Last night, I made a return to streaming on Twitch to help grow the ColoradoPlays brand. If you don’t know, it’s the gaming blog that donates a large portion of income to various charities. And the results of the experience weren’t all that bad.

But I do have a few areas I need to work on as I develop.

My Return to Streaming on Twitch

I love games in any form. And if I can be social while playing, all the better. It’s also one of my goals to help drive donations for both myself and the charities I support.

A great way to do this is streaming on Twitch.

But this isn’t my first round of broadcasting gameplay. I’ve been playing games on Twitch off and on since 2014. I just never really put in a lot of effort to grow the channels.

This time, it’s different. I have a renewed passion for what I do, and I want to be able to share who I am and the charities I support.

Although I don’t have “mad skills” at any one game, I love to do my part to help others in need.

So, what did I discover last night during my live stream?

More “Lurkers” than Viewers

Unfortunately, I had more lurkers than viewers according to the attendance record. I know this because I can identify the Twitch accounts that are renowned for lurking.

If you don’t know, “lurking” is when you have an account viewing your video but not really interacting. Essentially, some people will open your live stream in a browser tab, put it on mute, and then go about their business.

While this helps increase the watchtime stats to help people reach affiliate status on Twitch, it really doesn’t do anything for engagement…or driving donations.

Still, lurking can help smaller channels appear higher in the game list for better visibility.

External Views from ColoradoPlays.com

One thing I noticed last night while streaming on Twitch is the number of views I received from ColoradoPlays.com. This is because I have a Twitch player embedded in both the sidebar and on its own page.

This way, anyone visiting the site can see when I’m online.

Well, at least 2 of my 8 “Outside Twitch” viewers were from “external” sources…which I discovered often came from the blog. And back when ColoradoPlays.com had more traffic, most of the viewership during any live event came from external sources.

I’ve actually gained a few followers and avid watchers from this in the past, so it’s worthwhile to add the player to the website.

I know, 12 total viewers inside of a 2-hour period isn’t a lot. But when you consider that it’s been a year since I’ve gone live and this is still a relatively tiny channel, 12 views isn’t all that bad.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, my content is labeled for adults. I have a mouth like a drunken sailor sometimes, so it’s probably not the best for a younger audience.

Need to Make Audio Adjustments

After streaming on Twitch, I reviewed a bit of the video. It seems I need to turn down my microphone slightly and turn up the game volume.

In some areas, my voice went too loud for the mic. This gave it a crackling sound from the input. And the volume of the game was just a tad on the low side. So I can assume it probably wasn’t prominent on mobile devices.

This isn’t too difficult to fix, though. It just takes a slight movement on both mic and volume in XSplit.

Need to Work on Mouth Noises

Perhaps one of the most embarrassing things happened during the live stream. It seems I have a severe problem with making mouth noises while I’m live.

I mean, it sounded like I was performing some weird muckbang without eating food.

Recently, I had dentures put in. And I’m still getting used to them, even though I still think they are sized wrong. This leads me to smack my tongue across the top of my mouth…a lot!

Oddly enough, though, I don’t do it when creating a video on YouTube. It only happens when I’m broadcasting live.

Maybe it has something to do with the time of night. When I go live on Twitch or YouTube, it’s usually later in the evening. When I create a video to upload, it’s usually earlier in the day.

I don’t know, but I desperately need to stop. I had an awesome clip of taking on two sharks in Raft last night that I wanted to upload to YouTube. But the mouth noises were so bad, it sounded like I was eating watermelon!

Need Better Lighting and Background

I don’t have a lot of money to put into video development. As such, I have a cheap string of lights I bought from Walmart on the wall of my office. While it works in the sense it makes me easier to see while Streaming on Twitch, the quality is quite low.

I’m also wondering if getting a mobile greenscreen might work better for the live streams. The background in my office is a bit distracting. And I think it takes a bit away from viewers being able to see me.

The end result: paying a few bucks for better lighting and background ambiance.

If I’m going to get serious about maintaining my YouTube channels and Twitch streams, guess I need to pony up the dough.

Sticking with a Schedule

I still believe that using Asana, structuring my day, and keeping away from random YouTube watching time will help me stick to a schedule for streaming on Twitch. So far, it’s worked out quite well for the blogs.

So, for the time being, I’ll stream live on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays. But I’m sure that will change periodically. I’ll go live whenever I feel the need, but I need to find the most ideal time to reach an audience.

This means I’ll have to experiment with watchtime at various parts of the day.

I Forgot How Fun Streaming on Twitch is for Me

To be honest, I don’t know why I keep stopping streaming on Twitch. I come out of the gate strong but then pitter out after a few weeks. I enjoy it! Though, I wish more people would at least say “hi” or something.

It’s the social engagement I really get into.

But still, I think my renewed sense of self will keep this going. I just need to remind myself of why I am doing what I do.

And for hell’s sake, quit with the mouth noises!