I decided last last year that I was going to start a regular streaming schedule on Twitch. I had only ever streamed a few times before, and I played video games since that's what I had seen other people doing. When I talked to people at AGDQ about streaming they said that Twitch was actually open to other kinds of streams, not just playing video games. So, I really started thinking about what I had to offer to my channel's programming.
A few things were certain. One, I needed a clear schedule and keep to it. It was important for me to consider how much time I was realistically able to dedicate to it, and then, you know, actually show up. Too many times I've been wanting to watch someone stream but they had no regular schedule to follow, or sometimes they would announce on Twitter that they're not in the mood to stream that day. Some of my favorite streamers have strict day job hours and streaming is done in their spare time, when they have it. They may also consider streaming a hobby and not looking to focus on it as a means for income at this point in time. I understood this, totally, but I also knew that because I didn't like inconsistency I was going to make sure I was consistent AF.
Two, I needed to make sure the focus was in the right place. I know the camera is on me, and I'm the only person in the room (unless my husband or dogs stop by to say hello), but the show isn't really about me. The show is about the viewer(s). I wanted my efforts to be more about community engagement, education and, if I'm lucky, inspiration for others to follow suit.
Lastly, I'm not interested in putting on an act/personality. Ever since my first time on stage as just Alicia and not hamming it up as a character, I have felt more at "home". Years ago, I assumed I'd have some fun nickname and come out in full costume and a wig and put on a cheerful persona. But I've come to realize that when I'm doing things I enjoy I'm pretty naturally cheerful. This also comes back around to the show not really being about me, specifically, and if I'm busy putting on a show then I'm not focusing on what matters most to me: the viewer.
Once AGDQ ended and I returned home I got to work planning my streaming schedule, which I gave myself a hard start date of February 3rd. I narrowed down my streams to three categories, Food Prep, Art and Music. These are three things I already do on a weekly basis, so the only difference on my end was to turn on a camera and include others into the process and just... see what happens.
I got my Twitch channel as set up as possible with tabs at the bottom to navigate viewers in any direction they had an interest in. Food Prep related links send them here to my blog, or to the Prevent Cancer Foundation website. If they like my Music streams they can visit my website or request a song from the list of ukulele charts I have, etc.
I even set up a Discord channel in hopes that it would get more conversations going about these stream topics and an opportunity for me to see what viewers are doing in regards to food, art and music in their own lives.
I posted my schedule across the board of my social medias: Mondays, Food Prep Stream 1pm. Fridays, Art Stream 1pm, Music Stream 6pm (which scooted up to 4pm after the first day so that my creative streams are back-to-back).
February 3rd, my stream went live and I got to work washing and chopping vegetables as usual, but this time chatting to the camera, even when no one was watching. I got into the rhythm of starting to talk about things as I did them, acclimating to the idea of someone, somewhere, absorbing this information. The conversations and viewership were low, as was to be expected, but I streamed for about 3 hours and called it a day. Friday, February 6th I streamed myself making pendants out of Sculpey clay for a couple of hours with some music playing in the background. I took a break to reset my scene and have a snack, then sang and played uke of songs I was in the mood to sing that hour.
I had about 8 followers at the end of that week.
Over the following weeks my little community began to grow. I noticed that some viewers returned week after week and were always engaging with me in whatever I was doing. I started to really look forward to Mondays and Fridays and was like, "should I stream more??", which I feel like was a good sign that I was doing something that had meaning to me. A couple of people joined my Discord channel and despite it being a small community, it was actively engaging conversation on a daily basis. People were being supportive of each other, talking about their own food struggles, or sharing their artwork and favorite bands. All I did was set up a foundation and the viewers built this space that is more pleasant than I'd imagined.
Food Prep streams are my most popular and have the most viewership. I stream for an average of 6 hours every Monday, and started giving each stream it's own title so that people know what foods I am planning to make. For example, I'll call it "Food Prep: Prepping Multi-Day Salads and Biscuits" so if they're looking forward to biscuits they'll watch the whole stream or check in from time to time to see if I'm there yet. I peaked in viewers during last week's Food Prep stream at 14 people.
In my Art stream I have been exclusively making and/or painting pendants. I want to make them and people do seem to enjoy watching my process, seeing what cute and often nerdy fan art I create. Last week I had my first commission to make and sell a pendant to a viewer from the UK. I had made one that sparked a great deal of joy and they asked to buy it. This was not an avenue I had previously considered, but I imagine it's pretty cool to watch your own art being created!
My Music streams have been fun and have been gaining a bit more traction thanks to opportunities to sing for other events such as Faust-a-Thon, a fundraiser to help a speedrunning friend attend AGDQ 2020, and Pixels 4 Peace, another streaming fundraiser that benefits the charity Save The Children. Both of these events gave me a "runners" time slot to perform video game covers I've made for voice/uke. I feel like it gave me a chance to show others that I love video games too, despite not being a speedrunner or streaming games myself.
Sunday March 1st, I sat down and checked out where everything was at. What did a full month of a consistent streaming schedule get me? Well, I ended up with a super nice and engaging Discord community of 5 people, my Twitch channel was up to 61 followers, and I had received my first donation.
What really threw me off was that in just over 3 weeks I had also qualified for Twitch Affiliate, so I was able to start monetizing with ads, bits and subscribers. The guidelines to become Affiliate include: a minimum of 500 minutes of broadcast in 30 days, 7 unique broadcast days, an average of 3 concurrent viewers and at least 50 followers. I even ended the month with a subscriber.
It has not slowed down since. After Monday's Food Prep stream I was up to 65 followers, 8 people in Discord and 3 subscribers. I feel insanely fortunate to have connected with people and am able to provide something worth supporting. My schedule for March is set to continue with the same programming and keep building on consistent and reliable streams. I have already learned so much and look forward to my next update in April.
