As a live streamer trying to grow your community, knowing your statistics is very important. You need to know what games are the most popular, what are the best times to stream and all of the ups and downs in your own live streams.

Sure, you could guess what is working but knowing the actual numbers and statistics is the way to go.

Your Twitch dashboard is fairly decent when it comes to showing you a few things like how many average viewers you had at a specific time, how many followers or subs and how long you streamed. This is all great information, but what if you want to dig deeper and know more about your streams?

I’ve got some amazing sites that will allow you to see so much more.

Social Blade

Social Blade is a great place if you want to take a quick glance at how many people were in your stream and how many followed that day.

For the follows, it takes into consideration how many people unfollowed you as well, so the numbers might look different in the Twitch dashboard.

SullyGnome

Sully Gnome is great but can be a bit overwhelming when you look at it because there is so much information there. You can do extensive research about games, channels and even communities.

Twinge

Twinge is pretty basic when it comes to statistics, but there is a neat review system in place where viewers can review streamers and all that info gets shown publicly.

You can direct your viewers to rate you and give you feedback and when people search for you, it gives them a bit of insight into you and your channel.

Twitch Tracker

Twitch Tracker is one of my favorites. You can search any channel and get your maximum and average viewers, and hours watched by month, followers and views trends, number of streams and time streamed by month and so much more.

If you really want to dig deeper into your channel, Twitch Tracker is the place you want to go.

I know there are many more sites that I haven’t listed but these are enough to get you started and they are varied enough so that you can pick which one you prefer.

If you have a favorite site that I didn’t list, please let us know and post it in the comments.

Best Sites to See Your Twitch Statistics was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you are a streamer and you were fortunate enough to be able to attend PAX, TwitchCon, GDC or any of the other awesome gaming conventions, we hope you had a great time and were able to meet some amazing people.

So many great friendships come out of meeting people in IRL at events like these. I have made some great friends at these events.

Another important type of relationship that you should be trying to build is your business network that includes other streamers, sponsors, publishers, agents and other people working in the industry.

So, you have taken a huge big step and made it to your first convention or maybe even your first few conventions. You partied a bit, walked around the floor and saw some great products and games, met other streamers, hung out and had an excellent time.

Now, the con is over, you are tired and have finally made it home. You have a ton of swag and hopefully some contact info like business cards or have connected on social media. What now?

Your first step is clean off your desk so you have some room. Pull out all of those business cards, flyers and whatever else you collected at the event that has contact information on them and start organizing them in a way that works for you.

I like to divide things as people I know or we clicked, people or organizations I might want to do business with soon and everything else.

You more than likely don’t have a CRM program so good old Google Docs will do! I like to use spreadsheets.

Make it so you can easily organize everyone the way you want and then you won’t need those business cards lying around, unless you like to keep that kind of stuff.

I used to keep all of the business cards I collected, but I ended up with a huge cardboard box of them and honestly, I probably won’t ever look at them again, unless one is really awesome and I can take inspiration from it.

Then what you want to do is start reaching out to the people you met. I like to do it about a week, or at least a few days after the event, just to give myself and everyone else time to chill for a bit. Don’t want to wait too long, you want it to be fresh.

I tend to send out more personal things and write individual emails to people I really clicked with.

If I’m going to be sending out a TON of emails, I try and follow the 3 sentence rule. The 3 sentence rule is that you can pretty much say everything you want to say in an email in 3 sentences or less. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule but if you generally stick to it, you will get emails out faster than you would have believed. I don’t like reading long emails and I would imagine other people don’t either, especially when they have a bunch of emails to get through.

I like to also follow people on Twitter that I have recently met and drop a short, friendly “Great meeting you at …” tweet.

For business related emails, I group them by what type of business it is, like a publisher, sponsor or potential collaborator.

I do have a few things that I copy and paste that I put in almost all of these types of emails, but again, I like to be personal and write something specifically for them and that does take a bit of time.

One thing that is important to remember is to be professional in your business emails. If you are wanting to work with, for, or get sponsored by a company, they will respect your professionalism.

