How To Become a Twitch Affiliate/Partner & Make Money

Monetizing your Twitch channel requires you to go through a range of steps that can, initially, seem a little confusing.

Making money from your Twitch channel can be done in a variety of ways that include advertisements, sponsorships, merchandise, Twitch bits, and more.

You can start making money without having to become a Twitch partner or affiliate. However, there are added benefits to partnering with Twitch or becoming an affiliate with them.

This post covers how to become a Twitch Affiliate or partner, as well as some of the ways that you can start making money from streaming online.

Steps To Becoming a Twitch Affiliate

If you’re interested in becoming a Twitch affiliate, you must make sure to meet the following criteria:

• Have a minimum of 50 followers
• Have an average of at least 3 viewers in the past 30 days
• Broadcasted at least 500 minutes of content in the past 30 days
• Have a minimum of 7 broadcast days that are different over the past 30 days

When your Twitch channel has completed this set of guidelines, you can apply to be a Twitch affiliate and wait for a response to see if you’ve been accepted.

Once you get a notification that you’ve been accepted to be an affiliate, you can simply register, accept the terms and conditions, and provide Twitch with your preferred payment method.

How To Make Money From Being a Twitch Affiliate

When you’ve successfully become a Twitch affiliate, you can start making money through a few different methods that include the following.

Subscriptions

One of the popular ways to make money as a Twitch affiliate is through subscriptions. Subscribers who already have either Twitch or Amazon Prime will be able to have a free subscription, which is a $4.99 fee that they don’t pay, but you still receive the $4.99 in their subscription.

There are also subscription tiers that start at $4.99 and go up to $9.99 and $24.99 every month. Each tier includes additional bonuses for the extra cost. This money then gets split down the middle between you and Twitch.

This is a reliable form of income for many Twitch streamers as it enables you to have a steady stream of money every month just from people being subscribed to your channel.

Animated stream alerts are also an excellent way to encourage viewers to subscribe and feel a part of the streaming experience.

Ad Revenue

You can earn more money through ad revenue with the profits being shared between you and Twitch. Becoming a Twitch partner puts you in a better position to receive interest from bigger brands.

You’re able to see how long and how often these advertisements are shown on your channel too by looking at your dashboard. This can help you to see whether too many ads are causing engagement to drop or not.

Once your balance reaches $100, Twitch will pay you 15 days after the end of the previous month. This can be a helpful way to know when you can expect to receive the money from the Twitch ads being played on your channel.

If your ad revenue is less than $100, the payment will roll over to the next month or to when you reach the $100 point.

Twitch pays you for ads at a flat CPM rate. The rate varies depending on a range of factors, such as the time of year and what country you’re in. According to Madskil.com, Australia has the highest CPM of $6.15.

Advertising Games

Advertising games are one of the big benefits of becoming a Twitch Affiliate. This is because Twitch can create a call to action that pops up on the screen during your streams for a certain game.

Your viewers can see what the game is and how much it costs. In addition to this, they can easily click the call to action and buy the game. The way that Twitch affiliates can make money through this is by receiving 5% of the revenue being earned by Twitch.

You can also sell in-game products during your streams which your viewers may find enticing as they can buy these items and use them when playing games.

This is an easy way for Twitch affiliates to make money as it requires no additional time or effort as the 5% revenue that you earn is automatic.

Twitch Bits

Twitch Bits are coins that viewers can use to support your channel in the form of Cheermotes. Viewers can purchase Twitch Bits and when they use them for Cheermotes in your streams, you’re able to receive a share of the money.

Cheermotes are animated emotes that can be a fun way for viewers to interact with you and get noticed during your streams. Your viewers can easily purchase Twitch Bits by using their money and paying through either Paypal or Amazon.

Receiving Twitch Bits is a form of donation that’s more interactive and encourages viewers to want to send them to you while you’re live streaming.

Becoming a Twitch Partner

Becoming a Twitch partner requires you to complete a checklist that’s more challenging compared to becoming a Twitch Affiliate. To become a Twitch Partner, you must:

• Live stream for a minimum of 12 separate days in the last 30 days
• Have an average of 75 viewers or more in the last 30 days
• Live stream for a total of at least 25 hours in the last 30 days

Therefore, becoming a Twitch partner is more intense compared to being a Twitch Affiliate. You’re also able to see your progress along the way as each requirement gets checked off the list once you complete it.

Having said that, meeting these criteria doesn’t necessarily mean that you become a Twitch partner. Completing the checklist means that you’re eligible to apply to the Twitch Partner program.

Twitch can then review your application and respond with either a decline or acceptance. If you get declined, you still have your checklist completed and can apply again at a later date. This gives you time to build up your channel even more and give Twitch more of a reason to want to partner up with you.

Benefits of Being a Twitch Partner

If you successfully become a Twitch partner, you’ll be able to earn more than an affiliate. This is why it’s more difficult to become a partner with Twitch.

In addition to the benefits included with being a Twitch Affiliate, a Twitch partner can earn more money as their channel is larger and there are more monetization opportunities.

Other Ways To Make Money On Twitch

There are great ways that you can make money on Twitch, regardless of whether or not you're a Twitch affiliate or partner.

Affiliate links are a popular monetization method. They simply involve you making a deal with a company or brand that enables you to provide your viewers with a special link or code that lets them receive money off the product or service being sold.

Brand sponsorships work in a similar way where Twitch streamers can make deals with brands. You can then showcase these brands or products on your Twitch streams for a share of the profits being made.

Selling merchandise is another way that streamers can make money on Twitch. However, this is usually something that larger channels do as it requires you to have a loyal fanbase who you know will buy the merch.

It’s not ideal for smaller streamers with fewer viewers to go through the process of creating and trying to sell merch if you’re not confident that everything’s going to sell. Affiliate links and brand sponsorship are the best methods on Twitch for smaller channels.

Conclusion

Now that you have a better idea about what’s involved to become a Twitch Affiliate or Partner, you can start setting some goals for yourself. Focus on growing your channel and creating a community of people who you love to interact and have fun with. The money will follow soon after.

Hopefully, the information found throughout our post has been useful in helping you to feel more confident about making money through Twitch.

Image via: Photo by Martin Garcia/ESPAT Media