The #1 question that I get over, and over, and over again is “How do I get more viewers on my stream?”.It’s frustrating.And some streamers even think their stream isn’t growing because of the common beliefs like:
Create a list of all your friends and family that you think would support you by checking out your stream. Even the ones that aren’t tech savvy.
Send them a text, Facebook message, or even pick up the phone and give them a call. It’s best to do this shortly before you stream so they don’t have to remember.
Pro Tip: Don’t make them guess about how they can help you. People love to help and offer feedback. But make sure you’re clear and tell them exactly what they can do to help out and also include your link. You can even ask the ones who you don’t think will tune in to share it with one or two people who would tune in.
This isn’t your stream. Don’t mention your content unless it’s highly, highly relevant. You wouldn’t want other people attempting to steal your viewers would you? So be respectful.
You’re here to build a relationship with the streamer, support their stream, and meet other viewers.
By supporting other streamers and building a relationship it can pay off in the long run as they will return the favor and support you too. Either by being a viewer themselves or possibly promoting your stream with a host.
At the very least it gets your foot in the door to message/e-mail these streamers and continue building a relationship with them to partner in the future.
But this isn’t the only way you want to network with other streamers.
You want to reach out to them in any way possible. Throughout this guide you’ll find dozens of different ways to network with other streamers.
You want to make sure that you’re building a relationship with your peers as well as using strategies to get more viewers. They go hand in hand.
It also helps break up any dead air time that you can fill with friendly banter between your new streaming partner making your stream more entertaining for the audience.
The best way to manage this:
You can do this in a few ways:
There’s been so many times where streamers will send me e-mails talking about their stream and I have no idea how to find it. If there was a link in their signature I would have been their next follow or viewer.
This won’t give you thousands of viewers. But it’s a quick fix and will help while you’re networking with other content creators or sponsors.
Don’t only post “I’m live!” updates. Share content that your audience wants. That will insure that people will share and connect with your content which helps build your audience.
Pro Tip: You can use a tool like Buffer (free) or MeetEdgar (paid) to schedule out posts. This can allow you to auto-post that you’re “live” or schedule future content so you don’t have to constantly manage it.
The cool thing about Snapchat is that people use it for daily communication with their friends. That means there’s a higher chance that they get alerts from Snapchat. Giving you a higher chance that they see your content.
It’s easy to use and quick to create content. It can also give your audience a behind-the-scenes style of content to let them feel more involved.
It’s so easy to use Snapchat and Instagram that you can send updates throughout your stream to boost viewership.
Any funny or epic moments should be shared through stories as a “journey” through your stream. It will get people to want to follow along and tune in and watch your stream. If people miss your stream it can serve as mini-highlights while also growing your audience on that platform.
It works better if you make a custom image that really stands out and gets people to click over to your page.
The more people who like and share your content gives it a chance for it to go viral and be shared with other Facebook users.
That means it’s important to get your audience to like your Facebook page.
Additionally, when people search for you on Google, since Facebook is a trusted source, your page will appear. You’ll be using a Facebook Page for other tactics in this guide so it’s best to just go through the process and create one.
Similar to Snapchat you can use this when you start your stream or to broadcast a little bit of a “behind-the-scenes” view of your stream.
One method I’ve seen used is having the camera positioned as an over the shoulder view. And having a banner that says “To see the game go to twitch.tv/username”
Note: This may not be allowed depending on your contract with Twitch. Make sure you check the terms before you proceed.
There are topics ranging from gaming and hobbies, to streaming, marketing, business and more. You can use these chats to network with other creatives or find more viewers.
There’s a great gaming social network for gamers called Player.me.
It has a lot of similarities to Facebook except every user is a gamer or some type of content creator AND the “feed” is open so you can easily interact with new people without getting them to like your page.
Player.me has also created a suite of tools for streamers so you’ll have a more focused audience of streamers here. You’ll see me in the chat from time to time and it’s a great place to network and grow your audience.
For starters:
Gaming, streaming, and esports are really taking off. And there’s a lack of good quality images to use for news articles online. They usually resort to bland stock images.
If you post the right content that gets picked up by a major news story, you could get your stream in front of thousands of viewers overnight.
Use it for the same reason you post your content on Flickr you should do the same with Pinterest. Google favors Flickr and Pinterest content heavily when people use the Image search.
Since it doesn’t have a huge gaming audience you won’t have as many competitors because they don’t think it’s worth their time. However having content ranked in Google is a highly effective strategy for getting consistent exposure over time.
The cool thing about Google+ is that it’s connected to peoples google accounts. That means it’s integrated with gmail, youtube, and other account services people use frequently. Meaning your content will get seen by active users.
It’s not one of my top traffic sources, but it’s very low competition and if the content I create has a community on G+ I make sure I post it there.
However there’s a ton of networking to be done on LinkedIn.
At the very least make sure you have a profile on LinkedIn and you share a link as a content creator on Twitch in your description.
LinkedIn is more of a professional crowd so that means you’ll be networking with the decision makers. Potential sponsors, game developers, reporters, PR, recruiters, and other industry figures are all crawling through LinkedIn.
So don’t come here looking for your typical viewers. Dust off that business casual and network with people who can give you REAL distribution.
If you play a game that involves any type of strategy, you’ll eventually have people asking you how to do something in game.
A lot of people resort to making YouTube videos which is GREAT.
But you can quickly turn that YouTube video into a powerpoint presentation with just the bullet points of the content you’re covering and submit it to Slideshare.
It’s also the second largest search engine on the web (right behind Google).
That means there’s millions of people searching for your content if you use the correct titles and descriptions for your videos.
The best thing about YouTube is that you’re already creating video content while you stream. All you need to do is save your stream recordings, and take notes of sections of the stream you want to turn into video.
From there you can use a simple/free editor like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to edit the video and post it to YouTube.
Your site will act as your home base that you can post your schedule, featured content, more information about you, and important links you might have.
It’s important for three reasons:
You control how the content is displayed. Nothing gets hidden as an “old” piece of content like it would on another platform. You can display what you want prominently for new viewers or potential sponsors to see.
It amplifies all of your efforts. Posting content here will give you more visibility in search engines which will bring in more viewers.
Lastly, it makes you look more professional compared to other streamers. In a saturated marketplace you should do everything you can to get ahead and stand out.
Now when you’re live, everyone who is visiting your site will see a notification that you’re live and they can click over to your channel. This will turn all those visitors finding your site from Google or other search engines into live viewers.
If you aren’t live you can have it display when you’ll be live next.
This is something that you have no control over if you’re posting content to other sites like YouTube. This is another reason why having your own site is so important.
Professions are just a tiny part of World of Warcraft. And that’s all this micro site covers is professions. It’s become a resource for WoW players with any question they have about professions.
And what does that turn into? Here’s the traffic stats:
That’s 5.3 MILLION views over the existence of the site. And that number will continue to grow. For creating a small resource and keeping it updated.
As a streamer this can become an additional income stream by placing ads. You can link to your stream to get more viewers.
But ultimately it becomes an asset that you can leverage over time.
Pro Tip: What questions do you get asked a lot during your stream? What questions did you have while starting to play a game? Chances are these are great opportunities to make a good micro site.
With Anchor you can record a podcast by simply talking into your phone just like a normal phone call. You can quickly edit it to add music or transitions. Then upload it to podcasting apps. It’s that simple.
You can also do the podcast on your stream live as extra content to your viewers. Take the video and put it on YouTube for even more exposure. See how these are starting to work together?
With a podcast you can reach out to influencers in the industry and ask them to be a guest on your show. Once you air the episode you can ask them to promote the show to their audience (getting you more viewers).
Key Steps:
It can be something simple as a spreadsheet but it can also be something very advanced if you know coding or can partner with a coder you know.
Hearthstone’s Deck Tracker is an example of a more robust tool.
The point here is being able to create something that has enough value to gamers to have a “share” factor. It takes time and sometimes money to create these tools and resources but the payoff can be huge.
You don’t have to create all of this content and tools by yourself.
Reach out to other people in your industry (bloggers, coders, streamers, content creators) and pitch them your idea. If they’re into it they can help create it and help with the promotion side of things.
It can be a piece of content, an interview piece, a video series, or even tools and resources. The list is endless for collaboration and when you work as a team it can lighten the workload but also increase the audience you’re able to reach once it’s completed.
If you’re bad at networking this is a subtle way to reach out to and start a discussion with people you’d love to meet and work with.
All you have to do is click the “Join” button.
Once you’re inside make sure you follow the etiquette. Some of them will allow you to post your own content. Some of them don’t. Read the rules.
Join in on the discussion and when it’s relevant share your stream. You can also mention from time to time that you’re a streamer and people may ask for your stream.
There’s also Facebook groups dedicated to Twitch streamers that you can join where they discuss topics important to streamers, share tips, and support each other. These are great groups for networking.
Create a group based on the game you play and share content that would be interesting to that audience. Then whenever you go live you can share your stream or even go live in the group or have watch parties to get people involved in your stream.
So the content you post either has to be extremely high quality, relevant, or helpful in order to pass the “Reddit” test. This isn’t something you will post to regularly, rather you will want to keep it in your back pocket for when the extraordinary happens. It’s the goal at the top of the mountain.
