Quick Twitch Tips (1)

Here's the first of a series of streaming tips that can improve streaming with minimal time, as so many are pressed with time between family, relationships and work.

Note: These are for beginners like me who are starting out and aiming for Affiliate, but I'm assuming you already have a mic, and down the road, Facecam when you feel more comfortable.

Best Twitch Tip: Put Out Content, Just Do It
Do not worry about having the perfect setup, the perfect branding, the perfect mission statement. You can always change these things. 

Turn on Store past broadcasts

Quick Tip 1: Turn on Store Past Broadcasts

As a newbie, I thought Twitch automatically stores your past broadcasts. It doesn't. Go to the tab under your Twitch name, click on "Dashboard", go to "Settings", click on "Channel" and turn on "Store past broadcasts".

Quick Tip 2: Profile Picture
Make sure you have a profile picture. I can tell immediately who is who by just your picture, so it's easy to distinguish you from channels that have similar names.

Quick Tip 3: Channel Description
Edit your channel description panels. So many streamers who are starting out and attempting Affiliate don't have description of their channel, so their page is blank. A viewer may not know what the channel is about.

Therefore, I would just write something, anything in your channel description page, and you can easily edit these panels whenever you want! You don't need any fancy artwork.

A simple, "My name is John/Mary and I love RPGs/FPSs" and maybe list your favorite games/franchises, is better than a blank page.

Of course, you'll come up with something better and more personal down the road, including artwork and such, but this is an example of not being perfect and coming up with some content, which is better than no content.

If you have a schedule, by all means add your schedule, and again, you can always change this when your schedule changes.

I appreciate Ashnichrist's suggestion in one of the Stream Key Podcasts about having Channel Values section, rather than Channel Rules. One of your values can be "We're against racism, sexism" as opposed to "No racist, sexist remarks". Indeed, Values are more uplifting and positive than the dire-sounding Rules.

Again, you can always change your channel's information page at any time!

Quick Tip 4: Catchy Stream Title
Each stream, come up with a catchy title, because first impressions count! Initially my title was just Monster Hunter: World, which was nondescript so your first impression would be that this broadcast is going to be boring.

I initially had Monster Hunter:World in the title, as I didn't realize that underneath your video broadcast, the game you're playing will be listed as long as you set up the game in Categories.

However, if you have a humorous or intriguing title, in terms of first impressions, people will think that you're going to be an entertaining streamer.

I would use alliteration, rhymes, memes. For instance, when my broadcast was about using bow against Barroth, my title for that stream was Bowing to the Barroth God. As you can see, this isn't brilliant by any means, so you can come up with better stream titles!

This should only take 15 minutes at most, and can possibly bring in more viewers.

Quick Tip 5: Read Chat After Stream
I would use logviewer which is very easy to set up. You just type in your Twitch Channel name and you're good to go.

After stream, logviewer keeps a log of your chat. When you first start out, you're not going to get as many comments, so you can quickly read through your chat log to see if you missed anything, and it really doesn't take much time.

Because my memory isn't that good, reading through the log was extremely helpful in remembering what my viewers said that session, so I can extend the conversation next stream. 

Further, it's amazing how much I missed, even though I thought I was diligently reading chat. Or, incredibly enough, there are some instances when I read aloud someone's chat comments, but it didn't register since I don't remember saying it, and in the video, I didn't remark on the comments I just read! But I was able to address this later after reading the comment in Nightbot log.

I also note that if there's a new person in the chat, I whisper a thank you in Twitch PM (Private Message) system. And certainly, if anyone followed, sent bits and subscribed, I also thank them as well.

However, this may not be feasible when you grow and you get so many comments. But starting out, when I didn't have that many comments, it really doesn't take that much time and it may help retain your viewers!

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