Best Ways to Monetize Your Livestreams in 2021: A Complete Guide
Livestreaming platforms have already been rising in popularity throughout the last decade; however, with the impact of COVID-19, they have reached their peak in terms of both hours watched and number of users. This rising demand came with an opportunity for ambitious streamers to grow their communities and monetize their content. In this article, we will be examining different ways of monetizing your live streams on Twitch and turning your content into a business.
• Donations
• Micro-sponsorships
• Twitch Affiliate Program
• Twitch Partner Program
• LIVAD Technologies
Donations:
This is the most “traditional” way of supporting. By placing a “donate” button on your channel, your audience can support you through donations. However, as this method’s success depends heavily on having a loyal, established fan base, it may not be a reliable source of income in the beginning.
Micro-sponsorships:
Micro-sponsorships are agreements with brands to promote their products or display their logo on your stream. While this may be a great way to monetize your content once you get noticed by the brands interested in advertising in this space, getting there usually requires a lot of time and patience as brands often reach out to top streamers with a large fan base.
Twitch Affiliate Program:
In the Affiliate Program, Twitch encourages its users to stream regularly by offering them new income models. This way, you can increase your revenue and put it on a monthly basis while continuing to grow your channel. The approval for the Affiliate program requires following conditions within a month;
• Streaming at least 500 minutes
• Streaming seven different days of the week
• Having an average of three or more concurrent viewers during these streams
• In addition to these criteria, your channel should have 50+ followers during this process.Once your channel meets these requirements, Twitch allows your followers to subscribe to you monthly, and to support you with Bits and gifts.
Subscriptions and Bits:
Followers can subscribe to you by paying for $4.99, $9.99, or $24.99 per month. Subscribers have privileges on your streams such as ad-free viewing experience, exclusive emoticons and badges on chat. The net subscription revenue is distributed equally between Twitch and you.
With micropayment units called “Bits”, your followers can support you on chat by “Virtual Cheers” with Bits. Every Twitch Affiliate and Partner earns one cent for every Bit and the prices start at $1.40 for 100 bits.
Amazon Blacksmith:
By placing a widget on your page, you can configure a list with the products you use or recommend and get a share from each product that has been sold through the link in your page. Amazon Blacksmith is available both for Twitch Affiliates and Partners.
Twitch Partner Program:
Partner Program is the next step of the Affiliate program. In addition to the methods an Affiliate and a regular streamer has, a Partner gets commission from mid-roll video ads displayed during their stream, receives special customer support, and can sell games, in-game items and merchandise through their channel page and receive a commission from every purchase.
Streamers who want to apply for the Partner Program should meet the following criteria in 30 days:
• Streaming at least for 25 hours
• Streaming on 12 different days
• Having an average of 75 or more concurrent viewers
Video ads:
Twitch Partners can run mid-roll ads in their stream and decide it’s length or timing. The platform pays its partners $1 to $2 per thousand views. However, the catch is, these mid-roll ads may create a negative feeling both for streamers and brands by interrupting the stream, hence, creating an unpleasant viewing experience for users. Additionally, the revenue from these ads may decrease due to the use of ad blockers, which is quite common amongst Twitch users.
LIVAD’s ad display technology offers a user-friendly and entertaining experience both for viewers and streamers.
LIVAD Technologies:
LIVAD is an advertising technology that automatically displays brands’ visual assets on streamers’ screens without interrupting their stream. While LIVAD makes it easier for streamers to get noticed and sponsored by brands through its data-driven approach, it also makes the ad viewing experience much more entertaining for the viewers through elegant creatives and non-intrusive placement.
Why should you join LIVAD’s streamer community?
1 - Minimum effort:
Unlike traditional sponsorships, you don’t have to wait to get noticed by brands or deal with the complicated formalities by yourself. LIVAD does it all for you. Once you are in, you start earning money right away.
2 - Working with prestigious brands:
In Twitch’s highly competitive environment, it may be challenging to reach out to leading brands for sponsorships. But, LIVAD offers you an opportunity to work with prestigious brands like Philips, Domino's, Steelseries, Schneider Electric and many others. Even if you are a streamer with a smaller community, working with top brands will contribute to your overall streamer outlook.
3 - Entertaining and interactive moments for your audience:
With LIVAD’s smart ad display technology, your live streams will have new moments of attraction. Through elegant ads and questionnaires, your audience will have new opportunities for participating in your livestreams. Therefore, you will offer a better livestream experience to your audience.
4 - Track your revenue and stats via real-time Streamer Dashboard:
In LIVAD’s real-time Streamer Dashboard, you will be able to monitor all the details and stats about your display performance. Click-through rates, click and display counts, your revenue per display, per stream, weekly, and monthly.
How to become a LIVAD partner-streamer?
Joining our partner-streamer program is quite simple:
1- Fill the form
2- Create your profile
3- Complete display screen and chatbot set-up
3- Select available campaigns
4- Start earning money from ads
And that’s all, easy right?
Which method is the best?
Actually, there is no definite answer to that.
The best method to monetize your streams depends on how big and engaged your community is. However, we believe that LIVAD is unique in offering a place to streamers of all sizes, and giving them an opportunity to monetize their content while keeping their audiences entertained. Don’t just take our word for it.
Join our ever-growing network of streamers and experience for yourself how LIVAD can help you monetize your content in style.
Headline image by Caspar Camille Rubin on Unsplash
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