Twitch Stream Goals – How to Plan Ahead

Everyone streams for different reasons. Use what motivates you to plan your roadmap and get started on your content creation journey. 

What Streaming Goals Should You Have?

Write down the goals that you want to achieve through streaming. Why are you streaming? What skills do you want to learn? Are you streaming with the hope of building your income through your hobby? What results do you want to see from streaming? Picture your goals as the destination at the end of your journey? When will you feel like you’ve “made it” there?

While you should create reasonable goals, don’t be afraid to daydream a little as well. You will have ample opportunities to change your focus or adjust your roadmap’s destination along the way and when you reach it, you can always create a new map. 

Examples of streaming goals could be:

• Making Partner on Twitch, Facebook, or whatever platform you’re using
• Reaching a specific follower/subscriber/viewer count
• Connecting with another specific streamer
• General skill building
• Streaming for a certain amount of hours
• Supplementing your income or earning a full-time living through broadcasting
• Many more. Write down anything that inspires you to create content

How to Meet Twitch Streaming Goals

After conducting some research and talking with other streamers, write out the steps you need to take in order to reach your goals on time. Create deadlines for each step to keep you on track. For example, if your end goal is to become a partner on Twitch, you’ll need to start with entering the Affiliate program. This can be done in as little as seven days. 

You should also place additional, smaller milestones along the way to keep you motivated. Completing accomplishments can release dopamine into your system which will elevate your mood and inspire you to continue. You will feel the boost and your viewers will be able to see that you are in a great mood, which will make them want to stick around longer. 

Here are a few strategies you can use in order to meet your streaming goals on Twitch:

• Give yourself a due date
• Anticipate problems
• Track your milestones
• Look at analytics

When Do You Want to Meet Your Twitch Goals? 

Once you have your end-goals in mind, give yourself a time-frame on when you want to reach your destination. Again, be reasonable. For instance, it takes most streamers several months to reach partnership status. If you want to do it in 3-4 months, you need to have a good strategy and solid viewer support. While it is definitely not impossible, you will need to be willing to work hard and smart to get to that point.

If you are unsure how long something will generally take, ask other streamers. Join a Facebook streamer page and host a poll on how long it took others to reach your goal. Talk to them and respectfully ask what measures they took to reach it and what strategies worked best for them.

Anticipate Problems Growing Your Channel

There are many things that can set you back. Determine what you will do and how you will react when faced with a potential roadblock. What if the game you’re playing goes stops being popular? Will you burn out and need a break? What will do if a piece of your equipment breaks shortly before your stream? What will you do if you accidentally offend your viewers and you lose a lot of followers?

Creating a plan ahead of time will help you navigate these (and other) problems and keep you focused on your journey. Everyone experiences some setbacks. The goal is to learn from them and continue forward. 

Track Your Actions and Twitch Milestones

Pay attention while you work. How long did it actually take you to reach a particular milestone? Will that time affect future milestones on your roadmap? Which actions led you there? What did you do that didn’t help you along your journey? 

Keeping track of your actions along the way will help you determine what you should continue to do and what tasks you can eliminate or spend less time doing. 

When you reach a milestone, take time to celebrate it! Even the smaller ones. Creating a successful channel is a lot of work.

Learn From Stream Metrics to Continue Growth

Regularly review your roadmap and adjust according to the lessons you learned from your successes and failures. Don’t see missed deadlines as failures. Instead, give yourself additional time to complete tasks in the future. Eventually, you’ll get the hang of approximately how long something should take. 

The purpose of a roadmap is to keep you headed in the right direction until you meet your destination. Even if you choose to change your goals and destination, the work you put in should place you closer to accomplishing your milestones than when you began. 

As you build new skills and network with other streamers, your strategies for success may change. Embrace it and continue forward.