CinnamonToastKen · @cinnamontoastk
23rd Sep 2022 from TwitLonger
So You Might Wanna Stream On YouTube
There is a lot of info in here, sadly its going to be all over the place because that's just how my mind works. This is not written for beginners and intended for creators that already have followings and are familiar with these concepts.
So I've been on YouTube for almost 12 years now. I've streamed on Twitch for 4 and I've been streaming with YouTube on a secondary gaming channel "Toasty Games" for about 8 months. I was streaming on twitch and creating video from it for YouTube. The point was to diversify the platforms I use but end the end It wasn't worth it for me. So I returned to my primary platform.
I haven't been focused too much on channel growth for a long time but I do understand what is required to grow and will give my old man advice on what I find works and what has been recommended to me by YouTube.
Here we go!
I think its important to understand up front that streaming on YouTube, you're going to have to work just a little bit harder before you go live.
YouTube is still primarily a Video site. So, you still have to work with that system. Every stream is almost like you're putting a video up. Thumbnails, description, scheduling a go live time, etc. It's not so bad after you get used to it. They also have this handy "reuse settings" from your last stream and you can make changes. Then all the moving your alerts over and obs being kinds weird with going live sometimes and all that basic stuff.
- Next I'll talk about content strategy.
THE ALGORITHM. The evil entity that every youtuber blames blames when things don't go there way.
The way it currently works is that It finds content a view might like vs finding viewers for your content. Meaning if you watch a video of a game then it might recommend someone streaming that game to you. Instead of just putting the most popular stream everywhere. Of course there are always exceptions but that's the basic idea.
So in turn the people that show up should be a potential quality viewer and not just some random that doesn't care about the content.
So that brings us to choosing what kind of channel you're going to be. Very important imo. Will you be a vod channel that streams, or will you be an exclusive live streaming channel? Both work it just depends on you, I wouldn't try to do both and pick a focus as it just gets messy and ill explain more.
The vod channel is your normal gameplay channel with edited content. You do livestreams but you add them to a public playlist and then unlist the stream itself. This keeps your library clean for people that are there to watch your videos but lets people still watch the streams that want to see the whole thing. Then have your editor chop up the stream and ez pz. This is the bread and butter of most gameplay channels.
This is what I do personally. Stream 3x a week with the intent to make videos out of it.
Now the reason most of you are reading this. You're a twitch streamer so you want that same experience and would want to be an exclusively live channel. The most important thing to understand about this strategy is that you're not on twitch. On twitch a general strategy is to just be live all the time. 12 hour streams, subathons, all that. That's just kind of a twitch community thing. People are on twitch to watch long streams but on youtube the viewers are more used to video content. But this is a good thing imo as you dont have to do long ass streams, BUT it has a trade off. You will need to STREAM WITH INTENT! You have to CONTENT PLAN! If you just go live and piddle around for 8 hours with no plan you're going to walk away and go .... that sucked. And that's the same thing people that were recommended your stream or watch the vod will say. So plan ahead, and go hard. You're there to entertain so do just that. Then the best part is that your vod will be live and people will see it and if they watch and enjoy it the algorithm will recommend it to more people. You can also take this same concept of streaming with intent back to twitch. The job is to entertain not just exist. Imo streaming has diminishing returns with length. There is always a point where the chat slows down or the sub/member activity dies down. So why go another 4 hours with 1/4th of the interactions.
Back to topic.
Its a very viable strategy its just important to realize that it's going to be different. A bit more work but more free time. At least in my experience.
Oh also download the truffle extension for that twitch chat feel.
Most things on YouTube are automatic. Like if you don't have a membership feature it should open up after you reach whatever the viewer threshold is on live streams.
Then you get to set your own membership prices. If coming from twitch doing the 5$ with basic features is fine. It kind of works like a patreon kinda thing where you can paywall content for your supporters but I don't really use it. You can also do a lower tier like 2$ just for people that want to support but don't have or want to go full 5$. Then if you're greedy slap a 100$ one just for them oilers. Gifting exists as well so if you have paywall content randos that get random gifted will be able to see it.
Ok ill end this here before I write another 8 paragraphs. The main point being the importance of content strategy if you want to stream on Youtube. Good luck out there and I hope youre able to decipher this vomit of info that I've typed out.
If you're a homie and need a bit more clear explanation my dm's are open.