Make sure and follow up with emails you sent out that didn’t get any response. Just a quick “Hi, I’m just checking in since my last email.” will work. Don’t be pushy. Remember, they are going through a bunch of emails all the time and being rude will stand out in a negative way.

If you do get emailed back, make sure and respond promptly to move your relationship further. Don’t just ask them what they can do for you, make sure and tell them what you can do for them. Show them you have incentive and are willing to work hard.

I’ve worked with some influencers that just don’t put in the effort, are never on time and barely respond to emails and I’ll tell you this, those are the kinds of things you remember about someone.

This industry may be huge, but at the same time is quite small. Word gets around and people talk.

You don’t want to be known as one of THOSE streamers.

PAX is over, now what do I do? was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Being a Twitch streamer is tough and there is a lot of information that you should know about. Everything from streaming software, graphics and alerts to hardware requirements, sponsorships and even etiquette.

So many new and old streamers are making mistakes without even knowing it.

Wouldn’t it be great to know about mistakes that you could make way before you make them?

Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were people out there that could teach you the important things you need to know when it comes to streaming?

You’re in luck!

OWN3D

OWN3D has grown quite a bit as of recently and I really wanted to add them in here at the top. Their website is awesome and has so much information about streaming that you do not want to pass up this resource!

Their tutorials are clear and easy to digest quickly which is something I love about them, plus they have all these amazing resources such as the latest streaming news, overlays and graphics and even hardware comparisons.

The most important thing for this article is their How To Streaming Guide.

Streamer Square

Streamer Square is an amazing website ran by Lowco with all kinds of tips and tricks when it comes to streaming on Twitch.

There are reviews of different products and software and talk about the latest Twitch updates and current news.

Just like it says on the site “StreamerSquare is the number one resource for all things streaming. Twitch news, streaming guides, service and streamer gear reviews, we’re here to help your stream to the next level.”

Omeed Dariani

Omeed is the CEO of Online Performers Group which is a management group for some well known Twitch streamers such as CohhCarnage, Sacriel and GassyMexican.

If you want to learn about things like marketing and sponsorships, then you definitely want to follow Omeed on Twitter and tune in to their weekly broadcast, Office Hours on Twitch every Friday from 2–4 PM Pacific Time.

Ashnichrist

Ashnichrist is such an amazing influence when it comes to anything Twitch or streaming related. She really is the go-to for any kind of info that you want to learn about concerning Twitch.

Her twitter is so full of insight and wisdom and her YouTube channel has some great advice on things such as picking mods for your channel, how you should go about events, growing your channel using giveaways and so much more.

She continually updates her content and is very consistent with her posts.

I’m not saying that you should just take people’s advice and consider that the gospel. You should always take your own circumstance into consideration and pick and choose the advice that suits you the best.

Where to Get the Best Advice for Your Twitch Stream was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you are a lurker, that’s awesome and streamers love you! In fact, most viewers are lurkers.

I, myself tend to lurk and not really talk much but when I do, I have a few simple guidelines that I like to follow and I’m going to share them with you here.

Be friendly and welcome new people

When people come into the stream and type in the chat, it’s because they want to not only interact with the streamer, they want to hang out and interact with everyone so be friendly and welcoming. Say “hi,” ask them how their day went and where they are from. Start up a conversation with them and find out who they are and what they like.

Think of it like welcoming a guest into your home.

Be interactive

If the streamer is asking questions, answer back!

Be helpful and friendly.

Not only does it make a nice comfortable place for you but it also brings much joy to the stream and the other people in chat. Be involved in the conversation. Start your own conversations and get people talking.

Use those emotes! Streamers love to see their emotes in chat.

If a streamer has their own emotes and you are a subscriber, please, use those emotes in chat. Streamers feel the love when you do that.

When people see you using that streamer’s emotes in chat, they might want to use them too.

It’s really a great way to show support for the community.

Answer the streamer’s questions with a bit of context.

Sometimes a streamer will ask a yes or no question or something that you could answer with just a one word answer, but remember, there is some lag between what the streamer is doing and what you see.

A streamer might ask “which way should I go” and you could just answer “left” but most likely, they are 30 seconds past that part and if they turn left now, they will be going the wrong way. It really gets confusing.

