OH MY GOODNESS. You’re telling me that this whole networking thing was so important that it required not one blog post, but TWO OF THEM?

Yes, that’s right, networking is pretty darn important. Let’s face it, the future of your stream relies on other people watching it. Who knows maybe in the future there could be a Networking Bonus Pack DLC Blog post where I teach you four new ways to network like you’ve never seen before. All for the affordable price of $0. Stay tuned.

So to recap Part 1, we talked about how you form relationships with other broadcasters and how twitch teams work. In today’s blog post, we’re going to talk about being on top of your social media game, the ins and outs of Raids/Hosts, and one of my personal favorites, the elevator pitch.

*Part 2 of Networking is here*

So you’ve got the right mindset to stream, you’ve got the equipment all in place, you have the software that you need, and you’re ready to start your first stream. As soon as you hit that button to broadcast a plethora of viewers will just magically appear and will be ready to watch your stream right? Wrong. 

I’m going to put this the nicest way possible, but the chances of you growing your stream without knowing anyone in the Twitch community is very, very small. The majority of broadcasters grew their stream through knowing someone that was bigger than they were.

Growing your stream requires a lot of work, luck, and being at the right place at the right time. But luckily for you it’s not impossible.

Teams

One of the best ways to network is to join a pre-existing Twitch team. What is a Twitch team you may ask? In my opinion, a Twitch team can be easily compared to a clan or guild in an MMO. It’s basically a group of broadcasters who stream under one community or network of communities. What the community consists of can vary from team to team. You’ll see some teams like SpeedRunsLive include streamers who speedrun games. There are other teams, such as Main Menu (http://www.twitch.tv/team/mainmenu) that consist of broadcasters from all types of games.

So how do you go about joining or forming a team? It’s gotta be easy right? What you as a new broadcaster in this crazy world of Twitch have to understand is, a lot of these teams were formed based on friendships that were formed through twitch. The team I’m a part of “The Collective” is full of people I’ve known for almost 3 years. We all started out small, and just hung out in each other’s streams. We’d hang out in mumble calls, talking long hours into the night about videogames, life, the future, and pretty much everything. These are relationships you can’t just force, these are relationships that formed over long periods of time.

So you’re probably saying “Well Pie, you tell me about these teams, and then you tell me I have zero chance of ever joining one, so what’s the point?” That’s where the whole networking thing happens.

*Thanks to Andy, Orcastraw, and others for the recommendations*



Equipment is one of the most important aspects of streaming. Everyone is going to have a different vision of what they want their stream to become, and different equipment will be needed for different goals. In today's post we try to focus on key items that we believe are important to a successful stream. In future posts we'll dive a little deeper into the more technical aspects of equipment, while this post is meant to give you some recommended items to get you started! 


*There are image links provided for each product, but to view them you must disable adblock* 

PC Specs

PC specs are going to vary from streamer to streamer and are going to be completely different based on what you want to stream.  I personally use a very simple setup right now, that I will be upgrading in the near future. If you’re really looking to dive into some intense streaming, the following are what is suggested by Twitch themselves.

If you’re looking to stream…..Via Twitch

·         CPU: Intel Core i5-4670 or AMD Equivalent (Compare Your CPU)
·         MEMORY: 8GB DDR3 SDRAM
·         OS: Windows 7 Home Premium

How far you want to push the visual quality of your stream is up to you. If you’re looking to stream immense HD games, you’ll want a nice rig, while if you’re looking to stream old school games, you can get away with that semi-old laptop that you carry around. I always suggest people start out small and improve the set up as they grow their stream.

 

Xsplit

Pros

1. Ease of Use

One of the reasons I love Xsplit is how easy it is. When you’re getting into streaming, it can be a huge plunge, so if you’re looking for something that doesn’t make things complicated, Xsplit is the right choice for you. The interface is really easy to follow and everything is pretty much in a central place. Whether it’s cropping your screen capture or connecting your account to your streaming site of choice, Xsplit makes it so that you’re only a few clicks away from going live to the whole world.

2. Preview Editor (Requires Premium License)

One of the big features of Xsplit is the ability to edit on the fly while streaming. Say you’re in the middle of a really long stream and you need to change a layout around for future use of the current stream.  You don’t want to cut stream to do it and you don’t want to make the edits live on stream so that people can see. Xsplit allows you to edit scenes without affecting the current scene that you are using. So if you’re going for more of a bigger production show, Xsplit is the way to go. 

3. Customer Support

Of the two options, Xsplit could be seen as the more corporate like program. It has a paid team that designs and sells it, as well as a support team that has business hours. Because of this, you are much more likely to get a question answered regarding any issue or bug you run into while using the program. Quick, accurate, and helpful answers are a huge plus, and you’re more likely to get that from the helpful staff that moderate their Support Forums. With OBS, because the program is open source, and not a product that is sold, a lot of questions are going to rely on the community and could unanswered or take a much longer amount of time to get answered. 

 

Over the course of the next week I will be publishing a series called "The Essentials of Streaming." This series is meant to be your starter kit into the world of streaming and Twitch! This segment focuses on basic concepts often overlooked by up-and-coming streamers.



So you’ve decided you’re going to do it; you’re going to create your own stream. You’re going to become a huge internet celebrity, and everyone is going to want to watch you! Before you reach your goal of internet fame, you may want to keep these basics in mind when getting started.  These three points are essential to your success. If you follow them, you’ll attract the right people to your stream; the kind of people that make every time you hit that broadcast button a great memory. 

I get a lot of questions on my stream daily about viewers wanting to get into streaming and make it a full-time thing. I don’t blame them, who wouldn’t want to have a job that involves playing video games and talking to people on the internet. Here’s the bottom line though; money should not be your main goal when you stream. Streaming should be about having fun. Yes, some people are able to turn their hobby into something they get to do for a living, but it’s definitely not easy, and it  doesn't happen overnight.  Most streamers spent many days, months, and years to get their streams to the level that they are at now, and most of them were able to do that because they were passionate about what they did, not because there were endless amounts of cash at the end of the tunnel. If all you care about is dolla dolla, you will burn out really fast, and you won’t enjoy yourself. If you’re not enjoying yourself, your viewers won’t enjoy the stream either, and you’ll have a hard time even growing.

I see a lot of streamers give up because they aren’t getting the numbers they want from their stream right at the start. It takes time, and a lot of patience. If you’re focusing on the fun of streaming, and not how popular you are going to become, you won’t worry so much about how fast your stream grows. It’ll just gradually start to happen. This is the right approach, don’t expect wild growth. Be happy with the small battles and always remember, stay true.