Is someone knowledgeable on the subject willing to explain the pros and cons to streaming? Is it a legit source of income? If so, how much income are we talking? Also, is there other benefits besides $$? I want to make sure if i go through the process of setting up a stream it will make sense financially in the longterm. Not worth putting money into new desktop, microphones, and etc if i wont see a ROI.
What are your thoughts?
Great question, as someone who has played full time as a non streamer, full time as a streamer, and full time while recording my sessions and uploading them to Youtube I can offer a few insights on this topic.
The first thing is that if you're going to stream you should really love socializing, and be doing it for the social element moreso than anything else. While there is some extra money to be made by streaming, it's by no means a huge amount.
The additional money you can make from sponsorship will usually range from $5-100/hr based on how many viewers you are getting and the cap will be $3-5k a month. Also the money that you are paid by sites is typically in the form of tournament dollars, so it's not exactly the same as having a salary that you can bank on 100%.
To reach the higher range of the requires viewers, and to have viewers requires (you guessed it) having a genuine connection with the people watching your stream. And this comes from being an enjoyable person to be around, to hang out with, and who actually cares about who is on the other side of the stream. Think of it as every stream is a house party, the streamer is the host, and the ones with the most viewers are usually the ones who are having the most fun.
So if you like all that stuff (which personally I do) streaming is a fantastic way to connect with people, make friends, and open doors that come thru having connections. You will also make some sponsorship money in the process, and partnership money thru twitch (but again these numbers are fairly small at $2.50 per month per sub going to the streamer) and ad revenue as well (but like youtube the figures are quite small).
Twitch is a great way to make poker more engaging and more fun if you're doing it casually, playing for enjoyment etc. If however you are playing purely to make a profit streaming doesn't make much sense.
First you have to speak while playing which takes away from your ability to simply focus and make decisions, there is constant distraction from chat messages popping up, shoutouts, notifications etc. (Not to mention the technical difficulties which can arise) and you are giving away information about your own play which will decrease your edge. It's hard to explain to anyone who hasn't done it before, but streaming and multitabling is easily one of the most exhausting things in the world, it's just too much multitasking.
If you're just one tabling though, streaming is great.
If you're doing a study session and you want other's feedback streaming is great.
If you just want people to hang out with and connect with, streaming is great.
And that's really what it comes down to, your primary motivation. If you're looking for socializing, connection, and fun, streaming is so awesome and nothing really compares to it.
But if if you're thinking about it for the money, I would save your time and energy because you will likely quit before you reach the point of making any significant money doing it.
Streaming caters to a certain personality, extroverted, likes being the center of attention kind of person. If that sounds like you, give it a go. If you're more of a quiet, reflective, introverted type I would skip on it.
That's my 2 cents on it having been in and out of it for a while. I can say the thrill of having people watch you really amplified everything (the good and the bad) and that can be very addictive. I've found that when I stream I absolutely love it because it's so engaging and invigorating. But, I've also found that when I'm streaming consistently it is very exhausting and overall not so good for my health. So like anything it has it's pros and cons.
Hope you'll find some value in this response and it will help you make the decision either way