- You (the caster) has to be on camera. Viewers want to interact with you. They want to see you. Interaction is severely limited if you are off-cam. Get over being self-conscious. Unless your appearance is truly out of the ordinary, no one cares what you look like so long as you are being genuine. Trolls may make comments, but trolls will do that to anyone.
- That said, your personal presentation has a bearing on the perception of your cast. Dress and groom for the audience you want.
- You ought to have an idea of what the cast is about, and then use your abilities and commit the resources (time and money) you have available (within your budget) to putting on the cast you want to do. If your cast has no obvious purpose, even if that purpose is just something like "Hey, I'm here having a good time", then why would anyone repeatedly spend their time on your channel? Give people a reason to come back.
- Don't try to be everything to everybody. Some people will share your interests, others won't. Some will like your style, others won't. Focus on your niche. Ignore the rest. It's best to win over a smaller audience than appeal to no one.
- You need to have a certain baseline technical proficiency. Your video has to be reasonably sharp (and not pixelated) and your audio has to be good enough. However, some viewing devices (e.g., older PCs) can't display high bit rate streaming video. Don't set your bit rate appreciably higher than it needs to be to deliver the video and audio quality you feel you ought to have.
- Know how to use chat commands, e.g., setting the slow mode or clearing the chat.
- You need to decide what behavior is acceptable by your chatters. The rules you decide on will represent a trade-off. If you have few or no rules, you will attract one kind of audience and repel another. If you have more strict rules, you will attract a different kind of audience. It is important to establish the right rules for the audience you want to attract.
- You ought to enforce your rules consistently. You likely will designate one or more mods to help enforce the rules. It is important to pick mods who know how you want your rules enforced. Bad mods can ruin an otherwise good cast. (Note: A good friend does not necessarily make for a good mod. Choose your mods wisely.)
- Respect your audience and their time. Every non-troll viewer has decided to spend their time and attention on you. Make your cast worth their time and they will keep coming back.
- Trolls want to set the agenda for your cast. Don't let them. Learn how to deal with trolls. Trolls (i.e., bad viewers) will make your good viewers want to leave.
- If possible, establish a regular casting schedule and stick to it. For example, if you cast on the same day and at the same time every week, people will get used to the schedule and will be more likely to work you into their routine.
- Be yourself but be interesting. Some prep time in advance of the cast might be in order.
- Be on a platform that attracts a lot of viewers. You could have the greatest cast in the world, but if you stream on a site no one visits, you still won't attract many viewers.
- From time to time, and especially as you are starting out, evaluate your cast with an eye to making improvements. Is your cast achieving its objectives in terms of content and presentation? What feedback are you getting from your viewers? Were there any technical glitches? Watch some of your recent casts. Have courage! If the experience is painful, that gives you good insight into areas you need to improve upon. You can learn a lot from putting yourself in the position of the viewer.
- Do not get discouraged if your audience numbers are not what you expect. It can take some time to build an audience. But if things aren't working out in a reasonable time frame, revisit the other items above to see what changes you might make.
- Do a cast you are proud of. If you aren't proud of it, rethink what you are doing or work to correct the deficiencies. Depending on your self-expectations, that could take awhile. But to repeat the previous item, don't get discouraged. So long as you are improving, you're on the right track.
- Believe in yourself. You can't succeed if you don't believe in what you are doing.
- If you just want to cast and don't care about building an audience, none of the above applies to you. Have fun! You might attract a regular audience without even trying. Some people are just gifted that way.
That is all I can think of now. If I come up with something else, I'll add it.