I have known creators that have millions of followers that drive little to no conversion when they are attempting to sell a product or promote a brand. I have known creators with fewer than 5000 followers who drive more bookable business than household names. I have known creators with fewer than 50 average viewers who make more money than creators with over 500 average viewers.

What am I trying to say with the above?

The number of followers/viewers you have doesn’t matter if they don’t actually ‘follow’ you.

Within this article, you will get away from the vanity understanding of what constitutes value and hone in your creative energy towards creating the best possible product for growth and conversion.

Breaking Vanity’s Mirror

I get it. You want to celebrate milestones in the growth of your career. Subscriber and Follower milestones are wonderful moments to showcase progression. But when you look at that total number, what is the average percent that actually tune in on a regular basis? My gut is it is fewer than 5% (and guess what – that’s normal)

A person follows for a very specific reason at a very specific point in time. Perhaps it was because you did something they uniquely appreciated or maybe you were playing a game that they liked. Each follower count is one potential eyeball of reach, but should not be the metric you pay closest attention at scale.

Paying too close of attention to Follower counts is also where most creators become depressed. Comparisons start to come into play. You may see a peer have a faster growth rate than you and thus lead you down a spiral.

The sooner you can distance yourself from the top-line and focus instead on the per show basis is where you will learn the changes necessary in order to facilitate growth.

So What Metrics Matter?

Now that you’ve pulled yourself away from comparing to Jonny Instagram Star, you can start to refocus in on your show.

You should absolutely be looking at your shows on a per show basis. The frequency of when you do the analysis below is up to you, but I recommend at least doing it once a week to start and transitioning to bi-weekly once you find your groove.

The areas you want to focus most on are:

• Sustained Average Viewership Duration
• Broadcast Type to New Follower -or- New Subscriber Conversion
• Average Viewer to Paid Subscriber Ratio
• Revenue Per Hour Broadcast
• Engagement Per Broadcast

Sustained Average Viewership Duration

How long are viewers staying engaged in your programming? This is the main data set I used when analyzing YouTube content for years and it equally applies to live broadcasting.

• What is your average concurrent viewership that is maintained over the longest period of time?
• When you receive a raid or host, how long are those viewers staying around? What percentage is being maintained?
• Do certain formats maintain viewership longer than others?

Having 30 dedicated viewers is just as valuable as having 500 dedicated viewers. Viewers are people who are choosing to spend their time equally with you. Visualize the space you are filling.

You want to give them a show that will keep their attention, but leave them wanting to return. The most dangerous thing in any live broadcast or show is the moment a viewer or attendee looks at their watch. Once they do, you’ve lost them.

Broadcast Type to Follower -or- Subscriber Conversion

With each show you perform you are hoping for two key results:

1. To Fill Existing seats with your Regulars
2. To Sell New seats for future potential Regulars

You will want to break down show by show to see what is generating the best conversion for new followers and subscribers. Know that chasing the area that has the most potential viewers (ie: insert popular game X here) isn’t necessarily the best strategy. With larger number of viewers comes a greater amount of competition in the space. In order to play in that field, you need to have something so incredibly unique (and a little help from established talent in that area) in order to break out.

You may discover that certain things you love broadcasting simply don’t convert. That is something of which you may need to analyze and revisit for yourself creatively.

A fun tool I’ve utilized for analyzing my own shows externally is TwitchTracker.com .

On TwitchTracker, I would navigate to my own profile page, then click on “Games”. From here, I can sort all of the Categories I have broadcasted to by Followers (high to low). What you want to take a close look at is which titles generate positive conversion. In my case, the categories of which I’ve given the greatest airtime have very poor followers per hour conversion. Meanwhile, there are categories with meaningful hours broadcast that have great conversion with each hour. This helps influence what categories to lean into and what games to consider in the future.

You can do a similar exercise on a per show basis with your Stream Summary on Twitch. How many new followers/subscribers are you converting per show? Are some shows performing better than others?

Average Viewer to Paid Subscriber Ratio

This one is relatively straightforward – How many average viewers do you maintain and how many active paying subscribers do you have?

The ideal of course is a 1-to-1 ratio, but inflation may form with gifted subs, utilization of sub perks/benefits (such as Prime), etc. Take a close look at how many viewers are choosing to invest in you monthly and how many are regular viewers.

