Since we’re living in the ear of online marketing and sales, Twitch has been the hot-spot for all those who want to broadcast themselves and earn big.
So the question that remains – how to grow on Twitch, as it is possibly the hardest equation to solve.
Luckily, you get to learn from the biggest fish in the industry and so here today, we have 19 tested and proven tips for your Twitch growth that you can use for the future streams.
Table of Contents
How to Grow on Twitch
- Be Unique
- Create a Schedule
- Be Punctual
- Listen to Your Viewers
- Invest in Equipment
- Mind Your Setting
- Social Media Presence
- Visual Appeal
- Stream with Friends
- Partner with Famous Streamers
- Choose the Game Wisely
- Stay in Your Niche
- Don’t Stream at Peak Hours
- Videos on Demand (VOD)
- Use YouTube
- Presents, Offers, and Giveaways
- Write Twitch Bio
- Interesting Titles for Streams
- Enjoy
Sure, these tips and tricks will give you a headstart, but you will still have to invest time and effort into creating content and growing your channel and community.
1. Be Unique
The first thing you have to know, in order to get some views your way, is that you will get nowhere by being a copycat.
Sure, you can watch other streamers and get an example of what they’re doing or get some new ideas, but copying someone else’s original work never really worked in the long run.
So – a few of your goals are to be unique, add some personality, and create entertaining content.
You might not find yourself from day 1, of course, but trying new things, experimenting with your gameplay, commenting, setting and whatnot will help you find your own style. And once you do – stick to it.
This doesn’t mean that you have to play the one game almost no one else is playing, but you need to be unique and creative about it. You need to offer something no one else is offering – be it your choice of games, your sense of humor, or whatever.
Once you find you, people will be coming and staying for what you, and no one else, have to offer.
2. Create a Schedule
Now that you’ve found yourself and your unique streaming style, you’ll need a consistent schedule. Consistency is what builds any business.
Sure, you might not feel like playing sometimes, or you have some other things to attend to, other than growing on Twitch, but your viewers will rarely care about that.
Uuuh, harsh!
Be it as it may, it’s the truth.
So what you want to do is create a streaming schedule. This will make it easier for your viewers as they will know when and what to expect from you, but it can also be easier for you as you will know when you have to hop in front of the webcam and start the show.
If you want to be big, you can’t treat this as a mere hobby. You should treat it as a job.
Well, at first at least…
The amount of consistency directly reflects a profile’s success – at least from my experience.
3. Be Punctual
No one wants to go to a party where the host is habitually late!
And no one wants to watch a Twitch stream where the streamer is always late, either!
So once you find and establish a schedule that works for you, try to stick to it as much as you can.
No one will hate you if you’re late here or there, of course, but try to respect other people’s time, please.
If your viewers respect you enough to be there on time, all hyped to watch you (maybe even with a bag of popcorn ready, who knows!), show them some courtesy and be on time yourself!
4. Listen to Your Viewers
You might be the star of the show, but there wouldn’t be a star at all without the audience now, would it?
What I’m saying is is that you wouldn’t be a streamer if there was no one to watch you, and so just like you would show some respect to your viewers by being on time, you should also show respect by listening to them.
What I mean here is:
- communicate
- listen to their feedback
First, you want to pay some attention to what’s going on in the chat box while you’re playing and communicate and interact with the viewers.
Of course, you can’t pay 100% of your attention to the chat box, but sneak a peek here and there and communicate with your audience.
Maybe that’s answering their questions, maybe that’s listening to their suggestions and ideas related to your gameplay, but acknowledge the viewers and show some appreciation for them and for the fact they’re there.
Also, there might come a time when they will give you some feedback – good or bad.
Listen to what they’re saying.
You might not agree all the way, and yes, this is ultimately your Twitch channel, but your audience helped make you, and if majority of them suggest a small change in your schedule, setting, your way of communication, or anything really, and if it is possible for you to incorporate those changes – listen to your audience.
Growing on Twitch is hard, and not listening to what your Twitch followers have to say can be costly.
5. Invest in Equipment
Yes, everyone likes a clean picture, preferably in 4k, but sometimes that’s just impossible to achieve with your equipment or your budget.
And that’s okay! After all, your viewers are here to watch you and your content.
Naturally, if you’re in a niche that requires you to have the best sound/ image quality imaginable, you can’t skip this step.
Okay, I’m maybe being a bit contradictory here.
What I’m trying to say is this – your audience is here to watch and listen to you, and so if you don’t have thousands of dollars to invest in the equipment and it’s not all that important for your niche, it’s okay.
BUT, you can’t film yourself with a crappy phone camera and mic and expect great results!
Your chat want you to have proper settings and actually see and hear you, and not some sounds of, I don’t know, Internet connection from the 90s and early 2000s!