But if you ever have an extremely funny moment. A rare event happens on your stream, or you create a helpful piece of content you can share it to relevant subreddits.
Provide as much value as possible any time you do promote your own content. Make sure it’s not self-serving by giving something back to the community in exchange for their attention.
The difference here is that it’s all live messenger chat instead of posted content like other sites. Which can be more beneficial to streamers because you can post when you’re going live or while you’re live and get a more immediate reaction.
Similar to Facebook Groups, there’s also Discord groups dedicated to Twitch Streamers and supporting each other.
Some streamers even have their own Discord group for their Twitch stream to interact with your viewers and help build a community.
You most likely won’t get a ton of traffic from the group activity as most of the groups are either inactive or very small.
However since these groups are trusted by Google, you can post content to these groups and expect them to show up for related keywords when people search.
Links: Yahoo Groups – Google Groups
Quora is a social question and answer site, similar to Yahoo Answers but much better.
The answers are usually expected to be more thorough than a one or two sentence response that you would see on Yahoo. Your questions are then voted up or down by other users based on how helpful it is.
A top comment can get hundreds if not thousand of views. So it’s worth taking a few minutes and creating an answer that helps anyone asking the question.
You can post your link in the answer but also have it in your profile which will be displayed to people who see your Answers.
There’s a free service called HARO (Help A Reporter Out), that they use to find sources to add to their story.
The gaming and streaming world is taking off and there’s a lot of news stories being published that are looking for experts to commentate.
Once you sign-up you can select a few fields that you’re knowledgable in and then you’ll receive a few e-mails a day with stories looking for sources. Then if you’re selected to be interviewed you can mention your stream or website that will be shared in the published article.
You might be thinking it’s more difficult than it actually is.
You might not land a national segment like Ninja was able to. But local stations are much easier to break through to. And right now gaming and the growth of the industry is interesting to the mass audience.
The key is always pitching them a story that has an interesting angle that their audience will find interesting.
If you’re struggling to get the attention of TV or Radio stations you can turn to Blogs and News sites. Getting this coverage will help brand you as an expert and also will give readers a clickable link (as opposed to hearing it on the radio or seeing it on the news) that they can follow to your site.
Find the contact details of popular bloggers or news organizations in the industry and reach out to them with a pitch for your unique story.
Remember they want clicks and views, so give them something exciting to write about.
This is a way of starting small and working up to big media coverage. Once they publish your story you can use it to show to other news publications including radio/tv giving you and your story more credibility.
Lastly if you optimize the content properly you can get your content to appear when people search for the experts name on Google.
If you’re playing in a group with other streamers, if someone in their audience is curious about you and your stream it will easily tell them which one you are and how to find them.
Some games have in-game leader boards. Others have websites dedicated to tracking stats. Topping the ranks or becoming a “first” to do something goes a long way to give you notoriety.
People want to follow streamers who are pushing games to the limit so they can learn from them and watch it all unfold.
Most tournaments if they are properly advertised get at least some media attention. And means viewers.
You don’t always have to win to bring over viewers. Doing something funny, entertaining, or at least memorable to catch peoples attention during the tournament can immediately bring you a boost in viewers.
If you’re a competitive player trying to grow your stream you should compete in any tournament that’s offered, if it fits your schedule. Even the small ones.
Then seek out other ones using sites like Game Battles, UMG, World Gaming.
If you’re immersed in the competitive scene you can commentate on game play for tournaments and pro leagues. Reach out to tournament organizers or find possible jobs on boards like Hitmarker Jobs or Rekt Jobs.
Casting has become a skill of its own so if there’s a big tournament they will most likely reach out to the experienced casters for that game.
There’s a big gap when it comes to smaller tournaments and brand new games.
This isn’t a skill that everyone has. It takes skill, knowledge, and even then you need to have a knack for thinking on your feet to translate what’s going on in game for the viewers.
If it’s something you can pull off, you’ll create an audience for yourself. Most commentators usually build up an audience of a few thousand viewers of their own when they stream games, even if it’s just casually on the side.
Any time there is a big event in the gaming world you can stream it and ride the wave of hype which will pull in more enthusiastic viewers.
A lot of events are being live streamed and you can watch and commentate on them as they are happening while giving your opinion. Almost like watching TV with your friends.
This can be anything from a tournament, a game launch, or conventions that happen year round.
Make sure when you do this that it’s allowed and that you’re not re-broadcasting the event without authorization.
Use a tool like Gleam.io. It lets people enter the giveaway and gives them additional entries for promoting it to their friends and social media. This means more new people are introduced to your giveaway AND your stream.
Let the giveaway last for a week or two at the minimum to give it time to take off and to allow more people to see and enter.
The added benefit of this is that you get everyone on board to promote the giveaway at the same time. This has more chances for the giveaway to go viral and get shared around the web.
Remember: When you do a giveaway, it’s an awesome opportunity to reach out to media to have them share your story with their audience. Who doesn’t love free stuff?
There’s nothing better than supporting an awesome cause that’s important to you and making a difference in the world.
You have an audience and that can make a big difference in shaping the world around you.
You can grow your audience during this time because the story of a streamer championing a cause and the amount of money you raise is a great opportunity to reach out and get media coverage. It’s another opportunity to create buzz worthy content and get promoters behind you.
You can do this in a loop by having multiple people join the giveaway and the directions include to follow each others accounts. That away everyone’s promotion spreads the love across all the streamers involved.
This is how social media influencers grow their accounts by ten’s of thousands
You can look at this post for examples and more tips.
With your new following you can promote your stream and warm them up to your community.
You’re immersed in the games you play since you stream them regularly. There’s no one better than you to find data that you feel other gamers who play that game would find interesting.
The hard part is getting these designed. There are services that let you do it yourself. But it’s harder than it looks to make it beautiful (which is THE key to the success of your graphic).
It’s best to find a designer to combine all the data you supply them into the final graphic.
Once it’s complete you now have a high quality piece of content that you can share using ANY of the methods you’ve found in this guide.
The support can come in many different formats from watching each others streams, providing helpful tips, hosting each other, and promoting each other on Facebook.
Here’s a list of Stream Teams you can join.
You get out of it what you put in. So make sure you network inside of the team and be helpful.
Note: There are SOME bad groups, where it’s more like a “pyramid scheme” for the leaders to grow their stream. Just be mindful and if you don’t feel like you’re getting anything out of the team, go help somewhere else.
It’s goal is to provide a spotlight for streamers to get discovered and also encourages people to get involved and support each others streams. You can increase your visibility by becoming getting involved in the community. (Make sure you read the help documentation to show you how to get started)
It gives viewers a different way to search for streamers instead of just the typical “Browse Games” listings on Twitch. So beef up your profile with details that make you and your stream unique.
List your stream on Pwning where they specialize in getting small streams a boost in viewership.
It can be hard grinding it out with only a few viewers. If you can get a boost of 5, 10, 20 viewers… some times that’s all you need to get noticed and start climbing the Twitch directory.
At the time of writing this, I’ve seen between 10 and 40 active viewers on their platform that are encourage to watch and engage in your chat.
This is a great way to get your content discovered and also boost your ranking in the Twitch directory for increase exposure.
If it’s a good story a smart marketing team can write about it or even feature it on their site showcasing their product and your content on their site.
It makes their product look good and gives them an enthusiastic testimonial from a raving fan.
It puts a small call to action overlay on top of the page you’re sending them to. That way they can enjoy the content you’re referring them to but also have a link to your Twitch present to get them to check out you and your content.
It’s another way to stay top-of-mind for your viewers.
Want a real life example of this? Panels at conventions like Twitch Con. And if you ever wanted to be the star of a panel at a convention, this is a great way to audition while also growing your stream.
Want your content featured on this blog? Hit me up on twitter with a pitch about a piece of content that you think would be great for streamers to read about. If it’s something that I think will work we’ll get it on the blog.
Find a list of all the live events happening in the gaming world. There are a ton of them. And go to the ones when they are in your area or if feasible travel to the big ones.
The notable ones are gaming tournaments and big conventions like TwitchCon and BlizzCon.
At live events you’ll have a chance to meet potential viewers, network with vendors and sponsors, and strike up relationships that can further grow your streaming business.
This is more of a networking strategy than it is a strategy to get viewers. So don’t go there attempting to advertise your stream. Go there to meet people, network, and get involved in the community.
The friendships and relationships you build from these Meetup events can turn into long lasting partnerships that end up growing your stream.
Social gaming is becoming more popular and people take their consoles, laptops, and controllers with them everywhere.
Get stickers made so your viewers can support your stream by putting them on their gear. It could strike up conversations that share your brand with new gamers.
Save a couple for yourself and put it on your laptop or something you carry with you. People may notice it and strike up a conversation about what you do.
This can also be something you give away to subscribers.
Get T-shirts made (you can use a site like Teespring) and give them away to your audience, mods, partners, friends, and family.
Notice that I didn’t say sell them.
People love free swag and will sport your gear if you give it out to them. You can also use the gear for give away prizes mentioned in a previous tip!
