The Most Important Twitch Stream Upgrade

what's going on guys uh over the past two years or so on this channel i've made nearly 100 gear review videos and i do that because i've spent what some might call a stupid amount of time and i guess money around cameras microphones incredibly professional content creators and i make these videos because i want to make sure that you don't have to spend the same amount of time and money as i have to understand what you need and in all the gear videos that we've done on this channel my priority hasn't been to tell you what is the objectively best piece of gear because that's actually pretty easy to do you just look at the price tag you see the one that has the highest price usually that's the best one not always but usually instead the entire purpose of this channel is to help you make decisions that will turn your stream into your career and into a profitable business i want you to be able to live off the income of your content like i do so for example while the 400 sm7b is yes an objectively better microphone than the hundred dollar pod mic if you can just take some free eq plug-in add it to the pod mic and make it sound nearly indistinguishable from the sm7b and then take that 300 you saved and put it into a youtube video that will make your money back 10 times over i will never not recommend you do that but regardless of all the gear review videos that i've done on this channel the most common question that i get asked on my stream is what piece of equipment do i upgrade first what should i upgrade first what should i upgrade first what equipment do i buy next so let's talk about it [Music] we're going to pay some bills because we're going to talk about today's sponsor you all know it's owned tv they are your say it with me one stop shop for all your stream aesthetic needs whether it be overlays panels alerts banners whatever you need they've got it plus one of my favorite things about them is that they are all modular so if you and all your friends go out and buy the alpha gaming design that you're looking at here which by the way we made together i think it looks really great none of you are going to have the exact same overlay because you can pick and choose the different pieces that you would like on yours if you'd like to make the smart move like many from the community of done feel free to use the link in the description below which by the way does help support the channel so thank you and if you'd like 40 off at checkout make sure you use code alpha anyway back to the video and by the way if i talk about anything in this video you'd like further conversation with feel free to jump into my twitch chat i stream every monday wednesday saturday link to that in the description down below also uh just do me a favor hit the like button on this video i'm i'm kind of testing to see how many more likes i get when i ask you to do that so i'm really curious to see anyway i'm bothering you let's get back into the video there is a goal i have in videos like this and this video in particular when talking about investing and what to buy next we need to make sure that why am i buying something is addressed this video is not about what you should buy to make your stream look better anything has upgrades any camera you can go to a dslr a larger sensor any microphone you can get a more expensive microphone a nicer interface whatever the goal of this video is to help you spend the little bit of money that you make in your streams in order to help you reach the next step whatever is next for your streaming or your content career what is the next real goal if you're actually moving forward let's hit that and in order to do that let's address three main groups of people it's a little bit of a generalization you might fit perfectly in one of these three groups you might be somewhere in the middle be smart about this interpret it properly for yourself group number one is the hobbyist you enjoy streaming you enjoy connecting with people you want to build your community a little bit whether it becomes a career or not not your top priority but if it happens that'd be great group number two the people that were just like me two and a half years ago this is what you want to do for a living but you're not making a lot of money doing it yet and a lot of your decisions are based on a pretty tight budget i think most of you guys fit into this category so we're gonna spend a good chunk of time on it we're calling you guys budget bros that's a gender-neutral term we're all bros in here today even you lovely ladies and number three maybe some of the responsible adults out there the people who are either already making some money by streaming maybe you have a couple hundred subscribers or you've got a pretty solid job on the side you got some cash to spend that's usually the most fun group to be in we all want to be in that group that's pretty ideal most of us aren't the reason is pretty obvious let's start at the hobbyist with the hobbyist i didn't really mention the budget it's it's just kind of a more all-encompassing thing if you also kind of fit into this group you've got the money to spend and you enjoy it a lot sure get some nice things doesn't matter but when it comes to somebody who's just trying to build a little bit of a following just trying to meet some new people and have some fun and maybe doesn't want to spend a ton of money on it because frankly you don't have to to do that what i think is the most important thing that will help you accomplish that is actually your branding giving a proper aesthetic around your stream that kind of shares what your personality is like and what your values are can be a great way to bring people in and make them feel at home