A better answer might be “make a left right before the waterfall when you are walking away from the cave.” That puts some context to it and the streamer can understand what you are explaining no matter how much time has passed.

Post on social media about the stream

You want to help your favorite streamers grow, right? You want to show support and help build that community!

Live streams grow mostly from word of mouth so please, please, please, if you are going to do anything, post about their streams on social media! Help them grow their streams!

Make sure and tag them in those posts and encourage your social media circle to come hang out with you during the stream.

There are so many more tips we could give about being an amazing Twitch viewer but we want to hear from you. Hit us up on Facebook or Twitter and let us know your tips.

Emotes in this article were made by the amazing Rhay_Robotnik.

How to be a Better Viewer on Twitch. Pt 2. was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Watching Twitch is an amazing experience and nowadays, there are so many types of content to watch from eSports, gameplay and developer interviews to IRL, creative and even workout streams. The people that stream on Twitch work hard and put their heart and soul into their broadcasts and communities, and as a viewer, you want to show them your appreciation for entertaining you.

We’ve got some tips for how you can be a better viewer on Twitch. Part 1 has some things you shouldn’t do as a Twitch viewer and then in Part 2, we’ll go into some things you can do to make Twitch a better experience, not just for you, but for the streamers and the community as a whole.

Backseat gaming

I know you are just trying to help by giving useful tips because maybe you are better at the game or have more time playing, but please don’t do this.

Try and look at it from the perspective of you, sitting there playing a game and your older brother, that’s already beaten the game or has been playing for way longer than you, just starts telling you “it’s better to do this,” or “don’t do that.”

It’s annoying, right?

Hey, you should play a different game!

Coming into a stream and saying things like “this is boring” or “you should play a different game” is pretty rude.

How would you like it if you were on stage singing and someone came in and said “this sucks” to you?

It wouldn’t feel very good, would it?

You only have this many viewers?

The same thing goes for saying “You have X amount of viewers, why is only X people talking?” or, “You have X amount of followers and only X viewers?”

Streamers work really hard to grow their community and the feeling when you are growing is amazing. When you don’t feel like you are growing or you are going backwards, it’s something to struggle with and pointing it out is just plain rude.

Hey, come check out my stream.

Promoting your stream in another stream is a big nono and it will have the exact opposite effect than what you want. It will actually make people purposely not come to watch you. You are basically trying to hijack viewers.

Again, think of it like you were on stage with a band and someone came in and started handing out flyers for their band which is going to start playing down the road in 5 minutes.

Not cool.

Hey! Why’d I get timed out/banned?

So, you or your friend got timed out or even banned from someone’s stream! Maybe you want to ask why or maybe you want make some kind of defense. This is totally OK to do but don’t do it in the chat! Chat is not the place for it.

The best way to ask a mod about something like this is in a whisper and don’t be a jerk about it, because that will lead you nowhere. Be polite and just state your case.

If you want to ask the streamer directly, wait until after the stream and then send a whisper or PM. Don’t do it during the stream, that will just get you perma-banned and it will be all your fault.

We hope you enjoyed part 1 of How to be a Better Viewer on Twitch and if you have some insight or opinions or even more tips, please comment down below.

How to be a Better Viewer on Twitch. Pt 1. was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Live streaming on Twitch isn’t cheap. You need a good internet connection, decent PC and graphics card, green screen, lighting, microphones and on top of that, you need games. You need a LOT of games.

Purchasing all of these things really hits your wallet hard and you might even be eating Top Ramen on a daily basis already, so fitting game purchases in your budget can be rough.

Sure, you can play LoL, DoTA or Fortnite because you can download them for free but if you want a variety of games and you can’t afford to spend a bunch of money, we’ve got you covered!

This list is my top 6 favorite places to pick PC games up for free.

ITCH

The first site that you can get free games from is itch.io. Itch.io has some amazing indie games and a massive variety. Just look at how many free games! Over 90,000!

Itch has a “pay what you want” model so you can literally choose to play $0 for many games but it does help out developers of you do drop them some cash so don’t be afraid to hook them up.

