Contributors: Galen Herbst de Cortina, Lowco, SeriouslyClara, StreamerSquare, TheLadyFriend1

What to expect in this course:

Sponsorships and affiliate programs are excellent sources for generating income as a content creator.

Developing multiple income streams is critical for becoming a full-time creator and having active sponsorship deals or passive affiliate revenue can make all the difference. While sponsorships sound super alluring, some companies will take advantage of the terminology to dress up a basic affiliate program. It’s important that you are equipped with the knowledge to understand the difference between these two terms so you can make the right decisions for your channel and career.

There’s nothing wrong with affiliate programs, both affiliate offers and sponsorship deals have their unique pros and cons.

seriouslyclara

She/Her

Clara has worked in influencer relations and strategy for years, supporting game studios and content creators by maintaining strong relationships and a firm grasp of needs on both sides. Her experience ranges from broader agency work to in-house consultancy. She is currently the Influencer Strategist at Devolver Digital and Director of the Vancouver Twitch community events.

“If your viewers want you to succeed, they will make your transition to more business-centric activities smoother – for instance, sponsored streams and other brand deals. Conversely, the lack of cultivating a healthy audience who will support your business goals will turn away sponsors, as they will see the severe dip in performance metrics when you stream anything outside your main game or take note of unchecked toxic behaviour in your chat.”

Course Goals:
  1. Let’s breakdown sponsorships vs affiliates and show you what the difference truly is
  2. Learn how to protect yourself from scams in the industry
  3. Discover your value as a creator and how to determine your compensation amounts

One of the biggest debates in the creator space revolves around working for exposure. Is working for exposure okay? Should you be demanding payment for every opportunity that comes your way? We’ll discuss this in our course, or check out this video from a previous episode of The Stream Scene.

Sponsorship Vs. Affiliate

As a streamer, it is incredibly important to have a few revenue streams to be a profitable channel. One of the most common revenue sources after some stream development is sponsorships. Some may not know the difference between affiliate and sponsorship nor what these deals can entail. Understanding the differences will help you not get taken advantage of.  Compensation The first, and biggest thing that differentiates a sponsorship and affiliate program is the way you are paid or rewarded for the promotion you provide the brand. Affiliate programs typically provide you with a referral code or link to generate commissions on sales. A sponsorship will typically pay you an agreed-upon amount of money for the promotion so you know upfront how much you’re getting for the work you’re doing. Affiliates typically require some sales techniques alongside a larger audience to make a decent amount of money. If you push products that you are truly passionate about that align with your audience, affiliate programs can become a solid, reoccurring passive revenue generator. The Amazon Associates Program is a fantastic affiliate program to sign up for, as you can buy almost anything on Amazon, and it’s a trusted and well-known site. Expectations A lot of the time the expectations from the brands are also different. A sponsorship will typically have specific requirements of the creator for the promotion they are paying for. Affiliate programs are often more relaxed on the requirements as the advertiser isn’t paying for anything until you make a sale. It’s up to you how far you want to go to push an affiliate program. Sponsorships can require anything from a time length of a stream, posts on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc, a panel below your stream, commands or timer messages, logos on the screen, or whatever else...

The rest of this course is available to Premium Members.

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