Need Help Badly

[Cody Dyal]

Greetings,
This will most likely be one of the weirdest forum posts you're gonna read in a while but.. My wife is pregnant (10 weeks) and i'm disabled (still waiting on the long process of getting approved for disability) , her job doesn't even bring in enough income to provide for ourselves and we are constantly in debt just trying to keep a roof over our head.. i have to do something to fix this before i bring a child into this world. I know its a longshot but i think if i were to become a streamer, i could be successful, with some help from my friends of course. I'm incredibly lucky i can even play half the games i do with the system im currently using (single core amd athlon 2.4ghz, 4 gigs ram, radeon 4550. There is no way i could ever stream with this machine. I want to finish going back to school, stream, and hopefully find a work from home job... does anyone know of any charities or organizations.. or ANYthing that could possibly help me?

 

[ssddx]

since money is the first and foremost issue:

are there any jobs in the area that you could do? i'm not going to ask about your disability however there are many low end jobs such as walmart greeter or floor associate at lowes which could be done by someone in lets say a wheelchair. i've seen my fair share of people with various disabilities making ends meet by doing such jobs.

what about streaming?

streaming can definitely be a good source of income provided you are good at it and can generate a subscriber base. dont expect much though until you get popular (i should say if you get popular). i would suggest talking to people like markiplier on youtube since they are laid back individuals who might be inclined to give you some pointer tips. you might be able to get a few tips from people like pewdiepie, gotdrums, machinima though i'm not sure how receptive they would be to giving out advice.

i agree that your system isnt ideal at all for streaming however there may be options available. option one would be to use a game recorder box which you could use a splitter with. one lead goes to your monitor and the other goes to the recorder box. they tend to be a bit expensive but since your system is not capable of recording with fraps this might be the best route. a better option would be to upgrade your system to something just a bit newer. you might be able to get by on a core2duo based machine and if you watch auctions or look for some deals you might be able to put together a system for a rather low price.

from there i would try your hand at streaming. you dont need to play paid games (markiplier plays typically free indie games) but you do need to be entertaining (pretty much talking for most of the time) as well as having something which sets you apart from the other players. markiplier plays horror games so is constantly scared and he jumps, pewdiepie uses a really annoying voice and is rather idiotic, gotdrums is known for trolling with autotune in games, machinima is known for rather normal decent commentary. in essence you cannot be afraid to be yourself in front of the camera/microphone. you need to speak up and constantly give your take on the game, what you think, etcetera. you also need to be incredibly active. if just starting out you need to make many videos, listen to all advice, ask other successful youtubers to check your channel out (if they like you they may list you in their video), post video responses to videos (for instance post your "X game" walkthrough in response to their "X game" walkthrough)

you also need to build up quite a few videos to keep people entertained. you may be releasing a video a day or every two days so need to get used to it. many people like markiplier record then sit on the video for awhile that way they have a backlog of work they have done so they can just upload it at their leisure (they normally upload so many videos every few days so like to keep the number consistant). post on tech sites or gaming sites asking for advice on how you do.

as far as charities go:

sorry... none that i know of

you might be able to find some companies which act like the goodwill store but for computers. perhaps a way you can get some older (but still newer than what you have) hardware you can record with better.

 

[Cody Dyal]

ssddx,
i thank you for your response and i have considered all these possibilities, a kind friend has purchased me a dual core for my mobo, just waiting for him to receive it and send it my way. We both thought the same thing, its at least worth a try even if it doesn't work. As well as youtube i was going to run a twitch channel a few hours a day. I think i can handle the personality but only time will tell =)