getting things like a good profile picture and maybe a friendly welcoming banner maybe some overlays and alerts that kind of share some of your uh your hobbies or your themes that you really enjoy spend some time putting together a good discord these kind of aesthetic changes to a stream are to me at least what feel like they exude the most personality and and kind of make everyone feel like they know what the stream is about and honestly when i look at my own stream and even like the super fancy equipment that i use i am most proud of my designs they're the most obvious to look at the first thing people notice and it's just a lot of fun there is still kind of a lower bar that you need in order to communicate with your audience for example getting a 50 microphone like the razer siren mini is kind of my go-to cheat microphone so you can communicate with them getting yourself maybe a cheap like 50 webcam or even in this case using your phone as a webcam would be great but beyond that equipment's not super important what's important is that you can connect and that you all kind of share the same enjoyment when you're together and i i really do think some of these aesthetic things especially again the overlay and the alerts are kind of prime here okay all you budget bros this is what most of you are you are the people that i make my videos for let's talk first about where the gear bar is and what gear is going to best get you over that bar without breaking the bank you need clear audio usb mics are getting phenomenal now they're the most affordable option and because they're usb they often have the most control i highly recommend the elgato wave mic either one or three depending on your budget it is still my top recommendation for microphones i'm still just waiting for companies to do something similar no one's even competing with him yet it's really weird and you need a decently clear picture you don't need something as fancy as a dslr one of my favorite ways to get an amazingly clear picture on a budget i did a whole video on this it's using an old used gopro and a cam link you can get an image that looks 10 times better than a webcam for cheaper than some webcams it's really cool i'll link to that video down below but beyond this there is an upgrade far more important for your stream that we need to talk about your top priority should be audience growth and slowly growing your income any gear above those upgrades that i mentioned are going to be a waste of money that now you have to start over and earn again if you truly want to upgrade your stream and take it to the next level this is what i recommend you do recognize that you are a business owner take a look at other business owners and financially literate people and emulate some of their habits and most importantly if you can find and see what they did early on in their careers to help get them to where they are now one of the most important things that successful entrepreneurs do early on is they save every single dollar they possibly can and instead of spending it on things that they want they spend it on things that will make them more money regularly in return i actually talked about this in a previous video where i talk about how i spend my money that i make from youtube and twitch i'll put a link to that in the description below as well it's a very common strategy done by successful people called never spend your first dollar your first dollar is the money we're talking about the money you make at your job and the money you make by streaming the money that you make once by working and you get paid for that work that money should immediately go into things that will make you more money like in this example youtube videos i posted this video about two and a half years ago and in the time since then that video has made me about fifty four hundred dollars and it still by the way makes me about a hundred dollars a month if you take that first dollar that you spent pretty serious time and effort earning and you immediately go and buy gear worth it that's not going to build your audience and is not going to make you any extra money anytime you spend money like that you're starting from scratch a youtube channel is a lot like a train it takes a lot of effort and pushing to get it moving but once it gets moving it'll go for a while if you can take your first dollar and spend it on some youtube videos videos that are always live always being discovered always building your audience always making you money and then you take that money and you spend it on gear the great thing is the very next month that money comes back again and then also again the next month are you following me with this by the way this is like a money strategy that real estate investors use for example they will save up a hundred thousand dollars and instead of spending it on a car or something they'll put it into a rental property and they will pay the car payment with the rent paid from that rental property that hundred thousand dollars that they invested in the house never goes away they still have it and they're able to pay for the car it takes a lot more self-control but it is how you build something but i don't want to leave you blind there so how do you invest in a youtube channel remember that 300 that i mentioned you saved by buying the pod mic instead of the sm7b 300 goes a long way you can buy multiple courses on skillshare about how to film a youtube video or how to edit or how to tell a story you can buy some editing software i use final cut pro which i want to say is 200 maybe it's 300 i don't remember or you can even use davinci resolve for free you still have that 300 put that money into a youtube video idea that maybe requires some funds i can imagine