How to Make Money on Twitch

Explore the Different Ways to Make Money on Twitch

Making Money on Twitch Through Viewer Donations, Bits, and Cryptocurrency

A large group of streamers make money fully supported by a streamer’s fanbase. Some viewers find joy in supporting creators and the creator’s content. Other viewers just want be a part of something bigger than themselves. By sharing and bringing out your story on stream you may be able to make a sizeable income from Twitch donations on stream.

How to setup donations on Twitch?

Streamers can setup donations via twitch donation alert apps and Paypal links. Donations generally come from Twitch viewers who are huge fans of the content streamers produce. If you want more info on how to setup donations then checkout this Livewire article.

What are the best type of donations on Twitch?

Viewers can donate using money, bits, or even cryptocurrency. Setting up money donations through various platforms is an easy way to open donations from viewers. Twitch promotes using bits or cheers to give money to streamers. That is because Twitch makes a sizeable cut of the profits at the moment when a viewer is buying bits. Bit donations are also generally safer than other forms of donations. To earn bits a viewer must reach Twitch Affiliate status in order to receive bits on his or her channel. Becoming an affiliate is a very simple process. Chargeback on Paypal can sometimes cause unwanted fees for the streamers. Allowing viewers to donate using cryptocurrencies can prevent users from doing unnecessary chargebacks. Cryptocurrency valuations are very volities. Sometimes the value of digital coins may decrease as time goes on. The best type of donation for you is generally the method that is easiest for your viewers to pay you for doing good work.

How to add extra flair to Twitch donations?

Twitch donations can be enhanced to be more fun and recognizable. There are even voice tools that let viewers donate money to play a voice message on stream. It is easy to set up donation alerts through your favorite streaming platforms such as Streamlabs OBS, Stream Elements, and Xlink. If you want to allow viewers to choose customizable sound alerts on demand to play on stream, Blerp for Twitch may be a great tool for adding that type of engagement into your stream.

How much do twitch streamers make from donations?

Twitch donations can be a very unpredictable way to make money. There have been reports of streamers getting single donations of over 100 thousand dollars. More average tips range within the 1 to 5 dollar range. Tipping on Twitch has been growing at a rate of 30% per quarter according to post release on Streamlabs OBS’s Blog. There were over 150,000 monetized Twitch channels making over a dollar in tips from the first quarter of 2018. That is almost 50,000 streamers more than every quarter in 2017. According to Streamlabs about 6000 streamers are making at least 1 grand per quarter in 2018.

Tips for earning more donations on Twitch

Do not beg for money. Twitch viewers want to give you support because they enjoy your presence and want to help you out. If you get donations based on people feeling bad for you then the support will only go so far.

Implement easy ways for viewers to donate to your stream. Not every viewer uses Venmo. Not every viewer likes to use an obscure brandless site. Find ways to make the donation easier to work using a more trustworthy platform.

Get better at sharing your story and learn how to showcase what makes you unique. Find and focus on a niche video game so that you have a higher chance of standing out.

Making Money on Twitch Through Sponsorships, Paid Streams, Product Placements, and Sponsored Swag

Twitch streamers that start to build followings on Twitch can start to make money from being sponsored by other entities. There are many companies looking to market their products through the Live streaming space. Twitch streamers who hold strong brands are perfect target for product sponsorship because viewers may generally look up to what a streamer says about a certain product. Video Game companies may also want to market their game by sending twitch streamers free keys and in game items. Big charity groups are also known to reach out to streamers for help in raising money.

How much money can you make through sponsorships?

Streamers have reported to make as low as one cent per viewer to as high as one dollar per viewer per hour. That means some streamers with 10,000 concurrent viewers are making 10,000 dollars per hour. Average sponsorship sizes can range from a 10 dollar gift card to your favorite Fast Food restaurant to a half million dollar contract. Companies may even send you free items in order to get a product placement in a stream for the item. The amount of engagement on your stream will heavily determine the type of sponsorships you get.

How do you find sponsorship for your Twitch Stream?

Work hard to build a strong brand and following for your channel. Even having a channel with a thousand highly engaged followers may put you in a good spot to attract companies. The higher the engagement numbers you can present to companies the more interested companies will be in working with you. Don’t be afraid to reach out to companies earlier. There is a strong growing market for micro influencers. Because of the micro influencer movement, smaller streamers are finding ways to work with companies to make money.

Read your email. We see companies constantly send opportunities to streamers but streamers don’t always reply to their email. Sometimes finding the right opportunity could mean being responsive in communication.

Don’t be afraid to say no. Some companies may not be a good fit for your brand or may not be offering a good partnership. Stay true to your values and only work with companies that treat you fairly.

Find your niche and make a name for yourself in that niche. A streamer who has created a fanbase around streaming indie video games may have a higher chance of finding a sponsorship from an indie studio trying to promote their next game. It would be a wise idea for that same streamer to create a website and blog about relevant indie game news or present powerful reviews on the games. Finding a niche and making a presence in that niche can go a long way in finding great companies who are willing to sponsor you.

