Upon becoming a Twitch Affiliate, your immediate focus should be on configuring your new monetization tools, setting up payments, and enhancing your channel's appeal to convert viewers into subscribers. This milestone unlocks several features to grow your community and earn revenue.
What to Do When You Become a Twitch Affiliate?
Becoming a Twitch Affiliate is a significant step, granting you access to a suite of tools that allow you to monetize your content and build a more engaged community. Here’s a breakdown of the essential actions to take:
1. Set Up Your Onboarding and Payment Information
This is the very first and most crucial step. Twitch requires you to complete an onboarding process to enable payments. This includes:
- Affiliate Agreement: Review and accept the Twitch Affiliate Agreement.
- Tax Interviews: Complete the Amazon Tax Information Interview and the Royalty Tax Interview. This is required for tax purposes, ensuring you comply with local and international regulations.
- Payment Method: Select your preferred payment method (e.g., direct deposit, PayPal). You'll need to reach a minimum payout threshold, typically $50-$100, depending on the method.
2. Unlock and Customize Your Monetization Tools
With Affiliate status, you gain access to several powerful tools for revenue generation and community engagement.
2.1. Upload Unique Emotes
One of the most effective ways to entice viewers to subscribe is by offering a variety of unique, high-quality emotes. These custom graphics are a key incentive for subscribers, allowing them to express themselves in chat.
- Design Considerations:
- Quality: Ensure your emotes are visually appealing and easily recognizable, even at small sizes.
- Variety: Offer a range of emotions or inside jokes relevant to your community.
- Tiers: As an Affiliate, you start with a few emote slots (typically 1-3). As your subscriber count grows, you'll unlock more slots across different subscription tiers.
- Submission: Upload your emotes through your Twitch Creator Dashboard in the "Emotes" section under "Viewer Rewards."
- Tips:
- Consider commissioning artists for professional designs if you're not an artist yourself.
- Engage your community by asking for ideas or holding polls for new emote designs.
2.2. Configure Subscriber Badges
Subscriber badges are small icons that appear next to a subscriber's name in chat, indicating their loyalty and how long they've been subscribed.
- Importance:
- Recognition: They make long-time subscribers feel valued.
- Community Identity: They help build a unique visual identity for your channel.
- Customization: You can upload different badges for 1-month, 3-month, 6-month, 1-year, and even longer subscription milestones.
- Location: Manage these in your Creator Dashboard under "Subscriber Badges" in the "Viewer Rewards" section.
2.3. Enable Bit Cheering
Bits are virtual goods that viewers can purchase and use to "Cheer" in your chat, showing support for your channel. This is another direct way for your community to contribute financially.
- Encourage Donations: Clearly communicate that Bits are a way to support you directly.
- Bit Badges: Viewers who Cheer with Bits also earn special Bit badges that evolve as they cheer more.
- Alerts: Set up alerts through third-party tools (like Streamlabs or StreamElements) to display Cheers on your stream, recognizing and thanking your supporters in real-time.
- Revenue Share: Affiliates receive a share of the revenue from Bits.
2.4. Run Advertisements
Twitch Affiliates can run short advertisements during their streams, generating additional revenue.
- Configuration: You can configure when and how often ads play via your Creator Dashboard.
- Ad Breaks:
- Manual: You can manually trigger ad breaks during a stream.
- Scheduled: Some streamers prefer to schedule regular ad breaks to maintain consistency.
- Pre-Rolls: Running a mid-roll ad often disables pre-roll ads for a period, which can improve the viewer experience for new joiners.
- Best Practices:
- Communicate with your viewers when ads are coming.
- Use short ad breaks to minimize disruption.
2.5. Configure Channel Points
Channel Points are a customizable point system that allows viewers to earn currency simply by watching your stream. They can then redeem these points for various rewards.
- Engagement Tool: This is an excellent feature for increasing viewer engagement and interaction without requiring direct financial contribution.
- Custom Rewards:
- You can set up default rewards (e.g., highlighting a message, unlocking a random emote).
- Create custom rewards tailored to your channel, such as "Choose the next game," "Make me do push-ups," "Mod a friend for a day," or even personalized shout-outs.
- Management: Customize Channel Points and their rewards in your Creator Dashboard under "Channel Points" in the "Viewer Rewards" section.
3. Continue to Grow and Engage Your Community
Achieving Affiliate status is just the beginning. Continue to focus on delivering quality content and fostering your community.
- Maintain Consistency: Regular streaming is crucial for retaining viewers and attracting new ones.
- Promote Your Channel: Use social media (Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube) to announce streams, share highlights, and engage with your audience off-stream.
- Interact with Viewers: Respond to chat, acknowledge new followers and subscribers, and make viewers feel like a part of your community.
- Set Goals: Continue working towards the requirements for Twitch Partner, which offers even more benefits and support.
Affiliate Benefits at a Glance
| Feature | Description | Revenue Model |
|---|---|---|
| Subscriptions | Viewers subscribe at Tier 1, 2, or 3 for perks like emotes, ad-free viewing. | Revenue Share |
| Emotes | Custom chat emojis available to subscribers. | Subscriber Incentive |
| Subscriber Badges | Unique chat badges for subscribers showing loyalty. | Engagement / Loyalty |
| Bits & Cheering | Virtual currency viewers use to show support in chat. | Direct Contribution |
| Advertisements | Run ads during your stream, disabling pre-rolls for a period. | Revenue Share |
| Channel Points | Loyalty program where viewers earn points for watching and redeem for custom rewards. | Engagement Tool |
By strategically implementing these steps, you can effectively leverage your Twitch Affiliate status to build a thriving, supportive, and revenue-generating streaming career.