The bottom line is – you need to invest in good equipment, proper equipment, but you don’t have to stave for this!
6. Mind Your Setting
Good equipment is worth nothing if all your viewers will see better with that high-quality webcam is your pigsty of a room.
So besides paying attention to your camera, your mic and audio, your lighting, you will need to pay attention to your setting as well.
If you don’t have a proper setting, there’s always a green screen, if that’s your thing.
But positioning the camera properly and making your backgrounder decent is actually what I recommend the most.
You don’t have to go around and show your apartment to your viewers and make it squeaky-clean for that, but just having a decent, clean and tidy background for your streams is all you need.
7. Social Media Presence
Although Twitch is the ultimate streaming social media for connecting with your audience, you shouldn’t ignore all the other platforms! Social media accounts are an absolute must for a few reasons:
- It’s easier to promote yourself
- It builds you authority in the niche
- You get to connect with people (other streamers) with similar interests
Twitch is great, yeah, but your communication with your audience there might be a bit limited and also, you will reach just as many people there.
So what you want to do is increase your social media presence to other platforms as well – Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Reddit, etc.
Using more social media platforms will help you reach more people than you could ever reach with just the one, but also, participating in forums and groups will also make you recognizable.
Even bigger plus is that you will have more places to promote your streams on and ultimately, the chance for more people to see it and come to your Twitch channel.
8. Visual Appeal
Although most of the visual appeal comes from the content of your Twitch stream and the quality of your equipment, you can make that even more interesting with things like panels, overlays, stinger transitions, and so on.
So if this is something that speaks to you, find some of those that fit your style, theme and aesthetics, and make your streams even more visually enjoyable.
However, there are a thing to keep in mind! You don’t want to add too much as too much things going on at the same time can draw attention away from the actual content that you’re trying to present.
9. Stream with Friends
Although streaming on Twitch might seem like a solitary activity, it doesn’t have to be that way.
First of all, you can invite your friends to play and have more fun that way, just like a regular get-together game you would normally have with your bunch.
This also means that you won’t have those awkward pauses in your stream when you’re just sitting there, completely mute, playing a game like you’re all alone in your room.
Playing with friends will help you relax, you will have a bunch of people you already know and with whom you can talk and joke freely, and also, if they are streaming and have their audience too, you will get to reach more people as some of them might come and stick to your Twitch channel too.
Or, the other option is to invite other streamers to play together.
If you’re an avid Twitch user or watcher, you will know that there’s a huge number of big streamers playing together.
Sometimes one will help the other get recognized, and sometimes that conjoined game will be just for fun, but either way, it can help you reach a bigger audience, meet new people, or just overall have a more laid-back and enjoyable stream.
Friends equals support!
10. Partner with Famous Streamers
Not, this one might seem quite similar to the previous tip to play with your friends, but it truly isn’t the same thing.
As I mentioned above, a lot of big streamers are playing with one another and some of them even helped the others get famous, right?
But, it is difficult to reach the big fish.
Trust me when I say this, they’re getting hundreds of invites to play with small streamers every single day.
They can’t play with everyone, though, and so if you want to stand out you need to offer something in return.
Well, that something can be money or another thing that you think the other person can get a use of, but either way, you want to offer a partnership. Something where the other person will benefit too.
It’s different with your friends. You’re usually on the same level, you know each other well and so on, but with the people you don’t know at all, things might be a bit more tricky!
Also, don’t be ashamed to reach out! It’s the path of success. Network as much as possible.
If you think you will be a good fit with someone and you have something to offer in return, there’s no point to be shy. Just reach out and see if you can make an arrangement.
What’s the worst thing that could happen? That they don’t answer or say “no”? Big deal!
Keep trying!
11. Choose the Game Wisely
One of the biggest “advice” you will probably get is to play the games no one else is playing.
Somewhat, this is a solid piece of advice, but also, not quite.
If you enjoy playing Fortnite and you know that there are already thousands of streamers, successful streamers playing it, and you think “hm, who will watch me play when XY is streaming“, you’re not completely wrong.
But also, if you choose a game no one is playing, the chances are, no one will want to watch it.
Another thing about this is that you won’t enjoy streaming at all!
If you don’t like the game, if you’re not passionate about it, it will show and that kind of stream won’t be interesting to watch.
So yes, maybe you shouldn’t start streaming with the most popular of games, but you don’t want to play something that you don’t enjoy either.
The bottom line here is – if you enjoy it, if you’re passionate about it, if you’re good at it, if you manage to find your own unique style, you will find your audience too!
12. Stay in Your Niche
Sure, there are a lot of variety streamers out there, but they started a long time ago, built their audience and now they can do whatever you like.
However, as a new streamer, you want to stay in your niche and stream what you decided on first.
Now, I don’t mean to say that you only have to play one game.
No, you can mix a bit here and there, but it would be best to keep it in the niche.
