Streaming video games is big business these days and there are a lot of people out there making money from their hobby. There are still plenty of parents out there that think playing video games is a waste of time but it could actually be a career if you start streaming on sites like Twitch. Once you build a big enough following, you’ll start getting donations and brand sponsorships. But before you get to that point, you need to create a channel that catches people’s attention and gets them to subscribe, which is easier said than done. There’s a lot of competition out there but if you follow these tips, you should be able to get noticed.

Get The Right Setup

Before you start streaming, you need to make sure that you have the right setup. If you lose connection in the middle of the stream or the connection is bad, that will put people off. Poor graphics on your game make your channel look amateur too, which is why you need a good home gaming setup. If you are serious about gaming, you should already have a powerful setup that is capable of running the best games, but if you haven’t upgraded it for a while, you should invest a bit of money.

Create A Professional Channel

There are thousands of people that are casual streamers and just like to broadcast their game to a small audience. These kinds of streamers don’t really need to worry about things like branding, but if you are serious about making money from your stream, you need to make it look professional. You’ll get more subscribers and you’re more likely to get sponsorships if you look the part. Having some background music, for example, instantly boosts the quality of your stream. You can find plenty of great royalty-free Twitch Music online so you don’t need to invest a lot of money to get some nice background music. You also need a branded banner for your channel, so it’s worth paying a graphic designer to create a cool logo for you.

Promote Your Stream

This seems obvious, but it’s tough to get people to watch your stream if you don’t promote it. You’ll get a small number of viewers that find you naturally when they are browsing Twitch, but if you really want to boost your numbers, you need to be proactive. Twitter is a great place to post links to your stream and get more viewers, and you can also look for relevant groups on Facebook.

Getting your stream hosted by other Twitch streamers is a great way to get more exposure too. If you can get a popular streamer with a big following to host your content, you should get a lot of new subscribers. It’s unlikely that you’ll get the biggest streamers in the world to host your content, but you should get in touch with some other up-and-coming streamers that play similar games to you and ask them if they will host you.

Making money from playing video games might seem too good to be true, but if you follow these tips, you can start making your Twitch stream profitable.