12 Ways to make money with live streaming (guaranteed)

Certainly, one of the easiest ways to get closer to your audience is through live streams. After all, with live broadcasts, your followers can get in touch and ask questions directly with you. However, did you know that when opting for this type of content, there are ways to make money with live streaming?

That’s right. There are many ways to monetize by going live. Some of them are:

• Live shopping;
• Sponsorships;
• Private live streaming for members;
• Paid interviews through live streaming.

But these are just a few ways to monetize your work online and have a lucrative source of income from live streaming. In this article, we’re going to present 12 ways to make money with live streaming so that you can learn new ways of monetization that you possibly hadn’t thought of yet.

How to make money doing live streaming?

There are several ways to earn money by doing live streams. Some are simpler, others may require a little more effort, however, all can give results in the short or medium term. If you already use software or platforms to do live streaming, the next step is to discover how to leverage the monetization of your content in a creative and strategic way.

However, if you haven’t chosen a software yet, you’ll need to take that step first. Among the best platforms we’ve tested, we can recommend:

• Restream (the most used)
• BeLive (the most intuitive)
• OneStream (the cheapest)
• StreamYard (the easiest to use)

You’ll also want to check out these best live streaming apps.

Live streams have been available to content creators for a long time, but they truly gained traction in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. As people could no longer leave their homes, they began to demand more content on the internet, so making money with live streaming became commonplace for content creators.

For this reason, taking advantage of the opportunities that this modality offers can be an excellent way for you to earn money selling a product or talking about a sponsor. With that in mind, let’s move on to our selection of the 12 ways to make money with live streaming.

1. Live Shopping

To start our list of ways to make money with lives streaming, we have Live Shopping. This is one of the ways most used by big brands and also by big influencers. Through this modality, you combine live transmissions with e-commerce.

With Live Shopping, potential buyers of your product can have a more interactive engagement with you, who can take the opportunity to show in practice how the product you intend to sell works, thus eliminating any doubts that people may have about it.

2. Fan donations

If you want to do live streaming and earn donations from your fans, you first need to captivate them. Therefore, invest in creating quality content so that in the live broadcasts you make, whether on YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok, you have a much higher chance of getting donations.

During your live streams, seek to add value to your audience as well. Separate the main questions they have already expressed in other content and answer them in the broadcast. In addition, you can offer some incentive for your fans to make donations for you, such as access to a private group on Telegram or WhatsApp, where you will make exclusive content.

Also, don’t be shy about making it clear how important your followers’ help is to your work. After all, when the content creator earns money from it, the incentive and time available to continue is greater, resulting in more content being created. 

We also need to highlight that it’s not worth doing live streaming just to get donations. Be consistent and plan to do more live streams during the month to get even better results.

3. Private live streams for members

With private live streams for members, you can show great authority about the content or product you offer. In order for people to feel confident and comfortable in consuming what you are offering, you need to create content that adds value to your followers’ lives for free, so that they know that in exclusive broadcasts they will get even more benefits.

There are several platforms where you can perform private live streaming. Some examples are Patreon, YouTube Memberships, Zoom, and Google Meet. If you don’t want to show your face when you live stream and let your audience hear only your voice, Telegram can be an excellent choice. However, keep in mind that people are paying. Therefore, it is important to know what pleases your audience the most.

When setting the prices, think of something that is reasonable for both sides. This means that the price you charge for this live stream must be fair both for your audience and for you, who will need to dedicate yourself to creating unique and valuable content that is not found elsewhere for free. 

Here’s a tip that can add even more value to your private live streams: have a community. Creating a group with the members of your live broadcasts can be very good for you to ask them questions and discuss content they would like to see, something that helps a lot in directing live streaming.

4. Product and service announcements

Next up in our list of how to make money with live streaming are ads. If you already have a large following on social media, this can be a great way to monetize through live streaming. However, when choosing the platform to start using ads, you need to know what requirements it requires beforehand. 

Despite being an interesting way to earn income, you should pay attention to how often these ads will appear in your live streaming. After all, you can’t make your followers bored and unwilling to watch your content due to the number of advertisements. If that happens, you will lose audience and without a decent audience, there is no way to get advertisers. If you’re a gamer, for example, you can let ads appear only after you finish a game.

If you choose to use this feature, you can also showcase one or more of your sponsors on the live stream. This can add more value to it. Now, if you have an affiliate link, how about using the time reserved for ads to publicize it? It can be an alternative to getting some extra income that works much better than just spamming the link around. If you manage to offer a discount code in your streams, it can increase the chance of a sale, so at least consider it.