Revenue Per Hour Broadcast

Broadcasting takes time, significant energy and upfront investment. Obviously we all want to seek a return for our investments and watching your progression in terms of revenue is absolutely vital over time.

Take a look at your past broadcasts:

• Which shows generated the most revenue?
• Which shows generated little to no revenue?
• Which shows required greater investment but did not break even?

To build a sustainable career in broadcasting, you must be mindful of how many hours you are putting in and what the return looks like. Part of this is also ensuring that the audience isn’t feeling inundated with content.

BE MINDFUL OF YOUR AUDIENCE. BROADCASTING LONGER DOESN’T EQUAL GREATER SUCCESS.

Engagement Per Broadcast

You want to keep in tune with how the audience and your fans are receiving and perceiving your content. You want your content to maintain being a point of ongoing conversation – both in chat and externally on social media/press. A few metrics to keep close eye on are:

• # of social posts and social post engagements per broadcast
• Unique chatters in audience
• Conversion per Notification (Go Live Notifications/Initial External Posts promoting streams)

If you notice that your social posts promoting your livestream are receiving little to no interaction, it is time to re-analyze how and when you are posting. If you notice that certain “Go Live Notifications” are receiving greater click-through, take a look at why they do and how you might be able to further replicate that success.

Next Steps

With these analytical considerations in mind, reflect on your past broadcasts. How are they performing? What can you do that makes them more effective in conversion? Where are you finding growth and (if it aligns with you) how can you do more?

I encourage you to look past the top-line, gain greater mindfulness of your audience and find the balance that works both for them and you.

1. Don’t Poll To Simply Confirm A Personal Fact

Unless you are seeking validation, posting a poll on your native social media, broadcast or video will result in a high frequency of biased responses. For example, if you post on Instagram Stories “Should I buy this?” with an item that clearly aligns with your brand, they will obviously say “YES – Do It OMG!” This is a soft poll and doesn’t necessarily benefit the long term. It’s an expected validation for the brief dopamine hit you’ll receive. It’s the equivalent of saying “Should I do this?” when you know the answer already.

Polling should be utilized to consider and activate actions you have not pre-determined.

2. Poll On An Outside Platform

I personally like utilizing Google’s Form (via Google Docs) for polling my audience. It not only removes them from the area of bias, but also can help capture and report information in easily digestible means (graphs & pie charts). There are other services like SurveyMonkey -or- StrawPoll that I’ve seen many creators use.

3. Construct Questions to Gain Insights on Behavior

You want to utilize a poll to better understand Why, How and What your audience is most attracted to in your broadcasts, creations, etc. Below are the questions I have incorporated into my livestreaming polls in the past, which helped me craft a better understanding of my audience, the formats they most appreciate and where I should focus my efforts moving forward. You can see a live example here.

• How did you discover me/my channel?
  • List the different shows/series you create
• How likely are you to watch any of the below types of broadcasts?
  • List the different shows/series with “Won’t Watch / Not Likely / Maybe / Likely / Absolutely” as selectable checkboxes.
• If you enjoy my shows, does it matter to you what I play/do?
  • Simple “Yes” and “No” – the results may surprise you.
• How Likely are you to watch any of the below types of games (genre)?
  • List the different genres you appreciate with “Won’t Watch / Not Likely / Maybe / Likely / Absolutely” as selectable checkboxes.
• What days are best to watch my broadcasts/videos?
  • List each day of the week and allow them to select multiple.
• If you are a subscriber, do you feel as if you’re receiving the value you’re subscribing for?
  • Yes/No. The goal of this is to grasp if what you’re providing has audience attributed worth.
• What do you enjoy most about my shows?
  • Allow this to be open entry.
• What do you not enjoy about my shows?
  • Allow this to be open entry.
• Is there something you’d like to see more with my shows?
  • Allow this to be open entry.

Once the form is created, distribute to your base and allow them to fill out over the course of 72 hours. Don’t leave the timeline open-ended as this may result in them pushing it further down the road. You want to communicate that this is important for understanding them and ultimately bettering your content delivery to them.

