>>87816550I've been meaning to put together a video with some advice for newer vtubers but I'm not really "big" by any means myself and I would hate for it to come off the wrong way!
find a good balance that works for you between hours streamed and your own sanity. I'm lucky to be a NEET, if I didn't have friendships to keep up, I would probably stream longer and more days a week than I already do. I've heard the opposite of this advice though from someone more well established and knowledgeable than me, he told me to give your viewers time to miss you, but I can only say what's worked for me. if you're barely able to entertain and find yourself mentally zapped mid stream, that can leave a bad first impression and you may not get another chance.
on a related note, don't freak out if you get a big raid or anything like that. seeing a thousand person raid might be intimidating but ultimately, that's not going to change anything about what you're doing or how you're doing it, you should be giving your best to zero viewers or the entire world.
consistency is very very important, find a time slot you like and can stay consistent in and be there are the same time every day you're streaming, your viewers will know when and where to find you.
I think presentation is important, first impressions are everything. if I had more money I would definitely put more towards making my presentation more cohesive, but a unique standout model and overlay will catch eyes even from the catalog and non-stream related content, it's why I initially checked out my oshi's stream.
not to dissuade you but another thing I think a lot of people don't put enough emphasis on, streaming is not for everyone, don't feel bad if you want to quit and feel it's not for you, not everyone is cut out for entertainment and there's way more that goes into this behind the scenes than most people realize. it has brought out my absolute worst brainworms and I've given up a lot in the way of personal time, relationships, among other issues. if you do not want to grow and just intend to stream for fun or as a hobby, please feel free to disregard this or any of the other advice I give because it's all growth focused. if you're not enjoying yourself or this is taking more out of you than what you're getting back from it, there's no shame in quitting and you do not owe it to anyone to do a big event for a graduation or to make a spectacle of it, put your own health (mental and physical) first.
find yourself a solid gimmick or niche. if you look at the biggest examples out of here (I haven't been here actively in a while so maybe there are more now?) Uwo and Lcolonq both have a solid niche that they do that helps them to stand apart. I'm still pretty lacking in this department myself, but even something as simple as streaming only one particular game or category of games (MOBAs, shooters, retro, etc) can help out a ton but be wary that cultivating an audience like that will make it difficult to branch out long term.
back to my first point, I would personally recommend streaming as many days a week as you can in addition to add many hours as you can, more online time means more chances for your audience to find you. there's some knowledge thrown around about 4+ hours being a sweet spot in terms of algorithm pushing, but I'm unsure if there's any basis aside from one Twitter post from someone who claims to have talked to Twitch staff.
another important thing to keep in mind is that no one is an island, networking is basically everything to grow. I'm a very introverted socially awkward type and this one has been very hard for me. unless you are very social and extroverted, vtubing is very socially isolating. you will need to get comfortable with talking to people in their streams, on Twitter, on Discord, etc. I've seen a lot of people take the approach of dropping by someone's stream for two or three minutes to say hi then dipping out. I tend to watch only a few people because my time does not permit watching streams very regularly unfortunately but watching them from the start (or whenever I can hop in) until they end, not just because I want to make friends but because I enjoy their content and personalities. you're looking to actually make friends and get to know people, not just check a tick box that you stopped by ten people's streams.
market yourself outside of here and as much as you can, be shameless about it within reason (use your brain, don't butt in with your stream link in a random conversation or on a forum where no one will watch vtubers)
always be thankful for your audience, don't fake it or people will be able to tell. they are giving up their precious time to watch and chat with you when they have the entire history of human media to consume
I hear making non-stream content is important but I've done a bad job doing this myself and I'm near the text limit for a post
I need to do a better at being concise but I hope this helps some