Itch even has a downloadable client like Steam so that all of your games are easily accessible and kept in perfect order.

GAME JOLT

Game Jolt has a crazy amount of games and a massive variety. You can get lost for hours just looking at all the cool games on their site. They have a client that you can download as well and it works great.

For you game devs and gaming creatives out there, Game Jolt also has a simple way to create your own game jams. You can also browse and join the many other Game Jolt game jams that have been created.

STEAM

What? Steam is on this list too? Of course it is! Your favorite video game client has thousands of free games, you just have to know where to look!

REVERB ALL ACCESS PORTAL

While Reverb Portal doesn’t have a ton of games, they do have some that are amazing!

The deal with Reverb Portal is that you need to sign up as an influencer and get accepted to be able to get your games from them.

You can’t just get the games for free just to get them and play with your friends. You must produce content and then submit it to them afterwards.

EVOLVE TERMINALS

Evolve Terminals is amazing and they add games to their catalog all the time. Evolve, like Reverb is a publisher/PR company in the gaming industry and to be able to get games for free from them, you have to sing up, get accepted and produce content then submit it to them.

It’s definitely not a free ride but it’s amazing for creating new content and staying relevant with the most current games.

KEYMAILER

Aaah, last but very much not least is Keymailer. Once again, you need to sign up and get approved to be able to use it. This time though, the developers will reach out directly to you or they will be the ones to approve your requests for the games you want.

I have spent so much time on Keymailer! Almost as much as I’ve spent on social media. There is just so much to look at. You can look at games that have been released, games that are getting released that day and even games that are coming.

Just make sure when you make content with the games that you use the hashtags that are asked of you in the beginning, and, as always, please follow the embargoes! Nobody likes a content creator that won’t follow directions.

I hope that you have enjoyed this info and will put it to good use!

If you like our content and want to see more of it, make sure and follow this blog, follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

We are very active and will respond to every comment and DM.

Make sure and follow the author’s Twitch channel too!

The Top 6 Places to get Free Games for your Twitch Live Stream was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

If you are a live streamer on Twitch, YouTube, Mixer, Hitbox or any of the other streaming sites, then you definitely want to stand out from the crowd. There are so many people live streaming these days and of course you want to be a rock star. You want to be the streamer that people are talking about.

You want your content and personality to stand out and what better way to do that than by using some amazing graphics for your streams.

You are going to need some information panels, emotes, and overlays that really reflect your personality.

Sure, you could go into Photoshop and make some graphics on your own, but if you aren’t an artist, your graphics might end up plain and might actually turn people away. You really don’t want that.

You want people to pop into your stream and say “Wow, this live stream looks amazing!”

First impressions are super important and you want those random viewers that normally pop into your stream and leave after a few seconds to stick around a bit so you can show them how amazing of a live streamer you really are.

We found 5 amazing sites where you can download overlays for your live stream.

Nerd or Die

Nerd or Die has a lot to offer.

They have a bunch of overlays and packages with some truly innovative animated graphics. They are always uploading new graphics and stay up to date with the latest trends.

Their on stream alerts also come with some amazing sounds!

If you want something custom made especially for you, you can request that in their contact drop-down at the top of the site.

Stream Play

Stream Play has some really nice graphics for your stream.

They have a bit of everything and the stuff that you can purchase looks really good. You can also order custom graphics from them so you will have an original look.

You can get some of their packages customized just for you with whatever text you want and the colors that you prefer.

Own3D

Own3D has an awesome looking site that has a lot of content! You can get your graphics like twitch overlays, plus they have an avatar maker and even streamer website templates.

They also have hardware and gear comparisons and some of the latest news when it comes to Twitch.

There are even videos and articles on the site that talk about becoming a Twitch Streamer with some really amazing information that is a must read.

Zerging

Zerging Gaming and Streaming has a ton of free graphics for you to use including overlays, panels and even offline graphics.

All of the styles are totally different so there is of something for everyone.

Player.me

Player.me has cloud based overlays and it’s so simple to use which makes it really nice because you can stream from your PC at home or your laptop anywhere and have all the same overlays without having to transfer any files.

