TikTok is the trendiest social network. You may know it for teenagers lip-syncing and dancing but it’s for more than that. If you like posting TikTok videos and build a big enough following, it can even earn you money. Follow these tips to monetize your TikTok account. 

Forbes’ Highest-Earning TikTok Stars

  1. Charli D’Amelio: $17.5 Million
  2. Dixie D’Amelio: $10 Million
  3. Addison Rae: $8.5 Million
  4. Bella Poarch: $5 Million
  5. Josh Richards: $5 Million
  6. Kris Collins: $4.75 Million
  7. Avani Gregg: $4.75 Million

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How to Make Money on TikTok

Making money on TikTok is attainable, but it doesn’t happen overnight.  To make money on TikTok, you have to grow your audience and earn sponsorships. 

 

Here are some of the top strategies to start monetizing your following: 

Find a Niche 

Like most other online business ventures, making money on TikTok starts with choosing a niche for your content. A TikTok niche defines the theme of your content and who you are creating it for. Focusing on a niche will help you grow your TikTok following because users who like one of your videos click on your profile will be more likely to follow you if the rest of their videos are relevant to their interests. 

 

Sticking to a niche with your TikTok videos narrows your target audience, which leads to less competition. If your audience includes a lot of users who are interested in your niche, your content will probably have higher engagement rates. The more engagement your content gets, the easier it will be to get brand deals. 

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Apply For TikTok’s Creator Marketplace

The TikTok Creator Marketplace is a platform that connects content creators with brands and sponsorship opportunities. You can apply for the TikTok Creator Marketplace once you get 100,000 followers. TikTok Creator Marketplace members also get official support from TikTok on brand campaigns, collaboration tools, and advice on creating advertiser-friendly content. 

Two men with briefcases shaking hands

Land Brand Partnerships 

You don’t have to be part of the TikTok Creator Marketplace to make money from brand partnerships. First, you need to build your following. Here are some ways to do that: 

  • Develop your niche
  • Interact with other TikTokers in your niche
  • Engage with your followers
  • Post on a Consistent Schedule
  • Use trending music and hashtags
  • Keep track of your analytics

Certain content types attract brands more than others. Brand-friendly content types include:

  • Product reviews
  • Hacks
  • How-tos
  • Tutorials

Building a following on other platforms, especially Instagram, will also make you more appealing to brand partnerships. 

Set up your TikTok profile to make it easy for brands to contact you. Include handles for your other social media accounts, the best email address to contact you by, and a message in your bio that says you’re open to sponsorships.

Then, start emailing brands in your niche. Tell them you’re interested in a brand partnership and tell them what you and your following can do for them. Build trust with your followers by using the branded content toggle when you post content for brand deals.

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Try Micro-Influencing

You don’t need a million of followers to make money on TikTok. Content creators with 50,000-150,000 followers are considered micro-influencers. The term usually describes TikTok users with smaller followings and who specialize in a specific niche. TikTok influencers with fewer than 50,000 followers are called nano-influencers. 

Some brands, particularly small businesses and startups, would rather work with micro-influencers to bigger creators. This is because micro-influencers are more affordable to hire and often have higher engagement rates than influencers with higher follower accounts due to their niche specialty. 

If you want to become a successful micro or nano influencer, focus on creating content that is specific to your niche and on raising your engagement rates. Then, contact brands that align closely with your niche and highlight what you can uniquely bring to their marketing strategy. 

A teenage girl on a livestream inside a smartphone

Post More Than Ads

TikTok videos are short. They don’t give you enough time to mention a product without it being the focus of the video. When you get a regular stream of brand deals, post a mix of branded content and regular content. It could take trial and error to figure out the right ratio, so pay attention to your analytics. If your engagement takes a dip after you post a lot of brand deal content at one time, add some non-branded videos into the mix. 

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Go Native

Branded content doesn’t have to look like an ad. As long as you do what the brand expects and disclose that the video is sponsored, you can incorporate the products in your videos however you want.

One example of native advertising on TikTok that doesn’t look like an ad is the trend that started with a TikToker drinking Ocean Spray cranberry juice on a skateboard. The cranberry juice isn’t the point of the video, but it’s featured prominently and sprouted memes riffing on it. 

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Apply to TikTok’s Creator Fund

The TikTok Creator Fund compensates creators for posting high-quality content. To be eligible for the TikTok Creator Fund, you have to:

  • Be a legal resident of the United States
  • Be 18 years or older
  • Have over 10,000 authentic followers
  • Have at least 100,000 authentic video views in the 30 days prior to applying
  • Post original content that meets TikTok’s community guidelines
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Make a Press Kit

An influencer press kit is like a resume, portfolio, and sales pitch designed to get you more brand deals. Be sure to include the following in your press kit:

  • An introduction to you and your brand
  • Links to your social media platforms 
  • Your most recent analytics 
  • The engagement rates for your 10 latest posts
  • A list of previous brand partnership experiences with links to associated posts 
  • Sponsorship formats you offer and rates
  • Case studies on your most popular content
  • Sales stats from campaigns, merch sales, and affiliate programs
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More Ways to Earn on TikTok

1. Tips

Fans can now tip their favorite creators. TikTok charges the tip sender a small processing fee.

2. Video/Live Gifts

Fans can also send gifts to their favorite creators during their live streams and videos. Creators will earn diamonds from the gifts they receive, convert them into coins, and then get real money. 2 Diamonds = 1 Coin. TikTok takes 50% commission from the diamonds.

3. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a popular way to monetize a social media following. TikTok is no exception. As an affiliate, you promote products in your videos and earn a commission from every purchase a viewer makes through the link to the product you post in the caption. 

