NEW Streaming "Affiliate" Programs.. SPONSOR OR SCAM??

let's start by distinguishing two different things here all right we got sponsorships and affiliate programs a sponsorship is an agreement where a company usually pays someone in this case a streamer to promote said company's products to their audience these kind of agreements work best when both parties have an equal value to offer each other the company has a good product and a budget to compensate the streamer the streamer has an influence over their audience and notice I specifically didn't say viewership there might be two streamers that you watch that have the same viewership but you view their opinions completely differently for example you're probably more likely to buy a mouse that Shroud uses than what I use but you're probably more likely to use a microphone that I recommend than the one the Shroud uses that's a difference in influence an affiliate program is completely different an affiliate program is when a company wants to accomplish one thing how do we reach as many people as possible and spend next to nothing it's like the quantity versus quality approach you know there's a reason that in my three years on Twitch before I really started seeing any growth I never joined an affiliate program but the question is are there streamers who can benefit from an affiliate program or is every single person getting completely scammed or maybe there's some middle ground there welcome back to the alpha gaming channel my name is Harris Heller I am your stream doctor and today we're gonna be taking a deep dive into some of these affiliate programs and figuring out if everyone's just getting ripped off before we get started on this video and remind you to like subscribe to the channel and if you enjoy it have any questions about what's going on here I do stream every Monday Wednesday Friday around 6 p.m. Pacific time feel free to jump into my stream link down in the description below and if you missed the last video I did release a widget for you guys to have amazing custom animations on your stream it is completely free you're able to download it it takes like 10 minutes to set up link in the description to that video also it'll be a link at the end of the video so you know you got that going for it maybe maybe put it up in the little corner here to all the places that was a lot of fun to make go get yourself a free widget on your stream and then tweet it at me so I can see it one of the most common questions I've been getting on Twitch lately especially with the new razor streamer program being released is is it a good deal for streamers so we'll be taking a deep dive into those but first I want to give you a tldr of how sponsorships can go how they work because this is something that not a lot of people understand in that exchange between the company and the streamer both sides are passing value along to the other side and both sides are hoping to get a value equal to or greater than the value that they're sending back and how these terms are negotiated how this goes it's actually really really interesting if you've never done a sponsorship before the company will approach a streamer and will say something along the lines of we would like to offer you this sum of money let's just make it a thousand dollars in this case for you to use our mouths and make a youtube video about it we've run the numbers we know what your reach and your influences we think that is a proper evaluation of what that is worth if you learn nothing from this video what I'd like you to realize is this is no matter what their branding is this is a company as a company that is trying to sell stuff that is their main goal and so it is their job to get as much out of the streamer for as little money as possible essentially it's their job to devalue the streamer oftentimes that sponsorship with this streamer could actually be worth $3,000 but this company wants to send an initial offer of 1000 just to see if they'll say yes and they do that because a lot of streamers will say yes not a lot of streamers understand what that value really is this is why a lot of big streamers will have representation like agents so the streamer or their agent can come back and say you're devaluing our streamer this content is actually worth four thousand dollars and they will try to do the same thing that the company did they will try to get as much money out of the company as possible for the same deliverables they're both doing the same thing to each other this goes back and forth for a while until they finally settle on $3,000 and both parties feel like they got a good deal sometimes sometimes companies will get a little sneaky and they'll say things to inexperienced streamers like hey what if instead of paying you we feature you and your picture and your twitch link front and center on our website advertising you as a legitimate streamer for our brand and that newer streamer will feel like oh my gosh this big brand is legitimizing me and broadcasting me to everybody that uses their gear this is gonna I'm gonna give me some serious clout and help me move forward in the industry don't fall for that do you know I'm in a zoom in don't don't fall for that when you see names and faces of big streamers on companies like Coursera the company is not legitimizing those streamers it's the other way around those companies are hanging those streamers to allow them to put their faces on there because putting those streamers faces on there legitimizes the company these streamers have spent years communicating with their audience building trust that a company just isn't able to do and so all these streamers being on their website is essentially saying yes I stand behind this company I stand behind their products I use them and I love them and you should too so when a company says to you hey if you use our gear put our logo on your screen use our hashtag we will put your name and face on our website 100% of the value is going from you to the company and you are getting nothing in return understanding your value is so important so let's dive into some of these affiliate programs so I took a look at some of the top peripheral companies affiliate programs namely razer corsair hyper x steel series and logitech the first thing i want to talk about with all these is affiliate links this the main deal that every affiliate program offers all five of them across the board