What Is Twitch & How Do You Use It?
IG Lives just don’t compare to Twitch. If we’re honest, that’s where the party resides!
Every Tuesday at 3pm EST, every Wednesday at 4pm EST every Thursday at 8pm EST, you can catch me and all my rich frens in the Rich Life Lounge, which is what I call my little corner of Twitch. In the Rich Life Lounge, we’re all the billionaires we deserve to be, so if you’re not partying there with us, what are you really doing?
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Twitch, I wanted to share a breakdown of how it all works, because at first glance it can seem intimidating. So let’s dive in:
Create an account
Go to Twitch.com and create your account for free. You can download the app or login from your desktop (the desktop experience is way better). Don’t be afraid to get creative with your username, but know that that’s what I’ll be calling you when I give you shoutouts during my DJ sets.
2. Follow me
Duh. My username is @djTyAlexander. If you need more suggestions of who to follow, check out this blog post.
3. Subscribe or gift a sub
With Amazon Prime, you can subscribe to one channel each month for free. Just go to this page on Amazon and click “link Twitch account.” If you don’t have Amazon Prime, you can pay for a subscription on the desktop or mobile version of Twitch. BUT it’s a whole dollar cheaper to subscribe through desktop.
What do you get when you subscribe?
When you subscribe to my channel you get custom emotes (this Twitch’s language for emojis), a subscriber badge (that changes the longer you are subscribed), you can view my past DJ sets, I’ll email you 2 recorded mixes or curated playlists each month, and lastly… ad-free viewing.
Subscriptions are in 3 Tiers. But Tier 2 or Tier 3 subscriptions will give you access to additional emotes.
You can also gift a sub to someone in the chat. Just click their name in chat and when their user card pops up you’ll see a **Gift a Sub** button. Or you can click the Subscribe button at the top of the channel page, select Gift a Sub and then type their username into the search field to select your recipient. You can also gift subscriptions to random people in and outside of the chat.
Read more about subs here.
4. Use emotes in the chat
Emotes are basically custom emojis for each channel. I’ve designed 10 emotes specifically for the Rich Life Lounge (I update this once a month or so). There’s a Megan-inspired AHT tongue and lips, a “Rich Frens” emote, a Patron bottle to toast with rich frens, and more. Only subscribers can use them but it is very worth it.
The more subscribers a channel has the more emotes become available. The best part is that you can use these emotes in any chat across Twitch not just on my channel. So subscribe away!
5. Cheer/Bits
Let’s think of Bits as tips for the DJs. You can use Bits to cheer for me in the chat on Twitch. “Throw sum bitties” in the chat when you hear a song you like, or I scratch a song in (I’m still learning), or go if the stream goes into overtime.
And because it makes me all warm and giddy inside, you’ll get a shoutout when you do. You can cheer with as many bits as you want starting with 100 bits.
100 bits equals $1.00 for me.
Read more on bits here.
6. Hype Train
A Hype Train is a super-sized celebration when community members (points at you) unite to support a streamer (that’s me) they love. A Hype Train will kick off when there's a spike in support events (such as subscriptions or use of Bits) in a channel, based on a threshold set by each Streamer.
7. Share
Sharing the live stream helps our channel grow. From your mobile device, tap the video playing and you will see three icons. Tap the second icon (the arrow) and a pop up will appear. You can share the stream to social, you can whisper it to someone (think DM), or you can host the channel (this shows the stream on your account).
If you are on desktop, click the up arrow located under the purple subscribe/gift a sub button. To host the stream go to your account and click chat. Then type in /host @djtyalexander.
The Rich Life Lounge is a vibe that cannot be described. I hope to see you on Thursday or Sunday. If this post was helpful let me know on Twitch in the chat.
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