Why do I accept donations on twitch?

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I get asked this pretty often so I thought I should write the answer down so I can show people who ask again in the future

as you may know, I have 'donations' turned on for both youtube and twitch. What this allows a user to do is donate anywhere between 3 dollars to A BILLION DOLLARS, if they feel doing so is justified.

There is pretty much zero perks for doing this. On twitch you get some sub icons and get to view the streams ad free, but that's about it. The only other perk is my gratitude. If you leave a message with your donation on twitch it pops up on screen and I will most likely thank you personally.

The easiest answer to the question "Why did you turn on donations?" is simply because; People kept asking me too.

I streamed for about a year before adding an option for donate to the stream and I only recently opened donations on youtube in the last 60 days.

Each time I streamed though people asked if i would ever turn donations on. After a while I just kind of gave in. I'm glad I did because people seem to enjoy the stream so much that I'm making a reasonable amount of money from streaming. This, of course, encourages me to stream more often. I went from streaming 2 nights a week to 5, because my time was being well compensated for. Its awesome. :)

A lot of people say "well, you don't need the money" and I suppose that's true. I do still recieve a considerable amount from youtube and this is more than enough to live on. Its even enough to keep up with my steady and quite steep medical bills.

But the money goes to a good cause anyways. Often I donate some of it to other streams. Sometimes I donate some to other gamers. Some goes to living expenses. But most of it goes to savings.

I never know when this 'youtube' bubble will burst and streaming on twitch and the donations I have recieved will be my only source of income. I also never know when the stroke or heart attack or accident that will keep me from being able to do my job will happen, either. I want to make sure that if these things ever happen both my health, my family, and my home are safe. I think this is a reasonable want.


But most importantly to me, it keeps me streaming and making videos. :) Whereas maybe 5% of my audience ever donates or provides income, the other 95% get to watch the show and videos for free.

So while we are very comfortable and you NEVER need to help me pay the bills, the donations you provide are creating security for myself and the people I love. It is truly appreciated. <3

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