Building A Community To Support Your Gaming Stream Career*

If you’re looking to make a little money out of your passion for gaming, or are simply looking for a new way to share your love of the medium with like-minded people, streaming can be a great way to do just that. However, playing games on stream alone isn’t enough; you need to build a community that supports you and keeps coming back day after day. Here, we’ll look at a few tips to help you build that community.

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Be Engaging And Welcoming

First and foremost, you have to be ready to put your best foot forward with viewers whenever you’re live. Welcoming new viewers, greeting regulars, and keeping the general conversation going while playing games. You can focus on the game at times, of course, but most offer plenty of laid-back time to ask open-ended questions, react to comments, and generally catch up with them. Dedicating a segment of the stream, such as the opening or a break, to viewer feedback and spotlighting the community (such as their art) can be a great way to help them feel involved, too.

Create A Central Hub For Your Community

Your stream chat and social media can be a great place for ongoing engagement, but your community should have a place to gather as well. Starting your own Discord server could be the perfect thing for it. Structuring it with rules, channels for different topics (talking about games, sharing art, delivering announcements), and hosting regular polls or Q&A threads can make it feel like the place to be outside of your streams. You don’t necessarily need to chat on Discord all the time, as it should be a place for the community to get to know each other, too.

Play Plenty Of Community Games

You’re a gaming streamer catering to gamers, so it’s only natural that you should open the doors to play with them, too. It doesn’t have to be every day, but having a day or two a week as your community nights can foster long-term bonds and give the chance to build towards something together. It’s always worth keeping an eye on which co-op or online games are trending, but sticking to the favorites, like setting up your own server with a Minecraft server host, can be a great fit, as well. When the community is actively involved in making some of the more memorable and funny moments on stream, it can really make them feel much more connected to your content.

Collaborate With Streamers That Fit Your Vibe

Your community might come for you, but you can grow even more by partnering with other streamers that share your playstyle and vibe. They don’t have to have the exact same personality, but a good complementary fit can allow both of you to shine, bringing your content to a bigger audience and establishing cross-community camaraderie, while allowing for much more dynamic and exciting kinds of new content. 

Over time, community management might become as big a part of your role as a streamer as the actual streaming itself. Hopefully, the tips help you grow to the point where you know you have an audience that truly enjoys what you do.

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Everything You Need For An Amazing Holiday*

Have you decided that you’re going to be booking a holiday any time soon? If you have, then you need to make sure you’re making it the best that it can possibly be. The last thing that anyone wants is to half plan a holiday, it turns out to be boring, and then to regret even spending the money to go. 

Instead, you need to get a plan together and work out how you can make it the best holiday ever. We’re here to help with this, so are you with us? Good, let’s get into it.

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Money

The very first thing that you need to be thinking about is money. How much can you reasonably afford to spend on this trip? Do you have enough money to make this trip memorable? Are you going to be able to afford to go to attractions and have fun while you’re there if you’re spending a fortune on hotels and travel? These are all questions that you’re going to need to ask yourself. 

The best way that we can think to ensure that you do not run out of money while you’re away, is book some of the attractions beforehand so that you don’t miss out, and you don’t have to spend this money while you’re there. But also, you should be splitting the money you’re not spending on accommodation and travel over the number of days that you are away. This way, you will never run out of money, and you may even find that some days you have a little extra from the previous day.

Packing 

One of the most essential parts of going on holiday is making sure that you have packed correctly. It’s imperative that you have everything that you need, especially items that you can’t simply replace when you get to your destination. 

As such, we encourage you to make a list of all of the things that you want to pack. Make sure that this includes underwear, adaptors, clothes, hand chains and other jewelry pieces if you want to take them, sunscreen and so much more. Tick this off as they’re packed to keep you on the right track.

Excursions 

Finally, are you planning on doing any excursions while you are away? If the answer is yes, then you may benefit from booking these before you go. That way you know you have a place in whatever it is you want to do, and you won’t be disappointed when you get there. It also gives you something else to look forward to. For instance, if you are wanting to go scuba diving then you will need to book a place on the boat. You might also save some extra pounds when you book in advance. If you are booking your holiday through a travel agent then speak to them about this, they might suggest waiting until you are over there to get the best deals. 

We do hope you found this helpful and are now in a better position to achieve the holiday of your dreams. Get out there, make memories, and have fun. 

