twitch

How To Become a Twitch Affiliate in 2023. Everything you need to know.

Håvard Hestetun

Jun 11, 2022 • 7 min read

I don't watch much streams, but I was wondering how hard it would actually be to start making money on Twitch. After some research, I collected all the information I could find into this short article, so you can start getting paid for your stream in 2022.

📃 List of contents:

The benefits
The keys to becoming an affiliate
How do I get people to start watching me?

This article is going to teach you how to become a Twitch Affiliate. This is going to be your first source of income on Twitch. There is also Twitch Partner, which is one step above Affiliate.

💰 The benefits

One of the major benefits of being a Twitch Affiliate is that you get to make money doing what you love (or at least like). Now, there are three main ways you can make money.

Bits
Ads
Subscribers

👾 Bits

If you've played any game in the last 10 years, then you're probably familiar with the term In-game currency. That's essentially what Bits are, a way of supporting the creator. For a single bit purchased, the streamer earns one penny. Below you can see a rough estimate of how much bits are worth.

By cheering, your audience can give a little bit of money to their streamer of choice, while Twitch takes a percentage of it. If you want to read more about the details, check out the link below.

🌟 Ads

Don't we all love advertisements? Perhaps not, but they are what makes a large part of a streamer's income. According to Twitch, ads help keep the platform free. Many sources will tell you that ads are one of the best ways to start earning good money on Twitch.

If you're an avid Twitch viewer, you know that ads are played before you start watching the stream, but streamers can also decide to play ads when they want to, at the click of a button.

When it comes to how much money you'll make from ads, there is almost no definitive answer, but I provided a quote below for reference.

The cost varies based on season and demand, but averages between $2 and $10 per 1,000 views. - creditdonkey.com

💌 Subscriptions

It shouldn't come as a huge surprise that subscriptions make up for biggest part of a streamers income. More subs = more money. A subscription fee can cost a viewer (4,99$), (9,99$) or (24,99$) a month, and you as the streamer get 50% of that.

Those who subscribe to you won't have to watch ads on your channel, and they get chat benefits. I added link to a list of chat badges for you here.

There are other ways of making money, such as through sponsorships, which can make you a lot of money depending on the company and your contract.

🔑 The keys to becoming an affiliate

At least 500 minutes of broadcasting in the last 30 days
At least 7 unique broadcasts in the last 30 days
At least 50 followers
Maintain an average of 3 concurrent viewers

Twitch even has a Path to Affiliate overview that will help you keep track of your progress.

https://help.twitch.tv/s/article/achievements?language=en_US

💡

It's important to remember is that the achievements have to be completed within the same 30-day period.

According to Twitch, once you're actually invited to join the programme, there are four steps you need to complete in order to start getting paid.

Step 1: Providing general information
Step 2: Signing the Twitch Affiliate Agreement
Step 3: Providing tax information
Step 4: Filling out a form letting Twitch know where to send you money

📈 How do I get people to start watching me?

One of life's greatest questions. However, not such a hard one to answer.
I've made five essentials that you need to start working on right away if you want to see growth on your channel.

🍎 Branding

Your audience need to be able to recognize your stream from everyone elses. What separates you from the rest? What's your brand?

If you think about Ninja, what colors do you assosciate with him? What about the way he acts on stream? Did it really take you long to think of that? Of course not, because even though you might not actually watch the guy, you probably know something about how his stream looks and how he behaves.

That is one big indicator of a strong brand.

I'm definetely not saying you should become Ninja, but you should definetely learn from him and everyone else who has done big in streaming.

Every streamer has their story, just like any brand. Start working on yours now.

🎤 Stream gear

Don't for a second think you can get away without having the following:

Good sound
Good video

If those aren't already on your to-do list, add them now. No one likes to watch low quality streams (not even you). If your content isn't really that great yet, at least make sure your video and sound are!

Good video comes comes from any HD webcam, with good lighting. If you want to look absolutely crisp however, you need a DSLR or a mirrorless camera and a camlink.

Read my article about which microphone and other studio equipment you can get (without costing you an arm) below.

✅ Complete your profile

An incomplete Twitch profile is a lot like showing up to a party in your pajamas. It probably won't be a bummer for everyone, but you aren't exactly setting yourself up for success either (unless it's a pajama-party).

Your profile should contain all the information that a new viewer needs in order to get what your whole deal is. It's also part of your brand, which we went over earlier.

Snappa made a really good article on exactly how you should build up your bio with four building blocks. You can read the full article by clicking the link below.

Adjective / descriptor
Noun
Games
Usp (Unique selling point)

📆 Make a schedule

Some might find it boring, but is highly effective if you want audience members to stick around for your next stream.

To make it easy for yourself, start by streaming once or twice a week. I know you might think it's better to start strong and stream every single day, and it is. The hard part is maintaining that over time. After about a month or so, you might feel like your hard efforts aren't paying off, which isn't very unusual.

By setting yourself an easy and achievable goal of streaming just once per week, you can add more days later if you feel like you have the time and energy to do so. By doing it this way, you won't experience burnout after a short period, which is super important, as this way of making money is a long-term strategy.

💡

Don't f0rget that you need at least 7 unique streams in 30 days in order to become an affiliate!

🎯 Pick a niche

Are you a people-pleaser? No more. In order to gain a solid foundation of followers, you're going to need to please a certain niche.

The reason for this is that if you're making content for everyone, then you're not really making content for anyone.

Let me try to explain. You should aim for a certain group of people, such as players of a specific game. This way, you won't be "just like every other streamer" who never gets more than 2 views on a stream.

That being said, there is no certainty that you'll get any more than that if your content isn't good. However, by picking a niche, your chances are way greater in terms of growth.

If your whole channel idea is just "A gaming channel", then good luck making people stop scrolling on you, because there are hundreds of thousands with that same idea.

If you focus on "Horror games", for instance, then you're on the right track. Although you might need to narrow it down further, depending on the competition.

Now you can start your journey to making money on Twitch! Make sure to send me a link to your channel once you get there, I'm rooting for you!