June 28, 2016

Partnership Alternatives

When entering the realm of Live Media and becoming a Broadcaster on Twitch there is always one common goal: Become a Twitch Partner. A lot of people seem to underestimate how difficult it can be to gain Partnership status from Twitch this day and age. According to Twitch, there are over 1.5 Million broadcasters on the site and only 11,000 are currently partnered. Many people consider this a one way street – Applicants need to ask themselves, “What can I do for Twitch as a partner that will benefit them more than our current arrangement?” Instead, it seems most people are just looking at ways that Twitch can help them instead. A partnership (in any sense of the word) is supposed to be mutually beneficial thing. The road to become a partner is an absolute grind and has many ups and downs along the way, but there are alternatives for you to have in the meantime.

As of right now there are two popular alternatives to a Twitch partnership: Gamewisp and Patreon. These sites offer a Streamer a temporary “sub button” with monthly incentives and payouts for people “subscribing” to them. There are many pros and cons to both of these sites, so many people are left asking the question “Which one do I choose?” Before making a decision, you need to break down what it is that you want out of these subscriptions and weigh the options of both sites. We will attempt to break down these options for you.

 

GameWisp Benefits: 

  • Multiple Subscription Levels
  • No Money limit needed to withdraw
  • Create loyalty programs to keep your Subscribers engaged
  • Give subscribers early access and exclusive content
  • Manage your Subscribers (know who is subscribing and unsubscribing)
  • Track benefits of each Subscriber
  • On screen alerts via. Twitch Alerts
  • CLR Browser compatible
  • Easily give benefits to your Twitch Subscribers if you get Partnered
  • No additional fee for you or your Twitch Subscribers if you get Partnered
  • GameWisp takes $1 flat per tier regardless of tier price (A $4.99 Tier 1 on GameWisp will actually bring a streamer more money than the standard subscription through Twitch)
  • Support Devs found all over Reddit, and other websites to answer your questions and concerns / Same Day E-mail support.

Patreon Benefits:

  • Multiple Subscription Levels
  • No Money limit needed to withdraw
  • Create loyalty programs to keep your Subscribers engaged
  • Give subscribers early access and exclusive content
  • Manage your Subscribers (know who is subscribing and unsubscribing)
  • Track benefits of each Subscriber
  • On screen alerts via. Third Party Sites (i.e. http://twitch.center/)
  • Same Day E-Mail support

 

So the question remains, with such similar benefits to both sites, which one is the right one for me? It’s going to depend on the type of community you have and the support you have. The biggest downfall in regards to Patreon is their Pledge System. A user may opt to pledge to you on any tier and choose to cancel at any time prior to the end of the month. Pateron takes out all charges and pledges at the end of the month for the Streamer. Gamewisp however offers you the money from a subscription the moment it is processed. On the flip side, if you’re gaining multiple low tier subscriptions ($5-$10) then you will be making more money through Pateron who takes 5-7% of your total at the end of the month. If you have multiple subscribers on a slightly higher end tier, Gamewisp would be the way to go with their flat $1 per tier fee. This also plays into part of Gamewisp enforcing a minimum tier at $1.60 while Pateron has a minimum amount of $1 to become a subscriber/pledge.

Which one do you choose? In the long run Gamewisp is going to be more expensive if you’re getting lower tier subscribers. Gamewisp prides themselves on claiming they offer more in terms of accessibility via. your CLR Browser and Twitch Alerts, which many people already use. Pateron will provide you more money with lower tier subscribers, but they have the option to cancel on you before the end of the month. So, take into consideration the loyalty of your community and the people who are subscribing to you and make the decision that is best for you. Everyone is different and won’t feel a certain program is right for them. In the end both options are going to fill the void for many people until they are able to reach that ultimate Partner status with Twitch.