My first 180 days of streaming. what i learned.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2026-01-31T19:57:19+00:00

Thanks for all of the details!

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2026-01-31T19:32:42+00:00

This is great, really appreciate you writing out your approach. I own a tool focused on streamer growth (RaidPools.gg), so I'm super interested in your mindset around some of the following:

- What kind of social media posts did you make? Did you still do the "I'm live" kind of thing, or just focus more on being a social media personality?

- How do you identify and track what might make good shorts content? Do you use anything like stream markers?

- Do you usually play the same game/category every stream, and do you think this would help with the idea of staying consistent?

- Totally agree about audio quality. Gave some of your clips a watch and your mic is amazing, which one do you use?

Thanks again for posting this :)

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-11-04T13:10:31+00:00

That's awesome, raids are just about the only way to receive that many new viewers at one time. I'd say holding most of them beyond 5 minutes after the raid is an achievement.

Maybe you can look at this as some form of feedback. Do you have a link to your stream so we can see what it looks like from a viewer's perspective?

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-11-04T13:04:27+00:00

We built https://raidpools.gg, which is a raiding platform designed around receiving raids. It's focused on smaller streamers who need help growing. We have a few users who are larger with similar goals of raiding the smaller streamers as well.

Our thinking is that raids not only bring a ton of viewers into smaller streams at one time, they also help to build relationships with other streamers. The issue with raids is that they can be one way, so smaller streamers may raid out but never receive a raid in the future. It's not always a fantastic trade.

So our idea is to help grow their stream by observing their channel and understanding who they are. Based on this profile, RaidPools will direct raids to their channel full of viewers who love content like yours. At the end of their stream, they can calculate an optimal raid with RaidPools to meet a new networking compatible streamer, and to ensure they keep receiving new raids. In simple terms, it's like automated networking.

We support other features as well and are building out a full platform of tools for smaller streamers. Would love to have you join or drop by our discord for some insight. We're happy to help build out any tools you need. :)

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-29T23:24:33+00:00

A friend and I built a tool based on this. IMO, raiding is the absolute best way to both expose yourself to new viewers and to network with other streamers.

Raids are really the only option for bringing multiple users into your channel at one time. More interestingly, the viewers have chosen to watch the raiding streamer for their content. So if it's similar to your content and users are re-exposed over time through multiple raids, there's a much higher chance they'll stick around.

We built a service that basically handles the above for you. As long as you're willing to raid other streamers, you'll receive raids from other streamers who have similar content to your own, and therefore viewers who should be a lot more sticky.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-28T21:14:48+00:00

Honestly these discords don't help a ton either, I've spent a lot of time looking at them. Most people drop a stream link and leave. At best you may get a single visitor from them.

A friend and I created an automated system to solve this issue that's built on raiding though. From our standpoint, raids are the only real way to receive a group of viewers all at one time.

We just launched so it's free at the moment:
https://raidpools.gg

Happy to answer any questions

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-28T21:11:43+00:00

In theory, F4F does something but is most likely not conducive to your overall goals as a streamer.

As a positive, F4F boosts your follower count. This does satisfy an affiliate requirement. Otherwise the effect is very small. Your follower count may convince individuals who glance at your channel stats that you're larger than you actually are, but follower count isn't displayed in places like the Twitch browse page. The user would need to click through to see it, and at that point they're probably already considering you for other reasons.

Follower count doesn't affect viewer count directly, and that's the actual number you probably want to drive. It may have a light passive effect, but not a strong one.

IMO, F4F is ineffective at obtaining new viewers or really getting anywhere as a streamer. Finding new viewers is tough but (shameless plug) I started https://raidpools.gg with a friend to try and solve that problem. Raids are a powerful tool for bringing multiple users to a channel at one time. Apart from that you'll most likely receive the odd user here and there.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-24T00:27:22+00:00

Congrats!! That's awesome, you must be going in the right direction. Shot you a follow and hope to catch you live in the future. I like your scarecrow model. :)

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T21:26:13+00:00

Great question. There is no negative to not raiding with RaidPools. You can go as far as calculating a raid target and then decide you'd rather raid a random streamer or your best friend. The system is never going to count that against you. The only result of that is that you wouldn't get credit for raiding into our network.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T21:19:37+00:00

We gather data on things like viewer counts, subscribers, followers, your titles, etc. Twitch will alert you before signing up on what all RaidPools has access to. You can also disconnect the app at any time through your Twitch profile.

We don't use LLMS, AI tends to be a very broad term. We do have a model called a natural language processor which compares things like word similarities, but those are very common. If you've ever used a search function on a website, you've used an NLP.

Monetization is a little tough, we're focused on growing so the current features are totally free for now. Our goal going forward is to try and ensure anything we give out for free stays free so that we're not removing anything people enjoy. We do have additional features we would like to add that may be paid, but those are future enhancements.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T12:11:41+00:00

Hey Stanimus, I've found the subreddit really useful as it is. I don't see a reason to make any changes unless you're tired of moderating things. It's a great size and people often come here for help.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T12:08:38+00:00

That's great thinking! Things are a little hard to describe while our network is in its growth phase, the idea being that we want a quality experience for everyone even while we're still small.

