How to Make Money on Twitch

Tips to make money on Twitch

Highlights

How to make money on Twitch when you’re not an affiliate
How to make money on Twitch as an affiliate
Answers to some commonly asked questions about earning money as a Twitch streamer
Table of Contents
Explore article topics

Being a content creator has become a highly wanted career nowadays, whether by making money on Instagram, monetizing YouTube or other social media platforms.

However, one of the most interesting ways that most people know the least about is live streaming on Twitch. Because of that, it’s not surprising that people often ask how streamers make money on Twitch.

This article will explain the most common ways to earn money on Twitch and the best way to do so.

Can you make money on Twitch?

After getting your Twitch gaming setup, finding the best webcam for Twitch, and getting every Bit of hardware, like an internal capture card, it’s time to take another step on your journey to becoming a Twitch streamer – monetizing your work.

If you want to learn how to make money on Twitch and how Twitch pays you, know that it depends on whether you are a Twitch affiliate or not.

Being an affiliate is the primary way how to get paid on Twitch.

So you must be asking yourself, can you make money on Twitch before becoming an affiliate? The answer is, of course!

There are 4 ways to do that, and down below, you’ll find exactly how to make money streaming, with and without being an affiliate.

How to make money streaming on Twitch when you’re not an affiliate – 4 ways

There are 4 main ways how to earn money on Twitch before you become an Affiliate, and you can easily choose and decide the one, or ones, that work best for you.

Donations

Twitch donations

On Twitch, they are called “tips” because they are basically what their name suggests – your viewers can tip you however much they want during streams to support your channel and growth.

This shouldn’t be confused with “bits,” as that’s something that comes as a perk of being an affiliate.

Using humorous different third-party services, you can set up a Donate button on your streams, and your viewers can use it to tip you.

Some of the most commonly used third-party services are Muxy, Donorbox, Streamlabs and PayPal.

Obviously, you don’t want to be too flashy with your donation links, but in order for your viewers to be aware of them, you should add them either to your channel’s About Me section or promote them in the chat using a bot.

YouTube

One of the great ways to start monetizing your content and promote it on another platform is to upload the highlights of your streams on a separate YouTube channel.

YouTube will add ads to your videos, and that’s how you will get monetized. Of course, you need to gain subscribers and a certain number of watch hours first, but that will generally happen relatively fast. That’s why it’s a great option to do this, even after you become an affiliate.

Patreon

patreon is a way how to make money on twitch

Patreon is a channel that you can’t use right away when starting your channel, only after getting enough viewers that are loyal and enjoy what they see in your streams.

If you decide to go with Patreon, you should know that you will need to make additional content that will be given as a reward for those willing to pay for being part of your Patreon community.

The most common thing that people do is make additional videos for their “patrons” or post your content there before sharing it with the general public.

If you want to make a streaming career, the best option is to create Patreon-exclusive content. Learn more about this topic in our post for content creators about how to use Patreon.

Affiliate marketing

If you’ve watched other people’s streams or YouTube for a while, you’ve probably seen people create sponsored posts where a company pays them to promote their product.

The most common way of doing that is sharing affiliate links during your stream, especially if they are links to products you already use, and the easiest route for this is with Amazon. After sharing the affiliate link, you will get a small cut from each purchase made through your link.

After all, if people can share affiliate links after viral tweets, there’s no reason not to go for this as an additional stream of income on your Twitch channel. It is one of the main ways Twitch streamers make money before becoming affiliates.

3 ways To make money as a Twitch affiliate

Being a Twitch affiliate means that you are a part of the Twitch Affiliate program, and Twitch pays you a cut of what you earn through your streams. Of course, you need to fulfill a few conditions before applying to be an Affiliate, but it will open 3 additional monetization avenues for you.

Subscriptions

subscriptions are a way to get paid on twitch

On Twitch, people can subscribe to your channel each month and pay a monthly fee. There are different tiers of subscribers, and the subscription fees range from $4.99 to $24.99, and they will get more perks the more they pay. You, as the streamer, will get half of each fee – so for every $4.99 spent, you get about $2.49.

This is probably the most steady option you have, so it will be great if you have viewers who enjoy your content enough to subscribe.

Twitch Bits

how to make money streaming on twitch - bits

Twitch Bits are the platform’s official form of donations. It’s how your viewers can tip you directly through Twitch without using a third-party service.

There are different kinds of Bits, and viewers can either purchase them or earn them by watching some ads.

Each Bit you get will earn you $0.01, but remember that people rarely give just one Bit, so it will add up, especially as your audience grows.

Game sales

In case you didn’t know, there is a thing called Twitch store, where people can find various games to buy.

One of the ways to earn money as an affiliate is to play one of the games found there and then market it to people so they can purchase it.

With this, you get a 5% cut from each sale.

Just make sure that you use royalty-free video game music when doing paid jobs. A copyright strike can negatively impact your channel and ruin your prospects for making money on Twitch.

Wrap Up

As you can see, there are numerous answers to the question of how streamers make money on Twitch, and many of them don’t even require you to be a part of the affiliate program.

If you’ve been thinking about starting a Twitch channel, you should definitely bite the bullet, go for it and work yourself up. The viewers, as well as the money, will follow soon after.

Was this article helpful?
YesNo

Frequently asked questions

The exact numbers are different among streamers, but if you are an Affiliate, you will make 50% from each subscription and $0.01 for every Bit you earn.

You can earn money on Twitch even if you are not an Affiliate, but to become one and start making money from subscribers, you need to have at least 50 followers.

Small streamers can still become Affiliates, but they usually do some affiliate marketing or get donations from viewers.

Usually, streamers earn better on Twitch than on YouTube, and Twitch typically makes for a steadier income stream.

Before becoming an affiliate, streamers on Twitch usually do affiliate marketing, take donations, re-upload stream highlights on Youtube or start Patreon accounts.

Stefan Mitrovic is a tech geek and one of the founders of
streammentor.com. He's been trying to teach people how to stream, become popular and make a living out of it for a few years now. Even if one reader finds his writings useful, it's enough horsepower to make him write 2-3 guides daily.

More from Stefan Mitrovic
Share this article
Did you find this article useful?

Related Posts

Latest Posts

Get all the creative assets you need in one place