Behind the scenes at the popular live streaming group “Tomás’ Test Kitchen.” Image via CNET

Live videos are generally reserved for high-profile political news events, gaming, or natural disasters. However, there are a small percentage out there making a living simply by showing people something interesting about his or her personal life. Is this just because they got lucky or is there a decent market out there to generate a sustainable revenue? This article covers what makes live streaming so popular, and how to make it a genuine stream of income.

Livestreaming — Just A Flash In The Pan?

Live streaming — still popular or is it cooling off? Image via StreamHash

We first need to dig into why live video actually makes money. When YouTube started paying people creating videos when ads were activated, content creators started jumping on board in hopes of making good money. Recently however, people are wanting more “real” footage. Sites such as gaming giant Twitch slowly grew, with viewers tipping live streamers and creating a new trend in online income.

Big media companies also started investing heavily in making content for live platforms, but everyday broadcasters kept accessing equally large audiences by creating engaging content. According to Facebook, one in every five videos on its platform is a live broadcast, and “tipping” is still on the rise even in 2017.

Total Tip received during each quarter. Image via StreamLabs

From professional gamers to makeup artists, people can turn live streaming into their full-time job with relative ease. Streamer Just_Seum on Twitch is actually a stay-at-home mom named Samantha, who earns enough from donations to help support her family.

“It brings communities in where you can kind of get to know the people who are watching you at the same time as you are creating your content,” she says.

So how does someone go from hitting that record button to receiving his or her first paycheck in the mail? Well luckily there are a few options available, which makes live streaming accessible for almost anyone with suitable recording equipment.

Going From Record to Revenue

Brian Fanzo (iSocialFanz) using live streaming to promote his brand image. Image via iSocialFanz

Now that we understand that livestreaming is here to stay, we need to see what options live streamers have in order to optimize the amount of revenue they can receive.

Anyone can start streaming by holding up a phone. Once you start adding in multiple camera angles or screen-in-screen options for gaming, it gets a bit more complex. Essentially it all comes down to how easily people can send their monetary appreciations to you, either via the platform or from a secondary source.

Subscriptions

Twitch got in the game early

For streamers, subscriptions are an important tool to help grow their community and build steady income from their channel. One-time donations can do a lot for a streamer — for some streamers, it may be a primary source of income. But, if you’re a regular streamer and you have a dedicated audience, you can open yourself up to monthly subscriptions. These allow you to capitalize on a core audience for income without necessarily alienating newcomers.

Twitch, Mixer, Smashcast, and Picarto all have in-house monthly subscription services, which allow audience members to pay a monthly fee to support the streamer.

For a less platform-specific solution, Patreon is the next best alternative. Patreon patrons can pledge a specific fee per month, which works the same way as a subscription. Patreon allows the creator to set what kind of rewards, if any, their patrons receive by pledging, which makes it ideal for connecting with an audience. It has seen a huge rise in popularity too since the demonetization dilemma with YouTube.

Donations

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Donations have seen a huge growth since the release of platforms such a Twitch, where Tipping (donations) continues to climb to $100M in donations for the year, and it has now doubled what was processed in 2015.

Twitch’s donation, or tip system is in the form of Bits. Viewers pay for partnered or affiliated streamers to receive a certain number of Bits, with Twitch splitting the revenue between itself and the streamer. Viewers send messages with their Bits which stand out from the rest of the chat.

Tip Volume (in millions). Via Streamlabs

YouTube on the hand uses Super Chat, which lets viewers pay a small fee to get their chat message pinned to the top of the comment section for a select amount of time.

Then there are new options starting to emerge — by using cryptocurrency as a form of payment. Platforms like the upcoming StreamIn service will easily allow streamers to receive tokens from their fans as thanks, which can then later be turned into FIAT currency such as US dollars.

Sponsorships

G FUEL has become a prominent sponsor for many live-stream gamers. via Youtube

“Sponsorships” are defined as custom sponsorship opportunities, where a sponsor works with a streamer independently of the streaming platform. While it might take a while for live streamers to become recognised as a legitimate channel, sponsors might reach out to them, providing regular or once-off income to promote their brand.

Sponsorships are sometimes possible with smaller broadcasts that would have a hard time attracting conventional advertising. However, it is a long-term venture and can be difficult to set up.

Advertising

Not the most popular, but ads can help to monetize your videos. Image via Myles Sanford

Then there is advertising, which we have become accustomed to it thanks to media giant YouTube. Seen as almost primitive now in nature, it is still popular as the viewer doesn’t actually have to spend anything in order to view the content.

Facebook Live and Periscope allow pre-roll and mid-roll ads on their livestreams, but it’s not available to just everyone — you’ll need a relatively large audience (300 viewers on FB Live, for example) before you’ll get the option to put ads in your streams.

My previous experience YouTube ad revenue during my early years made me realize that you only start receiving money after around 10,000 views. Following this, having an average of 10,000 views per video and 5–10 videos per month, I was only bringing in a maximum of $500 a month during 2013.

It is definitely recommended to try out, however YouTube is slowly clamping down on monetizing videos, making even harder now to receive any revenue from this method. Many streamers also run ad-free streamers to encourage viewers to support more via tipping or subscriptions instead.

Other

Finally, there are also other sources of income for streamers. These include:

Subscription tools for non-partners (such as Gamewisp, Patreon etc);

Custom sponsorships or retainers through eSports organizations or Streamer groups (such as TSM, Main Menu etc);

Consulting gigs, such as coaching, art, software development, game promotion, or brand ambassadors.

Conclusion

It is great to see that people are taking interest into wanting media that is not controlled by anyone or any particular organisation. Luckily for these people, there options out there available to suit their needs to give their viewers optimal viewing pleasure.