btw this is NOT an ad for my stream, I stream in french haha. you can come by I’ll say hello but I’ll probably go back to french in no time if you don’t ask specific questions so no point for you.

For starter, I'ld like to remind you that amazon bought twitch (search the internet "why boycott amazon" if you don't get my point)

twitch takes a 50% cut on all your revenues, therefore probably amazon ...
also amazon trains its IA with your stream/chat
(you can deactivate there https://www.twitch.tv/settings/security )

but then why twitch ?

I’m by no mean a big streamer and I still don't really understand twitch culture, parasocial is still so weiird to me, trauma dumping is scary, people on the internet are unhinged...

but in these days where you don’t know if real people made the thing you see on your phone, following some one projects live is nice. You get to appreciate how long things actually take to make and also you can have a real discussion (depending on the delay & the chat rules) with creators.
I like that I’m talking WITH people rather than AT people like most “social” network services those days (kinda like rn too …).

And one appealing thing of twitch is

as long as you don’t get affiliate, you have no ads

and such a big platform allowing us to have NO ADS on our content without the use of any adblocker... it's becoming rare.

It’s a bit tricky though, as twitch make it look like it’s the normal thing to do, and a huge opportunity for you. I’ld argue it’s not.
Once you accept affiliate you have access to new tools useful for your stream yeah but you get ads, you CAN NOT turn them off and you can request to get rid of affiliate but it’s a pain, there is no unaffiliate button.

ad revenues are peanuts, and a bunch of small streamers told me regretting affiliating too soon/at all. As a small streamer without a strong community, an ad popping up as you try to join the stream might make people go away (and twitch ads are getting longer and longer) and ads mid stream might happen in the middle of a conversation wich is super annoying for both sides.

Some streamers told me that you can get rid of all ads, I’m sorry, they’re wrong. you at least get pre-rolls.

twitch also lowered the basic requierments to unlock affiliate, which prove they want more ads and so … more money.

The affiliation do give you some perks thoug that are as follows :

  • Cheering with Bits

  • Subscriptions

  • Ad Revenue

  • Transcodings options as available

  • Subscriber Streams

  • Subscriber-Only VODs and archives

  • Increased VOD storage from 7 days to 14 days

  • Eligible to create stories on Twitch.

  • Customizable Channel Points

  • Polls

  • Access to Instant Emote Uploads.

  • Sub and Founders badge

here are alternatives I’ve found to most of these “perks” to stay ad-free

Cheering with Bits

bits is like tips, it’s a one time donation people give money to help the streamer or get their attention most of the time with Text-to-speech …

  • Ko-fi is a platform takes between 0 and 5% on donation.
    and you can connect your twitch to it, they have a widget that will still show donation on stream + a text to speech option. You can also use streamerbot for more personalized options

downside : you might get access to your donator identity if you go the extramile to go check in paypal (not sure) or stripe (we checked and I could see their name)

  • streamlabs also offers tipping, I didn't try so I don't know the fees. depending on the payment platform you may get access to donators name once again.

  • streamelements also offers tipping, did not try either but if viewers pay via streamelements pay it seems it only shows their pseudo (but I only had paypal as a payment option when I tried to set it up ...)

(I know tipeeestream exists but I'm not a fan, the ceo had some "crazy" claims to me, also website is not well rated on trustpilots for what it's worth)

Subscriptions

subscription are monthly donations, that gives the viewers some perks : subcriber only emotes, no ads, an subscriber icon before their name.

basic subcription is 5e but twitch takes half. You could ask only 3 on those plateforms and it would be the same for you and less hars for your viewers

  • once again, ko-fi offers membership if you accept to give them a bit more of your earning (still not at much as twitch, its something like 8% I believe) and you still have the widget so the donator get their shoutout.

  • patreon memberships, patreon is getting more and more known so people tend to trust it, fees are about 15%.
    the downside is that they don’t have a twitch widget but it seems that you can get one through streamerbot.

  • ulule, even if it was originally a platform for crowdfunding, they have a monthly support option now. You don’t have a widget to get on stream notifications neither but you can give out discord roles for acces to exclusive rooms eventually... and honestly if people need a shoutout to feel the need to support you ew ...
    fees are about 10%.