Another thing that I mean by saying “stay in your niche” is that you don’t want to stream a little bit of Minecraft, a little bit of playing violin, and a bit of woodwork.
We know that Twitch is a place for everyone, but you can’t mix things this much and make a supermarket out of your Twitch channel!
It might sound like a good idea, yes, something for everyone and all that jazz, but it really isn’t.
Trust me, I learned the lesson of staying specific and true to your niche the hard way!
Narrow it down as much as possible, and you’re good to go.
13. Don’t Stream at Peak Hours
Here is something else that might sound counterintuitive at first, but it really isn’t when you think about it a little.
So, your first thought is probably to start streaming at peak hours when everyone else is streaming and when everyone who isn’t streaming is watching those who are, right?
Yeeeeah, not a good idea!
Sure, there are a lot of viewers at peak hours and you might be focusing on that, but the more important thing here for someone who’s just starting out is to remember that there are a lot of streamers too.
And big streamers, with their faithful audience who will watch them before any other small streamer, however innovative or unique or up their alley the new content might be.
So instead, you want to pick some other, less active hours for your streams.
There will always be streamers and viewers no matter the time, but when there are fewer streamers, there’s less competition/channels and you’ll have a bigger chance of getting discovered.
14. Videos on Demand (VOD)
We already talked about you building your streaming schedule so that people will know when to come watch you.
However, just as you won’t be able to come to your stream every single time, the same goes for your viewers.
But, they are your viewers, they come here for you and so you don’t want to leave them empty-handed or punish them just because they couldn’t be there, right?
Well, there’s a simple way to let your viewers watch you even when they couldn’t be there for your live stream. And that is Videos on Demand or VOD. In other words – upload creative stream highlights.
Surely you’ve used Videos on Demand before, so you know that they are most often not the video of the whole stream but just the most important moments from the stream.
Another reason I love VODs is that they are generally much more fun to watch!
In your stream, in your gameplay, they will surely come a time when everything is just slow and boring. But in VODs, you would cut those parts out and leave your viewers with only the most important and most exciting parts, so they will be more enjoyable to watch.
15. Use YouTube
We talked about spreading to different types of social media networks before, but I can’t stress this one enough – start using YouTube as well, as soon as possible.
This is a great place to start promoting your streaming channel. It is a supermarket, and it’s not always the worst thing.
But YouTube is big, it has billions of viewers, and the chances are that someone will find you through it too.
Also, it’s a great place for your VODs, so you can kill two birds with one stone! All in all, one of the best ways of promoting your Twitch channel.
16. Presents, Offers, and Giveaways
Who doesn’t like free stuff?
Offering your viewers and subscribers presents, discounts, running giveaways on your channel – all of that can strengthen and solidify your user base, but it can also bring new viewers to your Twitch channel. Consider using contest templates to seamlessly run engaging contests and promotions on your Twitch account, creating exciting opportunities for interaction and audience growth.
If you say “you will get a chance to win this thing, for free, all you need to do is subscribe”, well, how many people will say “no” to that?
17. Write Twitch Bio
If you’ve ever been on any dating apps, you will know how important a good bio is.
And, in a way, Twitch platform is no different from a dating platform. You are presenting yourself in the best light possible so that other viewers can decide if they want to “date” you, yes?
So, how do they know if they want to “date”, or rather, watch and subscribe to your channel?
Through your videos, yes, but through your bio too.
So you want to take some time and write a really good bio that represents you and your Twitch channel and your interests and your streams in a fun and interesting way, something that will be eye-catching and make people want to see and learn more about you, but also, something trustful.
If you’re not completely sure what to do, check our guide on how to write a Twitch bio.
18. Interesting Titles for Streams
One more thing that might not sound all that important is the way you title your streams.
You might be playing Dota 2 and Dota 2 alone, but naming every👏single👏stream👏 “Playing Dota 2” is a no-go.
Yes, okay, you didn’t lie, it is playing Dota 2. Over and over again. Which doesn’t make one stream stand out from another.
So this is another thing that you need to pay a bit of attention to. Try to come up with something catchy, something that will make people want to click on that stream/VOD and watch it.
This might seem like a small thing, really, but you would be amazed at what difference good titles make.
19. Enjoy
And finally, the most important tip you can get from me is – enjoy.
If you’re doing this for the money alone without a trace of passion, you will fail, you have to know that.
But if you really like what you’re doing, it will show, and people will want to come back and watch you being passionate about what you do.
So enjoy – enjoy the game you play, enjoy the communication and interaction with your audience, enjoy the processes of growing your Twitch channel, and the rest will come easily!
Conclusion
These were some basic tips to help you grow your Twitch channel! I hope 19 of these will help in any way on your success path. The only way to grow is to get better and attract Twitch viewers with quality streams.
So, turn that computer on, and game on!