offer affiliate links they give you a banner or an image to throw on your channel somewhere and when someone clicks that link and buy something you get a percentage of that income the small streamers this can sound like a win-win you get to show off to people that you are a sponsored legitimate streamer and to you get to make money and people buy stuff there are two main problems here and anyone who's been in the industry long enough to know is that this is a win all around for the company and the streamer is getting next to nothing first off it's important you know that you will make most likely 5 to 10 bucks a month max that's it just to put this in perspective I did a really cool brand deal with fender a while ago they paid me a couple thousand dollars to post some stuff to my Instagram both on my timeline and in my story and not only did I receive that standard rates up front but also if anyone clicked the link and signed up for their guitar program even though even the first month free if they sign up for free I made a commission off of that I made $30 I had 55 thousand followers on Instagram and I made $30 off of the commission part don't expect to make money off affiliate links and second of all when you post these banners on your channel you are doing far more to advertise them than they are doing to legitimize you if they can get these banners on a couple thousand affiliates channels they are advertising to thousands and thousands of people for free so I wouldn't fully call this a loss to the streamer I would more call it and nothing the real loss you've taken here is you've allowed someone to advertise through you for free and you've just completely devalued yourself number two a really common perk in almost every affiliate program is percent off of products and this one is scary because it sounds awesome you just save money right no usually what this does is it excites the affiliates they feel like they got accepted into a program that should deck themselves out with a gear and they buy a bunch of gear that otherwise they would never have paid for the company makes a huge product off the affiliates and you get a ton of product that you didn't need the only time this is really beneficial to the streamer is if it's a brand with products that they already would have spent the money on and now they just get a huge discount on it if that's not you this can be a huge money trap after this point things start to get blurry so I want to take a deeper dive into two of the specific affiliate programs because three of them namely HyperX SteelSeries and logitech we've already named off every single thing they've offered most of those actually only offer affiliate link so Razer and Corsair have much more advanced affiliate programs let's take a look at them let's take a look at course hairs here they've got a tiered program going on here which I actually really like not just because I like the idea of Tears but if you look at what the top tier the Tier one program is it looks like that is what their big sponsorship is and now keep in mind this is just kind of a guess on a limited information I have because there is not a lot of information about what affiliates get that actually worries me a little bit but it's kind of nice that it shows you this is where you start from at nothing and this is where you can get up to an every step in between so it's pretty transparent it's not like a lowball affiliate program where it's only for small streamers and then they then they have their larger sponsorships that lowest tier tier four is exactly what I mentioned just percent off peripherals and affiliate links and a free t-shirt with purchase which is just turning you into a walking billboard that's not a value they're giving you you're giving him pretty much all of these are you giving them value but it's a step in the door to start growing up towards higher tiers the next tier Tier three it looks like the only thing they add is a headset sponsorship and you have to understand this is what I want you guys to see there's a reason that that's where they move to next it's because it is the peripheral that is most visible on stream it's on the streamers head if they give you a mouse nobody's gonna see it so it's another way for you to advertise a product but it looks like it looks like it's free which is a really cool thing for a next step but that again leads me to the concern is it doesn't tell you anything about what it takes to get to tier 3 I could still be in tier 4 I have no idea and I spent a lot of time looking for this they don't tell you until you sign up which is a little bit of a red flag for me now we make our way up to tier 1 and you get financial sponsorship so that's where they actually start paying you if they'd all have two tier one for them to start paying you you have full peripheral sponsorship which they actually give tear tuesday give um sheer that means a mouse keyboard and headset maybe something else i don't know if you ever wanted to buy a ram off um you get 20% that's in both of these tears mostly you notice what the top tier gives you that's new is marketing photography which is what you're seeing up here if you guys follow and munition on twitter for example you'll see that every once in a while she gets a really cool photoshoot and she's showing off our gear that's what this is talking about this is clearly the top tier sponsorship that's six people have while Corsairs is probably my favorite affiliate program just because it shows you the steps all the way from the very beginning up to the top tier large sponsorship i do have a concern about it if you start out in tier four and work your way up to the top you have to recognize that you are essentially signing your tier one sponsorship when you are a Tier four stream you are signing your contracts here for your sponsorship here and when you're here you don't have any negotiating tools you don't have any representation you don't have anything to actually negotiate with you're signing a massive sponsorship when you don't know what you're worth yet and frankly your value isn't very high yet so you're giving them a lot of control over where your sponsorship goes in the future make sure that when you sign into something like this you are not in it for too long of an agreement you're not in it for more than a six months to a year that you are able to renegotiate things you're able to leave