Category Archives: Youtube

What Got Me Into Gaming

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A lot of people or kids growing up, I would assume can relate to video games in some way, shape or another. Whether you were a casual gamer or given a time limit from being obsessed with gaming from the start (this was me) can understand why there is such a vast appeal for gaming even at a young age as well. And if you were not as fortunate as some to have a console chances are you had friends who did have some that you would check out whenever you went there for a sleep over or after school fun!

The early days of my gaming were spent with my brother and sister and occasionally my mom trying to get the furthest on our Nintendo. My mom had another daughter who had passed away from a disease called Fanconi’s anemia. I wont go into detail in this post but you can read more about that here. We would all try to see who could get the furthest in an afternoon (remember there is no saves!) And try to get to Bowser than rescue princess peach! We also would try to play games that my dad had like a boat racing one that I cannot for the life of me remember as well as duck hunt. We even had the bright orange almost neon gun that was made of plastic and you used to shoot the ducks. If you missed be prepared to be taunted by the dog popping up over the tall grass too.

After playing this for years and seemingly being the only games my mom could kind of play with us, we received the original play station from Santa. And our family friends had gifted us destruction derby and Spyro the dragon (I know this really ages myself eh?). We played this for hours and hours. And as our friends got different games we would trade them for a week or two til we met them again. This was a good and free way for all of us to get different games without paying a rental fee or buying new games. And if we liked it we would end up saving our allowance to buy it. We ended up saving for the Crash Bandicoot’s and Spyro’s once they all came out as we loved those games a lot.

As we got older, my sister kind of fell off the bandwagon of gaming. Unless it was a classic she did not really want to be interested in them. My brother would slowly trade in the consoles he had as time went on getting a Nintendo game cube, then the ps2 when it came out. As well with games we would do the same thing. Trade them in for different ones at a local video game store. I normally got the same ones as always being the Spyro and Crash Bandicoots. They would be my top favorite and occasional other story games also too. My brother would trade them in for the newest resident evil games. I liked watching him play but even that gave me nightmares so I never played them myself. And he would always get the newest Super Mario or Mario Sunshine Games as well too.

As I got older and was in collage I jumped on the guitar hero bandwagon. I loved playing them in my dorm with my friends however it was always a joke and good time. Though my ex who was an absolute piece of garbage would smash them and replace them when he was mad at me. Thankfully he is out of my life since I was 20 and I have my current boyfriend of 10+ years who appreciates gaming as well too.

When my currently boyfriend and I first got together I did a bit of dabbling in call of duty on his ps3? Or maybe ps4? I’m not entirely sure I am nearly positive it was the play station 3, but I did play a bit due to not working a whole lot and when I stayed at his house he would be at work and I would have nothing to do. This was short lived because I eventually got a second job and had nearly no time left for anything let alone gaming.

Fast forward to when my boyfriend started playing Rainbow Six Siege. He was playing with someone who would be streaming. I was not really back into gaming however I did download a game on my laptop called Stardew Valley. It was such a fun game and reminded me of Harvest Moon from way back when I was a child. The more I watched him play Rainbow Six on his computer the more I thought that I could do that. Since he was on the PC I wanted to play but decided to start on the PS4. I found a few people from his friends stream who also played on console. And here we are today. I barely game on my (his) PS4 and I have my own computer. I did use his old potato after he upgraded but that was short lived due to it being so old and slow.

Now as of today, I would say I am a semi regular streamer streaming 3 days a week and trying to grow my community to include people from all around the globe. I know the impact and friendships that I have made streaming are some of the closest people I am in contact with today. So much so I probably talk to them more than my own family at times. The bond we have and the way you can disconnect from reality when gaming is incredible.

That being said, As silly as I thought it was when I was a child. I will more than likely limit screen time with my own children. There is nothing wrong with gaming or having some time on the screen however I do believe that an hour or two can quickly turn in to too many and then it becomes an addiction and a root of a lot of fights. I seen that with folks who had children far before I did. Sometimes it can be hard growing up with so much technology to remember that when I was a 90s kid there really was not a whole lot of technology around we had to essentially make our own fun!

