In a recent post about Building an Author Platform Using Twitch Creative, I shared how self-published authors could make money as a Twitch Affiliate. How exactly does the Twitch Affiliate Program work? And, what can you expect with a Twitch Affiliate payout?
Today, I’ll cover those questions and more as I explain how to make money as a twitch affiliate. Stick around!
Welcome to Self Publishing with Dale where you’ll learn tips and strategies for publishing your own books. Have you checked out the Twitch Creative feature on Twitch.tv yet? And, are you thinking about breaking ground on the live video streaming platform of Twitch so you can make a little extra cash? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so give me a quick shout over at Twitch.tv/SelfPublish.
Twitch Creative: The Author’s Video Marketing Resource
Not too long ago, I shared on this channel how self-published authors could build their author platform through the live streaming platform, Twitch. But, I didn’t expand much on the topic and left a lot of questions unanswered. That’s why I thought I’d share more insight on how to make money as a Twitch affiliate.
What is the Twitch affiliate program? What are the Twitch Affiliate requirements? And, is the Twitch Affiliate setup easy to complete? In this post, I’ll have the Twitch Affiliate Program Explained and any other ambiguities ironed out.
Can You Simply Get Paid for Going Live on Twitch?
To be clear, anyone can set up a Twitch account and stream their creative process or gaming adventures. But, not everyone can become a Twitch affiliate. You should also note that a Twitch affiliate is only the first tier of earning revenue through the live streaming platform. Twitch also has a partner program, but that requires much more time, attention and energy than the Twitch affiliate program.
3 Ways to Get Paid as a Twitch Affiliate
Here are the three different ways you earn a Twitch Affiliate Payout:
1 Cheering with Bits
Viewers, followers, and subscribers of your channel have the ability to participate in your live streams and reward you with bits. Your viewers can get bits by watching and engaging in short ads on Twitch or purchasing a stockpile of bits through an Amazon-friendly checkout. Once they have bits, your viewers can use those bits to cheer you on or reward you for a job well done.
Twitch affiliates receive 1 cent per Bit used to Cheer in their channel and can track revenue from Bits on the Revenue tab of their Dashboard. For more details on how your viewers can get bits to cheer you in your live stream, check out the YouTube video How to Get Free Bits for Twitch Cheers by my brother Bionic Vapour. It’ll help you help your viewers cheer you. Head over to SelfPublishingWithDale.com/bits to see the full video.
2 Subscriptions
Viewers have a few options when it comes to how they watch your channel. Lurk, follow or subscribe. The first two options are all well and good, but it’s the latter option of subscribing that brings the greatest reward for both parties. Twitch Affiliates can offer exclusive incentives and perks for monthly subscribers. It can include special emoticons for chatting on Twitch, exclusive video broadcasts, subscriber only chats, and additional barrier removals.
A subscriber can opt in at three levels – $4.99 per month, $9.99 per month, and $24.99 per month. A cool perk of having an Amazon Prime account is the Twitch Prime feature where customers get free games, bonuses and a monthly subscription to their favorite streamer.
As a Twitch Affiliate, you are entitled to 50% of all subscriptions, so this means you can make $2.50, $5 or $12.50 per subscription model.
3 Sales Revenue
In the Twitch Affiliate dashboard, you can set up specific extensions that allow you to advertise games, gear, and products available on the Amazon marketplace. Any sales made through your link, you get up to 5% of the purchase price. Not bad, considering that if you use Amazon Associates affiliate links, you start with a 4% payout level.
How to Qualify for the Twitch Affiliate Program
Now that you know how to get the Twitch Affiliate Payout, what do you do to qualify for the Twitch Affiliate Program?
According to a recent post on the Twitch help page, they had this to say:
For an invite to our Affiliate Program, you must meet 4 requirements:
- Stream for 8 hours in the last 30 days
- Stream on 7 days in the last 30 days
- Reach an average of 3 viewers per stream
- Grow your audience to 50 followers
When you meet a requirement, a checkmark will appear under Path to Affiliate. If you lose any checkmarks, you’ll need to complete those requirements again. Once you have all 4 checkmarks, we’ll display an invite button on your Achievements page and email you.
How Easy Is It to Qualify for the Twitch Affiliate Program?
Now, I must assure you it wasn’t all that easy to qualify for the Twitch Affiliate program and it did require some upfront work to get my foot in the door.
For me, the keys to getting in the Twitch Affiliate program within one week was:
- Networking with other Twitch streamers
- Streaming 2 hours per day for one week straight
- Getting feedback from experienced Twitch streamers on how I could improve my broadcasts
Will You Try the Twitch Affiliate Program?
So, what’re you waiting for? Now that I’ve told you the power of building a platform on Twitch Creative and how to make money as a Twitch affiliate, you can get to work right away. Of course, once you get your foot in the door, how do you set up your Twitch affiliate account? I’ll save that for another day.
Until then, if you enjoyed today’s content, then share it with someone who you’d think would like it too. Till later, this has been Self-Publishing with Dale and I’ll catch you soon.