How to Make A Twitch Community – 7 Tips For Creating A Better Stream

So you’re thinking about starting a stream on Twitch or have already started your Twitch channel. You’re maybe wondering how you can get more viewers or why people aren’t watching your stream?

This is a very common and natural experience when first starting a Twitch channel. So don’t worry, we will get you more followers.

I often get asked, “How did you start getting viewers?” and “How long did it take for you to start getting regular viewers in your stream?” and “How did you create a Twitch community around your stream?”

To be honest, even though I am a Twitch partner and have a lot of followers, when I first started….I was in the exact same boat as you are right now. It took me about 3-6 months of streaming before I got my first 5 regular viewers.

It took me that long streaming to 0 viewers until I realized a crucial piece of the puzzle. Hopefully, this blog will help you bypass the struggles I faced when I first started my Twitch channel.

The critical piece I discovered was that streaming on Twitch is more about creating a community than just thinking about streaming for yourself.

So to flash back, here are a few things I tried when I was first starting out:

1. I asked all my friends and family to open up my stream so it looked like I had more viewers
2. I spammed my social media accounts trying to get people to check out my stream
3. I tried opening my stream on my own computers just to get my viewer count above 2 (not sure if this still works, but it did when I started)
4. I tried experimenting with different games, stream times, days of the week, etc in hopes of getting more viewers

All of the above were good ideas, but none of them really worked or had any long lasting impact on my stream.

I remember just asking myself, “Why on earth do I not have more viewers!? I love playing these games and really just want to share them with others and show them how great games they could be playing!”

That was when it hit me. Kind of like a revelation that completely changed my streaming forever.

What was this revelation??

I was streaming for myself!

All my thoughts focused around things like:

1. How can I get more viewers?
2. Why aren’t people watching me?
3. Am I not playing the right games?
4. Am I not entertaining enough to hold people’s interest?

Looking at the questions above, I was able to realize that all I was focusing on was what would make streaming better for me but also, they focused on what I was potentially doing wrong rather than encouraging me to do things right.

Questions like the ones above create stress and anxiety, worry about why you aren’t good enough. My revelation was to flip that on it’s end and start asking positive questions that focused more on what would make my stream better for viewers, not myself.

I started asking myself, “If a viewer had no idea who I was and stopped into my stream for the first time, what would a viewer really enjoy?”

This led to much different questions like:

1. What will make my stream more exciting for new viewers?
2. If a new viewers joins my stream, how can I make them feel welcome and comfortable chatting for the first time?
3. What makes games fun for a viewer to watch?
4. What makes viewers come back to a stream over and over again?

There are a ton more questions I asked myself just like this, but these are the core questions I started asking myself.

Rather than streaming for myself and wondering why people didn’t “like me” or didn’t like my stream, I realized that it was because I wasn’t focusing on what would create the best experience for new Twitch viewers.

Once I started asking new questions, not only did my outlook and mentality completely change but so did my follower count.

The questions I mentioned above are pretty general, so I think the best way for me to explain how I used these questions to help me get more viewers on Twitch is to give an example of how I changed my stream to help me grow my Twitch channel.

What Will Make My Stream More Exciting For New Viewers?

When I was streaming for 0 Twitch viewers, everything in my stream focused on what only I enjoyed. I played the games I liked (mostly retro) and I didn’t really consider what would actually be fun for new viewers.

I’ve written a complete blog on specifically what to do if you are stuck streaming to 0 viewers on Twitch. It goes into more detail about how to get viewers to stick around your stream long enough for you to get the chance to engage with them.

But let’s get into ways you can help making your stream more exciting for new viewers.

I started out by making a list of things that I thought would be fun for new viewers. I started looking at what my favorite streamers were doing and how I could incorporate those ideas into my own stream.

This led me to one of my favorite streamers (Miltrivd). He always ran no death runs of one of my favorite games – Dark Souls.

So rather than just playing Dark Souls on my stream, why not attempt to do a no death run?

Simple enough, right? Well, not really. Dark Souls is hard as shit!

I quickly learned that it may be quite a challenge and was kind of sucking. But you know what? Even if I died after only 20 minutes, I got more viewers and people were much more active in chat.

