streaming to zero viewers is nothing to be embarrassed about we all have to do
it at some point and honestly it makes the experience of getting those first
few viewers and those first few community members
so much better today i'm going to be talking about how to stream when nobody
is watching and giving you some actionable tips you
can put in place right now to help grow those first few viewers
let's go
hey i'm Eljay with streamscheme.com i'm also a variety streamer over at
twitch.tv/eljayem_ links to all that in the
description if you want to check me out while i'm live
or if you just want to check out some of the 200 guides over at stream scheme
today i'm going to be going over a topic that i've had requested a lot over the
last month since i started this channel and
that is how to stream to zero viewers how to stream when
nobody is watching and how to grow those first few viewers
from that point now today i'm gonna be going over a few topics we've already
talked about just briefly but i'm also gonna be touching on a few
very important topics that i haven't talked about before
that i think could really help you guys out when you're streaming to xero or
just only a few viewers at a time so i'm gonna get into my first tip
straight away and i'm only gonna touch on it briefly because i made a whole
video about it but you're streaming over saturated
games stop streaming things like call of duty war zone
valorent or fortnite they're just you're not gonna grow in those categories it's
almost impossible these days check out my video
about how to pick games and how i choose games to grow in
but on that video i got asked a lot about how to transition from
the games that are small into the games that are big
if they want to play something like star ju how do they transition to cs go
and i realized i probably didn't explain it properly but transitioning between
games is all about community building i'm going to talk
about that later in this video about how you can build your community so they'll
always transition with you however when you pick your game
it's important to pick a genre that fits your current
audience as well if you have 50 followers and they all know you from
shooters obviously don't go and play stardew you
should go and play something of a similar
level of followers and a similar level of viewers as stardew but in the current
genre you want i hope that makes sense but we're going to talk about community
building at the end of this video so stick around
but i just think it's really important to let you know at the start of this one
if you're streaming to no viewers it means you shouldn't be streaming in
over-saturated categories especially if you want to grow
so the second tip is something you've probably seen a lot but i'm going to
give you a pretty different spin on it and it might come
across as a bit harsh but trust me it is the best way to look at it
if you can get three to five friends or family members to watch your stream
then it will boost you hugely that's you know if you're at zero and suddenly you
have five viewers that's massive especially if you're streaming in an
unsaturated category where that gets you to the top two top three rows
of that category so whenever i see this tip in other videos i always see two
types of comments down below the first i don't have any friends or
family to watch my streams and the second is i'm too embarrassed to
show them or i'm scared to show them or i'm nervous to show them the first one i
can't really help you i'd recommend just trying to join other twitch streams and
make friends there don't go looking for an audience just make
friends and you'll get a small group of people and then
maybe in the future you can ask them individually not in someone else's
stream but the second it's going to come across
as harsh but you need to be critical about why you're embarrassed there's
only a handful of reasons why you should actually be scared or embarrassed and
those reasons are usually that these people aren't good people
and if that's the case they're not your friends and that's not who i'm talking
about i'm talking about people you trust
people who are actually friends with if you're not willing to show them your
content
why are you really proud of what you're creating
if you're really proud of what you're creating then you should be able to show
your friends and your family what you're doing
and at the end of the day if you're really putting the effort in and you're
still scared you just need to take a leap of faith
because streaming is all about putting yourself
out there you can't grow as a streamer you can't enjoy streaming really unless
you put yourself out there you have to be open to
failures you have to be open to people coming in and trolling you
it's just a part of live streaming sadly take a leap of faith
put effort into your content and when you're proud show it to your friends and
family that said i know this is going to sound
hypocritical there's no way i'm ever showing my mom my live stream and if she
ever sees clips of what i do for a living
i am going to be in for an earful i think she'd rather i do probably adult
films so on to the next point you need to
create talking points you to plan out your content now this is something i've
mentioned a lot but you need to talk talk talk talk talk
talk talk talk and before you say oh but i don't have a
chat youtubers who do gameplay or other things
have been talking to themselves for years yes they can edit it afterwards
but they still have to while they're recording talk to
themselves if they can do it with practice and confidence then
that's all it is for you as well practice and confidence if you're scared
to do it do it while you're offline first just do
it while you're playing a game in your office or your bedroom or anything like
that and then when you do go live just keep
practicing just keep that confidence the reason this is so important is because
you need to be talking about stuff you need to be engaging happy
so when someone drops in they're instantly engaged with you and they're
not just staring at a person sitting there silently
as they play a game waiting for that little zero to turn into a one even
though these days i have a pretty active chat
i will still plan out all of my content as if i will not have anyone talking
whatsoever i have a little notebook that i write
jokes in that i wrote funny tips in that i write stories that i want to talk
about in things i saw on reddit that i thought
were interesting just anything just get a little notebook and
start writing down the things that you're passionate about
the things that are unique to you the things that you will actually be able to
talk about naturally that said if it's anime body pillows
maybe don't talk about that because that that could be a bit weird when you're
trying to grow maybe talk about something like sandwiches
i don't know just just stay clear of the weird stuff
i'm going to throw out a little tip here for you that one of the big reasons i
think a lot of people struggle to keep talking is they're playing games
that there really isn't anything to talk about after the fifth call of duty war
zone round what are you supposed to talk about anymore
oh good kill oh i'm in the gulag all right cool
play something like skyrim or fallout get yourself a follower who's going to
say things and talk to you and randomly bring up complaints
