[00:00] Growing on Twitch when nobody knows you feels impossible. You go live and nobody joins, you end the stream and then you do it all again tomorrow and you just hope that something will magically change overnight. And after a few weeks and after hearing how negative people can be about this online,
[00:12] you can easily start questioning yourself. Maybe Twitch is too competitive now, maybe you started too late, maybe you just aren't entertaining enough. But the reality is that most streamers aren't failing because they're bad creators, they're failing because they're trying to grow in completely the wrong ways.
[00:25] So if I had to start a new Twitch account tomorrow with absolutely no audience, no YouTube subs, no one knowing my name, my face or anything about me, then this is going to be the exact roadmap I would follow. And not just theory, this is what I would actually physically do step by step.
[00:37] So the first thing I'd do is change the way I think about Twitch itself. Most new streamers believe that their live stream is the product they're trying to grow, but it actually isn't. You're trying to and should be trying to grow yourself as the creator, not just your stream as this entity.
[00:50] The live stream is simply one part of the creator puzzle. But just think about the last five creators that you started watching. Did you randomly discover them while you were browsing Twitch? Probably not. You most likely found them through YouTube or TikTok, Instagram, X, Reddit, a friend sharing a clip or a tutorial they made.
[01:05] Basically my point is that there's very few people opening the Twitch app every evening on desktop, mobile, wherever, and then finding a game and scrolling all the way down the bottom to people with 1-10 viewers. And because of that, that means that your content and what you post beyond your stream is usually where people discover you.
[01:19] That's what introduces people to you, and whilst your live stream is what convinces them to stick around and be a more integrated part of your community, the content that you funnel them down with is the only way you're really going to be consistently found. And that is a pretty vast difference to what I think a lot of newer streamers think it's going to kind of happen like.
[01:36] But once you understand it, your priorities will change. So instead of asking yourself, how do I get more Twitch viewers, you should start asking yourself, how do I get more people to discover me? Because that's a much more powerful question that leads to actual growth. So the first step to doing that is posting clips.
[01:49] It's the bare minimum these days for cross-pollinating viewership and fetching yourself the easiest discoverability possible, rather than jumping right into making long-form videos or doing anything more crazy with content. So to do that, I'm going to show you the tool that I've used for years now, which is Nexus Clips.
[02:03] So don't worry, if you have no editing experience, you don't really know what good clips are, you don't really know how to find the right moments, where to post them, how to add captions, all of that stuff that everybody does these days, then Nexus Clips is a tool where you can upload your bots,
[02:15] it will literally watch your streams back for you, and it will find the best moments for you and rank them based on how viral they're likely to go. That way you know which ones are going to perform well, and you can only pick the best ones to get the best possible growth on your clips. It will also add subtitles for you automatically so you have that professional eye feeling when you are looking at one of your clips And there things like a text hook feature so real people in it give them context to help them stick around And even a sticker with your channel name so people
[02:39] know where to go once they've found you to find you on Twitch and all other platforms that you might be streaming on. So as you can tell this does the hard part for you which is finding the moments and deciding which ones are best and it just gives you a platter full of them and you can edit them however you like in a very basic way to get them going
[02:53] very quickly. So bear in mind if you've been posting nothing this is a way of getting daily content very quickly and easily. So if you do want to try it and get some results like I've had here then I'll leave the link below for that and you can use 10% off on any order on that website. So don't sleep on it, if you're not posting clips these days you're
[03:07] making it harder for yourself. But with all that being said that naturally leads on to the second step. One of the biggest advantages that small creators have is that they can answer specific questions people are already searching for. For example if you look at my channel here, if somebody searches best OBS settings or how to fix dropped frames
[03:22] or how to start streaming on Twitch, they can realistically find my content very quickly by doing that. A YouTube video can quite literally underperform and not be that many views until six weeks, six months or six years later and then suddenly have an influx out of nowhere.
[03:35] Whereas a Twitch vlog will usually just disappear into the void after a few days. That's why I always recommend building any level of structural content outside of just doing the live stream. Even if that's something as simple as Instagram posts, having an active Discord that you post in
[03:48] or doing clips or long form content as well on YouTube and bigger platforms like that. And blending into things like tutorials, reviews, guides, comparisons and educational content is a really easy way of doing this because people are always searching how to do things.
[04:02] So if you're a streamer that plays Stardew Valley, it's very quick to make a little tutorial on how to make good goals or where to find items that people are looking for in that game. Anything like that can bring a lot of viewership towards you and then it can redirect them into your stream. Everything becomes a funnel towards your live stream which is what you ultimately want to grow.
[04:17] So even if you just take a Twitch VOD of a gaming session with no real direction and package it in a searchable way, that's more than enough at the start. Just make sure you're doing something rather than nothing. Then once you fix the discoverability and people actually start finding you,
[04:29] the next challenge is giving them a reason to remember you. Because a mistake I see all the time is creators explaining who they are in ways that just aren't really that unique. People say things like, oh I'm funny, or I'm a variety streamer, I play lots of different games.