You can use their overlays and graphics or use your own graphics mixed in.

You can also browse and watch many different live streams on the site which is really neat, and if you can get partnered with them, they might even feature you on their front page.

It comes down to your preference and what you like.

All of these are similar but also different in many ways. It really comes down to what you like and what you want.

There are so many styles to choose from, make sure that what you use, fits your personality and your stream and most of all, have fun streaming!

If you like our content and want to see more of it, make sure and follow this blog, follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

We are very active and will respond to every comment and DM.

Make sure and follow the author’s Twitch channel too!

5 Amazing Sites to get Overlays for Your Twitch Live Stream was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Turning your passion and favorite hobby into your career is the dream of a lifetime! How amazing would it be to have the chance to leave your current job and turn your Twitch live stream into your main source of income?

It can be done and you can do it.

This is not a “get rich quick” thing with a short path to success.

It is a grind. It is a marathon, not a sprint.

Here are 7 things that you need to do to turn your Twitch streaming hobby into your full time job.

1. Be entertaining.

What exactly does that mean?

Well, entertaining is speculative meaning that what one person finds entertaining, another person won’t. What you need to do is watch some successful streamers that you find entertaining and get some inspiration from them.

Don’t steal their ideas. Use them for inspiration to come up with your own original ideas.

You need to find your niche and go with it!

Many people say that when you stream, just do what you want, play what you want to play, but if you want to be successful, this isn’t the way to think.

If you want to make this your career, you need to find what works and push it to the extreme.

Find out what your audience wants and do that. Remember, you are on a stage here and the whole point is to entertain your audience.

2. Be consistent.

Pick days and time to stream and stick to that schedule. Don’t show up late or not show up at all. People will expect you to be there and they will plan their day around your show, don’t disappoint them.

If your audience gets disappointed, they won’t stick around and you really don’t want that at all.

3. Build your community.

Your community is your success so work on your community, treat it with love and help it grow and flourish. There are so many ways to do this and the big one right now is to have a Discord server.

You must be active with your community and interact with them. Do giveaways, have special events specifically for your community and always treat your community with respect and attentiveness.

In return they will do the same and want to help you grow.

4. Have an active online presence.

This goes right along with being active in your Discord server. Get on social media. Whatever that is, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, whatever. The platform that works best for you, go with it!

You don’t have to be on every social media platform, that’s just way too much work and you will end up spending way too much time on there. Pick a few and stick with those.

Sure, there might be some new kind of social media popping up and you can try it out. It just might work for you, but you really need to focus on what’s working and put your energy into that.

5. Have your business email visible.

So many broadcasters don’t have, or hide their business email for some strange reason. There have been so many times that I have been looking for streamers for a paid promotion and there is no way to contact them, so they just get passed up. You don’t want to be this person. You don’t want to miss opportunities that lead to your channel’s growth.

Have your business email everywhere. Have it in your Twitch panels and in all of your social media’s profiles. Also, respond quickly to all the business inquiries that you recieve. You would be surprised how small the gaming industry is and how quickly word gets around if someone isn’t professional.

6. Grow your numbers.

You definitely want to grow your social media channels and extend your reach but the main thing is to grow your community which means grow your twitch channel. You need to gain followers and keep them coming back.

Twitch has an amazing user base and a huge audience but there are so many thousands upon thousands of streamers out there, it’s tough to not get lost in the crowd.

A great way to get eyes on your content is to look outside of Twitch for people to watch your stream. Stream Spread embeds your Twitch live stream into hundreds of gaming websites and can get many people watching your stream.

7. Keep your viewers happy and interested.

You would be surprised how many times someone has come into your stream, said nothing, watched for a few seconds and then just left.

It’s up to you to keep your viewers engaged and interested. You have to remember that you only have a few seconds to impress someone and then they move on.

The same thing goes when using Stream Spread. Stream Spread can literally get hundreds or even thousands of eyes on your stream, but it’s up to you to engage those viewers, get them to follow you and be an active community member that sticks around.

7 Things You Need to do to Make Twitch Streaming Your Full Time Job was originally published in StreamSpread on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.