Make sure that the shirts are super comfortable so that people enjoy wearing them. The more your shirt is worn the more chances you have of someone being referred by your audience.
Pro Tip: Get them to take a selfie with the picture. This makes excellent social media content that you can share using hashtags to grow your audience even more.
First off… his shirts are damn comfortable. So I’d wear them every day too.
But it’s also a great advertisement for his stream and a way to strike up conversations about his mission and what he does.
The added bonus is that anytime he appears in a video, picture, or stream he has a subtle way of showing everyone what he’s about.
Bonus Tip: Create a QR code that links to your stream. Making it easy for people to find your stream instead of typing in your username and searching for you.
There are even some local gaming bars that might want or need someone to organize or sponsor local gaming events.
In some cases, your money could be spent better elsewhere promoting your stream depending on your strategy.
But if you’re creative it can be an effective way to get your name out there. Sponsoring the right event for a good price can give you an avalanche of media coverage with minimal effort.
It’s smart to tweak or test your schedule from time to time. Maybe a popular streamer is taking some of your viewership, or there are different audiences from around the world that you could pick up at a different time slot. It’s difficult to know this since you’re busy streaming while you stream.
To test this without alienating your regular viewers you can start earlier or end later and track how that affects your viewership.
What you’re looking for is being one of the top 5-10 streamers so you appear high on the directory listings. Your visibility will be the highest on these games.
Be careful though because the stats aren’t always what they appear to be. A big variety streamer could bring a lot of viewers to a game that are more interested in the streamer than they are the game.
Additionally, these viewers might just be interested in just that game making it hard to turn them into regulars for other games you play. So pay attention when you switch games, if all your viewers drop off then it might not be worth your time unless you plan on consistently streaming that new game.
I know Twitch has the biggest audience and best monetization tools. But it may be easier to stand out on other platforms who have less people streaming.
If you are a Twitch affiliate or Partner make sure you check your agreement before streaming on different platforms as it might not be allowed.
Always play the games YOU want to play. Never play a game just for views. You’ll end up grinding out a game and not enjoying yourself which will reflect in the quality of content you put out.
With that being said, if there’s other games you might enjoy, switching it up could bring in new viewers while introducing your die-hard fans to a new game.
If you notice a dip in viewership when you do this initially, it’s probably just people that are fans of the game you played previously.
Give it some time to establish a following in the new game to see if it’s worth continuing to pursue. Do it slowly at first so you don’t abandon your following of the previous game.
I got 646 people to interact with our post and 5,866 people saw it.
The best part about this is it all happened with-in two days. For just $5 we were able to put our content in front of as many people as some streamers get after grinding for months!
These engagements turn into page likes and then we push those people over to our stream using other tactics mentioned in this guide.
Twitter is the go to social media platform for gamers. And it’s still working on perfecting it’s monetization plan, while competing with the giants of Facebook and Google.
That means you have the opportunity to get cheap traffic sent to your content while everyone else is flocking to other advertising platforms.
You can promote your individual tweets and boost it’s visibility to new viewers, or promote your stream directly by launching a campaign.
This puts your content in front of the ideal candidate: a viewer.
You can get creative and also time these ads to only run while you’re streaming.
To advertise on Instagram you have to use the Facebook Ads platform and choose to target your ads to Instagram.
If someone is checking out content similar to yours, then there’s a high likely hood that they’d be interested in your content too.
This is when it’s important to have a good strategy of converting YouTube viewers into Twitch viewers. Make sure you have links in your bio, video descriptions, and referencing it at the end of your videos is a good start.
Share an extremely interesting bit from your stream, or a demo reel, as a way to try out your content and then send them over to your stream.
You can target specific subreddits which helps lower the cost and improves your results if you choose the subreddits of games you stream the most.
That means you can easily appear on their site with a banner or text ad in featured locations. For this you’ll need a good designer to create a banner that will stand out, or a very clever text ad.
This works well because a lot of people don’t know what the size of their audience is worth and you can get content in front of thousands of people for pennies on the dollar.
Before you reach out to someone make sure you check their account and see how their engagement is. Not their follower count. Their follower count can be easily inflated with inactive or low quality accounts. So make sure they have a solid following of engaged users before offering sponsored content.
Using the proper link you can get it to open up their Twitch app and send them directly to your stream.
This is like having a small placement ad above the chat of similar streams.
It’s also great for networking because (as you already know) streamers are appreciative of bits and donations. This gives you the opportunity to reach out to them and have at least a little bit of familiarity to introduce yourself.
DO NOT abuse this. Remember it’s still their stream. If you want to donate bits and appear in the top donations, then do that. Don’t promote your stream in any other way.
If you subscribe to other streamers it’s a good way to grab their attention and open up a dialogue with them for networking (if you haven’t done this already).
If you already have a relationship with them then when you’re notification pops up, some of them will be nice enough to say a few words about you. Mentioning that you’re a streamer and that you produce great content too and should check you out.
This isn’t always guaranteed to work. But when it doesn’t work, you’re at least spreading good vibes to other awesome streamers.
Don’t get overwhelmed!
You’re probably not going to be able to implement all of these strategies. And it shouldn’t be your goal. Instead pick your favorite few methods and start implementing them immediately.
Having just a few of these working for you is enough to get your stream off the ground and pushing towards partnership.
And don’t worry about implementing these strategies perfectly on your first attempts. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly at first.
Take a few of these that look interesting and start implementing them now.
When your channel starts growing… don’t forget to report back and let me hear about your results!
- The game they play is “saturated”.
- Their gender or general attraction.
- Their skill level.
- Their stream set-up.
Section 1 – Networking: 5 Ways To Grow Your Stream By Connecting With Others
Tactic #1 – Leverage your existing network
We’re going to start it off with something simple, but it’s often overlooked even though it’s extremely effective. You have a network of people that would love to support you. Your friends and family. Give them the opportunity by simply asking them. This can easily be enough to get the viewers you need for affiliate status.
Create a list of all your friends and family that you think would support you by checking out your stream. Even the ones that aren’t tech savvy.
Send them a text, Facebook message, or even pick up the phone and give them a call. It’s best to do this shortly before you stream so they don’t have to remember.
Pro Tip: Don’t make them guess about how they can help you. People love to help and offer feedback. But make sure you’re clear and tell them exactly what they can do to help out and also include your link. You can even ask the ones who you don’t think will tune in to share it with one or two people who would tune in.
Tactic #2 – Networking with streamers in chat
A lot of networking can be done inside of other streamers chat. Streamers love having an active chat, so they will welcome your extra discussion. Make sure to keep it friendly and whatever you do: DO NOT SPAM.
This isn’t your stream. Don’t mention your content unless it’s highly, highly relevant. You wouldn’t want other people attempting to steal your viewers would you? So be respectful.
You’re here to build a relationship with the streamer, support their stream, and meet other viewers.
By supporting other streamers and building a relationship it can pay off in the long run as they will return the favor and support you too. Either by being a viewer themselves or possibly promoting your stream with a host.
At the very least it gets your foot in the door to message/e-mail these streamers and continue building a relationship with them to partner in the future.
But this isn’t the only way you want to network with other streamers.
You want to reach out to them in any way possible. Throughout this guide you’ll find dozens of different ways to network with other streamers.
You want to make sure that you’re building a relationship with your peers as well as using strategies to get more viewers. They go hand in hand.
Tactic #3 – Co-streaming to build your audience
One way to leverage all the networking you’re doing with other streamers is to start linking up with them and do co-streams. For this you need to find one or more streamers that are willing to play a game together with you. You both stream it separately but just playing together gives each of your audiences a chance to be exposed to the other streamers personality.
It also helps break up any dead air time that you can fill with friendly banter between your new streaming partner making your stream more entertaining for the audience.
The best way to manage this:
- 1Find streamers playing the same game with similar audience sizes.
- 2Make a list of them and keep them in an excel sheet.
- 3Start networking with them.
- 4Ask them to co-stream AFTER you build a relationship.
Tactic #4 – Cross-promoting with other streamers
Find other streamers that have similar audience sizes as you and offer to cross-promote each others streams.
You can do this in a few ways:
- Hosting each other’s streams.
- Sharing each other’s content on social media.
- Doing shout outs during stream.
- Doing shout outs on social media.
Tactic #5 – Update your e-mail signature
In your e-mail signature make sure you include a link to your Twitch or other social media properties.
There’s been so many times where streamers will send me e-mails talking about their stream and I have no idea how to find it. If there was a link in their signature I would have been their next follow or viewer.
This won’t give you thousands of viewers. But it’s a quick fix and will help while you’re networking with other content creators or sponsors.
Section 2 – Social Media: 14 High-Impact Tactics To Reach More Viewers
Social media has become the great equalizer. Giving content creators a way to reach and build a huge audience with little or no budget. You want to get your content in front of as many eyeballs as possible and millions of gamers use social media every day to find and share gaming content.Tactic #6 – Share to Twitter and Instagram
This one is a little obvious but… If you don’t have Twitter and Instagram accounts… make them now. Sharing interesting content around the game(s) you play will help you build a community of viewers on these platforms that you can then redirect to your stream.