What consoles did you have if any growing up?
What is your all time favorite video game?

Let me know in the comments below and I cannot wait to hear all about them!

  • Stacey

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Should you be a content creator?

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Since the beginning of Covid it seems like there has been a lot of people who want to try out the world of streaming and online content creation. With people being laid off and losing their jobs due to work places preventing them from working to help break the spread people think content creation is easy and the way to go. Here is a few things you might want to ask yourself before you begin. They might not be easy questions and some of the answers might be hard to hear but still they need to be asked regardless.

One huge question you should ask yourself is Why? Why do you want to start online content creation? Is it because you want to get rich quick (Which let’s face it, will not happen fast and there will be more about that later!) Or because you want to make a bigger impact on the world or even an impact as an influencer too.

What type of influencer or content creator would you like to be is one of the most valid questions you should ask yourself. Do you want to be a different person and create a persona or would you like to be genuine and yourself? Not to mention, Where do you want to produce content too, Youtube, Twitch or Facebook? Do you want to grow on Instagram or Twitter? When I first started streaming, I could have told you that I wanted to be a partnered streamer and see how that realm of creation works. Now, I would tell you I want to be a successful writer and blogger with streaming on the side as well.

There are many different skills or qualities you need in order to be successful in creating content for the world direct on the web. Some generic answers for this would be you should have some type of a sense of humor and charismatic personality. You also should understand the space you are trying to break into. And a huge if not one of the most important qualities would be to understand that this is the internet and there will be people who do not like you. They will troll you and direct hate towards you for many reasons. How you handle this can ultimately decide your happiness. People will hate or be rude towards you for anything from your appearance or even sound of your voice or way you put out videos or blogs or photos too. Ignore them. Having haters is typically a sign that you are doing well!

Doing some research and finding a niche will ultimately be a challenge for anyone. For example: If you are looking to become a streamer and want to play the game with the most viewers on Twitch chances are you will find a really tough time breaking in unless you are a pro player and absolute god in the game. Another would be if you want to be a blogger and if you don’t research. I stared this blog on Streaming and without thinking, streamers probably are more likely to watch a YouTube video instead of reading a blog about it. Switched to Lifestyle/Parenting/etc and my blog seems to be slowly flourishing when I should have did a bit more research into it. I also had no idea the importance of pinterest in blogging and growth either and that was a whole year wasted (Not really since I did learn more!) that I should have been pinning and helping drive traffic here. I also didn’t use any tags either which didn’t do me any favors.

Here is the question everyone is asking and probably thinking it is easy to get. Will I make money at creating content? The short answer is No, Not right away. Nothing is quick and it will take you a long time to grow your brand and make people want to tip you or support your content. You are going to have to do a lot to influence folks to want to give you money for whatever reasons. Do you provide a product? Do you provide a service? Entertainment? Or whatever else there might be. I have been streaming for nearly four? or three? (Honestly it feels like ages!) years and right now currently I am making about 25$ per month. That is legit all. And with Twitch you only get paid every time you hid the 100$ threshold. That means I essentially don’t even get a “pay check” every month from them. That is another reason why I wanted to focus a bit more on blogging. Streaming is such a give give give way of making money and the reality is the money you make is never a for sure thing either. You could totally make a modest month worth of cash and the next month make next to nothing. I feel like long term blogging could be the way to make a regular income once I get it grown to where I feel I am able to search the financial side of it though. Just like any job, content creation on whatever platform is not easy. Overnight success is not easy and chances are you will be working hard for a long time for little to no money before you can say that you “made it”.

So before you dive in, Ask yourself if creating content online is right for you. And before you take the plunge into trying to make a living out of this I would recommend NOT quitting your day job. So many people in the time I have been around on twitch along have been trying to make it big just by streaming full time hours. If you want to be successful put content to different platforms and bring others towards different avenues you have created. But NEVER put your own family or livelihood at risk because you think you can make full time hours online. Truth be told, The people I have seen stop and try to stream full time and be successful, are no longer streaming at all anymore.

Have you ever thought about creating content online?
What spots have you wanted to produce content?
Do you have any tips you would like to share with folks too?

Let me know in the comments below!