The act of including them in the conversation is key. To say “I do what I do and I don’t care” is disrespectful to your audience. Don’t expect them to be around for long if you’re not open to constructive feedback.

4. Share the Results

Schedule a time to broadcast or have the open dialogue with your audience about what you’ve discovered. Share with them the graphs. Have an open conversation about what they like, what they don’t like and open to conversation about how you’ll improve. How will use the information they have given you to make your broadcasts better or perhaps different.

If you are streaming on Twitch, you can compare some of this data with services such as Twitch Tracker to see if what the audience is communicating is in line with the data.

What you are creating is a two-way street in conversation, but a trust that you will drive the journey forward with them in mind.

Once this conversation is had, you can be off to the races with making your content better – and they will be grateful for you having included them.

What if you were able to keep your workload simple while still hitting unique audiences on each of those bases? The solution isn’t to work harder – It’s to work smarter.

Triple Monetization Strategy

While working with clients, we needed to find a means to pack in the servicing of multiple platforms of audience into a single day. Nearly every platform would tell us that we need to “upload daily and stay consistent”. I’m sure you’ve heard the same. But being able to achieve this was not possible without applying the below strategy.

1. Home Base / The Initial Input

Where is your determined main home base for video creation? Is it on YouTube/Facebook/Twitch? Is it a website?

This will be your main piece of content that you will be re-purposing, so this should be your highest quality and most expansive work. For the example I will use here, I will reference my Twitch broadcasts – which are my longest form and highest quality work currently.

When observing how I will re-distribute my broadcast content, I answer the following questions for myself immediately leading into and leading out of the show.

• What is the goal of the broadcast?
• Is there a particular message communicated throughout the broadcast?
• Was the goal accomplished during the broadcast?

The initial broadcast is my first point of monetization. This is the expected content from my audience and should be my primary focus for monetization (Ads, Sponsorships, Subscribership). It is the base of which I’ll take from for the next few stages.

2. Longplay VOD -or- Audio Distribution

There are audiences that may not be able to watch my initial broadcast while I’m live. Being able to service those audiences is absolutely vital for the further expansion of your business.

• Trim any bumpers from your content and maintain the rest of the full length of show.
• Upload the full broadcast to your YouTube channel. Some viewers prefer to not engage and have a sit back experience. By uploading the full VOD to YouTube, those viewers have an opportunity to enjoy what you’ve created. (Don’t forget to add in those midroll advertisements!)
• Are meaningful conversations maintained throughout? If so, consider distributing the audio portion through a Podcast distribution platform. You could also consider the audio only portion for sponsorship inclusion via a podcast network.

This secondary distribution of the live broadcast is great for archival purposes and reaching those who enjoy the experience on their own terms.

NOTE: Don’t get upset when the viewership is potentially lower than shorter form content. This is servicing a VERY specific audience. The views may not be huge, but you’re building an evergreen inventory.

3. Highlights, Cut-downs and Clips

Rule #1 of the internet for a long time has been to “Keep it short because no one has the attention span!”

While I call bullshit on that statement some of the time, it is undeniable that short form content is in high quantity and availability. To not include yourself in that distribution cycle is doing you and your business growth a disservice.

• Are there concise, meaningful conversation or goal-focused moments? These are great for SEO platforms (YouTube, Website)
• Are there quirky, off-beat or unexpected high energy moments? These are great for trend-focused platforms (TikTok, IG)
• Are there emotional or social calls to action? These are great for emotionally-driven platforms (Facebook, Twitter)

Often a show will include all of these elements and even some creators will focus on creating these moments. Taking clips of these moments (in my case I would be using Twitch’s clip feature to grab the moment) is an easy way to prep content for the other platforms.

If you’re able to achieve all elements, you have the capability to re-distribute your single show’s work across a minimum of 3 platforms and a maximum of…well…there’s too many to count.

Additional Considerations

1. Re-purposing the same exact clips on every platform is doing your audience a disservice. Why would they follow you on each if they get the same exact thing? Think how each platform’s audience responds and give them content they align with. Distribute difference clips/highlights/moments from the initial broadcast on each.
2. Consider your cadence of distribution. Each service/platform will tell you daily (they want those views after all), so think through what is the best cadence for you that you can maintain.
3. Focus on 3 platforms to start. What is your home base and what are your two additional bases? You can expand once you get comfortable with the first 3.

