“Content is king, but engagement is queen, and the lady rules the house.” – Mari Smith
❓ What You’ll Learn
- Why should you become a virtual streamer?
- How to stream content without restrictions?
- Why are streamers using voice cloning?
- How to boost your brand awareness?
- How to keep your audience engaged when you’re offline?
- How to tap into new audiences?
- How to boost your reach?
- How to find the best viewer acquisition channel?
- How to diversify your revenue?
- How to use live donations to boost engagement?
💎 Why It Matters
Live streamers can attract hundreds of thousands of real-time viewers.
Which is more than most niche TV shows.
🔍 Problem
We all need a break from reality sometimes.
Where routine is replaced with unpredictable outcomes.
We want to see what you see, hear what you hear and feel what you feel.
💡 Solution
Live streaming gives us unscripted moments, raw emotions and genuine interactions.
You become a part of a tribe that escapes reality with a live, shared experience.
🏁 Players
Live Streamers
- Tablestory • Plays board games
- Miranda Quesnel • Makes animated films
- Domo Stanton • Draws sketches, paintings and more
- Christopher Notbusch • Makes sculptures from clay
- BrickinNick • Builds things with LEGO
Live Streaming Platforms
- Twitch • Live streaming service focused on video games, e-sports and more
- YouTube • Live stream to the world’s most popular video hosting platform
- Facebook Live Launch live chats, workshops, Q&As and other online events
- Kick • The most rewarding gaming and live-streaming platform
- Crowdcast • Reach, engage and grow your community with live streams
- Castr Platform for live streaming with video hosting
Live Streaming Tools
- OBS • Free and open-source tool for live streaming
- StreamBeats • Copyright-free music for live streams
- DonationAlerts • Interactive monetization tools
- Printful • Make custom print-on-demand products
🔮 Predictions
- We’ll see more virtual influencers. Streamers will use virtual avatars to lower key-person risk.
- WoodyDev had live streams in a motion capture suit.
- Gawr Gura live streams gameplays, song covers and chats.
- Projekt Melody hosts live gaming sessions as an anime-styled avatar.
- CodeMiko appears as a virtual and human streamer. She shows how her AR setup works.
- Uncensored streaming platforms will let streamers create content without restrictions.
- Livepeer is a video protocol for live and on-demand streaming.
- Owncast is a free and open-source live video and web chat server.
- PeerTube is a tool for building private video hosting and live-streaming networks.
- Live streamers will clone their voices for text-to-speech donation alerts. Fans will become the source of entertainment for the whole stream by mocking streamers with hilarious messages.
- Quin69 is a gamer. Fans mock his angry voice when he loses boss fights.
- nutty cloned the voice of Charles White Jr. for a text-to-speech donation alert.
🛠 How to Build a Live Streaming Business
- Pick a niche to lower competition.
- cakez77 builds games in public.
- TabetaiCooking does live cooking.
- JinDao Tai does stock market analysis.
- Taeha Types builds custom mechanical keyboards.
- Mr_Horologist deconstructs, fixes and rebuilds watches.
- History of Westeros dive deep into the lore of Westeros by George R. R. Martin.
- Do faceless live streaming to lower key-person risk.
- LIRIK streams video games.
- ironmouse streams gameplays, live chats and more.
- BRIGHT SIDE streams animations on science, discoveries and more.
- Use branded graphics to boost the recognition of your channel.
- Banners help you brand your stream’s web page.
- Panels share important details about your stream.
- Emotes let viewers express their feelings and reactions.
- Overlays give a consistent look to on-screen elements, transitions and more.
- Alert boxes and sounds draw attention to new subscribers, milestones and more.
🌱 How to Grow as a Live Streamer
- Build a community to boost engagement with off-stream chats, events and more.
- Hydrasung has a Discord channel with giveaways, merch drops and more.
- frogcrafting has a Discord channel with updates, fan artwork, movie nights and more.
- Benda42 has a Discord channel with promotions, collaboration opportunities and more.
- Collaborate with streamers with aligned audiences. Get more subscribers by borrowing their attention.
- Quin69 and Mathil went rock climbing.
- CYR, PeachJars and RLrunescapeGF partnered for a Pizza Friday stream.
