Early-Stage Content Entrepreneur Makes First Dollar after 2 Weeks on Twitch

Entrepreneur: Tamer Gargour

Biz: TamerGar

Tilt: Streaming less popular video games

Channels: Twitch (1.1K) Facebook (10K) Twitter (10K)  Instagram (2.8K)

Time to revenue: 2 weeks

Monthly revenue: $1K after five months in business

Rev Streams: Twitch affiliate partner

Our Favorite Actionable Advice

• Don’t stream more. Market and network more. Tamer attributes over 80% of his early success to interacting in Twitch-related groups, answering questions, posting comments, popping into and supporting other Twitch channels.
• Go live when you have an audience: Ask family and friends to join your early streams. Having audience members is social proof that could spur non-relatives to watch too.
• Pick standout stream topics: Tamer deliberately streams games that are less popular so his channel stands out from the crowd.

The Story

For Tamer Gargour, sticking out among the 9.5M active streamers on Twitch wasn’t hard. Within two weeks of launching his stream, he reached affiliate status. The early-stage content entrepreneur is breaking $1K a month with over 1.1K followers. He runs three unique streams on his Twitch channel and has a presence on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. And he’s been in business less than six months.

In five months, early-stage @Twitch content entrepreneur @TamerGar hit $1K a month from its affiliate program. #creatoreconomy #contentcreator #contentbusiness Click To Tweet

A lot of Tamer’s launch success comes down to his previous career in radio. From structuring shows into 15-minute intervals to leveraging the power of networking, he knows how to connect with an audience on Twitch.

Radio in Jordan to Twitch in Canada

Born and raised in Jordan, Tamer spent quite a few years of his adult life as a prime-time radio show host and eventually the station manager in his homeland.  “I was a really big fish in a small pond,” he says. 

He reached a professional ceiling. Around that time, he lost both his father and brother in a car accident. For the next year, Tamer remembered his father’s earlier words of encouragement to leave Jordan to explore his potential elsewhere in the world.

After much deliberation, he and his wife moved to Toronto, Canada, in July 2019. He began work on a master’s degree in digital media, which his father also wanted for him.

Knowing he wanted to expand on his content creation skills, advance his career, and explore his love of video games, he turned to Twitch. What started as a resume filler slowly became a viable career path.

Now, he may level up from affiliate status to Twitch Partner status, which brings the potential of earning $9K a month.

@Twitch Partner status would bring the potential of earning $9,000 a month for @TamerGar. #contentcreator #contententrepreneur Click To Tweet

Make a brand

A lot of aspiring Twitch entrepreneurs stream six to eight hours a day consistently to grow their audience. Tamer streams a total of 14 hours per week, max. 

“Over 80% of my success comes down to networking and marketing, and a lot of streamers underestimate how much time and work this really is,” he says. 

New streams often create a quick, plain post about what time they are going live. They share the destination link in their post, and that is it. Tamer says streamers need to do a lot more than that – they need to act like marketers.

Tamer makes sure each live announcement post includes branded artwork, which gives it a unique look. Doing that every time helped people recognize the Twitcher’s brand look. And just having a brand style attracts followers because they expect the content will be professionally done too. 

On top of consistent branding, Tamer networks every day. He joined Twitch communities, such as Twitch Streamers Helping Twitch Streamers on Facebook and the Briar Patch and VIP Discord. He posted often, answered other members; questions, and generally did his best to stick out. He became a moderator, which helped a wider audience see his going-live posts.

He also fervently networked within Twitch. He would pop into other streames’ lives and become an active audience member. Over time, he established a relationship with the streamers, who soon returned the favor by hopping into Tamer’s live content.  

In fact, roughly one-third of his Twitch earnings go back into supporting other streamers through bits, subs, etc. Investing in other streamers inspired most, if not all, to return the favor. If they didn’t, he stopped showing up in their streams and investing in their content. 

@TamerGar networks to market his Twitch channel. He connects on and off platform, answering questions, interacting with other Twitchers, and even supporting some #streamers with his earnings. Click To Tweet

Market outside Twitch

While networking with the Twitch community was fundamental to early success, Tamer didn’t stop there. “You want to make sure you are marketing yourself to viewers as well,” he says, noting Twitter has been his most valuable social media marketing avenue. 

As for the future, Tamer says he may use TikTok to grow his Twitch audience. Though he has 10K followers on Twitter, it doesn’t have the reach potential that TikTok does. He says TikTok’s algorithm is easy to crack, making it more powerful to go viral than any other social platform.

Always start with viewers

His radio career meant Tamer knew how important viewership is. When he launched on Twitch, he never went live unless Tamer knew he had an audience, relying heavily on family and friends early on. 

To make money as Twitch affiliates, streamers must average at least three viewers per stream. So, Tamer focused on making sure he had at least three viewers. “I can literally have my wife’s account pulled up on the iPad, set it over there, and that also counts as a view,” he says.

Right now, Tamer averages 23 to 25 viewers, which brings in over $1K a month. He needs to average 75 viewers to apply for Twitch Partner status. But it’s not just viewers. “Twitch makes sure you have a brand and following on these platforms. Many streamers will reach the viewership requirement but will still be denied because of their Twitter and YouTube.”

The Twitch channel for @TamerGar averages 23 to 25 viewers a stream. That brings in over $1,000 a month, he says. Click To Tweet

Pick a good content tilt

While Tamer relies heavily on networking and marketing, he also knows content creativity counts. Video game streamers must pick a game that isn’t oversaturated. Call of Duty, League of Legends, and Fortnight are streamed too widely. To stand out, the streamer has to be really good, laughably bad, or exceedingly charming. 

Tamer created the channel’s content tilt to celebrate a large variety of lesser-known games, such as What Remains of Edith Finch. 

Much like a radio station has more than one show, Tamer grew his channel by having more than one stream to offer his audience. They include:

• Variety show, a video game variety show
• The T-Show, a talk show with Emmy-award winners and successful streamers
• Music stream

Interact for profit

The music stream is the latest addition and the most financially viable. Audience members choose a song that Tamer must learn to play on the guitar in just five minutes. If he can play a recognizable chorus, he wins. If he cannot, the suggester gets a free subscription to his channel. 

His music stream also has the most hype trains, which he says are exceedingly fun and easy to leverage with music. 

A great deal of what makes the music stream so financially successful is the level of interaction with the audience. Just playing isn’t enough. Streamers, Tamer says, must check the chat and respond or acknowledge the audience’s comments.

More promotional help

Tamer has found chatbots, such as night bot or could bot, are helpful promotional tools. He can customize them to automatically remind viewers to subscribe, to support the Twitcher, or to see more content.

Last but not least, Tamer finds social proof also works well in growing a paid audience. Displaying subscriber or follower goals (such as 950 out of 1K followers) on his content inspires audience members to click the “follow” button.