[00:02] lot of mistakes that you can easily avoid, but there are some things that seem like great ideas. They seem smart on paper, but they can bite you in the ass and really damage your brand and your channel. These are not obvious
[00:16] things like don't do follow for follow. These are things you cannot know unless grown a channel yourself. If you are new here, my name is Barry Eps. I'm a cryptographer turned content creator and Twitch partner looking to help you grow
[00:30] your channel the right way. Let's start with a few ones that make sense and then for the last one, that one's going to be real. That one might feel like a punch to the gut for some of you. But first, let's talk about monetization because
[00:44] this is one of the biggest traps new streamers fall into. Twitch has recently changed their monetized streamer agreement, at least recently in my now. It might be a while ago when you watch this. This change now allows everyone to
[00:56] get access to subs and bits from day one, which is great for Twitch. Not for you. Twitch gets to run ads on your channel, even if you have only one or two viewers. Multiply that across hundreds of thousands of baby channels,
[01:11] and Twitch just unlocked a massive amount of ad inventory. For streamers, it is not a good change. Here's what usually happens. A new streamer signs up, logs into the dashboard, and bam, right there is a giant banner saying,
[01:23] "Become monetized today." And immediately they get hit with the they seen people like Kaisen and Queso make it big. And they want to have that, too. So, they rush out and get custom sub badges, get bit emotes, think of
[01:38] cool things for their subscribers such as special roles in Discord, viewer games, etc., and all that just to get the one or two viewers they pull in to subscribe. You are completely new to streaming. You don't even know if you
[01:52] like it yet. You should be working on your skills. You need to know how to talk to chat, practice how to present yourself on camera, and learn how to set up your OBS. Focusing on monetization too early is just a distraction. If you
[02:07] want to make streaming your full-time career, you can't start off on the wrong foot. So, here are the real numbers. It takes an average of two to four years for a streamer to become a Twitch partner and an average 5 to seven for
[02:21] them to go full-time as a creator. And once you've built that audience, you don't need to offer all these perks for subscribers. Your viewers will subscribe because they love what you do and want to support your journey. If you focus on
[02:34] getting better, better at entertaining, better at editing, better at building up a community, the money will eventually show up automatically. Speaking of, we need to talk about you looking for sponsors. Just like monetization, this
[02:48] is one of the biggest pitfalls that I see new creators fall into. And after speaking to a dozen or so companies at TwitchCon EU, yeah, they only confirmed this. Stop reaching out to sponsors. Before a company will want to sponsor
[03:02] you, you need to have something to offer, and that something is your audience. They want to sell products, and you provide viewers with eyeballs to buy those products. But if you reach out when you have five or 10 viewers, then
[03:14] these companies know that they will probably not be selling a lot of product to those viewers. Well, unless you're highly specialized, like if you have a knitting channel, a wool producer might reach out to you at that point. However,
[03:26] that time you are investing in reaching out to companies is just as wasted as the time you are using on monetization. And just like the monetization, once you are big enough that companies see value in your audience, that is when they will
[03:41] reach out to you to promote them. Oh, and while we are talking about it, let me tell you about a little industry secret. The creator industry is big, but it is not that big. These marketing departments that you are contacting
[03:55] often know each other, and if you spam them or are rude when reaching out, they will let the others know. There is a blacklist of creators. they will not work with ever and you don't want to end up on that. For this next one, I was
[04:08] first because it is so important. But let's do it here. Stop streaming. Let me rephrase. Stop streaming too much. Especially if you've just started. Streaming 8 to 12 hours per day, 7 days a week, is just not going to help you
[04:24] grow your channel. When you are just starting, you don't have viewers yet, and viewers are very unlikely to find you either. I know we've talked about the new streamers, I just want to hit this home. On Twitch, any potential
[04:38] viewers have to find your channel because Twitch has no algorithm. On YouTube, the algorithm will find people that like the type of content you make for you and test it out on them to see
[04:50] if they like you. So, instead of being live and getting nowhere, start making content on more discoverable platforms and then bring those viewers with you to Twitch. If you cut your streaming from 8 to 12 hours a day to three to four times
[05:04] a week, three to four hours, and use the rest of your time to learn how to stream, make at least one highquality YouTube video per week and seven shorts, one for every day, then you are far more likely to get new viewers into your
[05:19] stream. It is literally what I'm doing right now. I make videos every week on this channel and produce seven shorts for Tik Tok, YouTube, and Instagram. And then I go live. That's how I grew my audience from zero to 50 viewers in the
[05:33] space of approximately 6 months. Speaking of, I do stream on Twitch every Tuesday and Friday from 5:00 PM CST, spending lots of time answering your questions. So, if this video has you asking questions you want the answer to,
[05:46] then come hang out over on Twitch. I'll leave a link in the description below. What number were we at? Oh, yeah. Number four, stop trying to find shortcuts. The reality is shortcuts usually hurt you way more than they help. Now maybe
[06:00] you're thinking, "But I just need to be discovered." Here's the truth. Even if you get that shortcut, if you don't have the foundation in place, those viewers won't stick. 100 people might show up, but if your stream is awkward, silent,
[06:14] and unprepared, those 100 people are gone in 60 seconds. And that's the big danger. Fake numbers don't translate into real growth. Buying viewers, joining lurk forlurk discords, or inflating your stats in any way might
[06:29] make your channel look busy, but it doesn't build a community. It doesn't make your content better. And the second a real viewer stumbles into your stream, they can immediately tell that something feels off. Oh, and uh if you ever come
[06:43] across someone that says that they have the one secret to Twitch growth, then they are probably trying to sell you something. And nine out of 10 times that something will not work. There is no one path. Each creator needs to find their
[06:56] own path. That is why creators that make the kinds of videos I do are usually very careful when giving advice because you don't want to steer people on the wrong path. They can only share what has worked for them and they hope that it
[07:08] works for you, too. Time for the final tip. And I hope you're sitting down because this one might come in as a gut punch. I know that because it happens to me all the time. People will DM me on Discord saying that they are planning to
[07:20] start streaming or maybe they have just started. And then they tell me about themselves, the sort of YouTube videos position themselves, and how they are going to make shorts out of those
[07:33] videos. And then they drop the question, do you think this will be successful? They never like my answer because my answer is usually, I don't know. Give it a try. See what happens. I can't tell you if what you plan to do is going to
[07:48] be successful, but this highlights a much more important issue. New streamers often require external validation before they try something. They want the reassurance that their plan is good before they take action. And if that's
[08:02] you, I've got some bad news for you. Content creation might not be the career for you. Because in this space, there is no teacher handing out grades, no boss telling you what to do. No guaranteed right path. It's trial and error over
[08:17] and over again. If you have an idea that you think is great, you might tell some what they think, but in the end, you're going to have to do it before you get any feedback. If you have a crazy idea, go do it for 3 months. Commit. Then when
[08:34] you've done it for 3 months, you look back on it. Did it flop? Oh well. Time to try a different plan and go again. Did it do okay or even good? Great. Continue developing on it. Remove the bad parts, add to the good parts, and
[08:48] then give it another 3 months. If you need constant validation, the internet will eat you alive. So stop looking for reassurance from platforms, from other creators, or from Reddit threads. Instead, start building, start testing,
[09:03] and start learning. The bottom line is this. The only way to find out if your idea is good is to do it. But sometimes it's not the question if you can do the plan. If you are anything like me, coming up with new plans and ideas is
[09:16] easy. What is really hard is finding the time and energy to create all the content that you can think of. If you are struggling to find time or want to understand how your mental mana works, then check out the video right here. And
[09:29] then check out the video right here. And as always, stream better, stream smart.