I got some great LED light bars from costco that work very well for creating lighting DIY for streaming/video recording. The first one was around $30 for a "shop style" large light and the 2nd was also around $30 for a dasiy chain set of 3x panel "under cabinet" lights. You can always use the trick of putting lights in a cardboard box and a cheap thrift shop white sheet/pillow case to create your own diffusers if the light is too harsh. Screw the expensive ring lights and other "video oriented" over priced BC they sell at stores.
I just kind of think, what's importance of schedule if a) your content sucks b) your quality sucks and c) you're just relying on people finding you "organically" on twitch by browsing live streamers.
I can't speak for the content part, because well, you can do whatever then, and prioritize whatever, and you won't get anywhere, so that's it's own thing.
You can't just do it organically, you have to be active. I tweet everytime I stream, I drop a line on FB as well and all the gaming FB accounts when possible.
I post in the forums (Reddit, Enlisted, etc).
But in order to help build that success, people need schedule. You can just say "Oh I'm live" people until you are a known 'quantity' are 90% unlike to drop doing something else if you just spring it on them.
So you generate a schedule so they know when to expect you, and what to expect you to be doing.
I'm not pretending this is the answer, but from talking to a few online personalities whom are very successful at it, it seems to be a consensus among them. Which is why I built a schedule on Twitch.
Of course, if you don't have the persona, or the content, its a non-contender, but my post assumes you do.
Thanks for the advice on the lights. I'll have to check them out.
-ST