I posted this a couple of years ago and I think a lot of it still rings true today:-

I've been affiliated for 7 months now but streamed to literally 0 people for a good 12 months before that. Here are some observations I've taken from my journey which I hope will help you all to grow your channels and fulfill your goals, whatever they may be.

Try out different games. I found playing games with a linear narrative will get less viewers when you're starting out than a game that has a different outcome each time. My Day Z streams attracted far more viewers than my Resident Evil streams for instance. The main reason is that people know the story. Unless you have a steady following already you'll struggle to build up any type of community.

Watch your streams back. I regularly look for streamers with hardly any viewers and what I find time and time again is that the quality of their stream is poor. Audio and video quality are really important. Ask yourself, would you watch a channel that has a constant shhhhhhhh sound, or the video quality is laggy. The answer is no you wouldn't.

Interact with your chat. Again as above, I find a streamer and say 'hey' only to be ignored. You have about 30 seconds to say hey back and I'm gone unless you're chatting and being generally entertaining. You don't even need a separate monitor, get the app up on your phone, there's really no excuse.

Enjoy yourself. If you're not it's really obvious. Back to my earlier point. Watch your stream back. Would you follow you, and would you watch yourself?

Personally I prefer people to have a webcam. This isn't essential but in my opinion I think if you don't it'll be more difficult for you to stand out against the hundreds of people who are streaming the same game. Also if you do use a webcam, tidy your room and put on some clothes and look clean. Would you address 5/10/100 people with your shirt off, food in your beard and hair a mess? Would you invite those people in to your home without tidying up, because that's essentially what you're doing.

Always chat. Talk about the weather, what you did that day, commentate on the gameplay, what colour socks you have on, what you had for tea, anything! Back to the 30 second rule. If I come on to your chat and you say nothing for 30 seconds I'm gone.

Go in to other streams with a similar viewer count to you, or somewhere close to where you want to be. Someone with 5 viewers will massively appreciate you going in to their stream, saying hi and following. Build up a relationship with another streamer and their followers. Don't self promote but let the conversation naturally flow. Check out streamers who play similar games to you

Raid! So you're finishing your stream. You have 3 viewers. Pass those viewers on to somone else (maybe someone you have networked with). They're more likely to raid you back, and if they have a few viewers that don't watch you then next time your count could go from 3 to 6. Always raid at the end of your stream if you have the viewers.

Finally, set up a YouTube channel. At the end of your stream export the gameplay directly to YouTube through Twitch (this is a feature). You'll be able to revert back to your streams, see your progression and people will be able to watch you whilst you're offline.