Can you get donations on twitch ps4? (Start making money on Twitch)

As somebody who streams on a console for fun, I’m regularly asked: Could I get donations on Twitch while streaming on my PS4? I’d never really thought about it before. Donations are easy to set up on PC. But are donations easy to set up, or even possible, on the PS4? Thinking other beginner streamers would be asking the same question, I set out to find an answer…

Can you get Twitch donations on PS4? Yes, you can receive Twitch donations on the PS4. You can receive payment easily by setting up and using Twitch’s Bit System. This will let viewers send you donations in the form of cheers while you game.

Setting up your Twitch account to receive donations while streaming over PS4 is a great way to monetize your gaming. But should you actually ask for donations? Especially if you are a new streamer?

If you do want to ask for donations, I’ll explain how to set up Twitch bits so you can start receiving cash in no time. Let’s take a look at some of these questions in more depth.

Should I ask for Donations?

As you’re here reading this, you’re probably going to answer the question, “Should I ask for donations?” with an answer similar to this:

“Hell yes I should!”

But I’m here to warn you against asking for donations early in your streaming career.

Too many gamers get into streaming for the wrong reasons. The story tends to look something like this…

Bob has been playing games for over 15 years. He loves gaming. And I mean, really loves it. He’s at every midnight launch for every console. Every triple A game is preordered. And, naturally, each is the super special edition. He has all the gaming toys, t-shirts and gadgets you can think of. And he even has a giant stuffed Sonic the hedgehog toy sat in his living room.

Bob is the personification of a hardcore gamer.

Bob thinks he’s absolutely the right candidate for game streaming. Not only because of his love for gaming, but because he knows his way around tech too.

So Bob starts streaming off his console and PC whenever time will permit.

And this is where Bob makes the most common mistake:

He puts making cash first.  

He starts by learning things like, “how to make money from streaming.” or “10 ways to monetize your twitch stream.”

Bob has, unfortunately, got it all backward…

Instead, he should concentrate on learning how to create as much massive value for his future fans as he possibly can.

Unfortunately, because the only thing Bob cares about is the money, he makes none of it.

And so Bob, frustrated and upset, quits the “streaming game” before it ever really started…

If that sounds like it’s you, or could be you, the next bit of information could be the most important info you read on this entire site:

If you want to be a successful streamer forget about the money and commit to creating as much value as streamer as possible for free over the next 2-3 years…

The money will come naturally later.

Why do you think most businesses do not start turning a profit until year 2 or 3? Because their owners know in the first few years you have to concentrate on creating huge value first.

In the case of game streaming, you must not only loving gaming but love the idea of entertaining other people with your gaming. You must commit to learning how to entertain people, how to give them huge value every time they log in to see you.

If you can’t do that, then you need to stop reading now. Find a “get rich quick” scheme or something else instead.

Only after you’ve put your heart and soul into streaming, and gathered a legion of fans, can you start to monetize your stream. You can’t do it the other way around.

So if you are asking the question, “can I ask for donations?”, the answer is yes.

But, if you ask the question, “Should I ask for donations?”, the answer is no, not for now. Instead concentrate on becoming the best streaming you can, offering as much value as you can.

What are Twitch Bit’s and how do I use them to receive donations on PS4?

As a response to smaller streamers struggling to sustain themselves financially, Twitch introduced the Twitch Bits in an attempt to formalize the donation economy. This feature is called “Cheering.”

For the beginner streamer, streaming on Twitch, and earning money, was always hard. Gamers would quickly realize that even with 100 viewers, they’d make little if no money.

This meant Twitch quickly became dependent on a few well-established gamers. Being reliant on a small number of money makers is never a good position to be in for any business.

To combat this, Twitch introduced a currency called Twitch Bits. The “Bit” was designed to create a new economy that would add balance to Twitch and ensure new gamers got some cash for their efforts.

At the time of writing, viewers can buy 100 bits in the US for $1.40 and £1.43 in the UK (Why do we always get screwed over in the UK?).

But how do viewers give bits to a streamer?

Bits are given to a streamer whenever a viewer cheers the streamer in the chat. This is done simply by typing the word “Cheer” followed by the number of bits you want to donate.

For example “cheer 100” would send 100 bits to the streamer.

Now, based on the prices above, you’d think the streamer would recive $1.40 if you donated them 100 bits. But that’s wrong.

You see, Twitch takes anywhere between 25-50% of any transaction on the Twitch platform. So your 100 bits that you bought for $1.40 is actually really only worth $0.70 to most streamers. And $1.05 to the elite streamers.  

Not exactly fair, but I suppose twitch have to make their money somehow.

