Tips for DBD streamers starting out

Tips specifically aimed to help newer content creators.
These are aimed at people trying to get into the Dead by Daylight sphere but are also applicable to other niches.

IN GENERAL
- DBD has a lot of niches that aren't covered; making guides, resources or content aimed to cover a topic that doesn't get a lot of attention is always a great way to stand out from the rest, at least at the start of your content creation career.
- Try to find something you can be uniquely good at providing; maybe you're very good at a specific Killer? or very good at building a community for others to learn along? maybe you're great at improv and going for goofy plays? You find out!
- Unless you're extremely lucky or have really fortunate networking, growing on Twitch (or other livestreaming platforms) is very difficult on its own. Consider making videos on platforms with good discoverability to grow an audience there.
- YouTube, YouTube shorts and TikToks all have potential to go "viral" and serve your content to a lot of new folks.
- Content creation is always a fickle and fragile career; you don't need an editor or crazy high production value to begin doing something. Don't postpone your "debut" until everything is perfect. It's best to get started with the resources you have and slowly improve at it.
- Be a grown up in all of your interactions with viewers and peers. You don't need to prove yourself to every ignorant comment or go on a 50-tweet long argument with every asshole online.
- Assume that any and every conversation that you have online will be made public someday. Protect others and yourself and avoid prolonged interactions with people much younger than you (or that you have a clear amount of influence over) or anyone that seems interested in manipulating you. Networking is fine when it happens naturally, you don't need to look at your interactions as if they're part of your "growth" strategy.
- If you're not already, start using a password manager to have unique passwords on everything. This way, if one website gets compromised, your mail + password combo won't be easily found by malicious actors.

STREAMING
- Have a schedule, even if it's modest in days and hours streamed.
- Consistency allows your audience to know when you'll be live and watch you during their breaks / days off, etc.
- Creating a Discord community for people to hang out and play together is always a great idea, but be sure to keep it a safe place and have strict moderation to make sure it doesn't end up being overrun by negative influences.
- Regardless of what you do, you will 100% get new chatters with negative remarks. Agree to disagree and/or ask them to tune it down politely; having endless arguments will only invite other people to do the same.
- Having some kind of goal for the stream is always a nice plus for engagement: If your viewers can immediately tell that you goal is to pull off some cool trick or achieve some difficult challenge, it creates a narrative to follow.
- Use "stream markers" when something highlight worthy happens, and save those highlights shortly after stream to make content out of if necessary! Don't wait to do it weeks after, you'll never remember when anything happened.

VIDEOS
- Simple titles that explain the premise and invite curiosity are best.
- "I pulled off a rare trick against this Huntress" -> Good premise
- "Alex's Stream Highlights #58 (Jan 2024) - Dead by Daylight" -> Terrible idea
- Simple, clean thumbnails are also good. You don't need fancy renders or complex text, simple can be good!
- Make sure to have clean branding that conveys that you aren't just some bozo uploading a random video, but rather a dedicated content creator.
- Be sure to link your socials & stream in your channel and video description and remind your audience that you stream on a schedule. Having a "linktree" style account where people can find your other channels is very useful.
- As with any other subject, be sure to have clean audio and a short and concise intro that gets into the action soon to hold the audience's interest.
- Content related to toxicity ("omg i destroyed this bully squad") and negativity ("l had beef with this DBD streamer") is very attention-grabbing and can lead to some high views early on, but beware of making ALL of your content about such topics. You will attract a certain kind of audience and reputation that can hurt your future endeavors.
- Likewise, using blatant clickbait can attract a lot of early viewership but will hurt your reputation and career long-term.

IMPORTANT REMINDERS
- Personally, I'd discourage you from using TTV in your name or linking your stream on your public profile. You will attract a lot of unnecessary stream sniping or mean behavior. Some cheaters have software that SPECIFICALLY finds them people with "TTV" in their name and so on. There's better ways to put your name out there.
- DBD has a Creator Program that offers some benefits such as the purple Twitch Shirts. They currently have an application requirement of 10,000 followers on one social media platform but you can still apply even if you're not quite there yet.
- In my opinion, it's NOT worth it to force your way into any program or partnership, including this one. Constantly looking at numbers will drive you insane. Some in-game shirt isn't worth it. Recognition from a company means almost nothing compared to the recognition you'll get from the most important group of people: your audience. Focus on making the best content that you can and you'll blow past 10,000 followers before you even realize it.
- Likewise, I heavily advise you not to do "partner pushes" or other initiatives that rely on hitting certain goals quickly. It's almost always best to focus on your content and let other things follow naturally.