May 9th, 2016
Haters gonna hate. Creators gonna create. Is that not the best phrase you’ve heard in 2016 so far? Hell yeah I think so! But, what does it mean? Let’s break it down.
This blog post is going to be an advice piece aimed and people who are thinking about getting into content creation. Whether it is blog writing, streaming, film making or one of those amazing robot-like dancers you see on YouTube – this post is for you. Going to be a few pointers, and a few warnings.
Grow thick skin. You may already be privy to the gruesome nature of the internet. At it’s core, the internet is NOT a nice place. It will chew you up and spit you out faster than you can say gang bang. At the beginning, you have to expect that people who watch or listen to your content are going to give you negative feedback before positive feedback. But why? (First, let me preface my response with this is more of a theory more than a fact). Well, you have to figure that before you have your audience, the people who are watching your content, are either doing so by chance or by recommendation. Or, by doing a google search and navigating to the 28th page where your content resides. What that means is you don’t have audience members who are your genuine fans yet. You just have random people as audience members. When you have an audience that enjoys your content, they are more likely to give you positive feedback, because they like you. Even if it wasn’t fantastic, based on your likability there is a good chance they won’t try and bring you down. Audience members that have no connection to you whatsoever will have no remorse leaving you with a nasty comment. What do they care? On top of that, when you don’t have a huge following, the negative comments REALLY stand out. And it can suck to see so many, so early. If you’re not getting critiqued like mad, then you’re probably doing something right.
If you are doing video content, you can pretty much assume that whatever objects are within the frame, is going to get commented on if out of place. There are narcissistic trolls who go around and do nothing but scour your content for things to bitch about.
- Why is that water so close to your computer?
- You know that food isn’t organic and actually harmful for your cat right?
- Those plants aren’t supposed to get direct sunlight.
- Why are your monitors sideways?
- Wow, you have a gaming computer and it’s not watercooled? What a waste.
I’m just giving you this warning now. Everything that can be picked apart, will be eventually. They will see or hear the stupidest thing that has no relevance to your subject and give you shit about it. And if you don’t ignore it or know how to handle it, it will drive you crazy. Day after day after day of everyone giving you their two cents. It gets old really fast. Be ready for it. Ignore the trolls.
My final piece of advice is to believe in the content that you create. Once you start second guessing your creations is the point where things might start going downhill. Make the content for you first, and the audience second. It is the only way you will be happy. Keep in mind that perfection is overrated.
You’re going to feel lonely for a while. Especially when it comes to streaming on Twitch. And this is probably the hardest part of getting started with creating content. You will spend countless hours and even days on a single piece of original content. And it will be great. And it will get ignored. This my friend, is just how it goes. With Twitch, you will spend many many months streaming to an empty room. The market is extremely saturated right now, and everyone who knows how to turn on a computer is trying to stream. You HAVE to do something different to set yourself apart from everyone else. Or you are going to continue streaming to an empty room.
I got pretty lucky with the start of my streaming hobby. I was already a part of a PC Gaming Community called GSN. I had many friends who were into gaming, and also into watching Twitch streams. It wasn’t until my brother showed me the platform and got me setup that I was officially a ‘streamer’. To be honest, if he didn’t set OBS up for me and help me get started, I most likely wouldn’t be where I am today. Big ups to him. Anyways, I already had a considerably big group of friends that knew who I was, and were interested in watching me stream. This really helped me in the beginning because I felt like I was putting on a show for at least a few people. Now in your head you’re thinking, “well then I just need to sign up for a gaming community and begin advertising my streams!”
WRONG.
You will most likely be warned or banned right off the bat for spamming. People don’t want you abusing the reach of their community to promote your stream. Plus, they don’t even know you! So don’t start going to random places and spamming links to your content. It will most likely not end up well for you. So, i’m not saying that you have to be apart of a group or community to get started. I’m simply saying that it helped having a few friends around who didn’t mind watching my stream, even if they weren’t interacting with me at all. Randoms are more inclined to stick around if they see a few other people hanging around. I don’t think i would have continued streaming if it wasn’t for the support of my gaming community. So, if you’re to take away a sliver of advice from this part of the post, it’s try to find a place to belong. Find a group of people or friends to network with. Go hang out in people’s chat and get to know people. Build a group. Do something! Just don’t post your channel links in other streamers chats. That’s a no-no.
One final note on this piece. Just because you have a group of friends that are willing to watch you stream as you start, doesn’t mean they are going to stick around. The honeymoon phase of your streaming career start will wear off, and the only people who will continue to come back are the ones who genuinely enjoy the content you create. So, while a group or community will help you get started, it won’t continue to support you if you don’t make good content. Now, while I spoke to this point in reference to streaming, the same goes for YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other social networking platforms. You are going to go months, even years (like me) with MINIMAL impressions on the web, and very little interaction from an audience. But that’s just how it goes. You need to be ready to put in the work, time and effort into building your own community from scratch. Let me tell you, it’s not easy.
Okay, my last point wasn’t final. This one is. The final final point. If you find yourself not wanting to create content because their is no one watching, you might be doing it for the wrong reasons. If you don’t have a natural feeling of LOVING the creation of your content, this might not be for you. You have to do it because you love it if you’re going to be successful.