Making Money from Twitch Subscribers

Twitch has created a method for viewers to subscribe to a Twitch streamer’s channel. Viewers who subscribe to your channel will receive an ad free experience and access to your emotes. Emotes are fun art images that viewers can post in chat. Emotes are linked specifically for your channel. You can personally design cool emotes to better incentivise viewers to subscribe to your channel. In order to receive viewer subscriptions you will have to reach Affiliate status on the Twitch platform.

How much can you make through subscriptions?

A Twitch viewer who enjoys watching the content of a streamer can subscriber to a Twitch channel for a minimum of 5 dollars per month. Amazon takes 50% of the revenue from your subscriptions. Medium sized Twitch streamers with thousands of followers generally have a couple hundred subscribers. A streamer with 500 subscribers would be making 1250$ per month from Twitch Subscriptions. Larger streamers such as Ninja, who has over 130,000 thousand subscribers, are making about 500 thousand dollars per month from Twitch Subscribers.

Tips for increasing subscribers?

Do everything you can to show appreciation to your subscribers for the extra support. Try hard not to isolate or neglect your regular viewers as well. Your ability to have high viewer retention with your current viewers will be vital in attracting new viewers to your channel. A viewer who isn’t subscribed to your channel might attract someone else who has the capital to support you.

Setting up unique alerts that trigger on stream when someone subscribes to your channel is a vital step to show people that you appreciate the subscription. You can also give your subscribers access to private social and messaging channels. Some streamers will host subscriber only events. Twitch most recently launched subscriber only streams.

If you want to further incentivise your subscribers in a really unique way you can try our Walk On Blerp Twitch Extension. Walk on enables your subscribers to set personal walk on alerts as they join your stream!

Making money from ads or affiliate links

Advertising is a simple way for Twitch streamers to make money. A Twitch streamer can build up a viewer following for his or her channel and use that traffic to generate advertising revenue. Advertising is a viable market for Twitch streamers to make money because companies want to use streamers to increase visibility for their products.

What types of ads make money on Twitch?

On Twitch, streamers can make money from traditional ads played on the platform or thorough non traditional ads and banners placed over or under a Twitch Stream. In order to make advertising money from the ads run on twitch videos your channel must reach Twitch Partnership status. Twitch gives partnered streamers the ability to choose the frequency and length of advertisements in your Broadcast Dashboard. Advertising revenue from Twitch is generated by visitors to your channel viewing or clicking on ads. You will get paid according to Cost Per Mile model meaning price will be calculated based on per thousand views on the ad.

You can also make money on Twitch through non traditional ads where companies will offer to pay streamers for placing the companies ads on the Twitch Streamers channel. This can be in the form of affiliate links or image ads. Twitch streamers can work out deals with a company where they pay the streamer based on per click or per impression. Twitch streamers can also make money by putting a companies ad as a Twitch overlays over their streams. Companies can pay per stream or per hour on the presentation of the overlays.

How much money can you make from advertising?

Medium sized partnered streamer have reported to be making about 60-100 dollars per 10 viewers each year. These same streamers have said they are streaming about 6 hours per day in order to get that rate. The top streamers on Twitch have reported to be making over 500 thousand dollars from just Ad revenue. Here is more info on how the top ten streamers on Twitch are making their money.

Extra Tips on earning more income from Ads

Don't have your ads and donation buttons be the only items that exists at the bottom of your stream. Personalize your channel to include information about you and your stream. Don't have your overlay ads cover your entire stream. It can be a big turn off for viewers who come onto your stream just to see a lot of ads.

Making money from ads or affiliate links

Selling Twitch merchandise can be a basic way for a Twitch streamer to jumpstart selling a product from their Twitch Brand. Twitch merchandise can include common item’s with a Twitch streamer’s logo or even wearable items with community related designs.

How do I get started selling merchandise?

There are many places to quickly sell merchandise. If you don’t care about the cost of margins you can use platforms such as Streamlabs Merch to quickly get your merchandise out to your viewers. However, you can save money by buying merchandise in bulk from custom t shirt or swag sites. My recommendation would be to get designs for the merchandise you want to sell and get a gauge on demand from your viewers before bulk ordering. By ordering bulk you can make far more per shirt especially when compared to using a site that does the shipping, designs, and orders for you. The downside to this method is that you will have to do the mailing and orders yourself.

How to increase the success of selling Twitch Merchandise?

The best Twitch products come from organic interactions and jokes from the community. Help your community remember the funny sayings and moments that happen on stream. Keep a list of all the popular moments and recurring jokes that happen on yoru stream. Use that list of memorable moments to brainstorm funny shirts and swag to sell for your stream. Make sure to build your brand into something authentic that people care about. Remember that a brand is centered on how your viewers perceive you. If you are a likeable person your viewers will be more likely to support your side businesses.

As the video game industry continues to grow, more and more people are making money from playing games. Learn how you can make money too from playing video games!

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