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How to create a Stream Schedule using Twitch’s Schedule tool

Hello there, and welcome to Streamer’s Haven, your hub for information about Live Streaming and content creation tips, tricks, and advice! In this article, I’m going to explain how you can set up your very own Stream schedule using the Schedule tool built into Twitch. This is something that YouTube and many other streaming platforms are lacking at the moment, so if you stream elsewhere, I made a schedule sheet using google sheets that you are free to use!

A Stream schedule is one of the most important tools available to you as a Live streamer.

A Stream schedule is one of the most important tools available to you as a Live streamer. Utilizing one will allow your audience to be able to quickly, and easily figure out when your next stream is, as well as find out what you are streaming. In this way, the tool provided by Twitch is superior to the one I built, which is designed for personal use only.

At any rate, here is how to access, and create your very own stream schedule on Twitch.

How to access the Stream Schedule on Twitch

The Stream Schedule on Twitch being Tested

Luckily, accessing your Stream schedule is incredibly easy to do:

  1. Click on your Profile Icon in the top right corner
  2. Click the “Schedule” button on the small navigation bar.

Alternatively, here is a quick link to it: Simply replace the “Replace-me” with your channel name, if you prefer to do it this way.

https://www.twitch.tv/REPLACE-ME/schedule

Twitch has made accessing this feature as pain-free as possible to encourage audiences to use the feature more often. If they are watching you more often, and tipping you in bits/subs, then they make more money in the process.

This is a nice change compared to the followers list, which is buried 4 clicks deep into the Stream manager and is normally inaccessible to mobile devices completely – even to the channel owners. I did figure out that you can access the follower’s list on a mobile device by entering the URL directly into the browser though, so that’s cool, I guess.


How to Add new Stream Events to your Schedule timeline

If you check the previous image under the “How to access The Stream Schedule on Twitch” Header, you’ll see a button called “Edit Schedule”. This is the first step to adding new Stream Events to your Schedule timeline.

Add a new Stream Event in the Twitch Stream Schedule.

To add a new Stream event from here, simply click the “Add Stream” button, enter in the Title, Category, time, and frequency, and click “Save”, which is purple once all of the required fields are filled out.

I strongly recommend setting a title for this, and that you utilize a Category as well, even though they are optional. They may have some SEO (Search Engine Optimization) value to you for the purpose of showing up on Google, though admittedly, I’m not 100% sure if it does. If nothing else, it will be another chance to convince your audience to show up for that stream.


How often should you Stream on Twitch?

One of the most common things I hear asked in our allied communities is “How often should I stream?”. A lot of people tend to ask this question in many subreddits as well. Well, it may surprise you with the answer, it’s quite simple – As often as you want to.

Your schedule is constantly in flux from life’s normal demands, and sometimes you have to shift your schedule around a bit. This is completely Okay! Try to remember that you are in control of your channel, not your audience. You decide what you stream, when you stream it, and how often you should stream it.

Even if you shift the time slot that you stream, try to remember that Twitch is on 24/7 (For the most part…). If your normal audience can’t make it, perhaps another from a different time zone can. Your Stream Schedule can be adjusted to accommodate these individuals, though, I still recommend that you only stream when it is best for you to stream.


What Content should you Stream on Twitch?

Tier – How good?Games / Categories
S – Best to StreamCasual, Happy, Silly games that are easy to play with a bright color pallet
Examples – Fall Guys, Among Us, Animal Crossing, Super Smash Bros, etc.
A – Good to StreamGreat Games Thematically, Hyper popular titles, E-Sports, Conversing
Examples – Call of Duty Series, Fortnite, Rocket League, World of Warcraft, Just Chatting, etc.
B – Okay to StreamGames that have a following, but not a lot of competition
Examples – Retro Games, Dark Themes, etc.
F – Don’t botherObscure Games that nobody knows exist.
Examples – Idk, Some of these are super obscure.
Disclosure – Some links that appear in the table are Humble Bundle Partner Links

Honestly, this subject has become a bit murky as of late with the rise in popularity of games like Among Us, Fall Guys, Animal Crossing, and other Casual Games, likely as a result of the pandemic. A lot of people who are stuck at home are very strongly craving video games as a means of passing the time while taking their mind off of the dread that exists in the real world – A Temporary escape from the calamity in progress.