it sounds crazy to spend 400 on a single youtube video but a lot of streamers will go spend 400 on an sm7b without even thinking twice these kind of things are huge upgrades that will help you actually grow your stream and help you make more money because you have a larger audience and more subscribers but the biggest thing that i recommend you invest in on your youtube channel if you really want it to grow is the biggest limiter the biggest thing that holds people back it's time invest in your time and when i say that i mean don't go out and buy the latest and greatest gear i mean instead save a couple thousands of dollars by not buying it and take a couple weeks off work give yourself the time and the mental freedom to explore ideas and experiment with different styles of content it is not unheard of to go on twitch and see a small streamer with less than 10 viewers spend thousands of dollars on lighting and gear and microphones and cameras but a thousand dollars goes a long way on youtube and could easily be turned into a handful of videos that over time make you over a thousand dollars a month and that is undoubtedly the biggest upgrade for small streamers it is the upgrade that keeps on upgrading uh group number three i don't think we ever named them i think we're gonna go with something simple we're gonna call them have some cash these are the medium sized streamers maybe a couple dozen maybe a couple hundred viewers they've got maybe a couple hundred subscribers or they've got a decent job outside of streaming and have you know a thousand or a couple thousand dollars to blow every month we all know it's the dream and look bro get whatever you want get all the things that i told budget bro not to buy this is a hobby you're allowed to spend money on your hobby have fun some of my favorite more expensive upgrades that people notice first on my stream are my camera with my super wide angle lens it really throws people off it gets a lot of attention it's a lot of fun i recommend the eos rp for a full frame camera that's less than a thousand dollars and the rokinon 14 mil lens it's awesome the go xlr is still the audio device for streamers that has not been topped liquid cooling my pc was one of the most fun and entertaining and learning experiences that i've had building pcs and it looks really awesome on stream there is also by the way uh secrets here a really cool pro streaming device coming out in two days can't talk about it here for obvious reasons but if you'd like to see that video make sure you subscribe to the channel and i'm once again reminding you to hit the like button but if you are looking for the number one semi-expensive thing that you can use to upgrade your stream especially if you're trying to turn this into a career on top of everything i recommended for the budget bro the best thing that you can spend money on is an editor after the initial spike of this channel when things initially took off for me and i had a video that got a lot of attention uh it was hard for me to keep up with that demand and the numbers were on a slow decline for about three or four months i was absolutely working myself to death trying to upload two videos a week and stream i think four days a week at the time i wasn't doing a good job of any of it you can actually see on the graph of the income of the channel the slow decline and right here is where i hired sam and the rest is history seriously best investment i ever made on this channel however there is something i always like to mention whenever i encourage people to get an editor i do think that every youtuber should edit their own videos for a while at least the first couple dozen maybe even first hundred before they hire an editor by understanding the editing process it helps you plan and write and film a story a little bit better there are oftentimes when i shoot something here knowing what i want it to look like after it's edited and knowing how it's going to be edited and that changes the way i shoot things and i just find that usually when people hire editors right out of the gate they end up not putting a lot of time and effort into the producing of it and they just think oh my editor will turn it into something great it doesn't usually work that way edit your own videos for a while and then hire an editor it will be a game changer for your channel i edited all my own videos for 10 years before i ever hired sam 15 15 years i edited videos for 15 years before i hired sam i highly recommend you do that but that's it those are all my recommendations oh biggest upgrade of all of them listen to stream beats copyright free music for all your streams youtube videos it's free link in the description below if you have any questions please hit me up on twitter or my twitch chat and as always happy streaming this monitor is like 120 bucks this guy's streaming for 40 000 people this guy can afford anything i have in this room those are 30 bucks the stratocaster was given me for free from from from fender for a brand deal streamers pretending to be poor

Channel: Alpha Gaming

Views: 147,273

Keywords: Alpha Gaming, Stream Doctor, OBS, Tips, Streaming, Harris Heller, Alpha, Gaming, Live, Overlay, Design, Stream, Twitch, Doctor, How, To, How To, Help, Mixer, Youtube, Broadcast, Alerts, Streamlabs, youtuber, growth, stream, streamelements, harris, heller, money, monetize, income, full-time, full time, career, beginner, beginners, setup, widget, graphics, audio, review, camera, mic, pc, lights, lighting, webcam, elgato, starting, new, dmca, copyright, strike, strikes, copystrike, algorithm, learning, start, make, videos, first, gear, lens

Id: tOko9_IDQW8

Length: 14min 47sec (887 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 06 2021