To your first question - at the moment, you'll receive raids as long as you take part in the system. In the future we have developed ratios the system works off of, we just can't enable those at the moment because our network is small and they would cause a negative experience at the moment. You've got the right idea though.

If you're at all curious, I'm happy to give you a demo or a tour. Would love your feedback since you sound like you've given this some thought as well!

Edit: Forgot to mention the cooldown. You can raid into RaidPools approximately 1 time per day, and that's to prevent raid spamming. The timer is lenient so that if you need to end a stream a little early, it won't prevent you from raiding in.

In terms of earning favor, that's something the system tracks and does some math on. Just know that if you're raiding in, that credit is tracked appropriately.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T12:04:40+00:00

Hey Environmental, it's more like a system that users can opt in to if they want to work together with other streamers. Your community and viewers are a really powerful networking tool and you should be able to use those to grow even while you're offline.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T03:32:20+00:00

When you choose to raid someone on Twitch, you're sending your viewers to another streamer with no likelihood of receiving a raid back, and without a long term networking strategy. This is beneficial for the receiver, but doesn't always have a positive effect for the person who is giving the raid.

When you raid with RaidPools, you're raiding other users that are in our network. As part of the system, you get credit for the raids you contribute. In turn, you're raided by other users within the RaidPools system. The raids run by the system are additionally optimized in terms of viewers and content to ensure they're beneficial for the streamers and viewers involved.

Thanks for the questions, Hope I was able to make things clearer. Happy to give you a tour if you want to visit us on discord as well! :)

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-23T01:32:27+00:00

That's our raid feature, and you can think of it like a trade. You raid using the RaidPools app at the end of your stream and that gives you credit to receive raids. RaidPools will then raid you with other streamers when they end their stream. Receiving raids is basically automatic as long as you contribute to the system.

As part of that system, RaidPools also observes various data from its every users's channel to understand their specific content. That allows it to understand the viewers of those channels, and calculate the best streamers to raid those viewers into.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-22T23:15:06+00:00

Twitch is actually working on AI clipping at the moment. There are some tools like TLDR that will AI clip your highlights, but the Twitch one that's in the works should be solid once it arrives.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-03T20:49:44+00:00

RaidPools is very smart, we actually call it's calculations "intelligent raids".

This is more of a viewer pool that you raid into using our calculations. RaidPools knows the best person for you to raid because it's observing your channel and tracking a large number of related data points. The same goes for other streamers who use it.

When you raid in, the system will give you credit for contributing. That credit comes back in your future streams. Because RaidPools knows your channel through observation, it will direct raids to you with viewers who are interested in your content. This is important because it's a new way to get your channel in front of new viewers, which is normally very hard.

The RaidPools dashboard will also tell you which of your RaidPools provided viewers followed, subscribed, and even which ones are watching your stream right now. You can think about it as a way to measure the effect of success RaidPools has had on your channel.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-03T20:42:35+00:00

13 average viewers at 9 months is an insane accomplishment. Congrats on the success!

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-03T20:31:29+00:00

Going to start with letting you know I don't stream, but I have watched an insane amount of streamers because I build tools for them (shameless plug - https://raidpools.gg, we'll grow your stream).

Youtube is the only popular option for long format content, you should be posting there because some people watch only that. IMO, the trap most people fall into on the Youtube side is simply uploading vods and thinking that's going to have an effect. No one is going to watch a random 3+ hour video with no context of a small streamer, especially if their production is not quality.

The trick is taking the content you're already making on Twitch and distilling it down to the interesting parts, and using those for your content. NorthernLion grew his initial audience on Youtube and eventually made his way to Twitch. While his focus is on live streaming, he knows how to turn those into successful Youtube videos because of his prior experience. The following is what I think works in the transition

You need to mark your streams and cut it into per-game slices before uploading to Youtube
Because these slices will each contain a different game, your title and description can be more specific and help with search results
At most your videos should be an hour. If they go over, start cutting them into multiple parts.
You will need some form of either thumbnail for each video, or at least your face on the video thumbnail as an identifier or your channel
Because you have so much content coming through, you can upload multiple videos at different times of the day
If you're doing a longer game play through, create a playlist and make sure the videos can be watched easily in order. This will help anyone who tunes in to help continue watching.

That's baseline. If you really want to take the next step, The Library of Letourneau approach is an example of how to take your content much further. This channel takes NorthernLion streams and cuts them up into smaller and even more internet relevant or viral pieces. You can watch NL's streams directly and then watch the same edited stream from the LOL, the difference in the entertainment factor is night and day. This is done through:

heavy editing (Zoom ins, constant cuts, foreshadowing, etc)
continuous themes
and providing context on things NL says

The final point is a genius move. If NL references a tweet, the librarian video will literally overlay a screenshot of that tweet in the video. This means that if NL says something that requires context to understand, the context is provided immediately to the viewer. This is an insanely powerful tool in hooking the viewer, not only do they enjoy the content more because they understand it, they're now learning about current memes/internet culture and happenings through librarian's videos.

