After much thought, you too have decided to open a channel on Twitch and broadcast live on the famous platform owned by Amazon. After successfully completing the registration process, you have customized your channel both graphically and by activating the various features offered by Twitch: unfortunately, you couldn’t find the right option to enable subs, i.e. subscriptions that allow other users to support your channel in exchange for certain benefits.
That’s the way it is, isn’t it? Then let me give you a hand and explain how to enable subs on Twitch. First of all, I’ll explain what are the minimum requirements to apply for Twitch membership and to correctly fill out the application form for the program in question, which is necessary to enable subscriptions. Then, you’ll also find the necessary indications to manage the subs, activating the various options to be dedicated to your subscribers, and monitoring the revenues derived from the subscriptions received.
How’s that? Is that really what you wanted to know? Well, let’s not dwell on it any longer and see how to proceed. Everything is explained below. Enjoy reading and, above all, have fun!
Preliminary information
Before we get into the heart of this tutorial and explain in detail how to activate subs on Twitch, it might be useful for you to know what kind of users can activate subscriptions for their Twitch channel and what are the minimum requirements to do so.
First of all, you should know that in order to activate subs on Twitch you need to be part of the affiliate program of the famous video streaming platform. In fact, Twitch affiliates can start earning money by accepting subscriptions from their viewers and activating other options, such as donating bits and airing ads during live broadcasts.
If you’re wondering what are the minimum requirements to apply for Twitch affiliation, know that you just need to have a channel with at least 50 followers and have totaled in the last 30 days at least 8 hours of broadcasting for 7 or more different days while maintaining an average of 3 or more simultaneous viewers, including any hosts and raids.
If, then, you’ve just signed up on Twitch and can’t wait to create your own community and start earning with subs, all you have to do is start streaming on Twitch and try to achieve the requirements I’ve just mentioned, so that you can become an affiliate of the famous video streaming platform. In this regard, you might find my guide on how to grow on Twitch helpful.
How to activate subs on Twitch
As mentioned in the opening lines of this guide, to activate subs on Twitch you need to have reached the minimum requirements to participate in the affiliate program of the famous platform owned by Amazon.
To verify it, connect to the main page of Twitch and, if you haven’t done it yet, log in to your account: click on the Login button located in the upper right corner, enter your data in the fields Username and Password and press the Login button again.
Now, click on your photo located in the upper right corner, choose the Channel option from the menu that opens and, in the new screen that appears, select the item Author Dashboard. Then, click on the Detailed information item and click on the Goals and How to become an affiliate options, to view your channel statistics and find out what goals you still need to achieve in order to become a Twitch affiliate.
Once you have achieved all the goals mentioned in the How to become an affiliate section of your Twitch channel, you will receive an invitation from the platform’s staff and you will be able to fill out the registration form to join the Twitch affiliate program.
To do so, go back to the Author Dashboard section of your channel, select the Detailed information, Goals, and How to become an affiliate options, and click the Completed item.
On the Payment Registration screen, enter the required information in the Channel Name, First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Email and Confirm Email fields, while in the Permanent Address section specify your residential information in the Country, Street and House Number, City, Postcode fields; finally, click the Continue button.
Now, click on the I agree button to accept the Twitch affiliate agreement and, in the new page that opens, select the Start royalty tax questionnaire option to fill out the form with your tax information. Then, enter the required data in the Data Reference section (it’s the same data required previously in the Payment Registration screen) and press the Open Royalty Tax Questionnaire form button.
At this point, fill out the form in question by entering your tax information in the User Information and Tax Identification Information sections, making sure to check the box next to the option I do not have a US TIN (if this is true, of course) and enter your tax identification number in the TIN Value field.
Then click on the Continue button, select your country of tax residence from the drop-down menu, check the box to use the electronic signature as a validation of the information provided, enter your first and last name in the Signature field and click on the Save and Preview button.
In the new screen that appears, make sure that the 0% option is next to the applicable withholding rate (if not, you will have to fill out the form again, as you probably entered some wrong information) and press the Exit from questionnaire button, to return to the Twitch Author Dashboard section.
At this point, if you filled out the previous forms correctly, you should see the words Completed next to Royalty Tax Questionnaire and Services Tax Questionnaire. Then, press the Continue button, select the Set Payment Method option and click the Edit button, to indicate the payment method on which you will receive the revenue related to your earnings on Twitch (e.g. PayPal, direct bank account credit, bank transfer, etc.).
Once you have done this, click on the Next button and, within a few hours, you will receive confirmation from Twitch that you have successfully registered in the affiliate program and, consequently, that you have activated the subs for your channel.