Don’t only post “I’m live!” updates. Share content that your audience wants. That will insure that people will share and connect with your content which helps build your audience.
Pro Tip: You can use a tool like Buffer (free) or MeetEdgar (paid) to schedule out posts. This can allow you to auto-post that you’re “live” or schedule future content so you don’t have to constantly manage it.
Tactic #7 – Share to Snapchat
Add your Snapchat username to your stream description and you have a new way to alert users that you’re streaming.
The cool thing about Snapchat is that people use it for daily communication with their friends. That means there’s a higher chance that they get alerts from Snapchat. Giving you a higher chance that they see your content.
It’s easy to use and quick to create content. It can also give your audience a behind-the-scenes style of content to let them feel more involved.
Tactic #8 – Use Instagram Stories to build your audience and boost viewership
One of the many tools inside Instagram is the ability to create Stories. Similar to Snapchat, you can post small clips or pictures along with the new features of polls or other engaging content tools. The BIG difference with Instagram stories is that your content can end up in the “explore” page which can give you a ton of exposure if you create good content and use the correct hashtags.
It’s so easy to use Snapchat and Instagram that you can send updates throughout your stream to boost viewership.
Any funny or epic moments should be shared through stories as a “journey” through your stream. It will get people to want to follow along and tune in and watch your stream. If people miss your stream it can serve as mini-highlights while also growing your audience on that platform.
Tactic #9 – Exchange Instagram Shoutouts
Find streamers that have a similar audience size that streams similar games and you and offer to do a shoutout. You give them a shoutout in a post, tag them in it, and in return they do the same for you. This works because it’s almost like a mini-endorsement for each of your audiences. As you gain more twitch followers you can exchange shout outs with even bigger accounts.
It works better if you make a custom image that really stands out and gets people to click over to your page.
Tactic #10 – Create A Facebook Page
In addition to your personal Facebook account you, create a branded Facebook Page where you can post updates, content, and link back to your Twitch Stream.
The more people who like and share your content gives it a chance for it to go viral and be shared with other Facebook users.
That means it’s important to get your audience to like your Facebook page.
Additionally, when people search for you on Google, since Facebook is a trusted source, your page will appear. You’ll be using a Facebook Page for other tactics in this guide so it’s best to just go through the process and create one.
Tactic #11 – Facebook Live And FB’s Video Algorithm
You can Live Stream to Facebook directly from your phone. When you do this it sends out an alert to your Facebook friends (or the people who like your page/in a group if you Live stream there).
Similar to Snapchat you can use this when you start your stream or to broadcast a little bit of a “behind-the-scenes” view of your stream.
One method I’ve seen used is having the camera positioned as an over the shoulder view. And having a banner that says “To see the game go to twitch.tv/username”
Note: This may not be allowed depending on your contract with Twitch. Make sure you check the terms before you proceed.
Tactic #12 – Join or Start Twitter Chats
Another viewer tactic for Twitter is to join scheduled chats based around topics that you’re passionate about, or ones that your potential viewers can be found. You can use a site called Tweet Reports to find chats or list your own.
There are topics ranging from gaming and hobbies, to streaming, marketing, business and more. You can use these chats to network with other creatives or find more viewers.
Tactic #13 – Use the gaming social network Player.me
There’s a great gaming social network for gamers called Player.me.
It has a lot of similarities to Facebook except every user is a gamer or some type of content creator AND the “feed” is open so you can easily interact with new people without getting them to like your page.
Player.me has also created a suite of tools for streamers so you’ll have a more focused audience of streamers here. You’ll see me in the chat from time to time and it’s a great place to network and grow your audience.
Tactic #14 – Cross-Promote Your Social Media
It’s more likely that the content you share on social media takes off and creates that “viral effect” if your content is highly engaged by your audience. The more likes, shares, comments, and views you get, the more likely the social media platform is to share it with new people and grow your audience. That means you want to spread the word about the other social media platforms that you’re involved with.
For starters:
- Have all of your social media platforms in your Twitch description.
- Mention your social media throughout the stream (you’ll even see Ninja doing this)
- Post updates on your social media to follow your pages on other platforms.
- Share native content from one platform to the other.
Tactic #15 – Share Pictures on Flickr
Flickr is an old image search engine/hosting platform. It’s not the most popular social media site, so this is one of the secret tools I keep in my belt. If you upload your images to Flickr and add a link to your content you can get viewers from Google. Googles Images frequently pulls images from Flickr and ranks them highly because Flickr is a trusted source. Use proper keywords in your images and they’ll appear in image searches. A lot of people use image searches to find images to share. So put in the link description that people can freely use your images just link back to your site.
Gaming, streaming, and esports are really taking off. And there’s a lack of good quality images to use for news articles online. They usually resort to bland stock images.
If you post the right content that gets picked up by a major news story, you could get your stream in front of thousands of viewers overnight.
Tactic #16 – Share your content on Pinterest
Pinterest’s doesn’t have a huge gaming audience. So don’t think of it as a content distribution channel.
Use it for the same reason you post your content on Flickr you should do the same with Pinterest. Google favors Flickr and Pinterest content heavily when people use the Image search.
Since it doesn’t have a huge gaming audience you won’t have as many competitors because they don’t think it’s worth their time. However having content ranked in Google is a highly effective strategy for getting consistent exposure over time.
Tactic #17 – What, you thought Google+ was dead?
Correction: It looks like Google announced that Google+ is ACTUALLY dead the same day as we published this article. We’ll be removing this tip and adding more in it’s place when we update this post. For now, press F to pay respects and just skip this one. Okay well it isn’t exactly thriving. But there’s still active gaming communities depending on the game(s) that you play.
The cool thing about Google+ is that it’s connected to peoples google accounts. That means it’s integrated with gmail, youtube, and other account services people use frequently. Meaning your content will get seen by active users.
It’s not one of my top traffic sources, but it’s very low competition and if the content I create has a community on G+ I make sure I post it there.
Tactic #18 – LinkedIn For Gaming
This one is HEAVILY overlooked. Mainly because gaming is probably the exact opposite of the “professional” crowd.
However there’s a ton of networking to be done on LinkedIn.
At the very least make sure you have a profile on LinkedIn and you share a link as a content creator on Twitch in your description.
LinkedIn is more of a professional crowd so that means you’ll be networking with the decision makers. Potential sponsors, game developers, reporters, PR, recruiters, and other industry figures are all crawling through LinkedIn.
So don’t come here looking for your typical viewers. Dust off that business casual and network with people who can give you REAL distribution.
Tactic #19 – Share information content to Slideshare
If you play a game that involves any type of strategy, you’ll eventually have people asking you how to do something in game.
A lot of people resort to making YouTube videos which is GREAT.
But you can quickly turn that YouTube video into a powerpoint presentation with just the bullet points of the content you’re covering and submit it to Slideshare.
Section 3 – 9 Content Syndication Strategies To Grab New Viewer’s Attention
If you’re streaming, you’re in the “content” business. Getting your content in front of as many people as possible is the main metric you should judge your success by. It’s one of the major contributions to Ninja’s growth. In this section we’ll cover tactics that will show you how to repurpose your content, or create content and share it around the web to bring new viewers and introduce them to your stream.Tactic #20 – Post Videos To YouTube
YouTube is one of the more popular promotion platforms for Twitch streamers. And rightfully so. It can build you a MASSIVE audience.
It’s also the second largest search engine on the web (right behind Google).
That means there’s millions of people searching for your content if you use the correct titles and descriptions for your videos.
The best thing about YouTube is that you’re already creating video content while you stream. All you need to do is save your stream recordings, and take notes of sections of the stream you want to turn into video.
From there you can use a simple/free editor like iMovie or Windows Movie Maker to edit the video and post it to YouTube.
Tactic #21 – Have your own website to boost your contents visibility
It’s 2018 and building your own website is not as scary and expensive as it used to be. Using WordPress, you can have a gorgeous website up with a few clicks of the button. No coding or design skills needed. And it only costs a few bucks.
Your site will act as your home base that you can post your schedule, featured content, more information about you, and important links you might have.
It’s important for three reasons:
You control how the content is displayed. Nothing gets hidden as an “old” piece of content like it would on another platform. You can display what you want prominently for new viewers or potential sponsors to see.
It amplifies all of your efforts. Posting content here will give you more visibility in search engines which will bring in more viewers.
Lastly, it makes you look more professional compared to other streamers. In a saturated marketplace you should do everything you can to get ahead and stand out.
Tactic #22 – Use the “Twitch Live” plugin
Now that you’ve got your own site from the tactic above, if you’re using WordPress, you can install a free plugin called “Stream Status For Twitch“.
Now when you’re live, everyone who is visiting your site will see a notification that you’re live and they can click over to your channel. This will turn all those visitors finding your site from Google or other search engines into live viewers.
If you aren’t live you can have it display when you’ll be live next.
This is something that you have no control over if you’re posting content to other sites like YouTube. This is another reason why having your own site is so important.