Shot/Edited by: Jon Brence

Promotional spot filmed during the JapanLA Clothing x San-X Fashion Event in Downtown Los Angeles (December 2013).

In my mind, the show was as it always had been for the most part – but my energy was low and I was definitely not in the correct mindset. I was incredibly anxious, overwhelmed and at a standstill. It wasn’t a normal burnout though – this was unique. I knew that I could change my process to create a better live broadcast moving forward. From this thought laying in bed, I came up with the three key elements that I need to be mindful of for all of my shows moving forward.

FOUNDATION | ADDITIVES | DISTRACTIONS

Each show contains each of these elements. Finding the balance that works best for you is vital to your long term broadcasting success. In order to best analyze what elements land where, I want you to do a quick exercise.

Take out a piece of paper (or use one of those new fancy tablet devices that are smart and stuff), and write down every element that goes into your broadcast. EVERY. ELEMENT.

This can include yourself, a graphics package, your alerts, a particular game type, audience interaction components – the list goes on. Also include how your audience interacts with you (both good and bad). To make this exercise successful, YOU MUST BE SPECIFIC.

Now that you have your list, I want you to make on another sheet three columns with the header of FOUNDATION / ADDITIVES / DISTRACTIONS at the top. Sort the elements based on the criteria understanding below.

1. Foundation

Your foundation is what is absolutely necessary for the show to function. This is the guaranteed expectation you have set with your audience and without it, the show cannot exist.

• What are the key elements that MUST be present visually/aurally?
• Is there a particular through-line that without it makes the show fall flat?
• What is the expectation of your audience? Does it align with what you want to create?

2. Additives

Your additives are what help amplify your foundation. They build connective tissues between your story and your audiences. Note that utilization of someone else’s intellectual property is ALWAYS an additive (not a foundation).

• What helps communicate your messages?
• Are there bells and whistles that feel good when showcased?
• Are there particular types of elements that your audience responds well to?
• Which of these additives are necessary? Which aren’t? Why do you believe that to be the case?

Note that additives are always additional. They should only help in aiding the story you want to tell and not be a fallback.

3. Distractions

Distractions are the elements that pull you out of your show. These are the pieces that divert audience attention from your mission. In the comedy circuit, this can come in the form of hecklers. In stage performances, it’s the audience member or performer’s cell phone going off.

• What are your greatest annoyances during your shows? How can you stop them from happening?
• Do you have Additives that actually become Distractions? (Ex: Alerts that go off regularly)
• What can you remove now that doesn’t bring you joy? Marie Kondo approach to your show (This can include types of games played; Audience member types, etc)

Next Steps

With all elements of your show now separated into these categories, it is time to get to work.

1. Remove all distractions from your show. This is the equivalent of getting rid of clothes you no longer wear. You will feel a great amount of weight lifted just from this action alone.
2. Be mindful of your Additives and remove those that don’t contribute to the actual betterment of your show.
3. Consider the placement and incorporation of your Additives. Where should they position within the show’s flow?
4. How will you communicate your Foundation moving forward? Simplifying the show’s execution is key. Long term success will come from audience understanding of what you’re going for in each episode with an expectation of what is to come next.

Throughout 2019 into 2020, Jon Brence hosted 30+ live DJ sets across several mediums. The sets included playlists comprised of J-Pop, City Pop, House, Future Funk and Kawaii Bass tracks.

Jon had DJ’d as one of his first jobs throughout high school into university. His first DJ gig was at a local rollerskating rink in Pennsylvania, followed by house parties and local dances. As his love for electronic music grew, he played several warehouse parties in Pittsburgh.

He periodically DJ’d at small events in Los Angeles, and leaned back into DJing as his live broadcast schedule expanded.

In 2020 due to the impacts of COVID-19, he was hired to perform special takeover DJ sets for both Sanrio’s Hello Kitty Instagram account as well as the official Tokidoki Instagram account. Both sets focused on funk and disco remixes fused with J-Pop.

