So, you’ve built up your Twitch channel and now have a decent following of loyal viewers.Great work! Now it’s time to start making some money from all your effort and entertainment. Monetizing your Twitch channel isn’t too complicated, but it does require activating some options and promoting your channel in the right ways.
With a few tweaks, you’ll be earning revenue from your channel in no time and can put those funds towards better streaming equipment, gaming gear, or whatever else will improve your channel. This guide will walk you through the key ways to monetize your Twitch channel, from activating ads and subscriptions to promoting channel extensions and building sponsorships. Follow these steps and your hobby can become your business. Let’s get started!
Become a Twitch Affiliate or Partner
To make money on Twitch, you’ve got to become an Affiliate or Partner. As an Affiliate, you can start earning revenue from subscriptions and bits. Partners get access to more monetization options like ad revenue sharing and sponsorships.
To become an Affiliate, you need at least 50 followers, stream for 8 hours in the last 30 days, stream on 7 different days in the last 30 days, and have an average of 3 or more concurrent viewers over the last 30 days. Once you meet the requirements, you can apply for the Affiliate program in your Twitch settings. In case you don’t have enough followers to meet up with the requirement, you can quickly buy some at good rates from Streamoz. They are trusted and reliable.
Partnership is more challenging to achieve and may take 6-18 months of consistent streaming to be accepted. You’ll need at least 75 average concurrent viewers, stream on 12 unique days in the last 30 days, and have at least 25,000 followers. Twitch will review your channel for quality and content before approving you.
As an Affiliate or Partner, activate channel subscriptions so viewers can subscribe for $4.99/month. You’ll earn 50% of the subscription revenue. Viewers can also donate “bits” which convert to real money. Cheer on your viewers’ bits to increase excitement and boost donations.
Also, stream for long hours, at least 4-6 hours at a time and 3-5 days a week. Promote your stream on other social media channels like YouTube, Twitter, and Discord. Engage with your viewers by chatting, answering questions and playing with subscribers.
Enable Channel Subscriptions
Enabling channel subscriptions is one of the best ways to start making money from your Twitch channel. Once you become an Affiliate, your viewers will have the option to subscribe to your channel for $4.99 a month. You’ll earn 50% of that subscription fee.
When your application is approved, a subscribe button will appear on your channel. Your subscribers, or ‘subs’, will get special loyalty badges next to their name in chat so everyone knows they support you. They’ll also get access to your custom emotes to use channel-wide and in other channels.
As your sub numbers grow, so will your monthly payout. Say you have 25 subs one month – that would earn you around $125 extra that month (25 subs x $4.99 x 50% cut). Not too shabby! The key is to offer your viewers added value for their subscription and build a tight-knit community. Engage with your subs, play games with them, and they’ll keep coming back.
Sell Custom Cheermotes and Badges
Once you’ve built up an audience, it’s time to start making money from your Twitch channel. One of the best ways is by offering custom cheermotes and badges that your viewers can purchase.
Cheermotes
Cheermotes are custom emoticons that viewers can use in your channel’s chat to express themselves. As a streamer, you can design sets of cheermotes that viewers can unlock by “cheering” Bits—Twitch’s virtual good. The more Bits someone cheers, the more cheermotes they unlock.
Badges
Badges are icons that appear next to a viewer’s name in your channel’s chat, and signify different contribution levels or lengths of time following. Viewers unlock badges by subscribing to your channel for a certain number of months.
Run Ads on Your Channel
Running ads on your Twitch channel is an easy way to start making money from your streaming. Twitch offers an ad program that allows you to run ads on your channel and earn a portion of the ad revenue.
Enable Ads on Your Channel
To run ads, you’ll first need to enable the Twitch Ads program on your channel. Go to your Dashboard, select Channel Settings, then select Revenue from the left menu. Toggle the “Enable Ads” option to on. You must be an Affiliate to run ads on your channel.
Once enabled, you’ll have the option to run ads manually or enable the “Pre-Roll Ads” feature which will automatically play ads when new viewers first join your stream. You get to keep 50% of the ad revenue for ads run on your channel. The more viewers and the longer they watch, the more you can earn from ads.
Choose Ad Frequency
You can select how often ads run on your channel to find the right balance for your viewers. Run them too often and your viewers may get annoyed. Run them too little and you won’t earn as much revenue. Most streamers find running an ad break every 30 minutes to an hour to be a good place to start. See how your viewers respond and make changes as needed.
Promote Your Ads
Let your viewers know when ad breaks are coming up so they’re not caught off guard. Say something like “We’ll take a quick ad break, don’t go anywhere!” or “Time for a message from our sponsors!” A little warning can help keep people watching. You should also promote the fact that ads directly support you as a streamer. Your viewers will understand that by watching the ads, they’re helping you continue creating content.
Conclusion
So there you have it, a few easy ways to start making money from your Twitch channel. Don’t get discouraged if the money doesn’t start rolling in overnight. Building an audience and monetizing a Twitch channel, like anything worthwhile, takes time and consistency. Start implementing a few of these strategies, engage with your viewers, keep improving your content and streaming skills, and stay passionate about what you’re creating. If you do that, the money will follow. But even if it doesn’t, you’ll be spending your time doing something you genuinely care about, and connecting with people who share your interests. That’s a reward in itself. Keep at it and good luck! The gaming world needs more independent creators like you.