Get ready to be annoying. Because there is no other way you are going to get your content out into the world without being a little annoying. Unless of course you have a fantastic set of tits, love low cut shirts and play League of Legends. Then you just have to turn a camera on and play.
This has to be one of the hardest parts of creating content. In the beginning, no one is looking out for you. No one is following your Twitter, or subscribed to your YouTube or liking your pages on Facebook. You have to get your name out there. You have to poke them, reach out and engage your peers. To put it simply, that involves being annoying. That means going out of your way to create opportunities to make impressions for your brand. You can’t do that by sitting back and letting people come to you. Because newsflash – THEY WON’T. Just try not to be too annoying, or you will do more harm than good. But know that you’re going to need to be forward with your networking.
If you take this seriously, your hobby might become your job. That could be good or bad. You have to decide. There are certain things that I love to do. Some of those things, I could never do for a full time job. For example, I love photography and graphic design. I went to school for both because i thought I wanted a career in either. Well, turns out when it comes to the business aspect of those professions, working in photography or graphic design with a client base is absolute hell. If you’ve worked in a job where you have to directly work with clients, you know what I mean. Having my artwork critiqued and molded to fit the likes of the client was exhausting and awful. It just put such a bad taste in my mouth. I knew that if I continued doing work in this field, I would hate being artistic. I would hate doing art because of it’s stressful ties to my job. And it almost got to that point too. Thankfully, I switched professions before too much damage was done.
The reality of that situation is you need to find out for yourself whether you are okay with turning a hobby, into a job. Can you be a content creator for 8 hours a day, 5 hours a week without distraction? Can you make playing video games a way to pay bills? Can you push through being sick to do research for your next video? Do you have the self control to only take 2 weeks of vacation a year from this job? These are important questions. Playing video games or video editing is a hobby for some, and for those some people, it’s 90% fun and 10% everything else. Think back to every Monday you’ve ever had on the job. Hard to get out of bed. Slow to get to work. Having trouble finding motivation to do anything. Now, think of those aspects when in relation to streaming, writing or creating any sort of content. You’re going to have days where you just don’t want to play video games. Or don’t want to edit video. But you’re going to have to if you want to get paid. Are you okay with taking your hobby to the next level? Where the chances of the ‘fun’ factor are quickly removed, and replaced with day to day stress? Good questions. Ask yourself if you want to break down the barrier between content creation being a fun hobby, and a job.
What about you Nackers?
What a great question reader. And to be honest, I really don’t know if I want to make that sacrifice. Well then, you might be asking me why I stream? This might seem like a simple question, but it’s actually quite complicated. Why do I stream?
I stream for a few reasons. And to be honest, both of these reasons developed after I had already started streaming. The first reason, is that streaming breathed a brand new raging passion for video games back into me. Before I started streaming, I was so out of touch with video games. I was still a part of the GSN community, but I only played a few games. And it wasn’t that often really. I loved Battlefield and such, but that was really the only game I played regularly. After a year of streaming, I took a break from GSN, video games in general and streaming all together. I decided to take up playing the drums, and dedicated the next year learning and ultimately playing my first and only show. While it was an amazing experience and i’m so happy I did it, there was something pulling me back to technology, video games and streaming. I hopped back onto the wagon, started a new channel and got right back on the horse. It was months later that I was the most passionate and involved in video games than I have ever been. And every day, that passion grows.
The second most important reason I stream, is for charity. I take half of all donations I receive from audience members and donate them to a different charity every month, One of my favorite things about Twitch is how deeply intertwined Twitch is involved with charitable organizations. Every other month, there is a community wide fundraiser for a different organization. Being able to use Twitch as a platform to raise money for the charity of my choice is one of the greatest things ever. Me, as a white male born in the United States, I am so unbelievably and extremely lucky to grow up with the life that I did. There are millions of people around the world that are not so lucky, and they need our help and support. So, if I can do something as easy as play video games to raise money for good causes, you can bet your ass i’m going to do it. It was up to complete chance that I was born where i did, and when I did. The world owes me nothing, but you bet your ass I feel like I owe something. Streaming is my way giving back and making a difference.
When I started streaming on Twitch, I did it because it was new and exciting. But i now realize the reasons I stream are much different than the ones I started with. And i’m so glad that I did. It rekindled my love for video games, and gave me a new avenue to give back to the world in a way I didn’t knew existed. I’m so grateful for that. Wouldn’t have been possible without my brother BadBadrobot. But to this day, I don’t know if I could leave my current job in IT to pursue this full time. I don’t know if I want to. For now, just riding the wave while I can. Because I’m having such a fucking blast doing it.
So in conclusion, if you are going to create content, realize what you are getting into. I know the points above make it seem like an awful hobby to get into. My intention is to give you a fair warning so you’re not going in blind. And that way you can decide if this is right for you. There are so many amazing things that come out of creating content. But I can’t share those with you. You are going to have to experience those for yourself. Also never forget that no matter what you do and what you create, someone, somewhere – is going to give you shit about something. Remember to silently and discreetly tell them to fuck off, and continuing doing what you’re doing. But do not reflect all constructive criticism. Make sure to listen to it, because you don’t know everything. Haters gonna hate. Creators gonna create.
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