So Twitch has been my home for Livestreaming video content for literally years, ever since the first Adpocalypse, when YouTube decided I was too small of a creator to bother paying the few pennies I was making there anymore. Anyway, things change, life changes, and despite not being considered an actual creator by YouTube, I have been uploading my Video-on-Demand livestreams from Twitch to YouTube, to save them in perpetuity (Twitch deletes them after a couple of months).
This, unfortunately, takes a lot of work on my part. But it has been worth it, giving me a lot of content to share on my old YouTube channel (one of them, anyway), and saving my videos from Twitch’s cruel gaze. Anyway, there’s been a bit of a change over at Twitch, and I don’t think I’ll be streaming there for much longer, if at all anymore.
They updated the Creator Terms of Service, and basically said that I have to reapply, despite my having met every qualification to be an Affiliate. Sure, I don’t have that many viewers, but commensurate with that Twitch only pays me pennies for my streams (at best). Last weekend, I made only three shiny pennies for the whole weekend (roughly 16 hours of streaming). But now they want to take even those few coins away from me?
So anyway, I’m thinking that maybe I should just go back to YouTube. Sure, I won’t earn anything at all, but at the same time, I won’t have to worry about moving my VODs from one service to another. They will already be on YT, in perpetuity, saving me time and trouble. Basically, if I’m going to be screwed out of what little income I might have made for Livestreaming, I might as well do it where I just have to log in and stream, with a minimum of backend work.
Anyway, I have set up a new page on the website that displays my gallery of already-posted videos on YouTube, which you can find in the modified site menu right under the banner. There is a drop-down menu there, which includes a link to my Twitch page, as well as a local page that will carry my YouTube livestreams, should one wish to watch it there. If that doesn’t work out, I will simply include a link to my YT page, instead.
Regardless, I will be looking into switching over my OBS and StreamElements settings to use YT instead of Twitch this week, and will likely be giving it a shot this Saturday night. We’ll see how it goes from there.
UPDATE: Yeeeaaaah, about that Livestreaming on YouTube… That might not be a thing, either. Turns out that streaming on YT is way more involved than it is on Twitch, and frankly, likely not worth the effort. That said, I am thinking of just making videos of my gameplay, and uploading that to YT, rather than Livestreaming. Yes, I know that this will take away the interactive element from my videos, but I’ve been watching a lot of other creators lately, and that doesn’t seem to be a problem.
You see, they talk to their audience as much as I do, just not in-the-moment, as one does during a Livestream. They interact in the comments left on their videos, which I think is a perfectly fine way of handling things. I used to do that when I was making videos in the early days prior to livestreams, and can do so again.
This will allow me to focus on the gameplay, showing off whatever I’m trying to do in the moment, rather than try to play while checking chat on a separate screen, to see if someone is making a comment I need to react to. It will open up new styles of content creation that I’ve been considering doing, including much shorter videos, rather than the long VOD’s I’ve been uploading for a while now.
Anyway, we’ll see how this goes, or doesn’t. I don’t know.