Tactic #23 – Build a related Micro Site
Playing games as much as you do as a streamer, you quickly become an expert on the game you play. You can take that knowledge and build a themed micro site that can become a resource for gamers. It doesn’t need to be a large overtaking. It can be just a few resources that cover a segment of the game you play. The important part is that it’s high quality and thoroughly answers a question that players will have. Hint: If they have a question that means they’ll be searching for the answer on Google. Wouldn’t you love YOUR content to show up? Take a look at WoW-Professions.com.
Professions are just a tiny part of World of Warcraft. And that’s all this micro site covers is professions. It’s become a resource for WoW players with any question they have about professions.
And what does that turn into? Here’s the traffic stats:
That’s 5.3 MILLION views over the existence of the site. And that number will continue to grow. For creating a small resource and keeping it updated.
As a streamer this can become an additional income stream by placing ads. You can link to your stream to get more viewers.
But ultimately it becomes an asset that you can leverage over time.
Pro Tip: What questions do you get asked a lot during your stream? What questions did you have while starting to play a game? Chances are these are great opportunities to make a good micro site.
Tactic #24 – Create a Podcast
Podcasting as an industry has been growing faster than ever. And at the time of writing this, there aren’t that many podcasts that are dedicated to specific games. This means there’s a huge opportunity to create a podcast around the games you stream. People that listen to your podcast can be referred to your stream to check out more content on the game they love. And don’t worry. It’s extremely simple to create a podcast now with Anchor.
With Anchor you can record a podcast by simply talking into your phone just like a normal phone call. You can quickly edit it to add music or transitions. Then upload it to podcasting apps. It’s that simple.
You can also do the podcast on your stream live as extra content to your viewers. Take the video and put it on YouTube for even more exposure. See how these are starting to work together?
With a podcast you can reach out to influencers in the industry and ask them to be a guest on your show. Once you air the episode you can ask them to promote the show to their audience (getting you more viewers).
Tactic #25 – Guest Post on Relevant Sites
Reach out to sites that cover the games you play or have a similar audience as your viewers and offer to create some free content for them. There’s a ton of content sites out there. Some of them know how difficult it is to create great content, so they’ll gladly use yours in exchange for promoting your stream.
Key Steps:
- Find blogs or content sites with a similar audience.
- Locate their contact form or contact details and send them a message.
- Offer to create a free guest post for their site or blog.
- checkTake the time to make a great piece of content.
- checkInclude a few links in the post to your stream or add a author bio.
Tactic #26 – Make Tools And Resources
Create resources or tools that can be helpful to gamers. One overlooked way to do this is to create spreadsheets that list different stats from games, or perform calculations that make tasks easier for a game. Before you share it, list your name and twitch link as the “Creator” in one of the cells. Example #1 – Escape from Tarkov Ammo Chart (Shows damage breakdowns for the different types of ammunition). Example #2 – Path of Exile Map Spreadsheet (Shows all the different maps and features as a reference chart)
It can be something simple as a spreadsheet but it can also be something very advanced if you know coding or can partner with a coder you know.
Hearthstone’s Deck Tracker is an example of a more robust tool.
The point here is being able to create something that has enough value to gamers to have a “share” factor. It takes time and sometimes money to create these tools and resources but the payoff can be huge.
Tactic #27 – Co-create with other people
You don’t have to create all of this content and tools by yourself.
Reach out to other people in your industry (bloggers, coders, streamers, content creators) and pitch them your idea. If they’re into it they can help create it and help with the promotion side of things.
It can be a piece of content, an interview piece, a video series, or even tools and resources. The list is endless for collaboration and when you work as a team it can lighten the workload but also increase the audience you’re able to reach once it’s completed.
If you’re bad at networking this is a subtle way to reach out to and start a discussion with people you’d love to meet and work with.
Section 4 – 11 Message Boards To Use To Chat It Up And Win Over More Viewers
Before social media there were message boards. And in the gaming world they are still popular today as a way to discuss specific games, strategy, and other popular topics surrounding the hobby. Here’s how to get in the trenches and mix it up with your audience and direct them to your stream without pissing people off or being spammy.Tactic #28 – Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are the new age of old message boards. There’s groups for just about every game, every console, console gaming, pc gaming, and every hobby in-between. You can find them by typing in your game or keyword into the Facebook search bar and then clicking on the Groups tab.
All you have to do is click the “Join” button.
Once you’re inside make sure you follow the etiquette. Some of them will allow you to post your own content. Some of them don’t. Read the rules.
Join in on the discussion and when it’s relevant share your stream. You can also mention from time to time that you’re a streamer and people may ask for your stream.
There’s also Facebook groups dedicated to Twitch streamers that you can join where they discuss topics important to streamers, share tips, and support each other. These are great groups for networking.
- Twitch.tv Streamers
- Twitch Streamers And Networking (TSAN)
- Twitch Connect
- Gameonaire (We have our own community starting soon here)
Tactic #29 – Create Your Own Facebook Group
Since only some of the groups you join will let you promote your stream, you can create your own group and play by your own rules.
Create a group based on the game you play and share content that would be interesting to that audience. Then whenever you go live you can share your stream or even go live in the group or have watch parties to get people involved in your stream.
Tactic #30 – Reddit, the ultimate message board
If you haven’t heard of reddit you’ve been living under a rock. As for a promotion channel this one can be very difficult. Because reddit users generally don’t like self-promotion.
So the content you post either has to be extremely high quality, relevant, or helpful in order to pass the “Reddit” test. This isn’t something you will post to regularly, rather you will want to keep it in your back pocket for when the extraordinary happens. It’s the goal at the top of the mountain.
But if you ever have an extremely funny moment. A rare event happens on your stream, or you create a helpful piece of content you can share it to relevant subreddits.
Tactic #31 – Find game forums to post content to
Search Google for popular forums for your game where other games frequent. When it comes to forums it’s extremely important to be an active member of the community before promoting your own content. And before you do make sure you check the forum rules so you aren’t breaking any of the rules.
Provide as much value as possible any time you do promote your own content. Make sure it’s not self-serving by giving something back to the community in exchange for their attention.
Tactic #32 – Join Discord Groups
Similar to Facebook Groups, there are more and more Discord groups popping up every day. Some of them even allow Twitch streamers to post their content and advertise to the users.
The difference here is that it’s all live messenger chat instead of posted content like other sites. Which can be more beneficial to streamers because you can post when you’re going live or while you’re live and get a more immediate reaction.
Similar to Facebook Groups, there’s also Discord groups dedicated to Twitch Streamers and supporting each other.
Some streamers even have their own Discord group for their Twitch stream to interact with your viewers and help build a community.
Tactic #33 – Post to Yahoo and Google Groups
Google and Yahoo groups are mainly popular in other industries. There might still some popularity depending on the game you play.
You most likely won’t get a ton of traffic from the group activity as most of the groups are either inactive or very small.
However since these groups are trusted by Google, you can post content to these groups and expect them to show up for related keywords when people search.
Links: Yahoo Groups – Google Groups
Tactic #34 – Answer Questions on Quora
Quora is a social question and answer site, similar to Yahoo Answers but much better.
The answers are usually expected to be more thorough than a one or two sentence response that you would see on Yahoo. Your questions are then voted up or down by other users based on how helpful it is.
A top comment can get hundreds if not thousand of views. So it’s worth taking a few minutes and creating an answer that helps anyone asking the question.
You can post your link in the answer but also have it in your profile which will be displayed to people who see your Answers.
Section 5 – PR & Media: 4 Tactics To Get Yourself In Front of Traditional Media
Did you know that even as a small streamer that you can get the attention of the traditional media and get your story in front of thousands of people through blogs, news outlets, and even the radio? Anytime you do something “news worthy” even if it’s something you feel is small or part of your daily life – you should look to get it covered by the media. This section will give you a few strategies on how to go about leveraging the media to get your story out fast.Tactic #35 – Help A Reporter Out
Bloggers, reporters, and media members are always looking for more stories and people to interview to help improve their stories.
There’s a free service called HARO (Help A Reporter Out), that they use to find sources to add to their story.
The gaming and streaming world is taking off and there’s a lot of news stories being published that are looking for experts to commentate.
Once you sign-up you can select a few fields that you’re knowledgable in and then you’ll receive a few e-mails a day with stories looking for sources. Then if you’re selected to be interviewed you can mention your stream or website that will be shared in the published article.
Tactic #36 – Get your story on the radio
You might think that you’re just a small streamer and that doesn’t qualify you as an expert. But to people on the outside, you have experience on the cutting edge of a new industry. All you have to do is find local radio stations in your area and reach out to them about bringing you on about topics relevant to your experience. Just find their contact details on their website (or send them a message on facebook) with a story you think would do well with their audience. Here’s an example:Radio Outreach Script
Hey! [Radio Station] has been my go-to station for years, been loving the tunes you’ve been dropping this week! If you’ve got the air time, I’d love to do a segment with you guys on the current state of Video Game Streaming and how I’ve been able to turn my hobby into a part time income. Could be really valuable to teach people how they can cash in on their passion since the gaming world is really starting to take off. (…You might have heard about that Ninja guy playing with Drake and other celebs) Who would it be best to talk to about doing something like that? Thanks,-Name Even if it doesn’t work immediately, you now have made yourself known as an expert if they decide to cover this topic in the future. So don’t be afraid to follow up with a fresh message or news story to get their attention again.Tactic #37 – Get on the TV or News
Similar to getting on the radio above, you can reach out to local or national TV broadcasts and ask to share your story and expertise with their audience.
