I'm still waiting on the fence to start streaming. Ive got all the hardware already, webcams, etc... But I can't seem to make myself take the leap. Too shy I guess. Any advice from you guys?
I'm gonna just copy Paste the advice I gave you earlier in this thread.
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I'll give you a little advice that will hopefully help CM.
The first thing you do before you start going live, is record yourself (Video and Audio, or just Audio) to get the lighting and Mic Positioning correct, and to make sure there are no issues with clarity of Audio (which I encountered, and resulted in me getting a new Headphone Mic Setup).
The next is you have to talk like you are chatting with your best friend, loved one, family member etc.
Don't look at how many viewers or lack thereof at the beginning. That is not important. You need to be comfortable first, so make sure whatever game, or such you are interested in streaming is something you have a passion for. Get someone to help critique you as well.
I took theater for years, and I was pretty good at it. But still I had friends and family view what I was doing so that I way I found my 'voice' in doing what I was doing. Don't be afraid of being critiqued. IF you watch a lot of streamers, many of them 'changed' their personalities over the time that they started till now because they adapted their persona to something that worked best.
Also, don't assume your gonna get rich, or have 10's of thousands of followers / subscribers. If you put that pressure on yourself, you'll stress too much recording, and trust me, it will show.
Its taken me a month to get 10 followers, and subscribers.
But they are trickling in.
You need to 'tweet' and use all other forms of social media constantly in order to help build your presence.
Keep a rigid schedule at first too, make sure people know when and where they can watch you (Twitch makes this easy as it has a built in calendar).
Also make sure you have your channel manager open on a separate screen from your game so you can interact with your watchers and chat as required.
That's about all I can think of for now.
For myself, because I am far from rich, I still have some equipment to add including a Light Because the lighting where I stream is not as good.
But that has to wait till I save some $$$.
Feel free to drop me a line if you have questions, and come take a look at my content. It might give you some inspiration as to finding your own 'online' identity.
I came from having some forms of social anxiety, to doing this. So anyone can do it. You just need to believe.
-ST"