Every once in a while a new social media platform takes on the role of the trending social media channel. Currently, that platform is TikTok. While we are all familiar with YouTubers, Instagram influencers, and bloggers, now there is a new generation of influencers – TikTokers.
The digital world thrives on trends. This is why TikTok has come in the spotlight for both brands and influencers. TikTok has won over the audience in a heartbeat and popular TikTokers are growing their bank account with the help of fun TikTok videos. So let’s find out how can you make money on TikTok.
How are TikTokers Getting Paid?
CNB reported that 86% of young people aspire to have a career as a social media influencer. The most richest influencer Ryan's World can make around $26 million dollars a year. And the most subscribed personal YouTuber PewDiePie earns $13 million dollars a year from his channel.
If you want to make money from Instagram, YouTube or other social media, the trending platform that is TikTok can be one of your best bets. How to make money on TikTok will be one of the first puzzling thoughts you’ll have and here’s the answer.
1. Becoming a TikTok Influencer
What falls into this category is reaching a sufficient following base with high engagement. That’s how you earn the status of TikTok influencer.
The most subscribed TikTok account is created by charli d’amelio, which has 57.1 million followers as of May 2020.
An influencer who manages to get half a million followers along with good engagement (in terms of the comments and likes) can have monthly earnings of around $450. The high number of TikTok followers is not the only factor. Engagement also has to be at a high level. Interaction with the followers is the basis of popular TikTok account.
TikTokers earnings also depend on their country of origin as well as the location of their audience. Fair or not, but you can earn less if you are from the country with less purchasing power. TikTokers from Tier1 country are in a better position in that way. Countries like the US, United Kingdom, Canada, and India have a good earning per post.
2. Growing and Selling TikTok Account
This method is especially popular in the e-commerce industry. You start by growing your following base in a specific niche. For example, you can create videos about beauty products or cooking videos.
Once you gain popularity and have an account with a steady or growing number of followers, you can reach out to businesses in your niche. What brands gain from buying such accounts is an already established following base in their niche that they can direct towards their products.
TikTok lives have become very popular for product launches. Brands or influencers introduce their new product in a live video where they can interact with followers and avert the viewers to purchase the product by following the link in the bio.
If you don’t see yourself as a long-time TikTok influencer, this may be the perfect choice for you. You get to set yourself one goal (to grow followers in a specific niche) and when you accomplish that, sell your account and say goodbye to it.
3. Get Sponsored TikTok Videos
Based on the experience with Instagram which has become one of the basic marketing tools, brands are quickly turning to TikTok to promote their products.
TikToker’s income comes mostly from sponsorships monetization. This means that if you earn money from sponsored videos, TikTok gets a part of it. Now, let’s pull out the TikTok calculator. If TikTokers estimated earnings are $450 per half a million views on their video, TikTok will get about $0.9 per 1,000 views.
What you need to be careful about when it comes to sponsored videos is their frequency. Don't fall into the trap of making one sponsored video after another. Maintaining credibility should be your primary concern since without it you'll start to lose your followers.
Now, let’s talk numbers. A sponsored video that gets around 100,000 likes can bring you around $1,000. If you manage to become a real TikTok start with more than 7 million TikTok followers you can make between $10,000 and $20,000 from sponsored videos.
4. Livestreaming and Collecting Donations on TikTok
This built-in monetizing platform that TikTok created is fascinating. Any TikTok user has an option to purchase coins on their profile. The cost of 100 coins is $1.39.
The way this works is that when your favorite creator goes live you can send them the coins you purchased to show them support. The creators or TikTokers that receive the coins can turn them into diamonds and those diamonds can be converted into money via PayPal.
To go live you need at least 1,000 followers. So, after you build your profile and have a sufficient number of followers who enjoy and support your videos, you can go live and receive coin donations from loyal followers.
5. Managing TikTok Influencer Campaigns
If you don’t see yourself as the next big TikTok star but you are a good negotiator and you have good management skills, TikTok has a job for you. In the collaboration between brands and influencers, you can be the mediator.
Managing campaigns on TikTok means that you are the person who helps brands and influencers connect. Your obligations also include finding a deal that works for both parties, helping with carrying out the campaign, making sure deliverables are all met, and so on. You get a fee for your service and that’s how you grow your earnings.
Top Brands like Kroger are running TikTok hashtag campaigns to drive traffic and get direct sales for their products.
