Key Takeaways
— Your streams don’t only depend on how often you post, and the quality of your content, but also where you decide to upload. You can choose the right platform by cross-referencing stats available on Google Trends and Alexa.
— More people are uploading content, giving avid streaming viewers variety, to remain competitive, you need to improve and enhance your content.
— Be strategic with the times of day you go live, streams usually receive more views when they’re live, so you want to ensure you’re live at the right time.
— Upload more so your viewers won’t have to wait too long before each stream allowing other streamers to gain your audience.
Everyone’s spending significantly more time indoors, as most major cities restrict outdoor activities to only essentials, people are spending far more time on the internet. If you use this time wisely, you can find yourself doubling your number of followers in a few short weeks.
But, it’s not as simple as uploading more frequently. To truly profit from this unprecedented time you need to be calculated and strategic.
1// Choose The Right Platform For Quarantine
Streaming sites aren’t created equal. If you want to maximize your stream’s profit you need to know where viewership is, so you can upload your content to those platforms.
The easiest and most efficient way to do this is to use Google Trends and Alexa.
Google Trends allows you to search for all the top streaming sites, see how their traffic has increased, and what people want to see on that site. Alexa does the same. However, on Alexa, you can see how sites have either dropped or risen in popularity over the last month or so, and where most of the audience for that site originates.
Both these sites update their statistics frequently, so you’re guaranteed to have relevant results.
Take Twitch as an example. This streaming network has seen significant gains in the past month. Becoming #35 ranked site on Alexa’s ranking, up 5 positions, and receiving a record number of new traffic according to Google Trends.
However, most of the traffic is for gaming content, and for streamers that aren’t in that niche, they’ll need to keep searching for a more relevant streaming service to upload content to.
2// Aim To Publish Multiple Streams A Week
Now is not the time to rest on your laurels. People have the time to consume hour-long streams, and because streams are so informal and require little planning, all you need to do is communicate with your audience that you plan to go live at a specific time.
Once that’s done, you can share your content directly with your audience as it’s happening and engage them frequently, which is key in times like this to remain relevant.
However, only plan to stream if you’re going to be doing something entertaining or valuable. Never start a stream without a game plan or strategy as you run the risk of boring your audience, and making them purposefully avoid your content during this pandemic.
3// Upload At Strategic Times
People are still working, studying and attending classes, albeit from home, so they’re not going to be as engaged in a stream during working hours. The best times to post would be on weekends, in the evening and on holidays when people don’t have much else to occupy their time.
Using Twitch as a reference again, you’ll find that traffic increases on the site at 4 pm, when people are arriving home from school and work.
4// Keep Your Content Fresh
People have seen enough quarantine vlogs and morning routines from streamers not in the genre that adding this type of content to your upload schedule isn’t going to do you any good. Continue uploading the content you’d usually create, but adapt it to quarantine and lock down.
Are you going to be going outside and engaging strangers? Probably not. But, there are exciting forms of content you can create without leaving your house, it just takes some ingenuity to discover these.
One example of this is to live stream with fans – whether they’re gaming with you or you’re having a live conversation with them. This is one way you can improve your content and make it just as engaging as it would be if you weren’t stuck inside.
5// Don’t Expect A Sudden Uptick In Numbers
Just as there are more viewers on streaming services than ever before, there’s also more time for new creators to start creating content, and established creators to upload more. That means you can’t just upload more and expect to receive more followers. You need to strategize and ensure you’re creating quality content that new viewers – and old viewers – will enjoy.
Don’t think because people have nothing else to do they’ll watch you. There are over 3 million creators on Twitch, giving viewers enough variety. So, if you’re not going to be extraordinary, you won’t get any new followers.
