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7 ways to earn money as a streamer on Twitch

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7 Ways to Make Money as a Streamer on Twitch

Like many other successful streamers, you probably want to capitalize on Twitch. However, you should not limit yourself to only one way of going about it and explore some new opportunities. The number of people watching others play video games on Twitch is continuously growing. More than 3 million streamers are sharing their gameplays online to attract an audience and build up followers. Many of them use different services to help them grow, such as the sites where you can purchase Twitch viewers listed on The Small Business Blog. 

To save you time and effort, we’ve come up with seven tips for earning money on Twitch. Here they are:

  1. Being a Twitch partner
  2. Earning cash through subscriptions
  3. Donations and Bit Cheers
  4. Affiliate Marketing
  5. Merch
  6. Uploading streams to YouTube
  7. Sponsoring

1. Twitch Partner

In theory, anyone can become a Twitch partner and earn money. The only prerequisite for this is a certain level of awareness of your stream and that you do not violate user guidelines. To meet Twitch requirements, you should do the following:

  • Make sure that you have at least a hundred regular viewers
  • Stream regularly, at least three times a week
  • Join Twitch as a partner so you can start earning money

If Twitch considers you a promising partner in terms of profitability, they will advertise on your channel. You get two to five dollars per thousand views. About four advertising blocks can be active per hour. If you have ten thousand viewers, your profit will grow exponentially.

2. Subscriptions

If you’re a partner, you can also benefit from paid subscriptions. Twitch retains 50% of the subscription fee. At a price of $5, you will get to keep $2.50.

To make or keep your viewers interested, you can provide them with some bonuses. Grant them certain rights in the chat or give them exclusive invitations to community events. Fans are willing to pay a lot of money to be closer to their idol. Use it.

3. Donations

Donations on Twitch can be up to five-figure numbers. And if the community sees the progress of the channel thanks to donations, they are more willing to increase donations in numbers and sizes.

Let’s go back to the fundamentals for a second. You market yourself or the character you play for. Let your donation comments be read out loud automatically and respond to your viewers in a way that they expect from your persona — be it joy, anger, gratitude or whatever else. Provide them with what they want, and they’ll give you their money in return. This is simple stuff, but sometimes we forget the basics and try to run before we can walk. 

4. Affiliate Marketing

This method is as old as time, but why break something that works? Advertise some products, like toys, maybe riding toys for toddlers, and so forth, and put a referral link in your channel’s description. The fastest and safest way in this respect is Amazon’s affiliate program.

However, be careful not to advertise too much or doing it blatantly. Subscribers don’t appreciate frequent head-on commercials. 

There are also MMOGA or G2A sites which offer options like these, too. 

5. Selling Merchandise

You can earn money by selling merch, like t-shirts, sweaters or sweatshirts with your logo or slogans. Everybody is selling signature products because it is a great way to give back to fans and make some money doing it. Here’s what you’ll need:

  1. If you have not done so already, add a logo to your Twitch channel. You can come up with the design yourself or have somebody create it for you.
  2. Think about what fascinates your viewers. What makes them follow your channel? These are the things that you can include in the design of your merchandise. 
  3. The last thing you should do is set up a shop. Just sign up, upload your designs and add them to your store. Put the link to the shop in your channel’s description and plug your merch during streams.

6. Upload Streams to YouTube

Even if you do not stream on YouTube, it’s still worth uploading your videos there. With YouTube advertising, you can choose different approaches, such as:

  1. Upload your streams unedited. That requires minimum effort on your part and lets you include a fairly large number of ads.
  2. Highlight the best moments in a stream and select titles that will drive viewers to watch your video: Funniest Moments, Most Blatant Kills, Longest Shots, etc. Be creative and use superlatives. That works best.
  3. Use YouTube to make announcements or promote products.

You should refer to your Twitch streams on your YouTube channel, to keep your endeavor tied in with all the different mediums.

7. Sponsorship

You can make a lot of money if you find the right sponsor. In most cases, sponsors will find you. Promote products in your streams and get paid for them. This method has the advantage of not depending on actual sales and receiving money directly.

If you use this way of advertising, you should note your stream accordingly. For example, you can mention that this content has product placement in it in the description of your video or a stream.

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Emma Drew

Emma has spent over 15 years sharing her expertise in making and saving money, inspiring thousands to take control of their finances. After paying off £15,000 in credit card debt, she turned her side hustles into a full-time career in 2015. Her award-winning blog, recognized as the UK's best money-making blog for three years, has made her a trusted voice, with features on BBC TV, BBC radio, and more.

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