whenever you want that way when you do make it up to tier one you can renegotiate as someone with a little bit more power and negotiating tactic let's look at razors so it looks like razors is open to everybody which is really cool but it also means that the value of what they give back is most likely going to be even less because they're opening it up to people with ten followers people who don't have any value on their stream yet they have three tiers the top tier is only five hundred followers which I know for a lot of people that's a pretty big number but in terms of twitch as a whole that's a lot of people that's not a very big number which means that even as you get to the top tier of Razer streamer almost famous they're still probably going to be giving you next to nothing my guess is that people who are in the top tier of Razer are still in the bottom here of course air which means no one's really getting anything out of this and it shows with what they're giving back right here so this one just says anyone can join and it uses a hashtag this one says they'll be posting a Razer quest again another hashtag which I assume they're gonna want you to use when you when you tweet about it or when you do it you're gonna be sharing that on your socials and then if you do it you have a shot at winning reward so there's no guarantee you'll get anything in return yet here's this every month we'll be selecting a group of streamers to host on their official twitch channel one again you have a shot it's like a lottery of getting anything in return and frankly being hosted on the Razr twitch channel probably is gonna do next to nothing and then affiliate links again with another hashtag you notice there are hashtags everywhere and I'm gonna show you why oh they also give you a percentage off of something that you shouldn't be using if you're wanting why you shouldn't be using it I've done videos on in the past or you can ask me on stream this is where the main red flags were for me if you go down underneath right before the submit button you see what their terms and conditions are you have to use hashtag Razer streamer in the title of every single stream every single stream to even be considered for those rewards that you'll most likely never get so you're basically handing over your stream to a brand it's no longer your stream anymore it's Razer stream you have to sign up for their emails so now you're being used for marketing promotions and this is the kicker you have to have at least one Razer piece of hardware which there are gonna be people who sign up for this sign up for this program and then are required to buy Razer Hardware for the chance of maybe winning something in return and I get that by the way I understand why if you're trying to represent Razer you should have racer gear but with how little they're giving you in return there is a very big chance that hundreds or thousands of streamers are gonna sign up for this program buy something from Razer and never get anything back I started this video not planning on getting like super negative about something but I would recommend that absolutely nobody sign up for this program I just see way too much value asked of the streamers and almost nothing given in return so picking these apart are any of these programs great of course not they can't be that's the point these programs are catered around what they're able to give back to thousands of very very small streamers who haven't been able to build up their value yet to get something in return to the company and the way they attract these streamers is by appealing to the emotional side of streamers you have a lot of a lot of streamers who are desperate for validation are desperate to feel like they're making progress that someone acknowledges them and when a big brand says hey we want you to be a part of our program it feels good you can't let that sway you you have to recognize that even though it feels good you're not getting anything out of this relationship it's like when the popular girl in high school starts hanging out with you because she knows your parents have money you don't want to be there just say no you don't want any of that get out of there you don't want it there are two main situations where there is value that can be given to the stream number one if you're a huge fan of the brand you know it's who you're gonna want to work with and you're trying to get your foot in the door early and build a relationship fine just know you are gonna be taking a loss for a little bit but companies do love building relationships with smaller streamers and growing together so keep that in mind or two if you're just looking for the learning experience of what sponsorships look like how contracts work negotiating it's better if you make a mistake early on with a small contract like this then wait until you have 5,000 viewers and you make a mistake like someone else did and you lose 80% of all your money you don't want that so if you want to get your feet wet expect that to be the only thing you get back from here and if you want big paying sponsorships my advice to you is this stop trying to get them focused on your value focus on your content focus on your influence it will come if you focus on the right thing a lot of people ask me how do I know when I'm ready for sponsorships how do I know when I'm big enough for a good sponsorship and the answer is they'll start reaching out to you if you have any questions on any of this feel free to jump into my stream again a stream every Monday Wednesday Friday linked to my stream down in the description below or if you want to talk about other members of an amazing community about something like this feel free to jump in the discord discord ogu slash alpha gaming link to that in the description below and as always happy streaming [Music] [Music]

Channel: Alpha Gaming

Views: 217,489

Keywords: Alpha Gaming, Stream Doctor, OBS, Tips, Streaming, Harris Heller, Alpha, Gaming, Live, Overlay, Design, Stream, Twitch, Doctor, How, To, How To, Help, Mixer, Youtube, Broadcast, Alerts, Streamlabs, youtuber, growth, stream, streamelements, harris, heller, money, monetize, income, full-time, full time, career, razer, logitech, sponsor, sponsors, sponsorship, affiliate, program, streamer, corsair, hyperx, steelseries, scam

Id: VyIRjca6p3k

Length: 17min 24sec (1044 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 31 2019