I see this being asked a lot and the answer is yes you can make money by playing/streaming video games on Twitch but it’s easier said than done.
By that I mean don’t expect to just fire up your computer get your stream connected and just start making money day 1 or heck even day 100 if we’re talking serious money.
It takes a good amount of persistence, skill and/or personality with a little bit relationship building to start making any real money from your stream. I’m going to go into exactly what I mean by that below.
How Long Does It Take Before You Start Making Money On Twitch
This falls under the persistence part. Streaming on Twitch will take you awhile to start to get followers and it’s like a grind in a video game where you do the same thing every day but you’re slowly moving closer to your goal.
The only way around this is if you already have some connections with other streamers or already have a name for yourself in a certain game.
This is a hard question to answer though but I would safely say don’t expect any money for the first couple of months, you may get some generous followers who may donate to you so it’s hard to say.
If you’re talking about money from Twitch advertising in the form of a sub button, then you may never get one but can still earn a good bit through donations of your viewers so it’s always a good idea to setup a donation button asap.
Do You Have To Be Good At Video Games To Be A Twitch Streamer
This relates to the skill/personality part. I see this asked a lot, the answer is no not at all. Some of the most viewed streamers are average at best but they’re entertaining to watch because of how much they rage or because they just have a good personality and communicate well with their viewers.
On the flip side, this alienates certain viewers they only want to watch the best of the best because they are trying to learn themselves how to get better at that game/class.
If you have a good mix of this, then you’ll be making some serious money if you’re consistent.
TIP: Try to get a friend in your voice chat with you when streaming that your viewers may find funny, this helps take all of the pressure off of you to be one size fits all type of streamer.
How Much Time Do You Need To Invest Into Streaming To Be Successful?
This is where is causes most people to throw in the towel.
Streaming is actually causes you to actually be using your time for it, by that I mean there isn’t a passive income side to it really.
This causing the time investment to be high, sure you could only stream one day a week but if you want to make streaming a full time gig then you’re going to need to put more time into it. My suggestion is get a schedule setup, so your followers know when to expect you to be live.
You’d be amazed at how many people will log in to Twitch just to watch their favorite streamer at their startup time then log back off after they go offline.
I can’t give you an exact figure for this question but I would shoot for a minimum of 8 hours a week, with it being spread about between 2-3 streams. A good amount would be 12 hours between 3-4 streams. This is purely subjective of course, so this is in no way an actual guideline by any means.
Just try to put as much time as your schedule allows you and just be prepared for a grind.
How To Build Relationships With Other Streamers On Twitch
This is actually very easy and a great way to increase your followers that most streamers do not take enough advantage of.
Twitch has given its streamers a cool option of hosting another person’s stream, which allows you to basically broadcast as if you were live but it shows someone elses’ stream to your viewers. Got a head of myself there, before you do that it would be good to actually be in their stream and comment.
This way they can put get an idea of who you are before you start broadcasting their stream.
Now just because you do broadcast their stream doesn’t mean they will do it in return but this is a good networking start, especially if there are times when you don’t feel like streaming but still want to work on improving your stream.
Another great way is see if there are any streamers who play a similar game as you and see about getting in touch with them in game to possible get in chat with them to stream together.
These are just a couple of options but there are tons of them out there, just go about it like you’re making a friend in game and actually try to build a friendship with the person, not try to use them for their viewers.
Where Most People Go Wrong
I know tons of people who plan to to start streaming but they keep putting it off for whatever reason possible. Most of the time they’re either waiting for a game to come out to be able to stream or trying to get their setup perfect before starting.
This usually turns into a drawn out process where they basically never begin or it takes them awhile to get going and in that time they could have gotten a good amount of followers.
So my advice is just get started on your stream, everything doesn’t have to be perfect but take that biggest leap and just get going!
Thanks for reading and I hope this helped some of you out there, Ill try to add more to this article as more comes to mind or I learn about new things myself to share with all of you.
