>>63715177Related to a previous thread a few threads ago, I had some advice to share related to vtubing as a newbie. I have over several years streaming experience and building an audience online several times over so I figure I can share the patterns I've observed in that time. I hope it helps puts some things into perspective for those starting out and gives some motivation!
>Decide your boundaries earlyThis is related more to deciding what kind of content you want to make or not to make. A mistake some vtubers make is not knowing how far they're willing to go and end up doing things to please an audience they didn't want. It's funny in the moment to do a self-hating act but really you'll pay for it later with your mental health. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Simple as.
>It's not what you know, but who you knowAn old adage but it still works here. Networking and connections are the lifeblood of any venture, especially vtubing. There's a few ways to go about this. Simple version is to go make friends. Boost your peers, build a rapport, choose your relationships. The people you surround yourself with will inform what an audience will expect from you. Being a part of a group can generate influence under the right circumstances but it isn't essential. You can make it on your own, but don't discredit how your peers can help.
(Also it's a good idea not to treat people like rungs on a ladder, that tends to leave behind a bitter trail of people wishing on your downfall.)
>Don't compare yourself to bigger established creatorsStarting out can be hard especially in a sphere with a lot of already established vtubers. It can feel hopeless seeing the distance you'd have to travel to get to their point, especially with corpos and the bigger indies. In these moments it's important to take a step back, take a deep breath, and let it go. Difficult in the moment but you gotta focus on you. The bigger fish in the pond have had time, luck, and connections on their side which has made them into the people they are. You are literally still at the starting line and beating yourself up for not having instantly what took them YEARS to develop. The only person you can compare yourself to is yourself. Celebrate how far you've come with your own journey, even the small things. You won't grow if you're constantly kneecapping yourself before you walk. You can look to these bigger fish for inspiration, or learn from their mistakes, or even study how they got to where they are. But don't compare. Everyone's journey is different and only you can take it at your pace.
>The covid-buff is gone we gotta do it the hard wayAnother reason not to beat yourself up over slow-growth. Post-covid is a harder game to play because the literal captive audience is gone. That's not to say its impossible to grow under the current circumstances, but the approach has to be different. The novelty is worn off and now vtubers are a sub-category of content creators. It's not enough to have a model and personality. You gotta make something out of that concept. Look for the gaps in the market and try to fill a niche. Even if the niche is populated, there's no say in what you can specifically deliver to that niche. There's no new ideas, but there are always new ways to interpret these ideas.
>Two CakesIf you haven't seen it before... Two Cakes is a platitude about how even though you bring a sloppy cake to the table and place it next to a more put-together cake; the audience is still going to be ecstatic about there being two cakes. This relates to the comparison thing again but it's a nice visual element to remind yourself to not fall into the comparison trap. You may still be in your sloppy cake stage. That's okay. You'll make better cakes later, but you gotta make a bunch of sloppy cakes before you can learn to make a better cake. The audience is still going to be grateful for cake.
>The 100 Fans TheoryThis is borrowed from an art practise thing but it can apply to vtubing as well. The idea is that you only need to get 100 dedicated fans to your cause. Say you ask for $15 from these 100 fans and they hand it over. That's a tidy $1500 profit before tax. Not much in the grand scheme of things but its knowing there's a reliable base of people supporting you and your activities. It's the function of sites like ko-fi and Patreon. It's a reminder that you don't need to appeal to literally everyone you come across. Just the people who'd give you $15 if you asked because they believe in you and the content you make. Building trust and a good rapport goes a long way towards this goal.
