Many streamers, especially gamers, make money on Twitch by teaming up with brands and adding affiliate links for viewers to make a purchase with a discount. Typically, this means promoting headsets, cameras, gaming chairs, or other equipment during your stream.
Find out how to Start Affiliate Marketing in 5 Steps.
This partnership is different from Twitch’s partner and affiliate program—you don’t need to be a Twitch partner to start promoting products with affiliate links. Check out affiliate marketing platforms like Rakuten and Shareasale to connect with your favorite brands and build relevant brand partnerships. You can also become a Printful affiliate partner and get 10% from every order made by customers you refer.
Get Started with the Amazon Associates Program
The Amazon Associates program is another way to earn referral revenue by linking specific products from Amazon to your page. As a streamer, you receive a commission for any purchases your viewers make on Amazon when they use your links.
Try creating an Amazon wish list to share the gear you use for your stream setup (lighting, camera, mic), or gather a list of all your favorite video games. To make it easier for your audience to purchase the products you promote, you can even add custom clickable buttons.
Source: Twitch
5. Collaborate with brands
Here’s the thing: you don’t have to be a top-tier content creator to start brand collaborations. Recently, brands have been eyeing micro-influencers to get their products in front of the right people. This is especially true when it comes to capturing the attention of younger consumers who are dedicated to the platform. When you’re loyal to a streamer, you usually trust their recommendations.
Promoting a brand
There are tons of different ways you can collaborate with brands apart from offering product discounts. You can earn by hosting unboxing streams, giveaways, or brand shout-outs. You can also use product placements and announce new product launches. Typically, brands will have a promotion format in mind, but that still leaves room for creativity on your streams and socials.
Source: FrancisGotHeat / Twitter
Sponsorships
If you have a large following, getting a brand sponsorship can bring in big revenue. You can earn anywhere from $1,000 to $10,000 per hour if you have an average of 10,000 viewers. Sponsorships can also get you good deals for live appearances. But before agreeing to a brand sponsorship, be sure it’s the right fit for your brand and resonates with your audience.
6. Become a Twitch affiliate
Once you have an established audience, you can join the Twitch Affiliate program and unlock monetization features for your streams.
How to become a Twitch affiliate
To qualify for the Twitch Affiliate program, you need to:
- reach 50 followers
- stream for 8 hours
- stream on 7 different days
- reach an average of 3 viewers per stream
Once your Twitch channel becomes eligible, you’ll receive an invitation via email and a notification on your Twitch dashboard to start monetizing your channel. This automatically adds a subscribe option to your channel. Subscriptions are different from follows—anyone can become a follower for free, but subscriptions are a paid feature.
Subscriptions and Twitch bits
Subscriptions allow viewers to pay a monthly fee to support your channel on a recurring basis. There are three Twitch subscription tiers available: $4.99, $9.99, and $24.99 per month. Twitch affiliates earn 50% of the share, while the other 50% go to Twitch. Subscribers get access to custom emotes, exclusive chat rooms, subscriber badges, and other benefits you can add.
Source: Kitboga / Twitch
Twitch affiliates can also earn money through Twitch bits which act as micro-donations. You receive $0.01 for every bit used to cheer in the chat.
Twitch bits give viewers perks like voting in polls, using animated emoticons (Cheermotes), or getting recognition. You can display a list of the top weekly or monthly cheerers on your channel to recognize your top supporters.
Source: Twitch
Run ads
Affiliates can also earn money by running ads. As your viewership increases, advertising revenue from Twitch ads will go up as well. Ad breaks can be between 30 seconds and three minutes long, and the income depends on how many viewers see the ad—the bigger the audience, the more you earn. You’ll need to run at least 3 minutes of ads per hour to unlock 55% net ad revenue share according to the Ads Incentive Program.
7. Become a Twitch Partner
Twitch streamers who’ve been affiliates for some time and have grown a bigger audience should consider getting the Twitch partner status. The Twitch Partnership program provides access to more tools like subscriber streams, custom cheermotes, stream delays, etc. Getting to partner status is a sign that you’ve grown your viewership to a point where you can make a living from live streaming on Twitch.