If, however, you’re wondering if it’s possible to do all this from smartphones and tablets using the Twitch app for Android devices (also available on alternative stores, for devices without Google services) and iPhone/iPad, I’m sorry to say that the answer is negative. The only way to do this, at least at the time I’m writing this guide, is to connect to Twitch from your browser, activating the desktop view of the site.
To do so, launch the web browser installed on your device and connect to the Twitch main page. Now, if you’re using Chrome on Android, press on the three dots icon located in the top right corner and select the Desktop Site option from the menu that pops up. On the other hand, if you have an iPhone/iPad and you’re using Safari, tap on the AA icon in the address bar and select Request Desktop Site.
At this point, all you have to do is log into Twitch and follow the directions I provided above to fill out the Twitch Affiliate Program membership form from your computer.
How to manage subs on Twitch
Once you’ve completed the process of signing up for Twitch’s affiliate program, subs will automatically be active on your channel, and users who want them can start subscribing. That said, you should know that by accessing the Affiliate section of your Twitch channel you can customize the name of subs and indicate the rewards dedicated to subscribed viewers.
To do so, log in to the main Twitch page, click on your photo, top right, and select the Author Dashboard option from the opened menu. In the new screen that appears, click on the Settings and Affiliate options and locate the Subscriptions section.
Then, click on the Subscription Names heading, enter the names to be assigned to the three types of subscriptions available on Twitch in the fields Subscription Name Level 1, Subscription Name Level 2, and Subscription Name Level 3, and press the Save Changes button to save the changes.
On the other hand, by accessing the Loyalty emblems section, you can choose the emblems that will be assigned to your subscribers and will be visible next to their name in your channel chat. To upload custom badges, select the Basic option in the Manage badges drop-down menu and click the Upload image option, to upload the images of your interest.
If you wish, you can “reward” users who have been subscribed for several months with different emblems: in this case, select the option you’re interested in (e.g. 2 months, 3 months, 4 months, etc.) from the Manage emblems drop-down list and repeat the procedure I described above. Finally, click on the Upload emblem and Save buttons to upload your custom emblems.
In the Subscriptions section, you can enable additional options dedicated to users who have activated a sub on your channel.
- Display without ads: allows you to disable ad breaks during live broadcasts for subscribers;
- Ignore slow mode: allows subscribers to continue chatting normally even when the chat is set to slow mode;
- Subscriber-only chat: if enabled, only subscribers will be able to post chat messages. I recommend keeping this option disabled, especially if you have a small Twitch channel and are trying to stand out. Keep in mind that this option can still be activated temporarily during live broadcasts on Twitch.
- Subscriber-only archives: by enabling this option, only subscribers can see saved live streams. To learn more, you can check out my guide on how to save live streams on Twitch.
Among the benefits you can dedicate to your subscribers there are also custom emoticons to be used in chat, which you can set from the Author Dashboard of your Twitch channel, by pressing on the Spectator Rewards and Emoticons options located in the sidebar on the left.
In the new screen that appears, in the Subscriber Emoticon section, click on the + button for the subscription level you are interested in, press the up arrow icon and select the image to upload. Then click on the Upload button and you’re done.
If you have just subscribed to the Twitch affiliate program, you can only upload one custom emoticon. As the number of users subscribed to your channel increases, the slots dedicated to customized emoticons will also increase (2 emoticons after 15 subs, 3 emoticons after 25 subs, 4 emoticons after 35 subs, and 5 emoticons after 50 subs). Two additional emoticons will be added to these, one for subscription level 2 and one for subscription level 3. Twitch partners can have a larger number of emoticons.
Another benefit you can offer only to your subscribers is to create clips during your live broadcasts. If you want to enable this option, select the Settings and Stream items in the left sidebar, locate the Clip Settings section, and, after making sure you have enabled clips on your channel by moving the toggle next to Enable Clips from OFF to ON, move the toggle for the Subscribers the Only option from OFF to ON.
Finally, I would like to point out that by clicking on the Detailed information option in the sidebar on the left side of your channel’s Author Dashboard and accessing the Channel Analytics section, you can view the statistics of your channel, including the number of subscriptions received (Subscriptions) and the total revenue (Revenue).
Again, if your intention is to manage your Twitch channel’s subscriptions from smartphones and tablets, you need to connect to Twitch’s official website and activate the desktop view of the site. With that done, to manage your channel’s subscriber options and monitor earnings, all you have to do is follow the directions I just provided to do it from your computer.