Everybody loves free stuff, and free advertising is the gift that keeps giving. As a content creator, you will want as much of that as you can get.
As a new streamer, you probably won’t achieve overnight success. Of course anything is possible, but you shouldn’t count on it. More realistically you can expect small, steady growth to your audience if you stream engaging content regularly.
If you’re already doing that, then you can steepen that growth curve for free, just by being a bit more sociable. I’ve compiled a list of links that will be very useful to streamers for this purpose.
Discord Servers
Discords are great places for getting and giving support. Wondering if you’re streaming at the ideal bitrate? Struggling to decide on an ISP suitable for streaming? I’ve seen all these questions and more answered in community Discord channels.
Not only that, but becoming friends with (rather than rivals of) other streamers means you can host/raid each other and help each other with promotion. There are more than enough viewers to go around for everyone.
When you start streaming, Discord also states what you are currently streaming under your name in the members list. This could catch the attention of potential viewers interested in that particular game.
- ZA Streams Discord Channel
This is a Discord for the South African streamer community. It exists to support local content creators in a variety of ways. - ZAGA Discord Channel
This is a Discord associated with the popular Facebook page of the same name. - The Battlegrounds
Discord server for SA gamers, playing Apex Legends, PUBG, CSGO, Overwatch, Dota2 LoL, WoW, Killing Floor, CoD, Battlefield, and Fortnite - Comic Con Africa
Official Discord server for Comic Con Africa. - South African Nerd Network
Streamers who apply for the role, and stream on their FiveM role play server get special Discord benefits. - QuakeZA
This a niche directory for Quake streamers and Quake players. - Apex Legends South Africa
This a niche directory for Apex players. - Competitive OW ZA
This a niche directory for Overwatch players.
Directories
If there is a resource listing streamers, and it’s free, you will want to be on that list.
- STRMR’s Southern African Streamer Directory
This is our free directory, specifically for Southern African Twitch and Youtube streamers. Results can be filtered via location, platform, and genre. - TCNO ZA Twitch Directory
Another free directory, specifically for South African Twitch streamers. Unlike ours, this one’s results can be filtered by number of followers, number of views, and number of videos. - TCNO ZA YouTube Directory
Another free directory, specifically for South African YouTube streamers. Unlike ours, this one’s results can be filtered by number of subscribers, number of views, and number of uploads. - SocialBlade
Social Blade is a public database of content creators, and their publicly available streaming stats. You will want to make sure you are listed here, as some directories pull information from this database. - Gamactica Streamer Directory
Gamactica provides a directory for members of Gamactica, a small social network for gamers. The social network itself seems a bit sad at this point, but a listing in the directory is free, save for a bit of hoop jumping (liking the social network pages, etc).
Niche Directories
- Streamfleet (EVE Online)
This is a directory for content providers of the game EVE Online. - Chess.com (Chess)
A collection of chess streamers.
Social Networks
If you don’t, or are not prepared to actively use social networks, then creating profiles on them won’t do you any good. Likewise, creating profiles purely for the purpose of spamming your links everywhere, will only get you despised and/or kicked. If on the other hand, you’re prepared to use social networks responsibly, the following may be of interest.
- ZA Gaming Alliance Facebook Group
Largest Facebook group for Southern African gamers. Keep an eye on the posts because people often ask for suggestions of which streamers to watch. They also apparently have an app. - Twitter
Consider following fellow South African streamers, as well as liking and retweeting their posts. They will most likely reciprocate resulting in shared awareness. Also if you post anything entertaining (clips, self made memes, etc) that pertain to a specific game, be sure to ‘@’ the official twitter profiles of those games, and use ‘#’ tags that people might search for.
Stream Teams
A stream team is a group of streamers with some sort of common denominator, or shared belief. It could be that you all play the same game, maybe you’re from the same place, or maybe you have strong beliefs or ethics that you share. Members of the stream team will host and raid each other, so if you can join one, and are willing to reciprocate, that’s a great start.
Forums
Much like social networks, you need to use them responsibly to avoid getting kicked for spamming. If you use a forum for it’s primary purpose (to ask and answer questions), you can sometimes find opportunities to advertise yourself in a non-spammy way. For example, many forums allow you to have a signature with a link in it. This is a good place to advertise yourself, as you go about being a helpful, courteous community member.
- Reddit
This a giant forum made up of mini forums called ‘Sub Reddits’. If you follow all the sub reddits of games you are interested in, and keep an eye on the threads, you might find non-spammy ways of advertising yourself. Be sure to read each sub reddit’s rules before posting because some moderators like to display their power. - My Broadband
This is South Africa’s hugely successful tech forum. You may find occasion that the subject matter turns to streaming or gaming. - SA Gamer
This is a great little forum specifically centered around the South African gaming scene. It is fairly active with friendly members.
If you know of other good resources, please hit up the comments below.