[04:41] But unfortunately things like that aren't going to make people click or stay around because thousands of people could say that about themselves. So instead ask yourself this, if somebody was going to recommend your stream to a friend, what would they actually say? You should watch them because what? And ideally you want to build
[04:54] yourself out to make that sentence incredibly easy to finish. Maybe you're the streamer who explains every decision whilst you play maybe you complete ridiculous challenges maybe you known for breaking down mechanics in competitive games maybe you a horror streamer that jumps out of their skin at every moment Whatever that answer is lean into it so it easier for people to discern who
[05:11] and what you are. The easier that you are to describe, the easier that you are to remember. Something else that completely separates growing streamers from stagnant ones is commentary and purpose. Because I think we all know that one of the biggest things killing streams these days is sitting in complete silence. That's advice that has been echoed through
[05:26] thousands of videos by now I'm sure. But actually playing a game aimlessly with no real goal or reasons behind it is just as bad for growth. New streamers often wait for chat before they start talking but chat is waiting for them to become interesting first. And new streamers often play
[05:39] a game they like for a few hours but viewers want to follow a journey or be a part of a climb. Because imagine clicking into a stream where a creator hasn't spoken for minutes on end and on top of that they're just sort of skewing Fortnite games and just playing average lobbies. Most people would leave that stream almost immediately because there's nothing there engaging them almost
[05:54] at all. But now imagine clicking into another stream where the creator is constantly explaining their decisions, reacting to what's happening, sharing stories, thinking out loud even though nobody has typed a single message in their chat. I don't say that stream has a really good purpose
[06:06] and title too like chat picks my weapon and will stop when I get a 10 kill game which is just off the top of my head that you get the point it has a reason to be live. Which stream feels more alive to you? It's a pretty obvious answer right? Commentary creates momentum and momentum keeps
[06:19] viewers watching and then having a goal no matter how simple will keep people engaged. One exercise I'd recommend doing next time you're live for this reason is try and pretend you're making a YouTube video, as silly as that might sound. That's what I started doing the last time I was streaming more regularly, and it was night and day with how
[06:33] structured and how intentional the whole stream felt. So explain what you're doing and why you're doing it and what you're thinking at basically all times. Because if someone joins your stream halfway through, they should instantly understand what's happening without even needing to ask.
[06:45] But now, while we're talking about mentality, I also think every streamer should hide their viewer count. And this sounds like such a small change and it's It's in parricated by so many different people that give you advice on streaming. But there's a reason for that. It's because it makes an enormous difference and it's really good advice.
[06:59] The view account completely changes people's behaviour. They see zero viewers and suddenly they'll stop talking or they'll stop joking around or stop reacting naturally and overthinking it because you feel like no one's there and no one's listening and you start self-doubting all the time.
[07:11] But here's the thing, even if you are sat on zero viewers sometimes, there's a lot of moments where at any moment, in fact, people could click on your stream. And if they arrive during one of those quiet periods where you're not doing anything, then they'll probably leave before you even realise that they were there.
[07:24] So something I always recommend is turning it off and just stream as if there's a hundred people there. So that way when your audience finally does start growing you already built the habits needed to keep them entertained But of course getting somebody to click on your stream is only half the battle The real goal is getting them to come back again because returning viewers is what actually builds channels If you going to focus on any
[07:41] stat, it should be retention. At the end of every stream, you need to give people a reason to return for the next one. Maybe that's finishing a challenge, attempting a difficult boss, continuing a series, or testing something you've been talking about. Think of television shows,
[07:53] they've understood this for decades. An episode will usually end in a way that makes you want to to watch the next one and your stream should feel the same. If every broadcast you do feels like a completely isolated event then viewers have no real reason to prioritise checking
[08:05] you out again because it was just a one off event. But if streams are continuing on for each other or you tease them well enough that people want to come back then people will naturally want to follow and see what happens next. And then finally I think I would make improvement my biggest goal. So rather than obsessing over growth and numbers because
[08:19] I know a lot of people like me at the beginning too will finish a stream and immediately look at how many followers you gained, how many average viewers you had and all of that stuff in the dashboard. I think there's actually much better questions to ask. Where did people stop watching? What moments got the biggest reactions? Which clips made the best short? What felt awkward?
[08:35] What could I improve tomorrow? And notice that I said tomorrow, not next year. The creators who eventually become successful usually aren't making massive improvements overnight, they're just making tiny improvements every single stream. Whether that's better titles, better hooks, better
[08:48] storytelling, better thumbnails, better pacing, commentary, hundreds of tiny improvements like that are going to make a way more meaningful impact into completely changing the formula every time you go live. And with enough of those improvements over time, it will look like overnight
[09:01] success from the outside, trust me. So if I genuinely had to start from zero tomorrow, that is the strategy, step-by-step, and sort of basics that I would follow to get going again. I wouldn't spend six hours a day hoping somebody stumbled across my stream. I would focus on
[09:13] creating content people could actually discover. I'd make every live stream generate multiple opportunities for new viewers to find me. I would give people a clear reason to remember me and make sure every stream was slightly better than the last and that is how creators
[09:25] grow today not because Twitch suddenly decides to throw them on the front page but because they've built out systems that force people to see them eventually it happens because you've put the work in once you stop trying to grow your stream and start trying to grow as a creator everything else becomes much easier and
[09:39] if you want some free switcherlock before you go my website is linked down below with a ton of free basic packs I've made for you to help you get going I'll link a free small streamer retention checklist that you can tick through every time you're about to go live to make sure your streaming is the highest potential for
[09:51] the best possible growth. Watch it on your CR community discord with hundreds of other creators like you, so if you want to hop in to get advice, make some friends or reach out to me then hop on in I'd love to have you there. And in the meantime here's your last chance to sub before you go and another video you
[10:03] might find helpful on your streaming or creator journey. And hopefully I'll see you in another video soon.