4. Selling Merchandise

Selling your own products through a print on demand provider is another popular way to monetize a following. Spring (formerly known as Teespring) partners with TikTok to let influencers sell their merch directly on the platform, but there are other options as well. 

 

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Tips For Going Viral on TikTok

Having a video go viral on TikTok can jumpstart your influencer marketing career. You can only have so much control over your content going viral, but here are a few things you can do to help it catch on.  

1. Understand Your Audience

Since TikTok is full of all kinds of content, you’ll find a variety of communities on the platform. Knowing who your community is and what content they enjoy the most is the first step to TikTok fame. 

For example, if you post health and wellness videos, you could notice your videos about yoga get more likes than your cooking videos. Then, posting more exercise videos could lead to more engagement from your audience. The more people engage with your content, the more likely it is to show up on people’s For You Page and Discover Page.

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2. Cross-Promote Your Content

Cross-posting your content on other social networks, especially Instagram and Facebook, is a great way to get more views from your followers on these platforms. Share the first few seconds of your video on your Instagram story so viewers have to go to your TikTok profile to watch the rest of it. 

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3. Post Often

TikTok’s algorithm favors frequent posters. Setting a schedule for 3 to 7 posts per week is a great way to hold yourself to a frequent post rate. Posting at times when you get the most engagement makes sure that more people see your content and allows your followers to look forward to your content. 

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4. Use Relevant Hashtags

Hashtags tell the algorithm what the video is about so it can recommend it to people who are interested in it. Aim for three to five hashtags to get your point across without looking spammy. If you choose more specific ones,  you’ll compete with fewer videos for users’ attention. 

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5. Collaborate with TikTokers

Collaborating with other content creators is an effective way to grow your audience. You can build relationships with creators in your niche as by commenting on their videos and sending them private messages. 

Once that relationship is established, you can make plans to post collabs on each other’s accounts or to create sketches and challenges together. Then some of their followers who like the content you create together will become your followers as well. 

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6. Jump on Trends

TikTok trends come up quickly. If you can keep track of them, jumping on board can lead to more viewers since TikTok users can follow sounds and challenges the same way they follow hashtags. 

While you scroll through the For You Page, Keep an eye out for patterns and trends. You can also find trending sounds and hashtags on the Discover page. Posting TikToks that incorporate trends makes them more likely to be featured on the For You Pages of people who engage with those trends. 

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7. Encourage Interaction

Encourage your viewers to interact with your content by answering comments and posing questions in your TikToks that viewers can answer in the comments or by stitching. After a user interacts with your TikTok, the algorithm often recommends your future content to them. 

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8. Stick to Short Videos

TikTok lets you post videos up to three minutes long now, but it’s still best to keep your posts short. Short videos can hold viewers’ attention more easily than longer ones. If you can make a high-quality video that says what it needs to say in 15 seconds, viewers are likely to watch the whole thing. Shorter videos also mean you have time to make more content. 

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9. Add Calls to Action

Strong calls to action (CTAs) keep viewers coming back for your content. CTAs are your opportunity to tell viewers exactly what you want them to do to engage with your video. On TikTok, these are usually said at the end of the video or written in the caption. For example, you can ask them to tell you their favorite movie in the comments or stitch your video and tell a similar story. A clever way to use a CTA to keep viewers coming back for more is to end a story on a cliffhanger and tell them to watch Part 2 on your profile. 

A speech bubble with the words call to action

10. Create Your Own Audio

Creating and using your own original audio is a great way to connect with your TikTok audience. If you create fun, interesting sounds that go well with your content, the algorithm will likely recommend it to the right audience. 

Encouraging users to stitch your videos and cross-promoting on other social media platforms are great ways to spread the audio around and encourage others in your audience to use it in their content. 

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11. Keep it Positive and Funny

Videos that are funny and upbeat are more widely shared and interacted with than more serious TikToks. But don’t try to force humor in a way that doesn’t feel authentic to you. Authenticity is an important part of humor and finding people enjoyable on social media.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Making Money on TikTok

Can You Make Money on TikTok?

Ways to make money on TikTok include: 

  • Joining the TikTok Creator Fund
  • Posting sponsored content
  • Selling merchandise
  • Becoming an affiliate marketer

How Do You Get Paid on TikTok?

TikTok as a platform doesn’t directly give payouts to content creators for ad revenue the way monetized YouTube channels get paid. TikTokers primarily earn their income from brands that they partner with for sponsored posts and affiliate programs. 

How Much Does TikTok Pay?

Influencer Marketing Hub’s TikTok Influencer Engagement and Earnings Calculator is a great way to estimate your earning potential. The amount of money a TikTok influencer earns varies greatly by niche, country, audience location, and other factors. Ultimately, influencers negotiate their pay with the brands they partner with. 

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What Type of Content Performs Best on TikTok? 

Entertainment content that is funny and on-trend performs the best on TikTok. 

 

Can TikTok be a Career?

Having a lucrative career on TikTok is certainly possible. It’s not easy money though. Some wannabe influencers think you can make one viral video and be set for life. Though some people do get lucky, making real money from TikTok requires 

  • Building an audience over time
  • Regularly creating high-quality short videos
  • A personality to influence fans
  • Taking advantage of the monetization tools available to you

How Sav Can Help

Here at Sav, we don’t stop helping you grow your business when your website goes live. With our low prices and features that you need, we make it easy to build a presence, promote your website, and sell your products and services on social media. Build your website today!

Luca Harsh

Luca Harsh

Luca Harsh is an in-house content writer for Sav. They live in Chicago with their cat, Polly. Yes, Harsh is their real last name.