Twitch is a social video platform for gamers, video game culture, and creative arts. Twitch grew to dominate the online-game-streaming industry. The site has given rise to a collection of streaming celebrities, some of whom earn up to $100,000 annually from their streams.

For streamers, accepting donations from viewers is often the primary way to earn income. When viewers find a particular streamer that they enjoy viewing, they can donate to them, so that they can continue to stream more often or on a full-time basis.

Ways to Set Up Donations on Twitch

Limepay is the best and flexible tool for freelancers and small businesses to receive payment. Limepay is easy to use because of its easy user interface and a lot of amazing features.

Here is the complete guide:

Step 1: Create an account on limepay by clicking on the “Sign Up” button.

Fill all the particulars in the “Sign Up” page with all the required details.

Step 2: Now jump on your limepay dashboard.

Step 3: In order to receive payments through limepay you need to connect a Stripe account. Similarly, this is applicable for receiving cryptocurrency payments through coinbase.

Step 4: By connecting Stripe, you’re now ready to create your payme page after clicking on “Create Payment link now”

Step 5: Set-up your payme page as shown in the below screenshot.

Step 6: Finally, the payme link is generated and you are good to integrate this payme link on your twitch account.

Step 7: Open a new tab and sign in with your Twitch account. Then click on the channel button.

Step 8: Scroll to your channel and turn on the edit panel.

Step 9: Click the giant “+” symbol located on the screen.

Step 10: Click on add a text or image panel. Be sure to fill out all the relevant information including a panel title, add image, payme URL and descriptions.

Step 11: Once you have added all the information click on “submit”.

There is a variety of third-party services that Twitch streamers can connect to their accounts to receive donations and activate additional features such as alerts.

Donorbox is an easy-to-use donation software that allows you to accept donations by credit card, PayPal, and low fee ACH bank transfers. Over 30,000 nonprofit organizations use the Donorbox fundraising software.

You can add a donate button to your Twitch channel by linking a secure Donorbox donation page.

How to get a Twitch Donation Button in 6 Easy Steps:

Step 1: Save an image to use as a donation button. You can save the Donorbox donate button below or choose another image that you like. If you’d like to customize the color and the size of the Donorbox donate button shown below, head to your Donorbox dashboard and select “Donate Button.” Scroll down to “PNG Image Buttons”.

Here you can change the size and the color of the image for a more customized image. Right-click to save the desired image (preferably to your desktop).

Now that you have saved an image to use as your donate button, let’s get it set up.

Step 2: To link your Donorbox donation form, start by clicking on your Twitch username, and then select “Channel.”

Scroll down until you see “Edit Panels” and switch it from “Off” to “On.”

Once you have done this, a large “+” sign will appear.

Step 3: Click on the large “+” sign, and then click on “Add a Text or Image Panel,” and enter a title for this panel, such as “Donate Here”.

Select “Add Image” and upload the donate button image that you saved earlier (to your desktop).

Step 4: Head to your Donorbox dashboard and copy the link to your secure donation page.

Step 5: Paste this link into the box that reads “Image Links to”. Type a description then hit “Submit.” Turn the “Edit Panels” function off and you’re done!

Step 6: Your donate button will appear on your Twitch stream and you can start to collect online donations! These donations will go directly to your connected bank account.

3. Twitch Bits

As a response to smaller streamers struggling to sustain themselves financially, Twitch introduced the Twitch Bits in an attempt to formalize the donation economy. This feature is called “Cheering.”

Bits are, in essence, the Twitch currency. Viewers can buy Bits “starting at $1.40 for 100,” and then spend away while supporting their favorite streamers. A cheer is an animated chat emoji. Twitch currently only accepts payments via Amazon payments and PayPal. In the US, Twitch also rolled out a feature where viewers can get Bits for activity on Twitch without spending cash. In this case, the activity is watching a 30-second interactive ad.

To enable cheering as a Twitch partner:

Navigate to the Partner Settings tab of the dashboard. Scroll down about halfway, and under the Cheer section, click Enable Cheering with Bits. Underneath this section, you will also see configurations for setting up the Cheering experience for your channel (Twitch suggests you set your Cheering configurations before enabling Cheering) Viewers can now use Bits on your channel. This triggers a special audio and visual alert onscreen.

As a Twitch streamer, you can ask your viewers to donate directly to you by using the email address associated with your own PayPal account. You can also simply set up a PayPal.me link which streamlines the entire process. The simplest way, however, is setting up a PayPal donation button.

How to get a Paypal Donation Button on Twitch in 10 Steps:

Step 1: Open your PayPal website and sign in with your account. Click on the Profile option and then on “my selling tools”.

Step 2: Go to PayPal Buttons section and then click “Update” option. After this, click on the link asking to “create new button”.

Step 3: Select the type of your Button, choose “Donation” from the list and then type your Twitch Channel name. If you want to create a customized button that matches your Twitch channel then click “Customize Text or Appearance” option.

Step 4: Now go to the preview section and right-click on the donation button. From the drop-down menu, select “Save Image As” option. Save it to your desktop.

Step 5: Choose your donation currency type and then hit the “Create Button” option. Go to Email Tab and follow “Select Code” option. Copy this code.

Step 6: Open a new tab and sign in with your Twitch account. Select your Twitch Username and then choose ”Channel” option.

Step 7: Move to the admin button and select edit. Use the “+ “sign to add a new panel and then title it “Donation”.

Step 8: Hit “Add Image” option and then choose the PayPal donation button. You saved it to your desktop earlier (step 4).

Step 9: Hit “Done”; now choose the “Image Links to” option on the screen and paste the donation button code here; you have already copied it from PayPal.

Step 10: Describe the purpose of donations to your viewers and subscribers. Go to the “Admin” button and press View. You will now be able to view your new button below Twitch Stream.

Should I Still Be Receiving Donations on Twitch With All the Scams?

Particularly when it comes to receiving donations via PayPal, Twitch streamers have become increasingly worried about trolls and scammers.

In 2016, someone named iNexus_Ninja donated $11,500 to a Twitch streamer Lea “LegendaryLea”. iNexus_Ninja turned out to be an 18-year-old kid who had planned to wait a month and cancel the transactions through PayPal, by which time the streamer would have spent some of the cash. In this particular case, PayPal refused to pay him back, but many Twitch streamers have experienced the same, albeit to a smaller extent and with a less favorable outcome.

There is really no way to 100% protect yourself from scams. Yet, most Twitch streamers rely on their donations to survive, especially if they have smaller channels. Once their channels become bigger, they often move to Twitch subscriptions, which are more reliable.

Tips on How to Encourage Your Viewers to Make a Donation