So as a PS4 player how do you set up Cheering to receive Bits?

To turn on cheering across your Twitch account, do this:

1. Go the PlayStation internet browser, and navigate to the Twitch website.
2. Log in
3. Once you are logged in, find the “Partner Settings” tab at the top of the dashboard and click.
4. Now, scroll down this screen until you spot the Cheer section.
5. You’ll see the “Enable cheering with Bits” button. Don’t click it yet.
6. Instead, continue to read underneath this section, there’ll be more configuration settings for Cheering. Here you can change the cheering experience to suit your channel (Twitch states you should set up your unique Cheering settings before enabling Cheering).
7. Once you’ve configured cheering to your liking. Click on the “Enable cheering with Bits” button.
8. Viewers can now use Bits on your channel. This triggers a special audio and visual alert onscreen.

And that’s it. You are all set to receive donations from viewers through your twitch account.

How to Encourage Your Viewers to Make a Donation

As a Twitch streamer, it’s vital that you learn to make the most of the viewers you‘ve already attracted.

It’s much harder to keep on getting more and more viewers than it is to make the most of the viewers you have.

Generally, in business, it’s accepted that it’ll cost you around 10 times more, in time or money, to get a given amount of value out of a new customer, than to get the same amount of value out of an existing customer.

Simply put: it’s much easier to sell to an existing customer than it is to a new one.

So it’s important to know how to encourage your existing Twitch viewers to donate their money. Also, it’s important to know how to encourage donations in a way that’s not pushy as that’ll quickly make your viewership leave.

Let’s look at 7 ways that’ll help you get more donations:

1. Have a clear goal: when it comes to any business venture, it’s important to create Goals. These come in two types:
   1. Short-term, small, attainable, and clear goals that you can reach in the near term. Think within the next week or two.
      1. Example: Buying a new microphone
   2. Long term goals or vision: This these are longer-term goals, You should be thinking University degree level time frames: 3-4 years. Where do you want to be? How much do you want to earn? How many viewers do you want to have? These are questions that should be answered for your streaming business vision.
   3. Having a clear set of goals will give you a better idea of when you should start asking for donations  
2. Have a special donation day: Hold special days where you are deliberately trying to raise cash and give a clear reason for it. Even if you have a small following of fans, they may still send you the cash you need to improve your streaming set-up.
3. Alert notifications. Ever noticed while watching YouTube, every video tells you to “subscribe and hit the notification button” then reminds you with a notification throughout the video? It’s because it works We may be enjoying a video, but we’ll forget halfway through that we can subscribe. People need a little reminder. The same is true with Twitch. Sometimes, you just have to remind people to donate.
4. Leaderboards for big donators: Everybody loves to be top of the leaderboard – I know I do. So why not create a donation leaderboard so everybody can see who’s the most generous and who’s being a little bit stingy. It may seem harsh to use this type of social pressure to make people hand over their cash. But it’s important to remember your viewers have a choice: They do not have todonate to you.
5. Always thank your donors: Make sure you always thank your donnas. And be sure you do it publicly. This not only makes them feel appreciated, but it shows other would-be donators that other people are actually donating
6. Ask for donations: The easiest way to get donations, that I’ve found, is to ask. Be honest with people. If your streaming is dependent on you spending cash on things such as buying new games or getting better hardware, then tell your viewers. Let them know that to continue, a small donation would be hugely appreciated and helpful. If you bring real entertainment and value to real peoples lives, you’d be surprised how willing people are to hand over their cash.
7. Offer an incentive. You can offer an incentive to your viewers to donate. This could be a special badge showing they’ve donated. Or maybe donating gives the veiwer a chance to play with you online while you are streaming. Regardless of what you offer, offering a reward or extra value to donate always works.

Conclusion

The conclusion to this article is really simple:

If you are new to game streaming on Twitch forget about donations. Concentrate on creating amazing value and giving it away for free.

Keep providing amazing entertainment for free and watch your audience grow. Keep on learning how to grow your audience by giving yourself, and the value you produce, away for nothing.

Then, eventually, monetizing your streamingbe as easy as turning on a few setting in Twitch.

If you can’t commit to this early period of value creation and you want money immediately, streaming is not for you.

Related Questions

Can I really make money streaming? Yes, you can. However, it takes a lot of work to build an audience large enough to monetize.

Are there easier ways to make money from gaming other than streaming? Yes and No. Making money from gaming youtube videos is close to being as easy as Streaming. But Youtube vids need a lot of editing, and you won’t make as much cash.

Can I add special effects to my stream? Yes, it is possible to add special effects to your stream. You can do this by adding green screen effects, sound effects, or cosplay.