Mistakes New Streamers Make (and How to Avoid Them)

30th May 2025

Top Mistakes New Streamers Make - And How To Avoid Them

Streaming Tips: Streaming For Beginners & Veterans

Stream Quality

No Stream Setup Optimization

No Stream Setup Optimization

One of the common streaming mistakes made by new streamers is not making sure their stream equipment is of good quality before they go live. And good quality doesn't need to mean expensive.

As long as your audio is clear and consistent, your webcam is producing a high quality image, and your pc or console is configured so your stream is stable - that is all you need for it to be good quality.

Keep this in mind when adding stream overlays to your stream as well - you will want them to be correctly sized and functioning.

Resources:
Best Microphone For Streaming (2025)
Best Lighting For Streaming(2025)
Best Camera For Streaming (2025)
Twitch Banner & Panel Sizes

Starship Webcam Overlays. Two customizable cam boxes and event boxes on a dark background.

Ignoring Stream Layout & Overlays

Stream overlays are an important tool for your stream, and one the top streaming tips for beginners is to include them in your setup. By not including stream overlays, you may fall into one of the common Twitch streaming mistakes by not maximising the resources out there to drive engagement and viewers to your channel.

Stream overlays are not just a visual nicety - alerts, emotes, scenes, chat boxes, webcam boxes - they all add additional features to your stream that keep your viewers attention.

Resources:
Free Stream Overlays
Premade Stream Overlays Packages
What Are Stream Overlays?

Stream Schedule

Inconsistent Stream Schedule

Inconsistent Stream Schedule

I honestly could write an entire series of books on this subject. One of the biggest mistakes new streamers make is not creating and sticking to a schedule. Key word - sticking.

If you have no schedule, how do your viewers know when to turn up? And if you create a schedule, but fail to keep to it, your viewers will turn up and be disappointed. Your stream is largely built on the backs of your community, those who tune into your stream day after day and have a loyalty to your content. If you don't show up for them, they won't show up for you.

Create a schedule that works for you and your lifestyle, one you can manage and one that you can be consistent with.

Resources:
Ultimate Twitch Streaming Tips For Beginners

Putting Stream Hours Over Content Quality

Putting Stream Hours Over Content Quality

Burn out is real! Any streamer that has gone live on Twitch or YouTube, or any of the major streaming platforms, will tell you that their marathon streams are few and far between and come with a purpose.

One of the best and most valuable tips on how to grow your Twitch channel is to analyse, learn, plan and execute.

Stream - look at your analytics - learn from them - plan your next stream. If you are just starting out and you are logging on and doing anything and everything for 8 hours per day - burn out is likely coming my friend. Instead, make sure that the content you are putting out is quality, you're learning from it, and your planning is in line with what is working on your stream for you.

Resources:
How To Grow Your Twitch Channel

Stream Promotion

No Promotion Outside Of Streaming Platforms

No Promotion Outside Of Streaming Platforms

Your social media platforms should be a window into your channel, where you are promoting and posting frequently. Our new streamer advice is to get yourself set up on multiple socials and repurpose your stream content to those platforms. Don't let it sit there and do nothing - use it to present your channel!

Content can be easily shifted into longform and shortform, utilising platforms such as TikTok and YouTube.

Resources:
How To Use Your Stream For Social Media

Not Interacting With Chat

Not Interacting With Chat

Silent streams are similar to an empty room and being the first to walk in. Can be intimidating to a new viewer, or even a returning viewer.

An invaluable tip for how to start streaming the right way is to talk!

Yes - talk to the void. Chat away to no one in particular. It might seem very odd to start with but sitting in silence will not get viewers interested. Greet people when they come in, ask questions, answer questions.

I'm going to recommend this article to you - it's set as if you will be streaming "Just Chatting" but it is also a great way to plan out conversations within your streams as well. Topics, Goals, Engagement, Personality.

Resources:
How To Have A Successful Just Chatting Stream

TL;DR

A few easy mistakes that new streamer make that you can avoid! Even as a seasoned streamer, you might find some of these habits have quietly snuck into your streaming life!

Make sure to join the Elements Community Discord for more tips, tricks and stream setup guidance.

"You can start with nothing. and out of nothing and out of no way, a way will be made.",
Em

Author

Emma (@JustCallMeCatch)

Trading one mouse and keyboard for another to bring you tips, tricks, and support with streaming, events, social media and stream overlays.

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GETREKT Labs and GETREKT Elements create custom and pre-made stream overlays for YouTube, Facebook, Twitch, Kick, Tiktok and all major streaming platforms, for use with StreamElements, StreamLabs and OBS.

GETREKT Labs features custom stream overlays, animated Twitch overlays, interactive stream assets, 3D world building, Unreal Engine 5 environments, custom widgets, stream overlays for OBS, camera overlays, reactive overlays, emotes, alerts, sound effects (sfx), set-up, coding and more for all items. Set-up includes all platforms and integration with StreamLabs, Stream Elements and OBS.

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