However, always try to choose ads that have to do with the theme of your live streams. If you’re talking about games, you’re unlikely to be able to sell a product that teaches a person how to cook better. Therefore, be strategic when placing your ads. With quality content and an engaged following, you can get great results with ads in your live streams.

It is worth mentioning that, in order to attract advertisers, your live stream cannot have technical failures caused by a bad internet connection. Therefore, research before what is the minimum internet to do live streaming.

5. Sponsorships

To make money with live streaming through sponsorship, you need to know which brands relate with your content. Then, it’s time to think of a strategy to draw the attention of these brands so that they see you. One option is to identify what issues the brand may have in reaching its customers and increase sales, presenting yourself as a solution for this.

After that, make a media kit and get in touch with the brands you studied, either by email or even social media. In addition to showing your audience numbers, don’t forget to be careful when talking about yourself and the content you offer. Brands need to identify with you to make sure you can talk to their audience.

Once you get the sponsorship you were looking for, it’s time to get your hands dirty. Therefore, when it comes to broadcasting live, promote the brand in a natural way. Naturally, your audience will know that you are being paid to talk about that product, but there is no need to do it in a rigid way. Seek to be creative so that people watch your advertising until the end.

Look for a style that pleases your audience and make unique content in your live streaming with sponsorships so that you have great results and attract more brands interested in advertising with you.

6. Infoproduct

If you managed to create a quality course that is in demand in the market, selling it through live broadcasts can be an excellent way to make money with live streaming. Use this content modality to explain what your viewers will find in the material they will purchase and how it can add value to their life, career, or business.

A good strategy for this is to create posts announcing your live stream. This way, you can collect questions and issues to solve them live and even understand who among your followers is most interested in the course. As a result, you will be able to create material that is more adaptable to your target audience, increasing your chances of selling.

We know it’s always good for live streaming to be authentic. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t create a script beforehand. This is very necessary so as not to forget to say things that are extremely important for the sale of your course. In this sense, have it well structured as it can add more value than others of the same modality.

Think about how to create a sense of urgency without sensationalizing or misleading your audience. Be transparent with the sale of the course and, during the live stream, offer some benefits, such as a discount or even exclusive additional material for those who purchase the course during the broadcast. Do not leave aside the visuals, they are also very important to make your content more appealing.

7. Affiliates

We’ve already touched on how to monetize with affiliates here, but now let’s talk more about this topic. To be able to explore this universe well, you need to have an affiliate program that is relevant and that talks to your audience. After all, it’s no use having the possibility of earning a good commission from the sale and not being able to sell because your followers are not interested in the product.

When choosing the product, seek to have a unique affiliate link for your audience. In this way, you will be able to measure how much you managed to sell with the live stream. In addition, you can count on the help of your own audience when it comes to content for the live stream. Encourage them to ask questions that will help you demonstrate your authority and drive more sales.

You also can’t help but think about who will watch your live stream later. Generally, creators make recordings of their live streams so that people can watch them later. So that even if your broadcast is recorded, it still generates profits, make it clear that you will leave the special link in the description or in the pinned comments of the video. If you are on social networks that do not provide access in this way, as is the case with Instagram, let them know that the link will be in the bio.

Still talking about the post-live streaming process, check how your conversions were. If they haven’t been good, don’t give up. Seek to rethink a way to improve your sales strategy. Study the competition and see what’s working for them and figure out how to adapt that to your audience as well as your language. Once again, we reinforce the importance of being authentic to sell more.

Amazon is one of the largest e-commerce in the world and offers an excellent affiliate program, where you can register and advertise products in your live streaming. So, learn all about how Amazon Affiliates works!

8. Mentoring

This term is increasingly popular, and why not use mentoring to make money from live streaming? Whether individually or collectively, mentoring in a particular subject can be very lucrative. By being able to help someone with this exclusive content, they can refer you to others and this helps you to have some very good extra income. So invest in good time and content planning.

Make content that is unique and valuable. Unlike private live streaming, you can charge a higher amount for mentoring, but for that, you need to offer content that really brings value to people’s lives. Don’t let your audience leave your mentorship believing that what you said is more of the same and that they can find your service for free on the internet.

During your mentoring live streaming, you’ll need to keep your audience’s attention, just as you would in any other type of content. So make a well-structured script and a flashy presentation. Don’t forget that you need to make your mentees happy. Therefore, find the balance between the content you need to convey and the doubts you need to remove from your audience.

