How to Become a Twitch Affiliate

Twitch is the leading live streaming platform for gamers that has more than 6.90 million monthly broadcasters with 2.91 million average concurrent views in 2020 and 9.2 million active channels as of January 2021. It provides you with an opportunity to monetize your hobby and make money while playing your favorite video game.

Twitch affiliate program helps streamers monetize their channel and earn money while live streaming. It is an amazing Twitch feature that has changed the lives of several streamers who make millions of dollars from Twitch. OdaBlock, for instance, earned $1.2 million from Twitch in 2020 and was one of the top earners.

If you love playing video games and want to earn money, you need to become a Twitch affiliate as it is one of the best platforms for video gamers that has 2.8 million average viewers per 7 days making it a goldmine for streamers.

This guide will show you the exact steps you must follow to become a Twitch affiliate.

What is Twitch Affiliate Program?

Twitch launched its affiliate program in 2017 to enable Twitch streamers to earn money. The affiliate program is a perfect opportunity for new streamers who don’t have a lot of subscribers yet.

As a Twitch affiliate, you can earn money in three different ways:

  1. Earn money from subscriptions
  2. Earn with Bits. A Bit is a premium emoticon and every time a subscriber uses a Bit on a channel, the streamer earns a cent
  3. You also earn money from in-game purchases. When you stream a game that is available for sale on Twitch or any in-game item, a purchase offer is initiated automatically. You earn a 5% commission per successful sale generated via your channel.

Here is an example of a purchase offer generated during a live stream:

twitch in-game purchase offer example

Initially, when you have fewer subscribers, you might not make a lot of money but as your channel grows, you’ll start making a lot of money. It multiplies and grows exponentially.

Twitch Affiliate Requirements

There are certain requirements that you must meet to become a Twitch affiliate. These include:

  1. At least 50 followers on Twitch
  2. Minimum 500 total minutes of broadcasting in the last 30 days
  3. At least 7 unique broadcasting days in the last 30 days
  4. An average of at least 3 concurrent viewers in the last 30 days.

These are must-have requirements that you can’t bypass. If you want to become a Twitch affiliate, you must meet these requirements.

How to Become a Twitch Affiliate

So how do you become a Twitch affiliate and where do you apply?

The good thing about Twitch is that you don’t have to send any application or apply to become an affiliate. All you have to do is create a Twitch account here. Fill sign up form and click Sign Up:

twitch registration form

You’ll join Twitch as a streamer. The next step is setting up your channel that includes updating your profile, adding a bio, profile picture, uploading a Twitch banner, and more.

You can check progress in Path to Affiliate in your Twitch Dashboard under Insights > Achievements:

twitch dashboard screenshot

It shows you the progress and tasks you have to complete to become an affiliate:

twitch path to affiliate

This is a niche place to monitor your achievements as it shows you what tasks and milestones to achieve in order to move ahead. When you are new to Twitch, it gives you small tasks that you must complete to begin your journey:

twitch milestones and achievements

All you have to do is keep checking Insights and Achievements to keep track of your current status. Complete milestones to meet all the affiliate requirements.

When you have completed the requirements to be a Twitch affiliate, you’ll receive an email. You don’t have to apply or send a request to become an affiliate. You’ll receive this email automatically:

twitch affiliate email

Click Get Started to complete the affiliate sign up process. You’ll be asked to provide the following information:

  1. Provide general information about yourself
  2. Sign and agree to the Twitch affiliate program and terms
  3. Add tax information
  4. Fill in the payment details. You can get paid via check, direct deposit, wire transfer, and PayPal.

After completing these steps, you’ll become a Twitch affiliate immediately. The Creator Dashboard will enable that helps you edit your program.

Tips on Meeting Affiliate Requirements

As Twitch requires meeting a few conditions to become an affiliate, it often gets hard for new streamers to meet these requirements. Getting your first few followers and growing your channel is one heck of a task.

But if you know the basics and know how to complete milestones to receive the affiliate email from Twitch, your life will be far more easier and fun. Here are a few tips and techniques to quickly meet Twitch affiliate requirements:

  • Complete your profile and optimize your channel. Creating a Twitch account isn’t just enough. You need to add a catchy bio, a profile picture, and a Twitch banner so that people who visit your channel get to know you, your interests, the types of games you play, and more. Simply having an account and waiting for people to follow you won’t work.
  • Invite your friends and fellow gamers and ask them to follow your channel on Twitch. If you are a gamer, you must know other gamers, right? Don’t be shy and reach out to them and ask them to follow you on Twitch.
  • Use social media marketing to promote your channel. Share your channel link on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social networking platforms. You must tell people about your channel as it is the only way to get followers initially.
  • Follow and connect with other Twitch streamers. Connect with them especially those who play similar games. Reach out to them and ask them for a collaboration. Streaming with other streamers who are also in need of followers is the best way to grow your channel as you both can exchange your followers and it is equally helpful for both. Try collaborating with fellow streamers.

Get Started Today

New to Twitch and haven’t signed up yet, click here to create your account now. If you are already on Twitch and struggling to become an affiliate, follow these tips to meet affiliate requirements quickly.

If you love playing games (of any kind) and you aren’t live streaming and you aren’t on Twitch, you have no idea what you are missing. With just basic equipment for live streaming, you can convert your hobby into a full-time passive income stream. And Twitch makes it super-easy for you to earn money while doing what you love to do.

Featured Image: Pexels

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