– Stacey

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YouTube Adventure.. Send Help!

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YouTube can be stressful. From thumbnails to clips to help promote your video on twitter, editing, recording, etc. For someone like me I felt it was something I would hold off on. Though I know that to grow on twitch you have to plant the content seeds on other platforms to drive traffic to your channel. I’m slowly figuring out with the help of some reading and thing from a streamer AshnieChrist that it is important to go into! Here is my thought process to taking this plunge.

What do I make videos of?
I have a 6 month old so something easy would be great. I wanted to start with 2 types of videos. One more of a help or thoughts focused on streaming where I take blogs I have written here and bring them to video in a series I’d like to call “Backseat Blogger” Things I have learned or things that I have thought about the industry. I will be going more into games once I start doing more gaming or dead by daylight blogs. That will be one type of video. The next type of video will be something I like to call “baked beauty” where I smoke weed and do funny makeup videos and things while baked. Thirdly I was thinking about doing a video when I have enough clips a series in Dead by Daylight where I am jump scared multiple times, this is more of a “when available” basis because I need to have enough clips per killer to make that. Plus the occasional fun games like no headsets which can be used on my channel for redeeming channel points.

When do I want to upload?
I want to upload at least 2x per week Mondays will be my backseat blogger videos. And then the “Baked Beauty” will be coming out on “Fr-HIGH-days hahaha.. see what I did there. Then the dead by daylight content will be out on Wednesdays when Available. Same with compilations for The Society, they will be once a month as well when enough clips get put in discord.

When do I record?
The Backseat blogger ones are easier in a sense. As soon as my son has a nap I can hit record and have a blog turned video entry ready to be edited. That is the simple part of recording. However what I did last time was I recorded about 4 videos in the span of an hour or so one evening and then I have them ready to be edited which I can do on the fly when I am free of housework or when the little fella is sleeping for a nap. Baked Beauty I normally record on Fridays or Thursdays or even Saturday night after my son went to bed because I am able to have puff. Before there are judging eyes since I am a parent there is one person sober in the house (My Boyfriend) who is able to take care of things if things happened. Those are harder to edit because I am hilarious and I don’t know what to cut haha.

How the heck do I edit?
Slowly. I edit slowly. I have never edited videos IN MY LIFE! Seriously, NEVER! I use a program called Divinci Resolve. It is a free software with a paid version as well and I edit them on that. It is a lot to learn from someone like me but with the help of YouTube tutorials I am able to do a quick search with a step by step process on how to do what I want. I typically also edit when my son is sleeping. And as I do more videos it is getting a bit quicker or I will be editing during Community Hangouts on Thursdays as a bit of downtime to connect with other society members!

What is the hardest parts so far?
I would say editing and recording. I knew that I wanted to be fully prepped for when I started youtube. One of the hardest things I think in any content creation is having the ability to plan and schedule things while being consistent. No one really follows someone who has never posted or when they do it is all over the place and not consistent. My boyfriend and I used to watch someone named Ray William Johnson, He had a show called Equals 3 when he would go through a few youtube videos per week or every other day or whatever. We watched him religiously. Then he stopped. Just like that. And we never looked back. Unless you can be consistent you cannot or will not see growth in my opinion. I think I have a pretty good handle on this to be able to do it properly AND even maybe bank some youtube videos so that I am able to have some relief. I dont want to spend a lot of time editing and recording and things but with the plan I have in place it seems to be going well.


Before I finish I will say this, AshniChrist (I know I talk about her a lot!) recently has had a YouTube FREE training session in her discord. She has VOD links and a few other things in there. I will be adding the link here so you can feel free to check it out. She is even offering a course in how to do YouTube better. She basically solidified that I am on the right path for my plan for YouTube. If I didn’t have a son and was regularly working I would be probably signing up for the course but due to limited funds I just am not in the financial position to do so. Discord here: https://discord.com/invite/ashnichrist

When it comes to investing in education to make yourself set up for success or learning new things about an industry that you love, DO IT! If you are financially able to of course, You would if you were trying to become a doctor or nurse, the same applies for content creation too!

Happy Creating and Good Luck! (Myself included!)

-StaySee xo