They didn’t care that I was dying. They had more fun making fun of me dying and it was hilarious when I’d accidentally slide off a ledge or die to the stupid Anor Londo Archers.

Eventually, I did complete my Dark Souls No Death Run and it was amazing! Definitely one of my favorite moments on Twitch.

This taught me that it isn’t always about WHAT you play, it’s about HOW you stream it.

Twitch viewers love watching a few basic things:

1. Twitch viewers love watching streamers struggle and die stupid deaths
2. Twitch viewers love watching streamers overcome extremely difficult challenges
3. Twitch viewers love feeling like a part of your stream and supporting you as you overcome challenges
4. Twitch viewers love to laugh at you when you suck.

Playing games that you will suck at and die often… those sometimes get the best viewership.

These elements of games are things I had never even considered before. I had never thought what was enjoyable for the viewers. I was always just thinking of what was fun for me.

Normally when I’m playing a video game, dying is the last thing I want to happen. But realizing that it was often entertaining for viewers flipped a switch in my head. Once that flip switched, I was able to start paying attention to what viewers really enjoyed in all their favorite streams and start implementing those strategies into my own.

I suggest considering ways that you can provide as much entertainment for the viewer first, then match that with what you enjoy doing, too.

How To Make A Twitch Community

Rather than streaming just for myself and what I enjoyed playing, I started considering how could I get new viewers invested in my stream and wanting to come back again and again?

This is not an easy thing to do!

People always say you either have to have a great streaming personality, be a cute girl, or be insanely good at a game to find success on Twitch.

What I find interesting is that my personality felt like it sucked hard for streaming in the beginning when I had no viewers. Apparently, my personality didn’t attract hardly anyone!

But then I realized, it was the strategy that was missing. I just had to get the viewers into my stream, have them stick around long enough to learn who I was and what I was all about, and then things finally started picking up.

This really drew to my attention that it doesn’t always matter how entertaining (or not entertaining) you feel as long as you have the elements that encourage a viewer to stick around and learn more about you. Give them a chance to invest in your stream.

Here are a few of the strategies I found to work best:

Use Twitch Stream Overlays

Always use a Twitch stream overlay to properly show your social media profiles i.e. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc.

By constantly having your social media handles displayed on your stream, this adds social proof to new viewers that you have a solid commitment to streaming and provide them with multiple sources to “check you out” to deem whether you’re worthy of their time or not.

Many people think this doesn’t make a difference, but how many times have you entered a stream and immediately scoped out their social media to determine whether they’re worth watching?

I know I do it all the time. If their social media profiles interest me, I will commit more time watching their streams and reaching out to them with questions in the chat.

Create Your Own Twitch Commands

I highly recommend creating your own Twitch chat commands and displaying them on screen all the time.

When a new viewer enters your stream, they are looking for something fun and exciting to do. Having commands on your screen like “!EnterGiveaway” or “!songRequest” give a new viewer a reason to type something into chat.

Oftentimes, a new viewer will just type the command just to see what it does. This gives you a valuable opportunity to engage with them and create a dialogue to help keep them around in your stream a little while longer.

Trust me, this tip absolutely works! Make the Twitch command visible right on the screen and see how many people type it in as their first chat in your stream.

Keep a Consistent Twitch Streaming Schedule

When it comes to making a Twitch Community, a lot of it has to do with thinking of your viewers first. Again, you are not just streaming for you…you are streaming for the people who watch you. You are streaming for their entertainment.

Be sure to tell your viewers, “I will be streaming every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 6 pm EST”.

For me personally, I streamed every single day for 365 days at 7 pm EST. I would work my 9-5 job as a cyber-security developer during the day, Twitch live streamer at night.

Since my viewers knew I would be streaming at the same time every day, many of them built it into their day that they would watch me stream as they did homework, worked the night shift, had a free hour after dinner, did laundry, whatever their situation was… they knew I would be there if they wanted to watch during that time.

This greatly helped when it came to getting consistent viewers on my Twitch channel.

You don’t have to stream every single day, but just let your viewers know when you’ll be streaming next. You may be surprised how many will pop back in to see what you’re up to.