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Need a New Company Car? How to Choose the Best Vehicle for Your Business*

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Running a business involves making lots of big decisions. Some can be tough, but others are a lot of fun. One decision that falls into the latter category is choosing a new company car. Selecting a new vehicle for your business is undoubtedly one of the most exciting company purchases you can make. But knowing which vehicle to choose can be a little trickier. The following tips should help to make that decision easier for you and guide you to making the best possible choice for your business.

Consider Your Brand

When it comes to driving around in a vehicle that represents your company, ensuring that it is on-brand is vital. Turning up in a rusty old banger to business meetings is a definite no-no.

Likewise, when you’re trying to secure a big money deal, you don’t want to arrive in a cheap vehicle that suggests your business is struggling financially. Instead, choosing a vehicle made by a manufacturer that is synonymous with quality, such as the new Defender, is essential. 

Thinking carefully about your brand and what it represents is the best place to start when selecting a new company vehicle. 

Think About Practicality

The next step is to think about what you need from the vehicle. Choosing a company vehicle based on appearance alone is always a big mistake. Instead, you need to consider the practicality of the vehicle. What will you use it for? Where do you need to travel in the vehicle? If you’re simply going to be travelling to and from business meetings, you will have far more flexibility over the type of vehicle that you choose. However, if you’re going to need to make constant deliveries and collect large amounts of stock using the vehicle, then there’s a lot more to think about.

If you will be using the vehicle for picking up stock and delivering goods, it’s wise to check the payload of any vehicle that you’re considering. The internal dimensions will also be a crucial factor when choosing your company vehicle. Carefully checking all the measurements and the payload will help you to determine whether the vehicle can accommodate your needs. These checks are essential to ensure that the vehicle is functional for your business. Don’t forget to check these before you sign a lease on your new company car and enter into a contract.

Determine Your Budget

One final step to take when choosing a new company vehicle is to ensure you have a budget in place before you start shopping. Knowing how much the car will cost to lease each month is one thing, but you also need to understand the running costs that it will incur each month. Figuring this out in advance will help you to avoid any nasty surprises when you actually start using the vehicle.

As you can see, there are a few factors to consider when choosing a company vehicle. But with careful research, you should find it much easier to make the right choice.

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When Your Home Is Also Your Workplace: 3 Work/Life Balance Factors That Can Get A Little Bit Complicated*

Working from home is quite honestly the best way to juggle both your personal and professional lives. After all, you’re using your home as the hub for both, so it makes sense that you can cut out a lot of the coordination and timing awkwardness. 

No need to commute, no need to spend an extra hour getting ready in the morning - you can just get up and get to work, and then still have a friend come round after 5pm without needing to rush home and tidy up. 

But when your home is your workplace, a few other things can get a bit complicated. Here’s 3 to pay attention to. 

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Separating Personal and Professional Income

When you work from home, you make your own money. However, depending on the type of business you run (such as being self employed vs. operating as a registered company), it’s easy to chuck all of the money you’ve made into the same pot. 

You can muddy the waters here, and make it hard to isolate assets and their value. Not only can this make bookkeeping more difficult, but it won’t make planning for the future any easier either. 

Indeed, when the time comes to think about the future, you may find it very challenging to work out what you’ve made, what you’ve got for retirement, and the overall value of your estate. 

Find yourself a solicitor to go through your records and returns. Check out a link like https://www.harpermacleod.co.uk/expertise/individuals-families/wills-trusts-estates/making-a-will-in-scotland/ to find out more about future planning, will drafting, and what could be at risk here. 

When You’re on the Clock and When You’re Not

When you work from home, it’s tempting to let yourself always be on the clock. You’ve got a free schedule to use as you like, around the mainstay responsibilities you have to get to, and that means work can happen whenever! 

But this is a very slippery slope. If work can happen whenever, then it’s going to happen whenever. Your weekends will be taken up. Your evenings will be swallowed by your workload. Even your early mornings will be interrupted, and you already got to bed late because you were working! 

Taking Care of Your Basic Needs

Finally, let’s not forget that when you’re at work, you’re less likely to reach out for a snack or a glass of water. When you’re in the office proper, snacking at your desk might be a bit of a taboo - and a lot of workplaces have policies around the potential for water spillage.

This is all to say that there’s a bit of a precedent for ignoring your needs in the working world. And when you’re working from home - and if you’re always working - meals, hygiene, and rest can all be sidelined too. 

When working from home, work/life balance tends to become a lot more positive. However, you need to be careful about key boundaries that need to be drawn. 

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