How to Make Money Streaming: 8 Ways To Get Paid By Live Streaming In 2021
Since the pandemic started, a lot of things have changed. And one of them is people starting to make money live streaming!
Yes, you heard that right!
Individuals have started to find “live stream to make money” as an ideal option today. And guess what? Most of them actually make money live streaming!
I guess you already know that!
So, if you’re reading this, there could be two reasons,
- You’ve already started to live stream videos and you just need some quick tips on how to make money live streaming
- You’re totally new to this concept and you want to know how to make money with videos
- Either way, this read is all you’re going to need! I’ve come up with the top 8 ways to make money by live streaming here!
So, let’s get started, shall we?
Top 8 Ways To Make Money By Live Streaming
There are actually a lot of ways to make money live streaming. But in this read, I’ve listed out the most important ones — the ones you can pull off with ease!
1. Getting Fan Donation or Tips
Every now and then, people who like your live streaming videos show their appreciation by giving tips. And these people are loyal fans who don’t mind spending a few dollars every time you go live!
Most of the live-streaming platforms today have this option where your fans can donate tips. Some platforms even have their own currencies to create a gamification-like experience!
Creators can exchange these virtual currencies for real ones when they get them!
Here are some platforms that allow fans to donate tips to the creators (and how they do it)!
Twitch
Twitch is a popular American live video streaming platform where the users can cheer for the creator using “Bits”, the virtual currency!
You can make money live streaming for every “Bit” the audience use (a percent of the money made by the platform is shared).
YouTube
The famous video platform YouTube allows users to pay via their tipping service called “Super Chat”. Users can pin their messages in the live streaming chat window using the tips.
Glad Facebook came up with this tipping feature which allows a lot of users to make money live streaming.
Facebook allows users to tip creators using Stars, the platform’s virtual good. And you make a cent out of every star that is purchased and spent.
So, that’s the first way to make money live streaming. Let’s move on to the next one!
2. Subscription Model
Pretty sure you know what a subscription model is! But still, a subscription model is where the user has to pay money every month to gain access to your content.
In fact, the subscription model is one of the best ways to make money live streaming! Creators in OnlyFans are making considerable revenue using the subscription payment model.
The bottom line is that when you’ve grabbed the interest of your fans, they are not going to hold back from enrolling themselves in a subscription plan! Also, remember that the subscription model is going to work out only if you live stream videos very often!
Platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Facebook and Mixer have the paid subscription programs feature within!
3. Live Pay-Per-View Access
If you’re not okay with streaming live videos very often, then live pay-per-view access is the option to go with! Because no fan of yours would want to jump in for a subscription model and continue without getting to see any content!
Live pay-per-view access is when your audience makes a one-time payment to watch the videos you live stream. Platforms like Vimeo come with live pay-per-view streaming options. Patreon, on the other hand, can be integrated with YouTube or Twitch, or Facebook!
Speaking of Patreon, it is one of the well-renowned platforms that allows users to make money live streaming. Also, there’s the recently shot to fame platform — OnlyFans!
4. Re-Broadcast Recorded Session as Live
Sometimes, your live streaming session cannot go as planned!
There aren’t going to be many users to view the content and the revenue is almost equal to zero!
That doesn’t mean all your efforts are in vain! You can simply re-broadcast the recorded live session as live sometime later!
This not only helps you save huge time & effort but can also help you make the deserved money for your efforts — it’s a win-win situation you’ve got here!
5. Insert Ads Into Your Live Streaming
I mean, why not ads?
Ads are always a good way to earn income and when your fans start to like what you stream, they aren’t going to mind the occasional ads you come up with!
Quick Fact: Stats and reports reveal that YouTube now makes at least $2 billion from ads every month!
Also, the best thing about ads is it as an additional source of income where your users don’t have to pay for you. Instead, you get paid by the sponsors when they watch their ads.
Most of the time, ads are run before the beginning of a video and sometimes in the middle if your live streaming video is quite lengthy.
Popular platforms that offer this option are YouTube and Facebook Live. YouTube goes extensive with pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads, display and overlay ads!
But Facebook, on the other hand, gives the option to insert ads during the middle of the stream if you meet the criteria — you should be having a certain amount of people watching your stream.
6. Sell Permission to Broadcast Your Content
Let’s be a bit frank here!
This is not going to happen immediately. You need to be live streaming at least for a couple of months and your fan following should be quite high when compared to most of the other live streaming people out there!
Once when this happens, popular media distributing channels like TV/radio stations and other OTT platforms would come forward to stream your content. You can give permissions to them for a price!
7. Receive Sponsorship From Businesses
Again, this is going to work out only if you have a substantial fan base and your live stream videos are being watched.
When businesses start to notice, you’ll start getting random proposals asking whether you’d do a product promotion for them.
This is your opportunity. Don’t hesitate to reach out to people with your expectations. If they are not reaching out, you have to take the initiative. Show your metrics and strike a deal with popular brands!
You can simply talk about their products or even conduct a quick demo during the live stream. This is hands-down one of the best ways to make money live streaming.
8. Promote Your Own Merchandise
Let’s just say this is the method you should be trying out last! Because you’ll not only be investing a considerable amount of money but also you’re going to spend a lot of time doing this!
So make sure that you’re already an expert in the above-mentioned live streaming monetization methods.
When you’re planning to promote your own merchandise, you should have an online store set up to sell your merchandise. And make sure that your merchandise store is fully functional and does not have any glitches.
Because when people watch your live streaming videos and decide to buy your merchandise, you really don’t to mess up at this point!
So, yes! Those mentioned above are the best ways to make money live streaming! Make sure you follow the best practices and produce quality content. You really don’t have to worry about the revenue!
Here’s something additional for you!
If you haven’t started live streaming yet, think about this!
Rather than choosing an existing live streaming service like Patreon or YouTube, it’s better to create your own live streaming platform.
It’s because,
- You get to own 100% of your earnings
- You can grow yourself as a brand individually
- You can make business decisions without having to compromise anything
Since there are a lot of white label live streaming solutions out there, creating a live streaming website for yourself is going to be no biggie! The process takes somewhere around a week and is going to cost you somewhere between $1500 and $2000.
And that’s pretty much with this read! You know how to make money live streaming and there’s a little bonus as well!
It’s time we wrap it up!
Final Few Words
Live streaming is an ideal way to make money today! The subscription-based social media trend is gaining popularity these days and you can make good revenue provided you crack the above methods well!
Also, drop your social handles in the comments section! We’d love to take a look at your live streaming videos!
That having said, Cheers!
