The landscape of media consumption has changed dramatically over the past decade. People are watching less television and reading fewer print magazines — instead, reaching for their smartphones and laptops to stream content and check in on social media feeds.
Twitch — a streaming service generated for gaming livestreams, which has since grown from there — has taken the media landscape by storm again, throwing a wrench into the old-fashioned narrative of how content is produced. Like YouTube, the platform has produced influencers who matter to the marketplace. They’re entrepreneurs in their own right, developing content on their own to be livestreamed directly to their audience, engaging with fellow streamers and viewers throughout the process.
For some streamers, this means big audiences and even bigger paychecks. But how does affiliate marketing software fit into the narrative with Twitch streaming? Let’s inspect how you, a Twitch gamer, can evolve your business by implementing an affiliate marketing strategy, whether to garner your brand deals or to utilize other streamers to promote your brand.
What Brands Are Using Twitch?
Many brands are rushing to this platform as it continues to grow in popularity — especially while people remain isolated at home due to the pandemic. Twitch provides a great alternative to streaming services like Amazon Prime, Hulu, and Netflix, as it’s a place viewers can watch livestreams of people gaming, reacting to videos, playing music, and more. They can even interact with creators during streams, becoming a part of the program.
Brands love Twitch for this very reason, as it provides them with a 24/7 center where branded content can be shared and promoted by streamers to their viewers. In the right hands, it can bring success to a company.
The Twitch Affiliate Program
Twitch’s affiliate program allows streamers to make money from their streams once they begin creating a crowd. The requirements to get into the program include:
- Having at least 50 followers
- Broadcasting at least 8 hours in the past month
- Averaging at least three unique viewers per month
- And more
Streamers earn money through the Twitch partnership program by:
- Monthly subscriptions made to their account
- Earnings from viewer donations known as Bits
- Advertising revenue received by Twitch, relative to your number of viewers
The program works quite well, as some Twitch streamers have shown, pulling in millions of dollars per year through the platform and from other branding deals. But what are these other branding deals and how do streamers receive them? One way that streamers can make their money outside of the Twitch affiliate program is to venture on their own, signing brand deals with companies. This is where affiliate marketing comes into play.
Becoming an Affiliate and Using Affiliate Marketing
While Twitch has an affiliate marketing platform that allows streamers to make money from what they do, you can consider branching out on your own to commit yourself to an affiliate marketing strategy of your own. Refersion’s affiliate marketing software allows you to develop a strategy for your business that can begin making you money and increasing engagement.
Best of all, you can go both ways with it. On one end, once you have a significant following, you can begin working as an affiliate for other companies, promoting their products either on your stream or through your other social channels; moreover, you can hire affiliates of your own who can promote your Twitch channel on Instagram, Twitter, or Twitch streams.
This collaborative effort can help you make money by producing engagement and sales conversions for notable brands while increasing your engagement, followers, and monthly subscriptions by having affiliates promote your Twitch brand.
Promoting your gaming channel can be done in a multitude of ways: You can either get a brand deal with a notable company, provide regular political insight for young viewers, be a top-performing gamer and get sponsored by computer manufacturers, or be a comedian who people want to watch get laughs. Whatever your approach to Twitch streaming, whether it’s straight gaming or a mixture of gaming with other media, you can effectively build an audience that provides you with a stable income.
Build Your Audience
If you’re looking for a way to make that income more secure, consider developing an affiliate marketing strategy. You can begin properly building and promoting your brand with this approach today, whether you work as an affiliate or get some affiliates working for you.