and then you just bounce off them and keep talking at them as if they're a
real person youtubers as i said have done this for
years and it works great when live streaming especially with a slow
chat you go into a cinematic and someone's yelling about something and
you just throw little one-liners out there and reply to them
it's a good way to keep yourself talking it's a good way to practice
and it feels a lot less lonely as i said plan out your content
play games where you can chat and keep yourself talking because at the end of
the day twitch is very slow to update that little zero to a one
and it's very slow to update that users that are in chatting list
so keep yourself going so that when someone does drop in
they're engaged and they're good to go i'm about to cover view count and being
engaging in a second in detail but first i just want to throw it out there
if this video has helped you out at all i'd really recommend checking out some
of my other content i have content on how to make your mic
sound good i have content on mistakes a lot of streamers make
how to pick good games all of it and if those videos help you out maybe consider
subscribing it really helps us out and we've got
more videos coming weekly so there are some things about twitch
you just can't control you can put in hard work you can ask people to drop by
you can create amazing content but sometimes at the end of the day you're
gonna have zero viewers in your twitch stream you just can't control it
so what i recommend doing when it comes to your view count and your zero little
number there is turn it off hide it if you don't know
how to just stick a little bit of blue tack over that little part of the screen
stop staring at it it will throw you off so much i never turned it off i wish i
did turn it off these days i sit there and i still get
anxious about it if i'm sitting at 90 i'll be like why am i at 100
i know it sounds ridiculous but view count will always freak
you out hide it turn it off don't look at it stream as if you have
10 viewers 100 viewers stream as if you're streaming to the best
audience ever just stream with confidence
speaking of being critical about your view count and how detrimental it is i
just want to throw it out there that people who tell you to stop being
critical of yourself and just to keep up doing what you're doing
are kind of wrong you need to be critical of yourself you need to want to
improve you see tweets from mr beast or these
giant streamers all the time saying hey do you have some feedback about what i
could do to improve my content these are huge
content creators and they want advice from everyone they want tips because
there's a little bit of information in every single one
so be critical of yourself as i said there are a lot of things you can't
control but the other day you can control how good your audio is
how good your visuals are how much content you plan what games you play
you can control a lot of different things and i want you to go back and
watch your vod and be very critical of yourself is your lighting
good enough are you really putting the effort in
i do it all the time sometimes too much and i really
mess with myself but at the same time it's one of the reasons why i'm
constantly growing i don't like how my webcam looks there i
need to add a light here why does my audio sound like that my audio was fine
last stream what changed i need to fix it
you can control a lot of different things and it's important to be critical
of your failures so that you can improve them and become better
if you fell into your own stream and you were watching it how long would you stay
click through your vod when you click to a random spot are you talking are you
being engaging be really honest with yourself make
notes and try and grow don't stop yourself with fear just
because you're not doing something right we're all beginners at some point
just look be critical and improve and then be happy about the fact that you're
trying to improve because that's amazing if you're
watching this video it means you want to improve and that is awesome
at the end of the day the only way to grow your stream is to be critical of
yourself and to keep pushing forward in a
positive and confident way speaking of positivity and confidence
i'm going to talk about quickly something that i still struggle to do i
sometimes get very negative on my stream or i get very
wrapped up in my own head try and avoid this if you're hyped your
audience will be hyped if you're sad your audience will be sad
pretty much your chat is a reflection of you when you stream
so you need to keep it positive keep it hyped and then they'll be positive and
they'll be hyped it's very easy to get wrapped up in your
fears about your view account or a failure in a game just keep smiling
keep that confidence and you'll be fine that's less for you guys and more for me
but hopefully it helps someone who's watching as well
finally my last and most important tip of the entire video
and it's more important than keeping yourself talking it's more important
than anything else it's about engaging the people who do join your chat
if someone does join and say hi talk to them ask them how their day's been
why did they find this category how'd they find you what do they do for a
living maybe don't dox them but actively engage with them connect
with them because you're not a huge streamer yet
you're a small streamer and that means one-to-one interaction is something you
have that others can't do use this to your advantage and grow a
community not just a bunch of random viewers who have
followed you and never come back if you're streaming but not building a
one-to-one bond with your community or chatters when they rock up
then you're never gonna grow your average viewers because they're never
going to come back even if they follow you
a follow pretty much means nothing unless you engage that person on a
one-to-one level it's just how it is building this kind
of culture in your stream is crucial i've said it before and i'll say it
again until the end of time if you engage someone who joins your
chat on a one-to-one level they will most likely become a community member
but if you inspire your community members to engage
new chatters themselves they will always become a community member
because at the end of the day people who are joining twitch just want to find
mates who can hang out have a chat and watch
something so if they join a chat and like five people say to them hey what's
up how are you they're gonna stick around it's just the
truth so i'm gonna give you a secret bonus tip right now
if you can get a few friends to join your chat and when someone else joins
and starts talking if those friends engage with that person and chat with
that person and make them feel welcome your average viewers will grow in a
rapid way seriously it will do you wonders and
it's very very important try it out so there are all my tips
today i'm gonna throw it out there if you enjoyed this video please consider
subscribing liking checking out our other content we
produce videos weekly and i'm really having fun with it the
comments you guys are leaving are really really nice it makes me feel like i'm
actually doing something to help out a lot of people
and i feel like i'm adding a fresh spin hopefully so let me know i'll see you
next week