Affiliate Marketing
Twitch Affiliate: The Complete Guide
Affiliate Marketing
Ever wondered how your little brother got so good at Grand Theft Auto? Maybe he subscribed to an expert player’s live game stream on Twitch. Subscription? Your affiliate marketing muscle might be tingling. Your instinct is right — that expert player is a Twitch affiliate, and he makes money sharing his content on the platform.
Twitch is a video-sharing platform where content creators can share live streams for niche audiences, most often in the video gaming niche but also others like cooking, lifestyle, and slots.
We’ll walk you through the ins and outs of the Twitch affiliate program and how brands like yours can leverage Twitch affiliates and Tapfiliate’s tracking platform to boost leads and revenue.
The Twitch affiliate program allows content creators to monetize their channel and content. But not all fellow streamers are considered Twitch affiliates. Instead, they must meet certain criteria to reach Twitch affiliate status (more on that later).
This status gives them the ability to make money through:
So, how do Twitch affiliates become qualified streamers in the first place?
As long as you are over 18, you can stream videos on Twitch.
But you can’t actually make money without meeting the platform’s affiliate eligibility requirements.
Keep reading to check all the Twitch affiliate boxes:
What do you want to talk (and stream) about? And what audiences care to watch this kind of content? These are essential questions to ask before you can move onto Twitch affiliate status. Once you’ve settled your content goals and know who you’re targeting, then you can focus on creating a following.
Twitch’s most popular content creators have millions of followers. Luckily, though, you only need 50 to get started as an affiliate. We’ll cover some audience expansion strategy later on in this piece, but, for now, let’s move on to the next requirement.
After you hit your eighth hour of streaming, you’ve already made it through half of the platform’s minimum requirements. Don’t worry – you don’t have to stay on the camera for 8 hours straight. Instead, you can break these 8 hours into multiple video streams, and to get your affiliate status faster? Try to break it down on seven different days.
Twitch requires affiliates to have seven separate streaming days, but here’s the kicker: they need to be within the last 30-day period.
Even with 50 followers, Twitch won’t consider you an affiliate until you can show a few of them consistently watching your videos. But don’t think one or two videos with three viewers is enough to become an affiliate. Your history over the last 30 days needs to show an average 3-person viewership.
If Fortnite aficionado Squeezie can pull off an average of 219,000 concurrent viewers, three doesn’t feel impossible, right? Try to keep a consistent streaming time to make your Twitch channel reliable and aligned with your audience’s schedule.
All boxes checked? Double-check to be sure on your Creator Dashboard’s “Achievements Analytics” section.
Twitch will notify you via email that you’ve been invited to their affiliate program. Keep in mind that this sometimes takes a few days after you’ve met all the above requirements.
Congrats, you’re in! Now, you just need to share a few personal details with Twitch like:
You can learn more about this process on Twitch’s affiliate onboarding page.
So, what’s in it for affiliates to join Twitch’s program?
Sure, you might find more potential customers as a YouTube shopping affiliate than a Twitch affiliate. The former is a much more popular household name. But the value Twitch offers isn’t necessarily in the viewers (despite its impressive 140 million monthly active users). Instead, the value comes in the diverse monetization tools and niche audiences.
Strong community potential? Check. High-quality content options? Twitch offers it. Now, let’s beef up your path to affiliate revenue with these expert tips.
Twitch gives you all the tools you need to beef up your affiliate income. All you need to do is use them.
Think you can boost that minimum 3-viewer average to 50? You might be on the path to affiliate success via Twitch’s partnership status. Partners are elite streamers eligible for:
Essentially, Partnership Status gives affiliates an extra edge to make more money with greater content customization, back-end support, and audience engagement options.
Sounds good? Here are the basic requirements:
Joining the Affiliate Program
You need at least 50 followers to become a Twitch affiliate.
Twitch requires affiliates to have seven separate broadcast days. The eight-hour requirement can be broken up into those days.
Twitch streamers must have an average of 3 viewers, 50 followers, seven broadcast days, and 8 hours of streaming within a 30-day period.
On average, Twitch will notify eligible streamers within 48 hours that they’ve been accepted to the affiliate program.
Onboarding for New Affiliates
Twitch doesn’t permit overtly graphic or gorey content, or anything that’s violent in a live setting. You can read their full community guidelines here.
After your invitation to the program, you’ll have to add personal details, choose a payout method, complete various tax forms, and wait a couple of days for validation.
Yes. However, you’ll have to complete additional tax forms before you can go live as an affiliate.
Revenue Questions
Twitch’s payout threshold is $50, meaning Twitch affiliates must earn at least $50 to activate a payout. If an affiliate chooses the wire transfer payout method, the threshold increases to $100.
Twitch pays affiliates through wire transfers, checks, PayPal, ACH/direct deposit, and eChecks.
Twitch payouts are distributed 15 days after the end of the revenue month.
Twitch is a live-streaming platform offering a desirable human element to streamer content. This element suggests that audiences want to see a genuine personality behind your channel, meaning anything to enhance your unique voice, branding, and content uniqueness can engage your audience and thereby increase your subscriptions, cheermotes, and revenue.
Twitch affiliates can also leverage other channels with cross-posting, engage their audience, regularly seek feedback, and maintain a reliable streaming schedule to improve revenue.
Are you a brand looking to promote your products with Twitch affiliates? You’ll need a system to engage affiliates, just like they have systems to engage their audiences. Plus, how will you track all your commissions across Twitch and other platforms. Tapfiliate, a leading affiliate tracking software, rises up to the task with accurate live affiliate tracking, coupon codes, affiliate communication, flexible commissions, and automation features. Sign up for your free trial today!
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Chrissy Kapralos
Chrissy Kapralos runs a Toronto-based writing agency called No Worries Writing Co. She’s passionate about helping businesses communicate and share their stories. When she isn’t writing about the latest tech and marketing content, you’ll find her traveling, cooking, or watching horror movies.