Why am I here?
If you are in the middle of pursuing the dream of full time streaming, going to an event may not be beneficial to your channel. Even accomplished streamers go through subscriber loss when attending events for more than a few days. If you have yet to reach a substantial enough number of subs or followers to achieve the goal of being self-sufficient, it’s much more beneficial to stay home and stream. The largest streamers will be away, and unless you have enough meetings with potential sponsors or developers to make up for that time when you return, the benefits of working on your consistency far outweigh much else.
Making the Trip Worthwhile
You can certainly go to an event for good times whenever you want. However, understand that going to these events means you aren’t working and unlike other professions, when you come back, it may not be to the same revenue. There is a tendency for viewers to find other streams while you are gone and fill the gap in their day.
Some streamers have difficulty looking at their production monetarily. In order for you to survive, your stream needs to support you. If you choose to go to these events make sure you are spending some of your time looking to develop relationships with developers, potential equipment sponsors, or looking to engage with other streamers.
Understand Your Value, Understand Your Partners
Your stream has a value. Being able to express that to partners lets them properly evaluate what they can get from you when you are communicating to them in person. You should be able to tell a partner how many concurrent viewers you typically get, how many followers you have, how many views your channel has received and sometimes how many subscribers. Not everyone is going to want to offer you everything out the door and sometimes your follower count might not matter if you are already producing a stream with a lot of potential for the future. Be wary of the easy partnership as some sponsors have less than stellar products but are more than willing to provide you with equipment.
#SellOut
There is a weird sense of what is OK and what isn’t when it comes to advertisements in streaming. Everyone is typically OK with you receiving anonymous money and subscriptions but crossing the threshold into monetizing your channel can be dangerous as viewers may believe you’re content will become disingenuous as a result. Its best to try and align yourself with the companies you use and like already. Done correctly, the transition isn’t you very obviously changing out all of your equipment for some undisclosed amount. It doesn’t tell a great story when you use one brand of keyboard your whole streaming career and heap on praise for it then one day swap it out once money comes into play. It totally makes sense for you to do this as a business but your viewers may see it as insincere.
Make Friends
This is the largest gathering of like minded individuals you will ever find at a single event. There is no where better to be able to link up with and learn from streamers big and small. A goal you should always have is to find other streamers with whom you can create some level of comedic chemistry with as it would be valuable for both of you to potentially work together down the road. For now though, just listen and learn from each other as this event only swings around once a year.
Have Fun?
Breaks are incredibly rare when you are a content creator. In order to be successful you have to be on the forefront of breaking news in games, drama, politics, and culture. These events are the few times you can truly rationalize stepping back and breaking the cycle to grow yourself and refresh your passion. Enjoy the time you spend here and remember to use this time to the fullest.
Fletch
@amazingfletch
