It’s becoming harder and harder for creators and brands to ignore the astronomical growth and adoption of TikTok. Since the app has been launched, it has been downloaded over 1.5 billion times from the app store and it boasts over 800 million monthly active users. As their daily active users continue to climb, people are finding unique ways to not only engage with their audiences, but also how to monetize them.
Therefore, a lot of TikTok users are always looking for authentic sources to buy TikTok followers to get more engagement to their profile.
With the massive rise in Gen-Z app traffic flooding to TikTok, people are wondering if it’s possible to make money with TikTok as a creator. In this article we will take a look at how to make money from TikTok as a creator if you have a small following or are looking to get started on the platform.
Let’s dive right in.
Making Money on TikTok
Make a TikTok Creator Account
If you already have a TikTok creator account and a small following you can skip this first part. If you don’t the first step is to create your account.
When you are first creating your account, make sure you select a “pro account”. This will allow you to be enrolled in the creator’s fund and receive payouts once you are eligible.
You will often see the word “influencer” being thrown around when referring to people who make TikTok videos. There are oftentimes a negative connotation with the term “influencer” as the market has become flooded and saturated with them on Instagram and Youtube.
While a good majority of people do refer to themselves as influencers on the TikTok platform, others simply refer to themselves as “creators”.
Niche Selection
As a creator you should have a good idea of the kind of TikTok content you plan on creating for your audience. You should select a niche in which you have interest and excitement and can see yourself creating consistent and entertaining videos for people. It’s also recommended that you know which kinds of niches tend to do well on TikTok for independent creators.
Recommended Reading: What Niches Do Well on TikTok
Some of the different niches include:
- Comedy
- Dancing
- Cooking
- Arts and Crafts
- Lip-Syncing
- Sports
- Stunts
Profile Creation
When you first set up your profile, it’s recommended that you focus on having a representative image of yourself and a great bio. This will be the first impression your audience will have of you and it should give them some sort of idea of what your content is about. If you have your own website you can even link it in your bio.
See the following profile example below.
The name and bio of the TikTok creator account above tells you that it’s about someone who creates clay figurines and they even include a link to their website.
The Right Way To Create Content
Simply put, creating great content is not enough.
People need to be able to find you content and engage with it. As a result, it’s important that you have a little bit of knowledge about how the TikTok Algorithm works.
Recommended Reading: How Does The TikTok Algorithm Work
If you read the article above, you will quickly learn that video performance will drive your results and exposure on TikTok. In order to be found it’s important that you use some of the most popular and relevant hashtags on TikTok.
Recommended TikTok Hashtags for Maximum Exposure
#tiktok
#foryou
#foryoupage
#trending
#explore
#fyp (for you page)
#funny
#love
#viral
#follow
#explorepage
#likeforlikes
#instagood
#tiktokdance
Pro Tip: It’s also worth noting that you should come up with your own hashtags for your niche and use hashtags that are relevant to your niche.
Different Ways You Can Make Money As a TikTok Creator
The TikTok Creator Fund
TikTok has recently announced the release of their creator fund. The creator fund is a TikTok program which allows creators to earn money from their videos.
TikTok will play ads before or after their videos and the creators will receive money as a result of the ads being run on their videos. It’s worth noting that the creator fund is still in its infancy and it’s the first step TikTok has taken to help creators monetize their content.
To find out more information about how to qualify to be eligible for TikTok’s creator fund and how much you can get paid, checkout the official TikTok article below.
Recommended Reading: TikTok Creator Fund Questions Answered
The video below shows how much a TikTok creator got paid from the creator fund for 1,000,000 views. https://www.youtube.com/embed/OqKbyDXrrrs
How Much Do You Make Per 1000 Views on TikTok From The Creator Fund
Since the creator fund is still pretty much in its infancy, it’s hard to get an accurate idea behind the average earnings of creators. Some creators have reported earning around $.02 – $.05 per 1,000 views while others have reported earning around $.10 – $.15 per 1000 views. It’s safe to say that your earnings will vary based on your niche, audience engagement and audience size.
Sponsored Posts
Another way that creators can make money from their content is through sponsored posts. This typically happens when you have established a following and either get approached by brands or you approach them directly to offer your services.
You don’t need millions of followers in order to have brands partner with you. The great thing about the TikTok platform is that they have a place for creators to go and register in order for brands to find them.
Recommended Reading: TikTok Tools to Help You Grow Your Audience
The TikTok Creator Marketplace allows brands and businesses to find creators and influencers that fit their products and services and it allows them to reach out to creators directly for sponsorship deals.
How Much Can you Make From Sponsored Posts
The amount you can earn from sponsored posts will vary greatly based on the amount of followers you have, the brands your partner with and your niche.
Some creators and influencers have reported making as much as $.02 – $.04 for each sponsored view they received on sponsored TikTok posts. So for a video with 100,000 views you could potentially make $2,000 – $4,000. If you are getting millions of views these numbers can quickly add up.
Sell Your Own Products and Services
Another way to make money as a creator from TikTok is to sell your own products or services. If you happen to have your own brand or products and services you can link back to your own website through your TikTok bio in order for people to purchase your products.
See example below.
You don’t need a massive following in order to sell your own merch. You simply need to build an audience that is highly engaged with your content.
In order to do this it’s important you create interesting and creative videos which people can find and engage with on TikTok.
Pro Tip: On top of creating engaging videos for your audience, it’s important to also engage with your TikTok audience so they feel like you care about their input and suggestions.
Accept Donations
A non-traditional way of making money through TikTok is to accept donations. This is most commonly done by either including a donation button in your bio or collecting donations during Livestream.
TikTok gives creators and influencers the ability to earn virtual gifts through Livestream.
Below is how it works.
Purchasing Coins and Gifts
Users who are 18 or older can purchase gifts and coins from their user profile. The prices of the coins vary and once you buy them they get assigned to your profile.
Once you have purchased the coins, you have the ability to exchange them for a variety of different virtual gifts. You can use these gifts to reward content creators.
What can Creators Do With These Gifts
The gifts that creators received from their audience can be converted into “diamonds”. These diamonds can be withdrawn by creators in exchange for real money. Cash is usually paid into PayPal or directly to your bank. It’s essentially TikTok’s own currency system.
Conclusion
As the TikTok platform continues to grow, so will the different ways in which creators and influencers will be able to make money. If you want to make money as a creator on TikTok you have to continue creating high quality content that your audience finds engaging and entertaining.
It’s also recommended that you don’t limit yourself to one monetization strategy. See what your competition is doing, branch out and learn more about the platform as it continues to grow.