TikTok is a great place for people with these skills because it has an internal influencer program. Even though big brands can reach out to TikTok to find them an influencer, they have to pay a percentage to TikTok for brokering that agreement. That’s why they see a better option in finding a mediator who will be dedicated to managing their campaigns with influencers.
6. Selling Product or Services on TikTok
Entrepreneurs can get good use out of TikTok especially if their target audience is Gen Z and Millennials. If you have a product or offer services that you want to promote through TikTok you should consider using their ads program.
Sign up to the TikTok ads platform and create unique ads that will get you more viewership. You are probably already familiar with this process as Instagram and Facebook offer the same service.
7. Offering Management Services to TikTok Creators
Many TikTok stars have reached millions of followers in a short period of time. This chance to monetize their TikTok account can be overwhelming so they turn to someone to help them manage their profile. You can be that someone.
Your obligations as TikTok manager would be to help the TikToker with their content strategy, their creative strategy, managing offers and deals that come from brands, scheduling their content, and similar.
For this job, it is useful if you have a background in storytelling or production. If you're going to be giving advice to someone on how to increase their TikTok earnings you should know what you are talking about.
8. Consulting on a Niche Topic
Knowledge and experience in a specific niche can easily be monetized if you know how. TikTok is one of the platforms that offer you that possibility.
Your consulting can be related to fitness advice, cooking, diet, makeup, or whatever you’re good at. Maybe you’ve managed to turn an account of 100 followers into 100,000 followers account. In that case, you can offer advice on how to grow your account. Dance videos are very popular on TikTok so dance instructors can get a lot of views teaching TikTok users the dance moves for trending TikTok dance videos.
Consulting demands that you create informative and high-quality videos that offer your viewers valuable insight. With time, brands in your niche can reach out to you for collaboration or you can collect previously mentioned coins for your live videos that offer a quick course in marketing, fitness workouts, or whatever your expert in.
How to Monetize Your TikTok Account?
If you want to enter the TikTok world and succeed as an influencer, this can be just the right time. The advantage that TikTokers have is that they are thriving on a relatively new social media platform that doesn’t have that much content. That is, if you post a lot of videos you'll have a good chance to get followers organically. A unique video can go viral literally overnight as the competition is still not so high.
Unlike Instagram that is a full-grown social media tool for business, TikTok videos are mostly created for fun and the sponsored content and overflow of marketing campaigns won’t drive away potential TikTok followers.
This can be your chance to jump on a promising platform early and look at how to monetize your following. To become a TikTok influencer who earns money from posts, views, likes, and sponsored videos, you have to grow your TikTok account. This leads us to the next important topic.
How to Grow Your TikTok Account?
The number of followers shows to be the determining factor in building your career. Whether you want to become a TikTok star and work with brands or you want to grow and sell your account, you need to have enough followers.
The following tips and tricks will teach you the basics of growing your TikTok account:
1. Post video content regularly
TikTok newbies have to work extra hard to gain popularity. Unless you are one of the lucky ones whose videos become an internet sensation overnight, you have to start strong with your video content. Try to upload at least 5-15 videos a day consistently to get organic followers. Yes, this seems like a lot but that’s the path towards growing your account organically.
2. Show off your personality
A charismatic TikToker who knows how to win over the audience can be more attractive to brands than celebrities. TikTokers with great personalities who know how to carry themselves well in the videos are perfect brand ambassadors and have a good chance of getting lots of sponsored collabs.
3. Choose your direction
Dance videos, beauty videos, fitness videos, impersonations, there are lots of niches for your TikTok account and you need to pick one. Decide on your unique act and stick to that. Why? Well, let's say that you attract followers with your great dance videos. They'll expect more of such content and you need to deliver if you want to keep them in your list of followers.
4. Redirect your followers from other social media accounts
If you already have an Instagram account or YouTube account with some followers, you should let them know about your TikTok profile. Since they already follow you on social media they probably won’t hesitate to click that “follow” button on TikTok.
5. Create videos with trending music
There's always trending music or challenge that attract all the attention on TikTok. People are drawn to trends and curious about how TikTokers will perform it. Keep up with trending music and create your unique version of it.
Final Thoughts
TikTok does have the potential to overpower Instagram. Videos are currently the favored content format. While popular Instagram Stories disappear after an hour and YouTube videos can be lengthy for people who want short and fun videos, TikTok presents the perfect balance between the two.
Now that you know how to make money on TikTok you can decide whether this will be the career of your choice. The possibilities are numerous so there is an option for anyone who wants to thrive on social media. Ultimately, you can always give it a try and quit if you don’t see yourself in that world.