- SypherPK and CouRage invited the world’s Fortnite champion Khanada to a gameplay session.
- Use multistreaming to boost your reach and find the best platform for your content early on.
- GRIDLIFE streamed a car festival Circuit Legends on 3 platforms.
- Speedify streamed the building of a budget gaming PC on 3 platforms.
- VR Master League streamed The Blaston Championship on 4 platforms.
- KaptainSputnik says they’ll be streaming on 4 platforms for 1 month to see which works best.
💰 How to Monetize as a Live Streamer
- Offer paid subscriptions with exclusive content, paid communities and more. This can help you diversify your revenue.
- Taeha Types has a private community.
- falsesymmetry gives access to exclusive in-game and community events.
- DiceLegenz lets paid subscribers join a private community, build plots for upcoming streams and more.
- Use interactive donations to make your streams more fun and engaging. Let viewers attach text and video messages to their donations.
- Orchlon lets viewers send media clips with donations.
- AverageJonas lets viewers play sound effects for donations.
- CurtisRyan lets viewers send a text-to-speech message with donations.
- Sell merch to boost your brand recognition. This is free marketing.
- TeePee sells stickers, shirts, joggers and more.
- TimTheTatman sells slides, shirts, hats and more.
- Lost in House sells mugs, bags, hoodies and more.
😠 Haters
“Live streaming has a lot of key-person risk. The business stops if I stop streaming.”
Faceless streams and virtual avatars can help you offset this risk. Another option is to run streams that are not focused on you and your voice as the creator. BRIGHT SIDE streams animations that don’t need the live presence of the host.
“There is less ability to edit myself. I might get banned or canceled for doing something live.”
Community guidelines can help you avoid streaming inappropriate content. Be mindful about what you’re saying or doing.
“I can expose my private data while sharing my screen.”
Remember to switch scenes or pause screen sharing when entering sensitive data.
“Multistreaming is dividing the community and hurts engagement.”
You can use multistreaming to see what channel performs best for your content. Then pick this channel and drop the rest.
🔗 Links
- Building a Report on How To Grow and Monetize as a Live Streamer • The Tweet behind this report.
- Guide on Video Lighting • How to set up quality lighting for video production.
- How to Grow an Audience • Tips on getting views, virtual gifts and loyal fans.
📁 Related Reports
- Online Events • A cost-effective and scalable way to spread your message
- Virtual Influencers • Create the ideal brand ambassador from scratch
- Personal Brands • You need to show why you are worth trust and attention
- The Creator Economy • Democratized code and distribution help you focus on what you’re good at
- Audience-First Products • Build trust before building products
🙏 Thanks
Thanks to Stewart Townsend. We had a great time jamming on this report.
✏️ Emin researched and wrote this report. Dru researched and edited this report.
📈 What else?
Trends PRO #0131 — Live Streamers has more insights.
What you’ll get:
- 11 Live Streamers (120% More)
- 12 Live Streaming Platforms (100% More)
- 8 Live Streaming Tools (100% More)
- 7 Predictions (133% More)
- 6 Ways to build as a Live Streamer (100% More)
- 8 Ways to grow as a Live Streamer (167% More)
- 6 Ways to monetize as a Live Streamer (100% More)
- 9 Links (200% More)
With Trends Pro you’ll learn:
- (📈 Pro) How will decentralized streaming platforms attract users?
- (📈 Pro) How to boost engagement with interactive streams?
- (📈 Pro) Who raised $43,000,000 for charity?
- (📈 Pro) How to pick the right hardware?
- (📈 Pro) How to host adventure streams?
- (📈 Pro) How can traditional video makers tap into live streaming?
- (📈 Pro) Where to connect with your fans?
- (📈 Pro) How to run “endless” streams?
- (📈 Pro) How can you boost your reach with on-demand videos?
- (📈 Pro) How can you monetize your traffic?
- (📈 Pro) How to get a cut of ad revenue?
- (📈 Pro) How to make a living as a full-time streamer?
- (📈 Pro) What are 38 fun ways to liven up your stream?
- (📈 Pro) How to set up text-to-speech alerts for donations?
- And much more…
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