Being a YouTube streamer is a hot career choice for avid gamers. After all, what’s not to love about getting paid to play your favorite games?
But of course, while many will try, only a few will truly make it to the stage where they can make a living off streaming.
To get your ticket into this Hall of Fame, you’re going to need a following that you can monetize. The bigger your following, the better—and it all starts with promoting your stream so that you grow your fanbase.
Quoting Legend of Zelda, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this.” So here’s a guide on promoting your YouTube gaming stream, even if you currently have zero or very few subscribers.
Add this guide to your inventory, and give these strategies a shot as you take on the YouTube boss!
Create Subscribe-worthy videos
If you want to get people talking about your YouTube channel, then you’ll need to give them a reason to do so.
Which means you’ll need to ask yourself: how can you create a channel with content so awesome that viewers have practically no choice but to spread the word?
To answer this question, check out what fellow streamers are doing, then think about how you can create videos that stand out. For example, could you be funnier in your narrations, or stream games that are getting less attention?
Streamer Seamus O’Doherty, who goes by the handle “SSoHPKC” on YouTube, has gotten his niche down to a T.
He is known for making sarcastic jokes in his videos, and trolling others in a deadpan way.
In fact, Seamus is so well-loved that when he returned from a streaming break, his fans left comments on his new videos such as:
“No exaggeration. Seamus doing playthroughs again is the best thing to happen in 2020. The first person I ever watched play video games.”
Interact with your fans
When you run a YouTube gaming stream, people usually aren’t interested in just the games that you stream.
They’re also interested in you, the gamer behind the streams. After all, it’s your distinct personality and quality of narration that make your videos entertaining to watch.
So to keep interest in your stream high, be sure to mingle with your viewers! When they get to know you better as a person, they also become more invested in following your stream.
Streamer Daniel Robert Middleton or “DanTDM” is an ace at using YouTube’s community feature to engage his fans on gaming-related topics.
A recent poll that he created to ask his followers for their opinion on the Minecraft: Caves & Cliffs update generated over 742,000 votes:
Separately, he also encouraged followers to “like” one of his community posts if they wanted him to upload a new video to his channel (and of course they do).
That said, Daniel doesn’t post only about streaming. He also posts life updates, such as him celebrating his first Father’s Day with his baby son.
But whatever he posts, his community laps it up.
Collaborate with other streamers
If you’re into multiplayer games, this is a great opportunity for you to collaborate with fellow streamers on playthroughs, and be promoted to their fanbase.
As an example, here’s a video by gamer BBelle, featuring her winning a game of Fall Guys against streamers ZackScott and Zanitor:
And proving that this strategy works, someone left this comment on her video: “Hey bbelle, I watch Zack Scott and u joined and idk who u are can u tell me.”
In other words, that person is actually a fan of gamer Zack Scott. But he got to know of Bbelle through her collaboration with Zack.
With some luck, they might just decide to subscribe to her channel too—and add to her follower count!
Use eye-catching video thumbnails
When it comes to uploading your videos to YouTube, the quality of the video itself is important—but so is the quality of its thumbnail.
That’s because when a person searches for a video to watch, they will get a whole list of videos to choose from. And if they don’t notice your video in the list, then they’re definitely not going to watch it.
Which is where you need your thumbnail to catch their attention, and pique their curiosity enough so that they’ll click on your video. Seal the deal by having a consistent gaming company logo, which makes your videos instantly recognizable to loyal fans.
Need inspiration? Then check out the YouTube channel of streamer Pokimane, whose brightly colored video thumbnails do an awesome job of catching your eye:
With PosterMyWall, creating beautiful video thumbnails and gaming banners is a piece of cake. Just drag and drop your logo and gaming screenshots into the image editor, and add your text, and you can have your graphics ready in no time.
Go get your game on!
Launching and maintaining a popular YouTube gaming stream isn’t easy. For one, it’s going to take a lot of hard work in promoting your stream, especially if you’re just starting out.
In this regard, it’s important to manage your expectations. Because your following isn’t going to massively increase overnight (unless you go viral that is, but that takes a huge stroke of luck!) You may feel that you’re trying your best, only to see your viewer and subscriber counts inch up by only a handful of people every time.
But don’t get disheartened! Video games aren’t built in a day, and neither are successful YouTube gaming streams.
Be patient, and keep testing different promotional strategies to see which ones work for you. GLHF (good luck, have fun)!
New to PosterMyWall? Use our templates and design tools to make thrilling banners and thumbnails for your videos.
Qasim is a senior editor at PosterMyWall. Qasim is a reader and writer during and after work, and likes to explore a wide range of topics and niches. Outside of work, he likes to meditate, listen to good music and journal.