With that in mind, do your best to promote mentoring. Perform live streaming to say that vacancies are opening, seek partnerships with other content creators to publicize yours, and be sure to create a sense of urgency. Do some market research to get perfect marketing that speaks directly to your target audience.

Do you already have all the necessary equipment to do a live stream? We have gathered in this article the 10 things you need to buy in a cheap live streaming setup.

9. Interview people and get paid for it

There are many brands that prefer to show the faces of the people who make their services happen, such as their directors and partners. That’s because that way they can make their products reach a much larger audience through identification. However, they know that for their product to reach more people, it is necessary to find a good audience, and influencers can be very important in this journey.

And that’s where you can earn extra income. Make it clear that your profile is available to interview CEOs of companies, people with directorships or management positions, and even employees who work so that the brand’s product reaches the customers’ hands with quality. If you have interviewing skills, this can be an excellent choice to monetize and still deliver quality content to your audience.

And if you manage to add even more value to your live stream, inviting people relevant to your niche who don’t usually give interviews, for example, you can choose to make this live stream private and charge an admission fee for people to see it, but always focusing on a value that is fair to you and accessible to your followers. After all, it’s no use putting a high price that no one can afford.

Whenever you are going to do a live stream with a paid interview, do some good promoting beforehand so that people know that it will happen. Communicate this at different times so that you can reach more people and succeed in your interview. Also, save the live stream numbers so you can present them to more people or brands who want to buy this service from you.

10. Participation in events

There is also the possibility that you can go to an event and broadcast live there, getting rewarded for it. There are people who would pay for this content, as they would like to be at an event, but won’t due to logistics or commuting, which can be much more expensive than watching it at home.

But it’s not just individuals who may want to pay for it. Companies may be willing to invest for you to do a live broadcast of the event and show how it is going. Although many people can do this organically, paying a content creator brings great visibility and, in addition, the brand gets higher quality audiovisual materials.

You can also make a partnership with a brand to represent it at a certain event, publicize its work there, and even add the nice perk that you will do live streaming on the company’s social network account. This can make it reach a wider audience and even gain more followers, from people who are interested in knowing what’s going on at the event, especially if it’s one of great notoriety.

Don’t forget the basic rule of spreading the word so that people know about the live broadcast. The larger your audience, the better and easier it will be to get another sponsorship for a live streaming event, as you will have numbers and cases to show how interesting your promotion can be.

11. Super Chat

Have you heard about YouTube Super Chat? It is an amazing tool that increases interaction between content creators and their subscribers. And guess what: in addition to providing closer interaction, it is also a form of monetization.

When you do a live stream, followers have the option to buy “Super Chats” to highlight their messages. That is, with a small donation, it is possible to make the comment of a certain viewer remain visible for longer during the live stream. The amount donated will appear next to the comment.

In addition, Super Chat allows you to add vibrant colors to comments, making them even more striking during the live stream. It is worth remembering that, of the amounts donated through Super Chat, the content creator receives 70%, while YouTube keeps the remaining 30%. So when you want to use this Super Chat strategy, keep this division in mind.

The big advantage of YouTube Super Chat is the opportunity it gives your viewers to support you. In exchange for their donation, their comment gets featured and with that, they have a better chance of being noticed by you during the live stream.

Don’t forget that to do live streaming you’ll need a good headset. Discover the 12 best headphones for streamers and live streaming.

12. Sale of NFTs

Closing our list of how to make money with live streaming, there is the sale of NFTs. This is a modern option to monetize your live streaming. Today it has become fashionable to sell Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, from artists and influencers, and they can be an excellent way to increase your monetization.

NFTs are unique digital assets that utilize blockchain technology to confirm their authenticity and uniqueness. In practice, you can create a collection of NFTs with your best images or digital art and sell them to your audience during live streaming.

Another creative way to use NFTs is to turn memorable moments from your live streams into digital assets. If something unexpected, funny, or remarkable happens during the broadcast, that moment could be immortalized and sold as an NFT. This creates an opportunity for your followers to own a piece of your channel’s history.

NFTs can also be used to provide exclusive access to experiences or benefits. For example, you can create NFTs that grant buyers a private live streaming session, early access to new content, or even the chance to weigh in on your next live stream.

Did you learn how to make money with live streaming?

Now you have enough knowledge to be able to make money with live streaming. Monetize your knowledge by adding more value to your audience. Focus on engaging your followers so that your campaigns are profitable. Although the success of monetized live streaming is not immediate, in many cases with constancy, a good strategy, and a well-defined target audience, you can achieve good results.