https://blackgirlnerds.com/starting-the-path-to-partnership-on-twitch/

For many streamers Twitch is a fun hobby.  It’s a way to express yourself within the confines of your home whether it is through gaming, podcasting or being super creative with a fun activity like teaching your community how to sew up your latest cosplay wardrobe. However, for some streamers, Twitch is a business, and the path to becoming a partner is a primary goal and focus for many affiliates. When you first start off as a streamer for Twitch, you can apply to become an affiliate. This is where the community building starts and you start to grow your channel.  However, when becoming a partner, that is where monetization begins and depending on how far you want to go as a streamer, you can use Twitch as a side hustle to supplement income part time or you can make live streaming become something you do for a living.

In a room filled with affiliates and one partner, the Path To Partner panel was led by Anish, the Director of Community Partnerships and Community Marketing Manager RayApollo. The two ​​Twitch strategists gave a fundamental overview of what it takes to become a partner on Twitch. Both moderators have assisted with providing educational programs, workshops, webinars, and writing processions to the Twitch community. Twitch is also working to create a safe space for users as more streamers join the platform. One thing the moderators make clear at the beginning of the panel is that the path the partnership or affiliate status is not guaranteed. Applications are reviewed manually by the partnerships team and it may take up to 7 days to review based on the volume of applications received.  The key is reading why you were denied and taking that feedback and using that to improve your channel.  RayApollo encourages affiliates that the process here is a marathon, not a sprint, so take your time when building and creating your channel.

Most of the information below was taken from slides presented from the panel, so this language may overlap language that is currently a part of Twitch’s educational workshops.

So What Are The Requirements To Become A Partner?

In order to become a partner of Twitch, all applicants must meet all three requirements within the same 30 day period, excluding Premieres, Reruns and Subscriber Streams

• Stream for 25 hours
• Stream on 12 different days
• Average of 75 CCVs (concurrent viewership)

While the idea of maintaining these stats for new streamers may be daunting, the idea is to pace yourself and not to solely focus on the numbers, but to redirect that focus to your community. Ultimately, you want to make sure that you’re building your community and being authentic and passionate about the content you are creating, the numbers and audience will organically rise as long as you are enjoying what you are doing! 

Selecting Your Categories

Choose categories you think best suits your interest and skills, and stream in them consistently. And while consistency is important, you don’t have to be pegged to stream in one category.  In fact, Twitch discourages this! The Twitch team wants you to stream in more than one category to help expand your reach and to give you more options as a streamer to create more creative content for your community.  And don’t stream in big categories for the sake of growth. You can be successful in any category on Twitch.

Setting A Stream Schedule

Fill out your stream schedule in your Creator Dashboard to make it easier for viewers to find and watch your content. A regular schedule lets viewers fit your stream into your routines, and helps discovery by reaching the same group of viewers when you go live. 

Adding Tags 

This may be a familiar process to users who create content on YouTube or have used WordPress as a CMS platform for blogging. Tags are instrumental in helping users find your content.  It’s a form of SEO (search engine optimization) and tells users about your specific stream. Tags make browsing viewers more likely to click on your stream, by giving them more information about your content. 

Promote Your Channel

In a short hook, send live notifications about what you’re streaming. You can verbalize your CTAs (call to actions) by telling your viewers where they can follow your channel and to turn on their notifications. And don’t forget to let them know when the next time they can tune in and keep them posted on your streaming schedule. 

The Twitch staff does offer some words of wisdom for the path to partnership.

The best time to apply is when you are feeling really invested in streaming and confident in the community you’ve built. Use your application to pitch yourself and your community and link your social media if you have them. And most importantly, if you were denied partnership, read the email why you were denied and apply those changes to your channel.