You might be thinking it’s more difficult than it actually is.
You might not land a national segment like Ninja was able to. But local stations are much easier to break through to. And right now gaming and the growth of the industry is interesting to the mass audience.
The key is always pitching them a story that has an interesting angle that their audience will find interesting.
Tactic #38 – Reach out to Bloggers or News sites
If you’re struggling to get the attention of TV or Radio stations you can turn to Blogs and News sites. Getting this coverage will help brand you as an expert and also will give readers a clickable link (as opposed to hearing it on the radio or seeing it on the news) that they can follow to your site.
Find the contact details of popular bloggers or news organizations in the industry and reach out to them with a pitch for your unique story.
Remember they want clicks and views, so give them something exciting to write about.
This is a way of starting small and working up to big media coverage. Once they publish your story you can use it to show to other news publications including radio/tv giving you and your story more credibility.
Tactic #39 – Interview Popular People In the Industry
Because you’re building an audience too, you can leverage it to interview popular figures in the industry. This can work with other streamers, developers, business owners, product creators and more. Getting interviewed makes the guest look more popular and proves their expertise so they will want to share it with their audience. It can also improve your credibility as you’re associating with popular influencers in the industry.
Lastly if you optimize the content properly you can get your content to appear when people search for the experts name on Google.
Section 6 – Six In Game Strategies To Promote Your Stream
The games you play can be marketing tools themselves. Don’t overlook these strategies to get your stream out there in front of gamers while they play the game, or while you play the game.Tactic #40 – Make Your Username Your Twitch Name
It might seem a little “try-hard” but this one can actually work as long as you’re not abusing the method. Putting “Twitch” or “TTV” before or after your username lets other gamers know that you’re a streamer.
If you’re playing in a group with other streamers, if someone in their audience is curious about you and your stream it will easily tell them which one you are and how to find them.
- Add “Twitch” or “TTV” to your username and play like normal.
- Don’t stalk or stream-snipe other streamers to try and “advertise”.
Tactic #41 – Complete a Feat in Game
If you have your Twitch name in your gamer tag, getting higher ranks or completing in-game feats gives you the opportunity to be noticed.
Some games have in-game leader boards. Others have websites dedicated to tracking stats. Topping the ranks or becoming a “first” to do something goes a long way to give you notoriety.
People want to follow streamers who are pushing games to the limit so they can learn from them and watch it all unfold.
Tactic #42 – Advertise in game
If you play a community based game that has a chat or some type of interaction with other players you can advertise your stream in game. This is a VERY aggressive tactic and will potentially annoy some players. So be prepared for potential backlash if you use this method. Personally I would steer clear of this method because it could negatively affect your brand. But there are creative ways you can accomplish this. Some games let you build into the world and you can put up signs with a funny joke/quote and mention your stream. You can also find opportunities to add to the conversation and passively promote your stream.Tactic #43 – Play in Tournaments
Tournaments are a great way to get your name out. You get a chance to show off your skill and prove to the world you’re skilled in a game. Sometimes there is even a prize pool that you can compete for.
Most tournaments if they are properly advertised get at least some media attention. And means viewers.
You don’t always have to win to bring over viewers. Doing something funny, entertaining, or at least memorable to catch peoples attention during the tournament can immediately bring you a boost in viewers.
If you’re a competitive player trying to grow your stream you should compete in any tournament that’s offered, if it fits your schedule. Even the small ones.
Then seek out other ones using sites like Game Battles, UMG, World Gaming.
Tactic #44 – Host a Tournament
If you have a budget or can put together an offer for sponsors to create a prize pool (even if it’s winning a product) you can host tournaments that can get in front of the media and bring viewers. Hosting a tournament has a ton of synergy with a lot of different strategies in this guide. It connects you with other influencers, gives you a story to pitch to the media to build up hype, and builds your brand for that game. Meanwhile you’re in the middle of this storm of viewers that can stick around and view your normal streams. Challonge offers a great solution for organizing tournaments and also generating beautiful brackets to share with the audience.
Tactic #45 – Become a Commentator
If you’re immersed in the competitive scene you can commentate on game play for tournaments and pro leagues. Reach out to tournament organizers or find possible jobs on boards like Hitmarker Jobs or Rekt Jobs.
Casting has become a skill of its own so if there’s a big tournament they will most likely reach out to the experienced casters for that game.
There’s a big gap when it comes to smaller tournaments and brand new games.
This isn’t a skill that everyone has. It takes skill, knowledge, and even then you need to have a knack for thinking on your feet to translate what’s going on in game for the viewers.
If it’s something you can pull off, you’ll create an audience for yourself. Most commentators usually build up an audience of a few thousand viewers of their own when they stream games, even if it’s just casually on the side.
Tactic #46 – Commentate and Stream Live Events
Any time there is a big event in the gaming world you can stream it and ride the wave of hype which will pull in more enthusiastic viewers.
A lot of events are being live streamed and you can watch and commentate on them as they are happening while giving your opinion. Almost like watching TV with your friends.
This can be anything from a tournament, a game launch, or conventions that happen year round.
Make sure when you do this that it’s allowed and that you’re not re-broadcasting the event without authorization.
Section 7 – 5 Viral Marketing Tactics To Explode Your Streams Viewership Quickly
Viral marketing leverages the power of community by using tactics that encourage your stream followers to share content for you. It’s not easy getting people to spread the word about you. But if you use the right strategies you can empower your audience to become advocates of your stream.Tactic #47 – Giveaways Done Right
Giveaways are a huge promotion tool. But only if you do them right. Using the wrong strategy you can get low quality people who are only interested in the giveaway and then vanish afterwards. Unless you’re doing it just for fun, don’t run a giveaway that is temporary during your stream. A giveaway needs time to pick up steam and grab attention to really get the benefits of it. This prevents people from just showing up for a few minutes, attempting to win the free stuff, and bouncing.
Use a tool like Gleam.io. It lets people enter the giveaway and gives them additional entries for promoting it to their friends and social media. This means more new people are introduced to your giveaway AND your stream.
Let the giveaway last for a week or two at the minimum to give it time to take off and to allow more people to see and enter.
Tactic #48 – Co-Promotion Giveaways
Giveaway prizes can be expensive. And the bigger your prize the more attention and hype that can build with your giveaway. You can partner with other streamers or businesses and either pool money for a bigger prize, or have multiple prizes packed together in one big giveaway.
The added benefit of this is that you get everyone on board to promote the giveaway at the same time. This has more chances for the giveaway to go viral and get shared around the web.
Remember: When you do a giveaway, it’s an awesome opportunity to reach out to media to have them share your story with their audience. Who doesn’t love free stuff?
Tactic #49 – Charity Streams
There’s nothing better than supporting an awesome cause that’s important to you and making a difference in the world.
You have an audience and that can make a big difference in shaping the world around you.
You can grow your audience during this time because the story of a streamer championing a cause and the amount of money you raise is a great opportunity to reach out and get media coverage. It’s another opportunity to create buzz worthy content and get promoters behind you.
Tactic #50 – Do social media “share” promotions
You can build your social media followers by doing “share” promotions or giveaway loops. This works by giving away something to your audience and making them perform a few tasks to enter the giveaway. It’s similar to doing a giveaway on your stream except that the actions are usually easier like “follow this account > make a post using this hashtag > tag a friend”.
You can do this in a loop by having multiple people join the giveaway and the directions include to follow each others accounts. That away everyone’s promotion spreads the love across all the streamers involved.
This is how social media influencers grow their accounts by ten’s of thousands
You can look at this post for examples and more tips.
With your new following you can promote your stream and warm them up to your community.
Tactic #51 – Create Infographics to share
People love hearing cool stats and looking at beautiful pictures. An infographic combines both of those elements by displaying data in an easily digestible way.
You’re immersed in the games you play since you stream them regularly. There’s no one better than you to find data that you feel other gamers who play that game would find interesting.
The hard part is getting these designed. There are services that let you do it yourself. But it’s harder than it looks to make it beautiful (which is THE key to the success of your graphic).
It’s best to find a designer to combine all the data you supply them into the final graphic.
Once it’s complete you now have a high quality piece of content that you can share using ANY of the methods you’ve found in this guide.
Section 8 – 4 Directories And Tools To Give Your Stream A Little Love
Are you spreading your name around to let interested viewers find you? If you use these directories and tools you’ll be giving your stream viewers every chance to find you.Tactic #52 – Join a Stream Team
Other streamers can be viewers too. Sometimes, they even make the best viewers a stream can have. When you join a Stream Team you’re surrounded by people who want to grow their stream and are willing to support others growing their stream.
The support can come in many different formats from watching each others streams, providing helpful tips, hosting each other, and promoting each other on Facebook.
Here’s a list of Stream Teams you can join.
You get out of it what you put in. So make sure you network inside of the team and be helpful.
Note: There are SOME bad groups, where it’s more like a “pyramid scheme” for the leaders to grow their stream. Just be mindful and if you don’t feel like you’re getting anything out of the team, go help somewhere else.