Have a great day and remember to drink some water! <3
A few things were certain. One, I needed a clear schedule and keep to it. It was important for me to consider how much time I was realistically able to dedicate to it, and then, you know, actually show up. Too many times I've been wanting to watch someone stream but they had no regular schedule to follow, or sometimes they would announce on Twitter that they're not in the mood to stream that day. Some of my favorite streamers have strict day job hours and streaming is done in their spare time, when they have it. They may also consider streaming a hobby and not looking to focus on it as a means for income at this point in time. I understood this, totally, but I also knew that because I didn't like inconsistency I was going to make sure I was consistent AF.
Two, I needed to make sure the focus was in the right place. I know the camera is on me, and I'm the only person in the room (unless my husband or dogs stop by to say hello), but the show isn't really about me. The show is about the viewer(s). I wanted my efforts to be more about community engagement, education and, if I'm lucky, inspiration for others to follow suit.
Lastly, I'm not interested in putting on an act/personality. Ever since my first time on stage as just Alicia and not hamming it up as a character, I have felt more at "home". Years ago, I assumed I'd have some fun nickname and come out in full costume and a wig and put on a cheerful persona. But I've come to realize that when I'm doing things I enjoy I'm pretty naturally cheerful. This also comes back around to the show not really being about me, specifically, and if I'm busy putting on a show then I'm not focusing on what matters most to me: the viewer.
Once AGDQ ended and I returned home I got to work planning my streaming schedule, which I gave myself a hard start date of February 3rd. I narrowed down my streams to three categories, Food Prep, Art and Music. These are three things I already do on a weekly basis, so the only difference on my end was to turn on a camera and include others into the process and just... see what happens.
I got my Twitch channel as set up as possible with tabs at the bottom to navigate viewers in any direction they had an interest in. Food Prep related links send them here to my blog, or to the Prevent Cancer Foundation website. If they like my Music streams they can visit my website or request a song from the list of ukulele charts I have, etc.
I even set up a Discord channel in hopes that it would get more conversations going about these stream topics and an opportunity for me to see what viewers are doing in regards to food, art and music in their own lives.
I posted my schedule across the board of my social medias: Mondays, Food Prep Stream 1pm. Fridays, Art Stream 1pm, Music Stream 6pm (which scooted up to 4pm after the first day so that my creative streams are back-to-back).
February 3rd, my stream went live and I got to work washing and chopping vegetables as usual, but this time chatting to the camera, even when no one was watching. I got into the rhythm of starting to talk about things as I did them, acclimating to the idea of someone, somewhere, absorbing this information. The conversations and viewership were low, as was to be expected, but I streamed for about 3 hours and called it a day. Friday, February 6th I streamed myself making pendants out of Sculpey clay for a couple of hours with some music playing in the background. I took a break to reset my scene and have a snack, then sang and played uke of songs I was in the mood to sing that hour.
I had about 8 followers at the end of that week.
Over the following weeks my little community began to grow. I noticed that some viewers returned week after week and were always engaging with me in whatever I was doing. I started to really look forward to Mondays and Fridays and was like, "should I stream more??", which I feel like was a good sign that I was doing something that had meaning to me. A couple of people joined my Discord channel and despite it being a small community, it was actively engaging conversation on a daily basis. People were being supportive of each other, talking about their own food struggles, or sharing their artwork and favorite bands. All I did was set up a foundation and the viewers built this space that is more pleasant than I'd imagined.
Food Prep streams are my most popular and have the most viewership. I stream for an average of 6 hours every Monday, and started giving each stream it's own title so that people know what foods I am planning to make. For example, I'll call it "Food Prep: Prepping Multi-Day Salads and Biscuits" so if they're looking forward to biscuits they'll watch the whole stream or check in from time to time to see if I'm there yet. I peaked in viewers during last week's Food Prep stream at 14 people.
In my Art stream I have been exclusively making and/or painting pendants. I want to make them and people do seem to enjoy watching my process, seeing what cute and often nerdy fan art I create. Last week I had my first commission to make and sell a pendant to a viewer from the UK. I had made one that sparked a great deal of joy and they asked to buy it. This was not an avenue I had previously considered, but I imagine it's pretty cool to watch your own art being created!
My Music streams have been fun and have been gaining a bit more traction thanks to opportunities to sing for other events such as Faust-a-Thon, a fundraiser to help a speedrunning friend attend AGDQ 2020, and Pixels 4 Peace, another streaming fundraiser that benefits the charity Save The Children. Both of these events gave me a "runners" time slot to perform video game covers I've made for voice/uke. I feel like it gave me a chance to show others that I love video games too, despite not being a speedrunner or streaming games myself.
Sunday March 1st, I sat down and checked out where everything was at. What did a full month of a consistent streaming schedule get me? Well, I ended up with a super nice and engaging Discord community of 5 people, my Twitch channel was up to 61 followers, and I had received my first donation.
What really threw me off was that in just over 3 weeks I had also qualified for Twitch Affiliate, so I was able to start monetizing with ads, bits and subscribers. The guidelines to become Affiliate include: a minimum of 500 minutes of broadcast in 30 days, 7 unique broadcast days, an average of 3 concurrent viewers and at least 50 followers. I even ended the month with a subscriber.
It has not slowed down since. After Monday's Food Prep stream I was up to 65 followers, 8 people in Discord and 3 subscribers. I feel insanely fortunate to have connected with people and am able to provide something worth supporting. My schedule for March is set to continue with the same programming and keep building on consistent and reliable streams. I have already learned so much and look forward to my next update in April.
Have a great day and remember to drink some water! <3