No, I don’t mean building a Stream Team on Twitch. I mean building a group of people who will help you run your business most effectively. While most streamers start as a one man or woman shop if you want to grow you’re going to need to outsource some of the work. That’s just a fact of business. You only have so many hours in the day and, more importantly, so much mental energy. If you spend your whole day working on things for your stream will you still be entertaining while you’re live? Let’s look at some of the roles that you might fill.
Mods
Yes, this one is obvious. If you’re being entertaining or focused on the game you don’t want to have to moderate your chat as well. However, if you’re big enough it’s pretty much impossible to dodge trolls and bots. You need to have good, consistent mods to help deal with that. When you’re starting out it can totally make sense to mod a friend. They’re likely to be there the most consistently and you already know them. For instance, my first mod is my best friend and the guy is awesome at it. I think it comes from a long history of coaching as well as being an RA in college. However, with just one mod I wasn’t going to have someone on all of the time so I ended up modding another great guy. That way, we have coverage.
Later, you should look at bringing on some folks who mod for multiple channels. For instance, Day[9] has a whole crew who mod for multiple channels. They’re still true fans but they also have some great experience and maintain a schedule. That way, there’s always someone there to do modding… even for a chat that’s mostly in sub only mode.
While it could be a separate group, your mods should also help you out with community building and management. Hopefully you have a Discord set up but if there’s another place where your viewers gather you should make sure you’re there and participating. Mods can help a bunch with that if you trust them!
Outside Content
Do you make YouTube videos or have other sources of outside content that you use to build your audience and revenue? Is that something you love doing? How long does it take you to do? I’ve found plenty of streamers that I enjoy watching via YouTube. I think it’s a great idea to do because any chance at some extra exposure is good and because you can get some revenue from it to supplement streaming.
If you’re like me however you really don’t want to spend the time and effort to make good videos. It’s just not what captures my interest and it’s certainly not something I’ve naturally good at. Sure, I don’t mind recording a video or coming up with a topic and script. It’s the editing that kills me. But guess what? There are some people who love doing that. It’s their craft. And you can hire them! And usually not for crazy rates!
In the past I’ve talked with ZeForte who does videos for Thijs and it seems like they have a great system in place. ZeForte takes great games or clips from the stream and makes them into YouTube videos. He then shares in the profits of the video. It’s a win-win because Thijs wouldn’t get any revenue from YouTube without these videos and ZeForte gets a great job. Now Thijs puts out a video every single day, which can be a huge bonus for visibility and revenue.
Social Media
If you’re not a social media expert you can find someone to help you get on a schedule and share compelling content. Some of the value there certainly is in having good content in the first place however a lot of it is in having a plan and being consistent. Certainly you should be using it to let folks know when you’re online but it can also help you to find other streamers you could learn from or just enjoy as a fan. Also, if you’ve got some great content it’s great to have a place that you and your followers can share it. For instance, one of my favorite FTL streamers had a moment where he made an entertaining mistake that cost him a run. We snagged a clip of it and not only has it been entertaining for us but it’s been watched a bunch on Reddit and via Twitter. Things like this not only help bring the community a bit closer but improve his viewership a little.
Hiring someone to help you with social media can help make that a reality if you just don’t have the time to do it. There are also services like Hootsuite to help you push messages to all of your platforms with one action. That can save a surprising amount of time!
Managing the Business
Man, it can be a pain to make sure that the business stays running. You need to handle the accounting, payment processing, planning for future growth, cash flow, and buying stuff. Not to mention any contractors you might work with!
You can outsource some of that work. There are hourly bookkeepers (though something like UpWork) who can do some of that for you. Also, if you use something like Xero or Freshbooks for your accounting you can use Zapier to help integrate it with your other systems. That way, things flow automatically! Similarly, you can work with outside experts on things like business management and planning if that’s not your expertise.
Unless it’s something you really enjoy it can also be good to bring on someone as a point person for things like merchandizing, partnerships, sponsorships, and outside ads. Basically, an agent. They’d work with you to make sure the brand was consistent and you were only working on things you approve of but they’d be the ones reaching out and initially vetting new opportunities. Trust me, if it’s something that athletes and actors do it’s something good for you as well. This one might be harder to afford initially but it’s something to keep in mind as you grow.
Some great, successful examples of this are TheHunterWild and HBFox as well as the OP Group.
Graphics
I suck at art. Like I’m really bad at it. Ask my viewers who play Drawful with me. Anyways, I’m always really impressed by people who are good at it because I’m so bad at it and I’ve hired them to do my work for me! My stream graphics and graphics for my other site didn’t cost me that much (check her out) and instead of using my crappy paint skills I got something that looks great. It was one of my better decisions!
For this I’d suggest looking at the Twitch subreddit, Twitch’s artist group, Fiverr, or looking for someone’s work you like on Twitch Creative. As in all things, you get what you pay for.
Conclusion
Outsourcing some of your work can help free up your time and, believe it or not, your resources. Since you’re the one on camera making the magic happen your best bet for your business is to have you in the best streaming shape possible. Consider some of these tasks that you could outsource! If you have a suggestion for someone who could help provide any of these services let me know. We’d love to put together a list of resources to make everyone’s life easier.