Tactic #53 – Use Sliver.tv
Sliver.tv is an incentive based stream platform. So viewers get rewards for watching streams on their platform. With this strategy they have built up an audience of viewers that you can put in front of your stream. Getting hosted by Sliver.tv can mean having thousands of viewers on your stream. So it’s worth the effort to figure out their system and get involved. They have a formula you can check out here. If you look closely, it’s not all that hard to become an “extremely qualified” candidate to partner with them. And your results could be like this:
Tactic #54 – Get Listed on Purple+
Add your stream to Purple+ which is the directory for /r/Twitch streamers.
It’s goal is to provide a spotlight for streamers to get discovered and also encourages people to get involved and support each others streams. You can increase your visibility by becoming getting involved in the community. (Make sure you read the help documentation to show you how to get started)
It gives viewers a different way to search for streamers instead of just the typical “Browse Games” listings on Twitch. So beef up your profile with details that make you and your stream unique.
Tactic #55 – If you’re a small streamer use Pwning.com
List your stream on Pwning where they specialize in getting small streams a boost in viewership.
It can be hard grinding it out with only a few viewers. If you can get a boost of 5, 10, 20 viewers… some times that’s all you need to get noticed and start climbing the Twitch directory.
At the time of writing this, I’ve seen between 10 and 40 active viewers on their platform that are encourage to watch and engage in your chat.
This is a great way to get your content discovered and also boost your ranking in the Twitch directory for increase exposure.
Section 9 – 6 Ways To Get More Viewers That Don’t Involve Your Stream
It’s easy get stuck thinking about just your stream and it’s quality. But there’s a lot of things that you can do off your stream to promote your content and use other peoples content and audience as a marketing platform. In this section you’ll find a few win/win strategies to get more viewers by other peoples content or audiences.Tactic #56 – Appear On A Podcast
Find podcasts that talk about anything related to the games you play or the content you stream and reach out to the podcast host about doing an interview. They are usually looking for interesting people or topics to host on their podcast. It’s best to start with smaller podcasts and then once you get one under your belt you can work your way up to podcasts with bigger audiences. Mention your stream in the interview and have them include your link in the show notes (so people can easily find you). It works even better if you can reference a piece of helpful content or something the audience wants. That way they have more reason to look in the podcast show notes for a link.Tactic #57 – Get quoted in an article
If someone reaches out to you for a quote or a short interview request, always try to find time to give them a response.
(Sorry I had to edit it out for a top-secret upcoming post)
It should only take you a few minutes to respond and if they are taking the time to reach out to you then most likely they will put effort into promoting the final article once it’s complete. Meaning? Eyeballs > Your Stream. You’ll be a more likely candidate for this type of thing if you are active in your community and are constantly sharing your opinion on popular topics.Tactic #58 – Become someone’s testimonial
Use someone’s product or implement someone’s content and reach out to them about how it’s made your life better.
If it’s a good story a smart marketing team can write about it or even feature it on their site showcasing their product and your content on their site.
It makes their product look good and gives them an enthusiastic testimonial from a raving fan.
Tactic #59 – Use Snip.ly to when sharing other content
Use Snip.ly when you share other people’s content.
It puts a small call to action overlay on top of the page you’re sending them to. That way they can enjoy the content you’re referring them to but also have a link to your Twitch present to get them to check out you and your content.
It’s another way to stay top-of-mind for your viewers.
Tactic #60 – Do a webinar, stream, or create content for another site’s audience.
Content is expensive for businesses. And there isn’t a shortage of businesses with audiences that want quality content to share with their audience. Reach out to sites that have their own email lists or large followings and offer to create exclusive content for their audience. Don’t make this a typical stream. Make it like a private show just for them. Pack it with great content but also mention your stream or your content throughout the webinar (don’t go full sell-out mode).
Want a real life example of this? Panels at conventions like Twitch Con. And if you ever wanted to be the star of a panel at a convention, this is a great way to audition while also growing your stream.
Want your content featured on this blog? Hit me up on twitter with a pitch about a piece of content that you think would be great for streamers to read about. If it’s something that I think will work we’ll get it on the blog.
Tactic #61 – Comment on Blogs and News Articles
Make a list of all the blogs and news sites that cover topics that your audience would be interested in. When they post new content jump into the comment section and join the conversation. Some commenting systems let you link to your site naturally (through the username or in a profile). You can also mention your stream when it makes sense to do so. But don’t just spam your link. Join the conversation, provide value to the readers and if they find what you’re saying interesting, they can click over to see what you’re about.Section 10 – 7 Ways To Grow Your Stream Brand Offline
Those viewer numbers are ACTUALLY real people. (Shocking…Right!?) You can get out there in the real world and find your audience, and entice them to start watching your stream using these methods below.Tactic #62 – Go to conferences and live events
Find a list of all the live events happening in the gaming world. There are a ton of them. And go to the ones when they are in your area or if feasible travel to the big ones.
The notable ones are gaming tournaments and big conventions like TwitchCon and BlizzCon.
At live events you’ll have a chance to meet potential viewers, network with vendors and sponsors, and strike up relationships that can further grow your streaming business.
Tactic #63 – Join Meetup groups in your area
Go to Meetup.com and find groups in your area about gaming, twitch, or creative themes. Start attending events and make friends with the group organizer and attendees.
This is more of a networking strategy than it is a strategy to get viewers. So don’t go there attempting to advertise your stream. Go there to meet people, network, and get involved in the community.
The friendships and relationships you build from these Meetup events can turn into long lasting partnerships that end up growing your stream.
Tactic #64 – Create stickers for your audience
Social gaming is becoming more popular and people take their consoles, laptops, and controllers with them everywhere.
Get stickers made so your viewers can support your stream by putting them on their gear. It could strike up conversations that share your brand with new gamers.
Save a couple for yourself and put it on your laptop or something you carry with you. People may notice it and strike up a conversation about what you do.
This can also be something you give away to subscribers.
Tactic #65 – Give away T-shirts for your audience
Get T-shirts made (you can use a site like Teespring) and give them away to your audience, mods, partners, friends, and family.
Notice that I didn’t say sell them.
People love free swag and will sport your gear if you give it out to them. You can also use the gear for give away prizes mentioned in a previous tip!
Make sure that the shirts are super comfortable so that people enjoy wearing them. The more your shirt is worn the more chances you have of someone being referred by your audience.
Pro Tip: Get them to take a selfie with the picture. This makes excellent social media content that you can share using hashtags to grow your audience even more.
Tactic #66 – Wear your own apparel
If you have your own shirts made wear them with pride. Jason Somerville (of Run It Up) is always wearing one of his Run It Up shirts or one of the shirts from his partners/team members.
First off… his shirts are damn comfortable. So I’d wear them every day too.
But it’s also a great advertisement for his stream and a way to strike up conversations about his mission and what he does.
The added bonus is that anytime he appears in a video, picture, or stream he has a subtle way of showing everyone what he’s about.
Tactic #67 – Create business cards for your stream
If you use business cards correctly, they can be a powerful marketing tool. Don’t just leave them around town or hand them out willy-nilly. Make real connections with people and have a business card to hand them that will remind them later to get into contact with you or follow your stream. Also, when your friends ask you what you do, you can explain it to them and then have your business card to remind them to check it out later. It also makes you look a lot more professional.
Bonus Tip: Create a QR code that links to your stream. Making it easy for people to find your stream instead of typing in your username and searching for you.
Tactic #68 – Sponsor conferences and events
If you have a little bit of extra money you can invest in your stream by finding events, tournaments, or conferences to sponsor. Even small tournaments or local events are a good way to spread the word about your stream.
There are even some local gaming bars that might want or need someone to organize or sponsor local gaming events.
In some cases, your money could be spent better elsewhere promoting your stream depending on your strategy.
But if you’re creative it can be an effective way to get your name out there. Sponsoring the right event for a good price can give you an avalanche of media coverage with minimal effort.
Section 11 – 7 In Stream Adjustments You Can Make To Get More Consistent Views
Your content itself can either work for or against you in order to bring in more viewers. Don’t make the mistakes that some streamers make which end up turning viewers away. Supercharge your content to attract more viewers and make sure the work you’re doing off stream really pays off when you turn the stream on.Tactic #69 – Have a call to action in your stream
It’s easier to keep the viewers that you get than it is to get new viewers. Make sure you consistently remind viewers to join in on the chat, follow your channel, or even to use their prime subscription. You don’t have to go full sellout mode. Just casually remind people using a simple script like this: “If you’ve been enjoying the stream make sure you hit that follow button. I stream every day at [enter your schedule]. Feel free to join in the chat and ask any questions you got for me!” You can also program your chat bot to remind people to follow your channel periodically. But don’t rely on the bot. Nothing works better than you saying it directly. To mix it up you can also remind people to follow your social media accounts.Tactic #70 – Set a schedule or try tweaking it.
More people will come to your stream if they know you’re streaming. Out of the people who I follow, I have a rough idea of who’s streaming at different points of the day without even knowing their schedule. That’s because they’ve made a streaming schedule and stuck with it.