How to Welcome New Viewers to Your Twitch Stream

I get many people asking me, “I never seem to have any viewers stick around in my channel. What am I doing wrong?”

When I visit their channel, I notice that when a new viewer types into chat, they don’t always acknowledge it quickly let alone with a welcoming answer.

I did the same thing when I was first starting. I’d get so deep into a game that I wouldn’t even look at chat for 10 minutes at a time. I mean, I had no viewers, so why would I look at chat, right?

Well, I realized two major issues with this.

First, I realized that if I wasn’t even looking at chat for 10 minute increments, I probably wasn’t really focusing on providing entertainment to others so much as I was just playing for myself.

To change this, I started commenting to myself all the time. I would mention strategies I was thinking out loud. If something good happened, I would celebrate out loud as if I was celebrating with a person in my room. Not in a crazy way, but I would act like I always had viewers and I would stream as if someone was always watching.

This helped when new viewers would pop in because they instantly felt like I was welcoming them into the stream. If something good happened, I would celebrate and they would often type something positive into chat. If I was struggling on a puzzle and talking through my thoughts out loud, they would type in chat to help give me a solution.

Being vocal at all times was one of the biggest factors I found in making sure a new viewer felt welcome when they joined my stream.

Another way to make a viewer feel welcome is to always have your Twitch viewer list open. If you see a new name enter the channel, welcome them in with a non-pressure mention like, “Hey johndoe123, welcome to the stream! Let me know if you have any questions about anything.” and then just continue streaming like normal.

More times than not, the viewer will reply and ask a question about the game, about you, or just make a comment about something random. Once they feel welcome, you have an opportunity to engage with them and hopefully keep them around as a solid viewer.

I wrote an entire blog specifically about this topic, so check it out if you’re stuck streaming to 0 viewers on Twitch.

How Do I Know Which Games Will Get Viewers?

This is one of the biggest challenges you will face when starting your Twitch channel.

So many people write me this question and when I go to watch their streams, they’re playing games like Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Fortnite, and other super popular games.

These games are a blast to play, but for me personally, I’ve never been able to get any traction with them on Twitch. The competition is too high.

So what should you do if you want to be playing these high competition games?

My suggestion is to strike a balance in your stream schedule. It’s okay to play the super popular games, but you may need to play less popular games to attract your initial viewers.

For example, if you stream 3 days per week, you could play a less popular game 2 days per week and get new viewers, then take the third day to play the popular game and possibly invite the viewers you’ve already found to join you in watching/playing with you.

For me, this game was Dark Souls. It was relatively popular, but not popular enough that I would get drowned in the “Top Streamers” category for the game. Usually when I was playing, I would be in the top 10 positions even without a ton of viewers (this was before Dark Souls got so popular).

Playing Dark Souls allowed me to start creating a community of followers who enjoyed watching me do No Death Runs, but a few days a week I would play retro games or other games I had a lot of fun with like Super Meat Boy.

Not all the viewers from Dark Souls would join me when I was playing other games, but many of them did. This allowed me to build my following around multiple games rather than just being stuff playing specific things.

More importantly, had I kept trying to play games like Battlefield and Call of Duty, I never would have gotten any traction. The middle-tier games were where I got all my best traction and that was the best way I was able to find new viewers and keep them interested in returning to my streams each week.

You Are Not Just Streaming For You

I hope this advice helps you skip months of suffering streaming to no viewers on Twitch like I did! Hopefully, it will help you think of way how to make a Twitch community in your own stream.

If you keep the mindset of always thinking what will be entertaining for new viewers, you will have much more success in your Twitch streams.

Remember too, the first list of questions I was always asking myself created stress on myself and made me feel like I wasn’t good enough.

The second list is creative and always looking for ways to improve your stream and make it more fun for new viewers.

Always make sure you are asking questions like in the second list. Trust me, you’ll be a lot happier streaming if you do!

Following these tips definitely helped me create a positive and productive mental attitude toward streaming rather than one that was harmful and stressful!

I really hope this outlook helps you grow your stream and if you ever have any questions about streaming, feel free to reach out to me on all my social media profiles!

Keep on gaming and never stop leveling up!

– Dinky Dana