How to become a Twitch Partner
To qualify for the Twitch Partnership program you need to demonstrate a large, engaged following and complete the Path to Partner achievements. You can apply once you have:
- streamed for 25 hours
- streamed on 12 different days
- an average of 75 viewers at the same time
These achievements apply for a 30-day period. Nevertheless, becoming eligible does not guarantee Partner status and is invitation-only.
Subscription revenue and ads
Twitch partners with a large following can expect subscriptions to make up most of their revenue. The more subscribers you have, the bigger the revenue. And with Twitch’s new Partner Plus program, partners get to keep up to 70% of the net subscription revenue.
Your viewer count also affects how much you can earn from ads—the more viewers see your ads, the higher your revenue.
Partner-only opportunities
Twitch Partners sign exclusivity agreements with the platform. In turn, they enjoy access to partner-only promotional opportunities like Partners Spotlights and Panels, Meet & Greets with fans, Streamer Zones, and lots more. These are fun ways to interact with your audience off-stream and can help secure endorsement deals and better brand sponsorships.
8. Post your Twitch content on YouTube
Many streamers take advantage of multistreaming, which allows streaming on multiple platforms at the same time. Posting your live content both on Twitch and your YouTube channel ensures you can reach a wider audience and offers another way of monetizing your stream. Alternatively, you can share highlights and post-stream clips on YouTube for those who missed the live stream on Twitch.
Ad revenue perks
Many Twitch streamers also choose to post on YouTube to earn money through video ads. Running ads on your YouTube videos can significantly boost your earnings, as YouTube offers a default 70/30 ad revenue split in favor of creators. In contrast, Twitch starts out at a 50/50 split, and increases to 70/30 only for the top-tier streamers.
Learn More: How to Make Money on YouTube with a Small Channel
How to build an audience on Twitch
If you’re just getting started, it can take some time to figure out how to make money on Twitch. So it’s important to not lose sight of what will help you get there—growing your audience.
The first thing you should understand is that teenagers and young adults (16–34 year olds) make up the core audience of Twitch users. Young people are spending increasingly more time socializing online than offline. Twitch serves as a social entertainment space that offers distractions from the real world and helps interact with others. Knowing who is tuning in and why can help you anticipate what your viewers are looking for.
Once you know your audience, it’s important to start building a community. The first step is connecting with like-minded people who’ll enjoy your live streams and be fun to hang around when you’re streaming. That way, you’re creating a welcoming vibe for viewers, and they’ll want to join again.
Community building is a two-way conversation
Interaction is key. Popular streamers are good entertainers whose commentary and conversation with viewers keep it fun. To keep the interaction flowing, monitor the chat, do shoutouts during the stream, respond to requests, ask questions, and listen to feedback.
Your viewers sometimes will be content creators themselves so engage with other channels, especially smaller streamers in a similar niche. Be active on Twitch chat and on other social media channels to maintain a presence.
Be consistent
Have a set schedule of upload times for your Twitch streams that viewers can rely on and build their day around. Find times that work for you (late evening, lunchtime, etc.) so you’re more likely to follow the schedule. Let people know about your schedule—post it on your stream and social media accounts. Twitch’s Schedule tool is a handy way to remind viewers when they can see you live, set a reminder, and be notified once you’re online.
Growth factor
You have to be ready to constantly improve, be it a better quality video setup or increased streaming time. Think of the added value you bring to your viewers that makes them come back and tune in. Is it the content, the high-quality audio or video, your skill in a game, or the way you interact with viewers? Carve out your niche and you’ll be in a good position to build a high-value stream that encourages viewers to keep returning to your channel.
Personal branding
Your brand should be unique, relate to your content, and convey something you’re passionate about. Is your channel about a specific game? Are you all about the color yellow? Do you have a character in mind that you want to build your channel around? Picking just one thing will help you create an original brand and make you stand out.
Having a thing you’re known for can also help you create personalized merch. For example, the streamer Disguised Toast sells a limited edition plushie that looks like toast. Even selling just a single product that’s both fun and relates to your personal brand can become an instant success with your fans.
Source: Disguised Toast
If you’re curious about selling your own merchandize, it’s easy to set up an online store and use an on-demand service like Printful to take care of production.
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