It’s smart to tweak or test your schedule from time to time. Maybe a popular streamer is taking some of your viewership, or there are different audiences from around the world that you could pick up at a different time slot. It’s difficult to know this since you’re busy streaming while you stream.
To test this without alienating your regular viewers you can start earlier or end later and track how that affects your viewership.
Tactic #71 – Find opportunity with Twitch Strike
Take a look at Twitch Strike game ratios to find games that have high demand but are lacking streamers to fill it. This is what we call the low hanging fruit for streamers. If you’re one of the few people streaming a game that has a solid viewership, there’s more chance of collecting those viewers.
What you’re looking for is being one of the top 5-10 streamers so you appear high on the directory listings. Your visibility will be the highest on these games.
Be careful though because the stats aren’t always what they appear to be. A big variety streamer could bring a lot of viewers to a game that are more interested in the streamer than they are the game.
Additionally, these viewers might just be interested in just that game making it hard to turn them into regulars for other games you play. So pay attention when you switch games, if all your viewers drop off then it might not be worth your time unless you plan on consistently streaming that new game.
Tactic #72 – Stream On Another Platform
Try out other platforms or stream to multiple platforms to try and make a splash in a different arena. FreyaFox was grinding it out on Twitch and seemed to plateau at a viewership of around 50-100. She moved to Facebook Gaming and her viewership blew up.
I know Twitch has the biggest audience and best monetization tools. But it may be easier to stand out on other platforms who have less people streaming.
If you are a Twitch affiliate or Partner make sure you check your agreement before streaming on different platforms as it might not be allowed.
Tactic #73 – Change the game you play
Always play the games YOU want to play. Never play a game just for views. You’ll end up grinding out a game and not enjoying yourself which will reflect in the quality of content you put out.
With that being said, if there’s other games you might enjoy, switching it up could bring in new viewers while introducing your die-hard fans to a new game.
If you notice a dip in viewership when you do this initially, it’s probably just people that are fans of the game you played previously.
Give it some time to establish a following in the new game to see if it’s worth continuing to pursue. Do it slowly at first so you don’t abandon your following of the previous game.
Tactic #74 – Optimize Your Content For Clicks
Use catchy, funny, or interesting titles on your stream to get people to click in and see what you’re up to. But don’t stop there. Every piece of content you make (even clips) can attract viewers with the right headline. Big media companies and magazines put in a ton of effort (and money) to test and find enticing headlines that grab peoples attention. So don’t overlook the affect it can have on your stream.
Which of these headlines draws your attention? Look closely at NICKMERCS’s It’s simply repeating his username which is directly below it. Boring headlines could cost you viewers.
This will probably go as one of the underrated and undervalued tactics in this whole guide. But I can’t stress how effective this can be. A good headline has the opportunity to steal viewers from your competitors in the directory. Not sold yet? Headlines are so important that 59% of people will share articles without even reading the content! No one likes click bait though. So don’t trick viewers into clicking. You can create interesting headlines without making your audience feel like a fool.Tactic #75 – Optimize your content for rankings
Anytime you put out content remember that people could be searching for it on Google. Even your clips have a chance to appear on a search engine. If you take a look at reddit you’ll see people constantly saying they are looking for a clip but can’t find it on Google. Usually because streamers use vague titles that have nothing to do with the content. Don’t make that same mistake. Keep searchers in mind and use titles that will easily appear in searches.
Section 12 – Twelve Methods To Drive Viewers To Your Stream With Paid Ads
If you have a budget to invest into your stream these are extremely powerful ways to grow your stream. There’s a little bit of a bad stigma about ads in the gaming market. But the bottom line is that they are just a tool to spread awareness about your stream. You’re willing to spend hundreds of dollars on equipment to improve your stream. Why wouldn’t you spend money sending more viewers to check out your content? If your goal is to become a full time streamer, it will pay off in the long run. And it’s not as expensive as you might think. You can get moving with some of these strategies for only $5.Tactic #76 – Boost Your Posts on Facebook
When you post your content to your Facebook page you can choose to boost it. For a minumum of $5 you can target gamers who play the same game as you to see the content you’re sharing. How far does that money go? It really depends on the quality of content you’re sharing. A simple picture we post had the following stats:
I got 646 people to interact with our post and 5,866 people saw it.
The best part about this is it all happened with-in two days. For just $5 we were able to put our content in front of as many people as some streamers get after grinding for months!
These engagements turn into page likes and then we push those people over to our stream using other tactics mentioned in this guide.
Tactic #77 – Use Twitter Ads
Twitter is the go to social media platform for gamers. And it’s still working on perfecting it’s monetization plan, while competing with the giants of Facebook and Google.
That means you have the opportunity to get cheap traffic sent to your content while everyone else is flocking to other advertising platforms.
You can promote your individual tweets and boost it’s visibility to new viewers, or promote your stream directly by launching a campaign.
Tactic #78 – Facebook Ads
One of the most popular ad platforms right now because of the targeting capabilities. You can target your ads to people based on their age, gaming interests, gender, geolocation, and more. They can also be optimized based on your target goal: Page likes, link clicks, video views, and more. Facebook’s algorithm takes over and works it’s magic (it’s pretty impressive…)
This puts your content in front of the ideal candidate: a viewer.
You can get creative and also time these ads to only run while you’re streaming.
Tactic #79 – Instagram Ads
If you’re already using Instagram, you can use ads to boost your account and bring more awareness to your posts. A good strategy would be to get more followers that you can leverage with your regular content. The more engagement your posts gets, the higher chance it has of appearing on the explore page, or as a top post for it’s hashtag(s).
To advertise on Instagram you have to use the Facebook Ads platform and choose to target your ads to Instagram.
Tactic #80 – Use Targeted YouTube ads
If you’re releasing content to YouTube already you can target ads to content your audience will be viewing and get them to check out your channel.
If someone is checking out content similar to yours, then there’s a high likely hood that they’d be interested in your content too.
This is when it’s important to have a good strategy of converting YouTube viewers into Twitch viewers. Make sure you have links in your bio, video descriptions, and referencing it at the end of your videos is a good start.
Tactic #81 – Reddit Ads
Want to appear at the top of reddit? You can do just that with Reddit Ads. Reddit is an tough crowd though. Even with ads they want to look at exceptionally interesting content. That means you can’t just post a link telling people to check out your stream.
Share an extremely interesting bit from your stream, or a demo reel, as a way to try out your content and then send them over to your stream.
You can target specific subreddits which helps lower the cost and improves your results if you choose the subreddits of games you stream the most.
Tactic #82 – Google Display Ads
There are a ton of sites in the gaming world that use Google Adsense to display ads on their site.
That means you can easily appear on their site with a banner or text ad in featured locations. For this you’ll need a good designer to create a banner that will stand out, or a very clever text ad.
Tactic #83 – Influencer Marketing
Find people on social media who have an audience similar to the one you want to reach. Send them a message and offer to pay them for them to post a piece of content to their page.
This works well because a lot of people don’t know what the size of their audience is worth and you can get content in front of thousands of people for pennies on the dollar.
Before you reach out to someone make sure you check their account and see how their engagement is. Not their follower count. Their follower count can be easily inflated with inactive or low quality accounts. So make sure they have a solid following of engaged users before offering sponsored content.
Tactic #84 – Target gamers with Mobile Ads
Since a majority of mobile ads are displayed on games, it can make a great fit for you to find gamers who might be interested in your stream. Pricing is on the cheaper end of the spectrum because there’s a ton of ad placement supply compared to the amount of demand for buying mobile ads.
Using the proper link you can get it to open up their Twitch app and send them directly to your stream.
Tactic #85 – Top Donator/Bits
Being at the top of the donator/bits list gives your stream awareness too. If you’re one of the top three bits donators your name will appear just above the chat where everyone can see it. If they click on your username they can check out your profile/stream.
This is like having a small placement ad above the chat of similar streams.
It’s also great for networking because (as you already know) streamers are appreciative of bits and donations. This gives you the opportunity to reach out to them and have at least a little bit of familiarity to introduce yourself.
DO NOT abuse this. Remember it’s still their stream. If you want to donate bits and appear in the top donations, then do that. Don’t promote your stream in any other way.
Tactic #86 – Subscribe to other channels
If you subscribe to other streamers it’s a good way to grab their attention and open up a dialogue with them for networking (if you haven’t done this already).
If you already have a relationship with them then when you’re notification pops up, some of them will be nice enough to say a few words about you. Mentioning that you’re a streamer and that you produce great content too and should check you out.
This isn’t always guaranteed to work. But when it doesn’t work, you’re at least spreading good vibes to other awesome streamers.
Conclusion
I just hit you with a TON of ideas to grow your stream.
Don’t get overwhelmed!
You’re probably not going to be able to implement all of these strategies. And it shouldn’t be your goal. Instead pick your favorite few methods and start implementing them immediately.
Having just a few of these working for you is enough to get your stream off the ground and pushing towards partnership.
And don’t worry about implementing these strategies perfectly on your first attempts. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly at first.
Take a few of these that look interesting and start implementing them now.
When your channel starts growing… don’t forget to report back and let me hear about your results! 
