Hi Pals
As you know I’m on the slog to 4K watch hours on youtube before the updated watchtime change, and the only other thing I can think to do to help me get there which also makes sense to me is trying livestreams.
It’s something that is suggested by all of the youtube hustle YouTube channels. Most of them say the same shit but occasionally say something really useful, one of those channels said one of your other options to help boost the time of your channel without making more videos, particularly if you’re a long form video maker, is livestreams.
I did a little bit of live streaming once upon a time, I was on YouNow and I had a brief stint on Twitch with a few video games but sometimes also other streams. I’m thinking about maybe bringing this back at least momentarily, I did put a pole on my community page tab asking if people would be interested if I started live streaming on YouTube, and if so let me know what kinds of streams you already like to watch as a bit of marketing research. I’ve had six votes on the poll so far, not many people actually vote in these polls so if you have an account, please go vote, leave a comments and also follow my channel!
I have been thinking about and noting in my journal my ideas for streaming at the moment. I don’t know how often they will be or what time it will be so let me know in the comments as well what sort sort of time you would sit down and watch a live stream whether it’s an active one or whether it’s like a chill one, kind of body doubling.
I’ve mainly been doing week days when my mum is in work and isn’t usually home until 6pm or later. Live streaming from 4pm until 6pm roughly, so let me know if that works for you but I’m open to doing times and that work better for the people who would actually like to attend!
Let me know what kind of lifestreams you do watch already as well as I’m also open to experimenting with types of streams if I can!
The ideas I have for the live streams are basically a few different kinds of get shit done streams. It can be anything but it’s basically kind of like a body doubling stream. I have so far done a few reading sprint streams using the Pomodoro technique, where you work for 20-25 minutes and then have a break for 5-10 minutes alternating back and fourth like that.
There’s a few different versions of these streams I could do and obviously you don’t have to come do this specific task either. It’s mostly a theme for me.
- a general get stuff done stream: getting on with random tasks that need doing, whether it’s admin or physically
- reading sprint streams: like the ones I’ve already done so far, I read a book!
- writing sprint streams: same as above, but instead I write for my novel.
- crafting streams: where I am making stuff for my art business, like art pieces or key rings, this will be a bit looser on the pomodoro but I may use this technique here and there to lock into a task for a while.
- gaming live stream: this one might be harder for me to do without a full separate streaming setup, but I could possibly stream from my iPad and play a new game of Stardew Valley with you here and there if that was of interest!
We do chat in the break times as well! It not all ‘do task, go for a toilet or snack break’ there is a chance for some back and forth.
I did sell my PS4 or whatever ages ago and that had an easier direct streaming set up for game play and using a mic. I have a Switch but I’ve looked into streaming or recording gameplay before and gotten confused. Any tips or ideas, please let me know!
I don’t know how to set all that stuff up without having to deal with a bunch of extra streaming software that is needed. When I used to stream on twitch, I used to use OBS but it seems like over the years it’s gotten harder to use and worse. especially for free.
I may keep streaming here and there in the upcoming years if people like it and if I find I’m liking it and it’s benefiting my channel.
The main reason why I did not continue streaming is mostly that I am just very non-vocal/verbal outside of videos. I actually am a very non-verbal autistic. I don’t really speak very much most of the time at home. I often get a hoarse voice if I have gone out and been social or if I filmed multiple videos in one day or like a long video. I have such a delicate hyper mobile voice box that extra periods of talking even if I’m not doing something crazy with my voice, it just wears my voice out. Being a non-verbal streamer is not the most engaging for the average stream viewer and the way I like watching let’s plays for example is that I prefer when the streamer reads out all the text boxes because I don’t wanna fucking read it, I want to hear it being read to me you know? However I hate doing it. I hate reading things out a lot of the times when I’m playing games it’s because I want to just chill out and not interact with people very much so I struggle to spend all that time reading things out but also trying to engage with people who are in the comments or chat section so I feel like this is gonna be an issue regardless of what kind of stream live streaming I do.
I don’t expect myself to always be like the rest of my videos and look or act ready, but I do see the talking a lot as a possible issue.
So yeah, those are kind of my thoughts generally.
I would really appreciate appreciate feedback. What do you want to see? What do you want to hear? What are things that you currently enjoy watching?
And hopefully I’ll see some of you in my live stream chat sometime!
artie carden 
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