my Discord, we have a dedicated list of hundreds of different quotes that viewers have saved since I started streaming. People can pull them up when an applicable situation occurs, and it's always a fun moment when someone notices and saves something I didn't even realize I said.

Minigames: I've spoken about minigames in previous entries for a bit, but these shouldn't be overlooked. On many pieces of chatbot software, you can add cooperative, competitive or free-for-all activities for your viewers to participate in while you might be busy doing something on your shows. On my channel I've even written custom storylines for each one. This is another opportunity to get really creative!

➢  A FUN PLACE TO BE

All in all, you want your chat to feel welcoming, and you want to make sure people are having fun. Of course if you yourself are entertaining and your other viewers are friendly it's easy for chatters to have a good time, but keeping your chat visible and entertaining is always a great way to give your streams an extra edge. The above shortlist featured a few chat ideas I've enjoyed implementing or participating in, whether on my streams or others, but these are far from the only options out there. Some streams use special widgets to make emotes posted in chat explode onto the screen during a broadcast, some implement chat commands that play funny or scary sounds on the stream, and some have automated text-to-speech voices to read messages as soon as they come in. There are limitless possibilities out there for seeing and interacting with chat on a stream, so experiment with as many as you can find, and see which ones you like best. It's all going to come down to what kind of stream you're trying to make. So try spicing up your stream's chat! 

Hyper-Specialize Your Channel

Why do some streamers grow faster than others? What makes viewers want to watch someone else's channel instead of yours? There are many factors which affect these outcomes, but one of the most important is how intelligently the streamer's channel is branded. Many new streamers want to appeal to the largest possible audience out of the gate, and in doing so they ironically sabotage their chances of being seen by many people at all. Common sense makes you want to cast a wide net with your streams, but the key to strategically branding a Twitch channel is actually the opposite. In this entry, I'm going to show you how to hyper-specialize your channel.

Let me ask you a question: How did you find The Twitch Playbook? Without hearing your response, I think it's a safe bet that 9 out of every 10 of you found it because you were looking for some way to improve your Twitch channels. Then you stumbled on the podcast, found the blog, or got a recommendation by a friend. In other words, most of you found it because you were looking for a very specific answer to a very specific question. But with almost no changes to the content, on branding alone, this podcast could have been very different, and you may never have found it.

I'll demonstrate how hyper-specializing your brand can help you to grow your Twitch channel, by taking you back through my process of creating The Twitch Playbook itself. As you follow this account, pay attention to the moments where the choices I made defined not only the scope, but the overall effectiveness of this resource. When you think about the alternatives, consider whether you would have found this content as easily (or found it at all) if I hadn't chosen the path I'm on now.

➢ BURDEN OF CHOICE

Zero in.

When I was starting The Twitch Playbook I was faced with a fundamental issue: how wide should I cast my net? I had all my notes written down, but if you think back to the past entries, they don't have to apply only to Twitch. Most of the entries are really about being a video creator: explaining how to frame a camera shot, how best to show a game on screen, and how to select what kinds of shows you want to make. Most of the time I don't even talk about Twitch specifically, or even about video games- it could really apply to any type of video you'd want to make, not only on other livestream platforms like Mixer, YouTube Live or Facebook Live, but also non-live platforms like posting  YouTube videos or Instagram clips. And it doesn't stop there either. If I was willing to go even broader with my classification, the podcast isn't really only about video creation, but content creation in general: subjects like how to stay consistent, motivated, disciplined and sustainable are all major overarching themes. If I had changed a few Twitch-specific terms to more general phrases, 80% of these entries could just as easily help someone stay on track as they manage a blog, write a book, record an album, or follow just about any passion that involves creating media for public consumption. And as you may imagine, there are millions more people out there trying to create content in general, than just the ones trying to create content on Twitch. That means a massively larger potential audience.

So why didn't I follow that path and call it 'The Content Creation Playbook' instead of The Twitch Playbook?

➢ THE BURDEN OF POTENTIAL

There's an issue with appealing to more people, and it's a pretty simple one. Shooting for a larger potential audience means you also have more competition, and will therefore be less visible. And the more competition you have, the closer your content gets to looking like a needle in a haystack. Therefore, despite the fact that I've done a lot on Facebook Live, Instagram, and both the live and non-live sides of YouTube in my past, I decided I would focus only on Twitch, the thing I was most interested in building in my own life. This meant that I was able to get much more personal with the stories I've told so far and go more in-depth about the challenges I've faced.

Don't get distracted by the vastness of it all.

Aside from the fact that I knew I'd be happier writing about Twitch rather than acting as a jack-of-all-trades, it acted as a lighthouse for others in need of help with their own content. When I was starting out and looking for help with my channel, I didn't search for things that could help with content creation, I looked specifically for things that could give advice on Twitch streaming. To my surprise, there weren't that many to be found. Then, when I started this project, I knew that others in need of help would be looking for the same thing. Many of you who listen to this podcast may never have found it, even if the content inside was exactly the same, if it didn't have Twitch in the name. The fact that the branding takes a stand about one specific thing it can help with, rather than saying it'll get to everyone's media platforms in time, means that the people who need this content most will be able to find it. It's hyper-targeted in order to reach the people who are most likely to enjoy it, and most likely to need it. By not focusing on general content creation I shrunk my potential audience by a huge percentage, but by focusing only on Twitch I also massively shrunk my competition. Because now I was only one of a handful of resources specifically focusing on Twitch, rather than one of hundreds about video creation or thousands about content creation in general.

➢ ZERO IN ON YOUR STREAMS

In previous entries like If You Can't Describe Your Channel, Who Can? and Your Channel is Not a One-Stop Shop, I've spoken before about the value of branding your streams. But hopefully by seeing how I created a piece of content you're already familiar with will help you to understand how just how important this mindset can be. You won't be alienating everyone outside of your branding's scope (for example, despite being a Twitch resource, I've met many aspiring YouTubers who love these entries) but in hyper-specializing you will be making sure that the people most likely to enjoy your content will be able to actually see it. On the internet, there is infinite space in which to create content but limited attention from those who can actually consume it. If you want to stand out from the crowd, don't do it by being what a massive audience might want. Instead, become exactly what a small portion of people truly need.