Updated 8/5/2025

This was put together and made by Nic Stas, a streamer on Twitch who has been streaming since November 2022. When I first started streaming, YouTube was my best friend, and I had struggled to find just one set list of things I used for streaming and how to be a ‘good’ streamer.

These are OWN things I’ve found online or heard from other streamers; this will be updated every so often to make sure information is up-to-date.

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General Streaming Tips

Streaming isn’t for the weak, it takes a toll on you mentally, and you will need breaks (and that’s ok!!!), I plan for at minimum one day off a week.
- Having a schedule is very useful, but not everyone’s work schedule allows for this! Schedules work best as a !schedule command and also having a set place in your Discord server for this.
If you’re only playing one game on stream, make sure you enjoy it, as you will gain viewership from that game! if you switch from that game, just know viewership may go down, especially as a smaller streamer.
Network! Go into other chats and hang out and make friends, but DO NOT SELF-PROMO! Friends can turn into viewers. Play games with them, and make genuine connections!! Modding for larger streamers does help build connections and grow, but this doesn’t always stick & can be seen as using this for your benefit.
- Create a dedicated Discord server earlier in time versus later, as this builds a community when you’re not streaming for people to enjoy and be part of. I’ve personally had my Discord Server for a few months before me streaming, and this helped me grow, especially when I was a VERY inconsistent streamer.
Change your IGN to make yourself more presentable and unique to attract viewers. Try to avoid numbers and multiple of the same letter in your name to make it look cleaner. For example, having TTV or Twitch does help, but also having your username CLEANLY in your name is best (no weird names or font)
- Examples: TTV NicStas, NicStas, NicStas!, nicstas
Overall, HAVE FUN AND DON'T FOCUS ON GETTING FAMOUS/RICH, streaming won’t make you millions alone, content, sponsorships, etc. will help make you money!!
- Please, do not go full-time until you can fully sustain your lifestyle plus some for savings and taxes (put away 20-30% of total income for that month) every month.

Safety Note:

Most of these are very much common sense, but you’d be surprised…

Do not share too much personal identifying information online with people that you have just met, as this can be a safety concern
- Please do not state exactly where you live (if you want to say city, please say a big city near you) - doxxing streamers is a big issue that comes up, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.
- Using your full name (especially as your username) is never smart; either have an entirely different name or something similar to your name - this is how you will be addressed online!
Along with this, please do not use your personal email for brands and sponsorships, make a new Gmail email (it’s free!!!) to use, and do not have your full name attached if you don’t share that online!
- My professional email is ‘[email protected]’, which is NOT connected to any of my social media accounts.
Enable Two-Factor Authentication on all apps. There are a lot of free Authenticator apps on both Android and iPhone </aside>

Twitch Specific Tips

This section will have all Twitch-specific things, as this is the platform I have the most experience on. Later on, I will add other streaming platforms, but most tips still apply!

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Making Things Pretty

Twitch’s About section uses the Markdown format, which is a form of coding that can be used to make your About section look clean and put together. Link to Markdown format!

Emotes are the main reason why people subscribe to a streamer; however, you don’t necessarily want to have the same emotes as every other streamer on the platform(s) that you stream on.

Canva is a GREAT free resource, plus a lot of emote artists will post free ones on Ko-fi as-well!!
If you make emotes on Canva or a similar site (or if the size you buy from an artist isn’t what you can upload) Emote Resizer & Emote Animator
Shameless self-plug - I do make my own emotes & do accept very few commissions, please reach out via email or twitter (I’ll see email faster than twitter!)
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @nicstas_