  • ??? hahaha it seems they are adding/added a membership option if you pay for pro, I'm writing this post a week in leaflet I'm still in honymoon phase so take this info with a pinch of salt and do your research ...

2 more options I don't really like :

  • tipeeestream, same as before

  • substack ... if you're on leaflet I feel like you know why I want to avoid substack lol

downside :

  • might be able to acces your viewers' infos on the payment platform website

  • your subs don’t have exclusivity on things during lives (no icon, no emotes, etc…), but you could gave them other perks. You can give them acess to exclusive content on a blog or a discord, to exclusive art, exclusive polls, etc … more meaningful content IMO but also I feel like it’s healthier to not segregate your own chat between the rich and the poor… keep the option for people with money to support you on a support-exclusive platform.

Ad revenue

nothing, thats the point… f*ck ads
get money from people who wants to. don’t torture them with ads.

Transcodings options as available

ngl I have no idea for this but also I don’t know how useful it is ..
I believe (but I’m probably wrong lol ) that it’s to offer different quality of screen resolutions for viewer with poor internet but also some affiliate streamer I follow try to set it and couldn’t. It seems it’s actually only for popular affiliate and partners.

Subscriber Streams

  • patreon offer the same perk

  • i’m not sure but live streaming unlisted on youtube would do the same no ? (and you can block ads on youtube with ad block/ublock)

  • discord, if you use ko-fi or ulule you can auto give a discord role to people, and then set up a voice channel where only this role can access. (but also depends on discord future …)

  • stoat ? it’s an alternative to discord I haven’t tried yet, but from what I heard it’s really the same.

Subscriber-Only VODs and archives

  • make a youtube channel for your VODS and offer membership there or unlist the video and just share the link to a place only your subscriber have access. yes there are ads on youtube but they are easily blockable with ad blocks so it feels like if your viewer really wanted they could.

  • peertube, dailymotion, any other video platform honestly.

It would also increase your VOD storage time to indefinite instead of the 14days, but I do think it’s nice to not saturate the internet with content. I’m sorry I’m gonna be eco anxious for a minute, but yeah data center are full enough of our shit.

Eligible to create stories on Twitch.

… i mean… any other platform, most people nowadays have insta anyway.

Customizable Channel Points

Soooo this one ngl I'm not sure, my solution was to make my stream overly interactive with streamerbot to compensate but lurkers end up with nothing

Polls

https://chat.vote/

may also to prediction, I never do polls, my stream is a totalitarian state and only my word counts LOL.

Access to Instant Emote Uploads.

  • betterttv, up to 50 emotes. it’s my fav because they accepted all my emotes

  • 7tv, the most popular one up to 1000. I don’t know why they have not accept all the emotes I have uploaded :(

  • frankerFacez, up to 50 emotes. I think the moderation was so long I forgot about it hahah but it seems they have accepted 2 of my emotes (not sure how many I uploaded)

downside:

  • forces people to install 3rd party app, but a lot of people already use them.

  • your emotes are only available on other people channel if people add them to their chat.

upside:

  • A lot of people make their emote public so you can have a lot of them for your stream for free until you have enough money to pay an artist fo your own personal emotes.

  • way more emotes from the start

All the emotes I make are public if they get accepted, if you’ld like to add any to your stream go ahead (you probably have to look for kakimoisi).

Sub and Founders badge

I have nothing for that. but once again it's social segregation. people may not have the money to support you and it should not be reminded to them everytime someone with more money talk in chat ...imo

there are a lot a free badges from events, it's enough.

Charity stream

https://streamlabscharity.com/

made for streaming so there are alert box and donation bar and every thing but also can be linked to streamerbot for more customisation
even used for events with streamers who are affiliates/partners.

I think the point of most social network paltform is… creating a network, a community that will support you.

So I may be delusional but I want to believe that offering quality content exempt from ads to those people will be more rewarding than 2$ ad revenue BUT WHAT DO I KNOW ?

nothing.

have a nice day, touch grass, pet dogs

Kaki