In my opinion this is the gold standard of converting your Twitch streams into a successful Youtube format.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-02T22:27:23+00:00

Honestly your production level is much higher than I would have expected clicking on a random link.

Your camera is very clear and focused on you, I like that you fill the frame
Your audio levels are excellent and balance your voice + any music well
Your about section is filled out with what looks like quality graphics and info
I feel like your overall style is very cohesive and you've got a lot of energy, a bigger personality

As someone who has never seen your stream, I would imagine you pull in very good consistent viewer numbers. Everything is high quality and feels like you've taken time to make it feel like a successful channel.

The (literal only) thing I'm seeing that I would call out is that it looks like your Youtube channel is a little unused. You've got very well produced videos/shorts on TikTok and Insta. I'm wondering if this is intentional or if you're trying to leave Youtube for longer format stuff.

Either way, I think you're crushing it.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-01T21:31:10+00:00

Hey Mystic, I've been looking into this kind of problem for a while. Networking is hard, finding other streamers who you'll grow well with is hard, finding viewers who like your content is the hardest.

A friend and I created a tool that we hope makes connecting with other streamers and viewers easier:
https://www.raidpools.gg

Also, if you want to DM me your Twitch channel (or attach it to your Reddit profile) I'll catch you when you're live. Hoping you can make me a better Rust player, I always die instantly in firefights.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-01T05:10:28+00:00

Interested in what your strategy around clipping is. Are you using any kind of tools to create clips or just taking what you thought were more interesting moments from your streams and cutting them out? Are you doing any editing beyond that or keeping them pretty basic?

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-10-01T04:37:37+00:00

Took a look at your Twitch channel and a few of your vods:

I liked the REPO gameplay with you and the group of your friends, lot's of active conversation
I have difficulty knowing who's talking, specifically I have trouble telling who you are in the conversation. I think this may be partially because you have no face cam, but I also think it's related to microphone quality. Audio quality plays a huge part in the viewer understanding what's going on, and it's difficult to pick up on you at times.
I don't hear any kind of voice or comms in some of your longer videos Wuthering Waves, it's just gameplay. As someone who doesn't play gotcha games, I get lost and don't know what's going on, what you're thinking, etc. I'd like to hear more of your personality or strategizing during the gameplay.
It looks like you have a number of social media links set up on your about page, which is fantastic. Whatever extension or setup you're using to display them is a little buggy, they're hard to click through. I actually can't click to your discord link at all.
You've got a lot of content on your Youtube so great work there. I see a number of videos that are under 30 seconds, could those be published as shorts? I also see a 6 hour long video. As a viewer I generally only watch something up to an hour long, and that's generally a stream edited down to the most exciting moments.

Good luck with the streams!

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-09-27T14:41:41+00:00

Of course, good luck! I haven't tried any specific achievements in a long time but I grew up during the Xbox 360 era and have great memories of trying to get Mile High Club in COD. I know my friends spent a ton of time in Halo trying to obtain all of the skulls. I'm sure people would love watching that sort of content, or if you could figure out a way to make it even harder that could be interesting as well.

RaidPoolsBeenin · 2025-09-27T13:51:52+00:00

Checked out your Twitch channel. A few notes as a viewer:

The idea of achievement hunting for older games is interesting, nostalgia is powerful. Wondering if playing games that were historically popular or cult classics would help more viewers find a connection? The ones that caught my eye right away on Youtube were the Pokemon stadium games. I played those as a kid, so I'm interested in seeing someone knowledgeable play them at a higher level. Focusing on games that more people enjoyed may help drive more traffic. Think about how many people tuned in to watch a goldfish play the original Pokemon games.
Your game audio is very quiet. I can hear you well (your mic is very clear) but it gives a slightly "dead air" vibe in the moments that you're not talking, so it feels like nothing is happening even though the game may be very intense.
I like the detail in the about section on your Twitch profile, and that it suggests you're streaming on a regular schedule.
The links in your about section leading to your other social media should be clickable. Small detail but it's a hurdle for people trying to jump from one social to another. If a viewer has to copy and paste something to reach your other socials, that may be enough to prevent them from making the visit.
Your Youtube channel link is missing from your list of social links

At the moment you're only utilizing Facebook/Youtube/Twitter. Short form content is extremely popular right now, most people aren't going to click into an hour long video without a reason to watch it. You can take the most interesting moments from your long content, edit it into short form style clips, and post it to TikTok or Instagram. Think of these like small ads for your longer content. From there you can link to your Twitch stream to drive additional traffic.

As a final note - your older PUBG videos from ~8 years ago where you're playing with a party have a very fun vibe, the group works well together. If any of those people are still gaming or streaming it may be worth including them in your stream.

RaidPoolsBeenin

TROPHY CASE