Game Talk Live with Mandie Roman and Leo Camacho – Guests: Roger DiLuigi & Jon Brence (July 3, 2017)

Leo and Mandie try out USAopoly’s original game Mario Level Up with special guests Jon Brence and RogersBase! Are their friendships strong enough to withstand the test of a Mario game? We shall see!

SuperJoy Sugoi is a program series airing weekly on Wednesday evenings starring CuriousJoi and Jon Brence (KawaiiGuy) with the duo taking on multiplayer co-op titles. Since the initial episodes, they have expanded to include other members of SuperJoy and their communities in the gameplay.

Full Games Completed as part of the series:

• Portal 2
• Resident Evil 4
• A Way Out

Other Games Featured as part of the series:

• Dead by Daylight
• Fall Guys
• Final Fantasy XIV
• Marvel’s AVENGERS
• Overcooked 2
• Predator: Hunting Grounds

1. The First Three Words

The first three words of your YouTube title are the most important. This is where you should incorporate key titles, phrases or terms that are tied to the content of your video.

• If your video is an all-encompassing topic (Full video game playthrough / Reaction / Location)
  • Use the name of the topic as the leading text
  • Example: “BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM | Full Playthrough”
• If your video is highlighting an emotion or response:
  • Use key terms such as “Apology” or “Sorry” or “Congratulations” for emotional triggers.
  • Example: “CONGRATULATIONS JACKSFILMS – It’s a Boy!”
• If your video showcases key characters or personalities, include those key names in the front:
  • Example: “SPIDERMAN & ELSA Play with Colors, Balls & Other Fun Toys!” (Remember this awful trend anyone?)

You will also want to use these key terms and phrases in both your description and tags for your content to build a through-line for your connective metadata.

2. Consider Answering a Question

An overwhelming amount of traffic on Google and YouTube comes from individuals searching for the answer to a question that they have. (Example: How to Defeat a Boss / Elgato 4K60 vs. HD60Pro / Are Lattes Safe for Dogs?)

By asking a question with the title of your video and then providing an answer within the content, your content has become far more likely to receive inbound potential traffic.

Example:

“How to Activate God-Mode in DOOM” // “Will Peanuts Make Me Fat?” // “Who Is The Strongest Superhero?”

There is a great resource available for generating the most commonly asked questions on web search, which you can use to not only inspire your creations, but name your videos moving forward:

ANSWERTHEPUBLIC.COM

Below the guy that seemingly stares into your soul is a search bar. Type into that search bar whatever topic you’re covering, then click on “Data” on the next page. Bam! You just got yourself a year’s worth of content ready to be created.

3. Constructing the Archive

There are a variety of methods and stylizing that I’ve seen implemented when it comes to building the archive for series. Obviously utilizing Playlists is key to help push auto-play/sit back viewing behavior, but maintaining a consistent naming structure is also vital.

I continue to use the below formatting for all of my content, and its one that may make it easier for your archives as well.

Examples:

DEAD BY DAYLIGHT Survivor Mode w/BlackNerdGames & CuriousJoi | SuperJoy Sugoi | KawaiiGuy

GHOST OF TSUSHIMA [Part 1 – Main Story Quests] | Twitch Livestream | KawaiiGuy

Funny Cat Videos [#601 – Cats Falling Off Furniture] | Funniest Animals Worldwide | KawaiiZooGuy

What To Avoid When Writing Titles

Know that titles have incredible competition in the space, so ensuring that you make sure yours is uniquely identifying to you is key.

• Avoid Tag Spam
  • DO NOT post a series of tags in your title. Listing a bunch of words doesn’t help you.
• Don’t Over Simplify
  • Make sure you address a key element or moment within the title, not just the targeted key terms.
• Don’t Copy Titles
  • Naming your video the same thing as someone else is not only lazy, but a bad practice because it showcases that you’re trying to take viewership away. Not cool even though I know many do it…

In addition to each of their own regular broadcast schedules, they come together for weekly shows (such as SuperJoy Sugoi) and special broadcast events.

Team Members:

• BlackNerdGames
• ChrissaSparkles
• CuriousJoi
• iHasCupquake
• KawaiiGuy
• Jestanii
• NeonPlusNova
• OMGChomp4Real
• Strawburry17plays
• SuperRed
• VelvetSunrise