So you’ve seen the insane money Twitch streamers can sometimes make and you’ve decided you want in on that. Congratulations – you’ve just taken your first step towards becoming a Twitch creative. This job can be lucrative, exciting, and extremely rewarding, but it can also be very difficult indeed. Not just anyone can become a Twitch streamer; you need to set yourself apart from the legions of imitators also wanting to become pros on the platform.

So, how can you do that? How, exactly, can you enter the world of professional Twitch streaming? Well, there’s no simple answer to that question. Some Twitch streamers spend years broadcasting to nobody. Others become celebrated successes on the platform almost overnight. There’s no single formula to ensure success on Twitch, but there are a number of things you can do to greatly improve your chances. Here’s how to become a pro on Twitch.

Get yourself an overlay

One of the most important things to do when you’re looking to go pro on Twitch is to get yourself a Twitch overlay. An overlay will give your channel that professional edge and mark you out against your competitors; it’s the way people will identify your channel at a glance and understand what you’re doing and who’s contributing to you. With a custom colour scheme, a unique approach, and an emphasis on your audience, your overlay will give you an advantage over those who don’t use one.

Find a unique selling point

“I’m streaming video games on Twitch” just won’t cut it, unfortunately. In order to mark yourself out as an important streamer, you’ll need to find a unique selling point. That isn’t necessarily as difficult as it sounds. Finding your particular niche means knowing who you are and what you’re good at, then exploiting that for an audience. A lot of the time, streamers perform a persona when they’re streaming, while others deliberately emphasise aspects of their personality to appeal to an audience.

Get good at your game

Whatever you’re streaming on Twitch, you need to be good at it. Nobody wants their niche to be “check out this streamer, they’re terrible”. There are lots of ways to improve your gaming skills. Take good care of yourself physically – gaming depends a lot on your reflexes and your hand-eye co-ordination, both of which will suffer if you don’t look after yourself. You can also watch other Twitch streamers to improve your skills. Improving your game is crucial to becoming a better Twitch streamer.

 Upgrade your rig

If you don’t have a hugely powerful PC, Twitch streaming might be pretty tough. Technically, it’s entirely possible to stream on Twitch using just a games console or your standard PC, but if you’re playing a graphically intensive game and streaming at the same time, you might want a better rig to deal with the workload. The most important thing is that your PC has plenty of memory and a good graphics card; this will help it deal with the heavy load of Twitch streaming and gaming simultaneously.

Keep a consistent schedule

Have you ever encountered this situation? You’re tuning in daily to check whether a Twitch streamer is currently streaming, but their feed just isn’t being updated regularly. They sporadically appear on their channel and play games sometimes, but for the most part, it’s not predictable when they’ll stream. Don’t be that streamer. If you have a consistent schedule, people will always know when to tune in for your content and you’ll get fans.

Engage your audience

People on Twitch don’t like to feel like passive observers. Instead, audiences prefer to feel like they’re a part of your channel; although you’re the content creator, they’re the audience you need to maintain a public presence. Engage with your audience. Hold giveaways, ask them what they think of your channel, and improve things based on their feedback. The more you engage your audience, the more they’ll feel valued and the better your word-of-mouth will be.

Don’t give up

There will very likely be an extended period of time during which your channel doesn’t have many subscribers. Likewise, when you do establish a name for yourself, it’s not uncommon for channels to occasionally stagnate or struggle to pick up new viewers. When this happens, don’t despair – hang on in there. You’ll get over the slump. Try creating a new kind of content, or engaging a different demographic. Just don’t give up as soon as things get tough.

Have fun

Twitch subscribers and audiences can tell immediately if a content creator simply isn’t enjoying themselves anymore. If you don’t love your job – if you don’t adore what you do and devote one hundred percent of yourself to it while you’re doing it – then you won’t be able to keep your audience. Of course, you’ll have off days; that’s normal, and you shouldn’t berate yourself for it. When it does happen, though, inform your audience you’re taking a break. Don’t stream on off-days.

We hope these tips and tricks are useful to you in your journey to become a pro Twitch streamer. It won’t always be easy; the road ahead is long and full of twists and turns. If you love what you do, though, and if you pour passion, dedication, and hard work into it, you’ll be a streamer before you know it.