Guides
Step-by-step guides
Plain-English walkthroughs for everything between "I want to stream" and your first regular viewers. Every platform rule and requirement is checked against official documentation.
- 🚀
How to start streaming on Twitch in 2026
A complete walkthrough from zero to live: creating and securing your account, installing OBS, setting up your scenes, and going live for the first time.
9 min read
- ✅
Your first stream checklist
The pre-flight check to run before every broadcast — audio, video, privacy, and the embarrassing mistakes that are trivial to avoid once you know about them.
6 min read
- 📈
How to get your first 10 viewers
Honest, non-scammy tactics for going from zero to a small regular audience — including the category-picking trick that does more than anything else on this list.
10 min read
- 💰
How to become a Twitch Affiliate in 2026
Twitch lowered the Affiliate bar in 2026 and most guides online still list the old numbers. Here are the current four requirements, how they are measured, and what you unlock.
7 min read
- ⚖️
Twitch vs YouTube vs Kick: where should you start?
An honest comparison of the three main platforms in 2026 — discoverability, revenue splits, monetization requirements and technical limits — and who each one actually suits.
9 min read
- 🎮
How to stream from a PS5 or Xbox
Both consoles can go live without a PC or capture card — here's how, what you give up by doing it that way, and when it's worth upgrading.
8 min read
- 🛠️
How to fix dropped frames, lag and a stuttering stream
OBS reports three completely different kinds of lost frames, and each has a different cause and fix. Here's how to read which one you have and repair it.
9 min read
- 🎧
How to make your stream sound good
Audio is the number one reason viewers leave in the first ten seconds. Mic placement, gain, and the four OBS filters that fix almost everything — in the right order.
9 min read
- 🎬
How to set up scenes, alerts and overlays in OBS
Turn a bare gameplay feed into a stream that looks like a real channel — the four scenes you need, how alerts actually work, and how to keep it all lightweight.
8 min read
- 🛡️
Moderation: keeping your chat safe from day one
AutoMod, mods, chat modes and what to do in a hate raid. Set this up before you need it — because when you need it, you won't have time to learn it.
8 min read
- 📱
How to stream from your phone
You can go live from the device in your pocket. What each platform requires, which apps are worth using, and how to not look like you're streaming from a moving car.
7 min read
- 🎵
Music on stream: DMCA, muted VODs, and what's actually safe
What happens if you play Spotify on stream, what a DMCA strike really means, and the free libraries that let you play music without risking your channel.
7 min read
- ✂️
How to grow with clips: TikTok, Shorts and Reels
Short-form is the only free distribution that will show a brand-new creator to thousands of people. How to pick, cut and post clips that actually bring viewers back to your stream.
8 min read
- 🎯
What should you stream? Picking a game and a niche
The category you choose matters more than your gear, your overlay or your schedule. How to find one where a brand-new channel can actually be seen.
8 min read
- 💵
How much do streamers actually make?
An honest look at streaming income — how each revenue stream works, what small channels realistically earn, and when it stops being pocket money.
8 min read
- 💻
Streaming on a laptop or a low-end PC
You probably don't need a new computer. The settings that make a modest machine stream smoothly — and the honest limits of what it can do.
7 min read
- 🏆
How to become a Twitch Partner
The milestone after Affiliate — what Twitch looks for, why it's an application rather than an automatic unlock, and whether it's still worth chasing.
6 min read
- 💡
How to look good on camera
Lighting beats camera quality every time. Where to put a light, how to frame yourself, and why your expensive webcam looks worse than someone's $30 one.
7 min read
- 🔋
Staying consistent without burning out
Most channels don't fail — they get abandoned. How to build a schedule you can actually keep, and what to do when streaming stops being fun.
7 min read
- 🧸
How to start VTubing
Stream with an avatar instead of a facecam — what you need, what models cost, and the free route to being on camera without being on camera.
8 min read
- 🌍
What is IRL streaming, and how do you actually do it?
IRL means streaming your real life instead of a game. What the categories mean, the three tiers of setup, why SRT needs a relay server, and the safety rules that matter more here than anywhere else.
8 min read
- 🎚️
720p or 1080p? Resolution, bitrate, CBR and NVENC explained
The four settings that decide how your stream looks — and why the highest numbers are usually the wrong answer for a small channel.
8 min read
- 🧾
Where your sub money actually goes: revenue splits explained
Someone subscribes for $5.99 — how much reaches you? The real splits on Twitch, YouTube and Kick, what Bits are worth, and the fees nobody mentions.
7 min read
- 😂
Emotes explained: 7TV, BTTV, FFZ, and adding your own
Why half the emotes in chat are invisible to you, what the third-party extensions actually do, and how to upload emotes for your own channel.
7 min read
- 💜
How to run a charity stream
Raising money on stream, done properly — the tools that keep donations out of your own taxes, and the mistake that turns charity money into your personal income.
7 min read
- 📼
What to do with your VODs after the stream ends
Your recording is deleting itself on a timer. How long you actually get, why archiving is off by default, and how to turn old streams into content that keeps working.
6 min read
- 🟩
Green screens: how to set one up, and when you don't need one
Chroma key done properly, why lighting the screen matters more than the screen itself, and the software alternative that's free if your GPU can take it.
7 min read
- 🎛️
Do you need a capture card?
What a capture card actually does, the three situations that genuinely require one, and why the answer for most new PC streamers is no.
6 min read
- ⏱️
How to start speedrunning on stream
What Any% and PB actually mean, how the timing works, and why speedrunning is one of the few genres where a brand-new streamer gets found.
7 min read
- 🪑
Setting up your streaming desk
Where the mic, camera and monitors actually go — and the space problems that make a good setup feel bad to use.
6 min read
- 🪜
What to upgrade first (and what to skip)
The order to spend money in, ranked by how much your viewers actually notice — and the expensive things that change nothing.
7 min read