Live streams are one of the most significant social platform content trends. Moreover, they open up numerous opportunities for creators to monetize their social activities continuously. So, how can you become popular through streaming, and, generally, can you make money from it? Below, you will find the answers to these essential questions.

How to Make Money Streaming

Let’s check the most relevant ideas for streaming monetization on Twitch and YouTube.

CPM increase and Ad Revenue

CPM (cost per mille) is a type of paid advertising where your partners pay you a specific price for every 1,000 impressions their ads receive. Streams positively affect this indicator as they significantly increase audience engagement (live streams always range better – they are prioritized on streaming platforms over other content). It means that with the help of live streams, you can increase your income from advertising within a specific platform (for instance, YouTube). You can get more tips on increasing your YouTube CPM.

Donations and Tips

Another trivial way to monetize live stream is donations within the streaming platform like Buy Me a Coffee and by placing links (URLs or QR codes) to third-party donating services such as Patreon.

Selling Merchandise

Content creators with a large fan base can try investing in creating custom merchandise – this could be clothes with logos and prints in the style of their channels, keychains, cups, smartphone cases, and other trinkets. However, you should remember that such things sell well only for well-designed channels with unique and recognizable styles.

Affiliate Marketing

The next source of income on your live streams can be the posting of affiliate links to third-party platforms (marketplaces, courses, services, products, etc.). If your viewers follow them (or if they follow them and make a purchase – it all depends on how you agree with your partner), you will receive a certain reward. A typical example of affiliate marketing is a partnership with Amazon. Users who click on your link buy something, and Amazon pays you a certain percentage of this purchase.

Sponsored Content

You can also make money streaming from creating sponsored content – content available only to your channel's sponsors or patrons. This makes sense for creators who can differentiate their content into multiple levels of value and those who already have an established fan base.

Paid Subscriptions and Memberships

You can live stream and earn money by introducing a paid subscription to your channel and offering your subscribers certain benefits unavailable to other viewers. For example, as in the previous example, they may get the opportunity to view your hidden content (courses, tutorials, checklists, etc.) and also become the owners of some material things.

Virtual Gifts and In-Stream Currency

Some live-streaming platforms also offer gift functionality so streamers can convert received gifts into real money. Please note that streamers usually must fulfill some obligations in exchange for donations (for example, doing something unusual or risky). You can also check Twitch bits guide to learn how to earn bits when streaming.

Selling Digital Products

Finally, you can get paid for live streaming by selling various digital products during your streams – online training, recommendations, and other intellectual property. Note that this type of product can either belong to you personally or to your advertising partners (in this case, this will be affiliate marketing, which we mentioned earlier).

Final Thoughts

Based on the above, to achieve the best balance between the time allocated to implement Twitch, Facebook, or YouTube streaming monetization strategies and the time devoted exclusively to your educational/entertainment content, you must maximize the length of your live streams. It also makes sense in cases of audiences dispersed across different time zones. This problem can be solved using additional software, particularly Gyre.pro. This tool will help you prepare your video content in advance and cycle it so that your streams are as long as your content strategy allows.