Quick How-To for Twitch (Twitch for Beginners)
TWITCH IS NOT JUST FOR GAMERS! Here’s a quick how to start streaming on Twitch that anyone can use. Comedians, painters, singers, chefs, trivia freaks, and more can share their passion with a growing community on Twitch. Here’s a quick how-to for beginners to go live on Twitch now!
Step 1: Sign Up & Customize
Sign-Up: Go to Twitch.tv, “Sign Up” (upper right). Usernames = 4-25 chars. Be consistent across platforms.
Customize your profile photo, header photo, bio information, links, and screens for your livestreams.
Step 2: Get the Right Tools:
Basic: Twitch app + phone, tablet, or computer with a camera and mic.
Upgrade:
Hardware: Mic, mobile tripod, lighting, mobile audio interface
Software: Twitch Studio, OBS, Streamlabs
Step 3: Categories and Tags
Choose the right category and tags for discovery.
Categories: Just Chatting, Games, Music & Performance, Talk Show, Sports, Travel & Outdoors, Food & Drink, Special Events.
Tags help users find you in the directory or front page. Tag types: Stream Tags, Category Tags, Automatic Tags
Step 4: Going Live!
Title your stream properly! Be relevant, creative, and brief.
Be Consistent: Set a recurring day/time of when you’ll go live.
Multiple Devices: Have a second device to stay active in your chat.
Step 5: Engagement Tips and Tools
Tools to interact with your existing audience:
Chat Room & Moderators
Emotes: Enhanced emojis/emoticons (partners and affiliates)
Discord Chat
Zoom
Step 6: To Raid or Host?
Twitch Raids: Raids enable a streamer to send their viewers from their live to another live channel. Most likely of the same genre, industry, or category.
Host a Channel: A way to share your favorite channel’s live channels while you’re offline.
Step 7: Getting Paid on Twitch
Subscriptions
Bits & cheers
Donations
Brand Partnerships
Merchandise
Ad Sales (partner)
Step 8: Enjoy!
10 DJs to Follow on Twitch
10 DJs to follow on Twitch today
There's always a party on Twitch. Check out some of our favorite DJs to stream to keep it live in your living room. This list is by no means in order or an exhaustive list. For more of our favorite streamers, visit our Twitch follow list with 70+ and growing streamers to add to your list.
Twitch is That Bitch
10 Reasons Why You Need to Download Twitch NOW!
For those who have considered going outside when the pandemic is too much. Cure your loneliness and feed your FOMO with Twitch!
Stay your @$$ in the house: It's much easier when you're entertained and engaged.
Twitch is super easy to use: Access via URL (no account required) or on Firestick, Chromecast, or AppleTV (Sorry Roku). “Background Play” on mobile allows you to stream and do other things online (Sorry IG Live).
Support your favorite creators and find new ones: Every day artists are getting on Twitch, artists from Lil Jon to Logic to Soulection.
There’s always a party in your living room: Put Twitch on your TV to listen to DJ sets for the maximum music experience.
There’s someone sharing your passion online: If you’re not into music, there is drag, cooking, comedy, fashion, and (of course) gaming content streaming all day on Twitch!
Twitch is Raw and REAL: It's live entertainment! That means what happens in real time, is what you see in real time.
Find your Tribe: Twitch has an engaging and interactive chat room, but creators have made Zoom dancefloors and created communities via Discord servers
Twitch is still saturated and yet under-discovered: Twitch is known for gaming, so there’s still room for other passion points to grow and build a community..
Amazon Prime = “Prime Gaming”: This gives you access to lots of free “loot” and can subscribe to one channel for free per month.
Twitch is FREE: It’s free to download, but you can buy subscriptions and “bits” to support your favorite creators and make sure they get PAID. The payout is good!
While we wait out the rest of this pandemic, you might as well upgrade your entertainment. Download Twitch app now to your phone or desktop or browse at https://www.twitch.tv/
Story Time!
Story time!
Very early in my career, I remember calling my mom at 3am in hysterics.
“Is everything okay, baby?” She asked worriedly.
“IT'S ALL GONE!” I exclaimed through tears.
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been working on this big presentation for my new job and my presentation is gone. It didn’t autosave. IT couldn’t help! What am I going to do?”
I could hear her sigh in between my sobs. At the moment, I didn’t care. I was as good as fired.
“I thought you were assaulted.” she said annoyed.
*dramatic pause*
“NO! MY PRESENTATION IS GONE,” I cried.
I continue to sob. Pushing past her annoyance.
“Okay,” she said, putting on her mom jeans. “You’ve already written it. It’s in that brain, so you can write it again. You can do this.”
With that, I got back to work. I pulled out my trusty outline that I had used to craft my original presentation and slowly but surely I put it all back together.
When I got to work that day, I explained my episode (and subsequent meltdown with IT [I didn’t dare mention my meltdown with mommy] to get it back.
Thank God for empathy in leadership because my amazing boss echoed the same sentiment as my mom and helped me build and refine the deck in time for the deadline.
The gag is, they bought the idea, but it was a complete revamp of the original idea. I learned three lessons that day that I keep in mind when creating presentations:
Always have an outline for your deck
“Save As” and Autosave (BOTH). Autosave is a liar.
Don’t get married to your ideas for clients because they will always change.
For Mommy: Think before you dial your mom for non-life threatening things at 3am.
Have you had any presentation horror stories? When have decks done you dirty? What do you wish you knew about presentations to save you time? If you're interested in learning from my mistakes, join our newsletter so you’re the first to know about any resources or classes we make to help you upgrade your presentations.