“Edgy games” (I hate that phrase!), dark settings, and the like are in a lull because it brings people back to the reality of the world. Like, I love Path of Exile, but I’m not blind to the fact that it isn’t all that popular of a game, compared to the shenanigans that are Among Us or Fall Guys. People are craving fun, silly, and happy games.

So where I once said that you should stream whatever game you want, this data is enough to convince me to say otherwise – Bright and Happy casual games are in right now, and will likely remain in for the foreseeable future until this pandemic is fully under control. With that said, ultimately, you are in control over what games you play, so take this with a grain of salt.


Features the Twitch Schedule tool is missing

As awesome of a feature as this is, there are some Features that I feel are missing that I wish it had for you guys to use. As it is in it’s current form, it feels like an afterthought added. With that said, I still believe that it is worth using, despite this concern of mine.

  • A One Time Stream Event Checkbox
    • Rather than schedule a Stream for EVERY Monday, EVERY Tuesday, simply schedule for a single time. Sometimes, you have a special event, like a birthday, or Christmas, or some Giveaway stream or WHATEVER. Having the option to have a non-recurring event should be a no-brainer.
      • Added to Twitch on March 1st, 2021!~
      • One time Stream Schedule Event
  • Custom Thumbnails
    • Some Extensions allow the uploading of custom thumbnails, Would be pretty cool if you can use your own thumbnails in the Schedule!
  • “Remind me!” button for your audience to get a Text/email alert 15 minutes before you go live
    • Kind of silly that this isn’t a feature either, especially since they already have the backbone in place to do this. If this is added, it could dramatically increase your recurring watchers!
  • Collaboration Streams
    • A Tickbox to include a “Collab” flag to an event, including the Twitch name of the Collaborators so your audience can jump around perspectives.

These are just a few ideas I had for it. There are many other ideas swirling around my head on how to improve the tools, but these I felt had the greatest potential to boost the effectiveness of Stream Schedules.

Beyond the Stream Schedule – Suggestions to improve

As you may know from the past if you have been a reader of Streamer’s Haven for awhile, I tend to promote the idea of “Don’t Chase Growth; Chase Improvement”. In fact, this is the site’s Tagline. I had to remove it though, in favor of improving the usability of the site for you guys to be able to more quickly get the information you came here for. Still, it is an important aspect, as it tends to change your mindset on how you approach Streaming.

See, If your chasing growth, you are constantly looking at numbers, and numbers can be both good, and bad motivators. Say, for example, in one stream, you had 10 people show up where you normally have 50. Well, that is demotivating. If your chasing growth, then you will look at ways to improve your stream, sure. However, if you achieve an internal number goal, you’ll be satisfied with what you get, and not try as hard to make the content even better.

Instead, I tend to suggest to people to Chase Improvement – Growth is a Consequence of solid content.

Instead, I tend to suggest to people to Chase Improvement – Growth is a Consequence of solid content. If you’re always looking at your content and looking for ways to make that content better, then you will ultimately grow as a result of providing a greater value in some way. A Stream Schedule is one such improvement that you can make, and thus why I am talking about this.

If you haven’t already, look into creating a YouTube channel because that will improve your ability to work within a set timeframe. Another benefit of this is to have videos rank on the Second Largest Search Engine in the World, and even on Google, assuming the video answers a commonly asked question. The Discoverability blows Twitch out of the Water, and creating YouTube Content is one of the biggest ways to improve Discoverability. I recommend utilizing the “Three Day Content Strategy” for YouTube, as it gives you the greatest amount of freedom.

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