Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last two years (I mean – who hasn’t?), you’ll have heard about TikTok. It’s taken the social media world by storm since the days when everyone danced with their Grandma to trending sounds for a few likes, and now it’s become something altogether different. Now is the time to make money on TikTok.
Nowadays, we’re using TikTok for business and influencers are flocking in waves from Instagram because all the OG TikTokers are preaching about how easy it is to make money on TikTok. So let’s take a look at how exactly content creators are currently making money on TikTok.
Here are the top four ways you can make money on TikTok right now:
- Joining the TikTok Creator Fund
- Promoting products and/or services via affiliate marketing
- Creating sponsored content for brand partnerships
- Promoting your business products/services
Before we dive into these four methods to make money on TikTok, let’s do a little breakdown of some commonly asked questions…
How many likes on TikTok do you need to get paid?
How many likes on TikTok do you need to get paid?There is no set number of likes on TikTok to start getting paid. Contrary to popular belief, likes actually have very little to do with your account’s overall performance. Instead, you should focus on views and followers to gauge your earning potential.
Although likes can be useful for calculating an engagement rate on TikTok, they aren’t the best metric to use for the platform. Overall watch time, comments and shares are all better indicators of your audience’s level of engagement in your content.
How to make money on TikTok Live
To make money on TikTok Live, you need to turn on “Live Gifting” while streaming on TikTok live. This allows anyone viewing your live to gift you rewards (in exchange for in-app coins which they need to have purchased prior to attending your live), or stickers which they can purchase directly through your TikTok live stream.
At the end of your stream, you will see the total number of gifts received which then translates to Diamonds , which can (finally) be exchanged for cash from your TikTok settings. It’s a little bit of a process, and for smaller creators, you won’t necessarily be breaking the bank with this method, but for larger creators, a TikTok Live can be a very profitable way to spend an hour a day.
Do you have to be verified to make money on TikTok?
You do not need to be verified to make money on TikTok. Verified accounts do not get paid money directly from TikTok (outside of the Creator Fund) and although some say verified accounts have their content pushed out to a wider audience, there’s no proof to back this up.
In reality, being verified on TikTok will do very little for your account. It may help from a credibility point of view, with new followers seeing your verified status as a reason to follow you, but verified accounts are few and far between. Many TikTok creators make money from the platform without being verified.
How to make money from TikTok views
The main way to make money from TikTok views is through TikTok’s Creator Fund. You need 100,000 views from the last 30 days to join TikTok’s Creator Fund and they use your future video views to calculate how much you’ll make from the fund.
However, TikTok users often note the Creator Fund doesn’t pay out quite like they’d expect it to for viral videos. So you may find that you make money from TikTok views by brands reaching out to you after a viral video, or you can take advantage of affiliate marketing on TikTok to make money from your TikTok video views.
How much do you get paid on TikTok
TikTok’s Creator Fund is tight-lipped about how exactly payouts are calculated however, users have reported being disappointed with what they’ve been paid in comparison to platforms like Instagram or Facebook.
As for other methods to make money on TikTok, like selling your own services, affiliate marketing and brand partnerships, this will vary for each account. If you’re curious to see what your TikTok account can earn from brand partnerships, enter your account details into this TikTok Influencer Engagement & Earnings Calculator.
Ok, so now we’ve cleared a few things up, let’s get to the top four ways to make money on TikTok right now…
4 Ways To Make Money On TikTok in 2022
1. Join TikTok’s Creator Fund
Joining TikTok’s Creator Fund is by far the simplest way to get paid on TikTok right now. However, it’s often reported that influencers don’t make much money for their viral content and if you’re looking to replace your full-time job with TikTok, you’re probably not going to do it with TikTok’s Creator Fund.
If you’re looking for a little side earner to bring in some extra coffee money each week, then that’s exactly what you can achieve with TikTok’s Creator Fund, so it’s well worth including it in the ways you monetise your TikTok account.
To join TikTok’s Creator Fund, your need to meet the following criteria…
- Are based in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain or Italy
- Are at least 18 years old
- Have at least 10,000 followers
- Have at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days
- Have an account that fits with the TikTok Community Guidelines
If that sounds like you, then head to your TikTok app and apply via Creator Fund to get started. From there, you’ll be able to see your earnings directly through the app and cash out as needed.
2. Affiliate marketing on TikTok
To start affiliate marketing on TikTok, you need to ensure you have over 1000 followers on your creator account so you can add a link to your profile. If you have a verified business account then you don’t need 1000 followers however it’s recommended to stick with a creator account for access to trending sounds.
Once you’ve hit 1000 followers, sign up for a Linktree account so you have somewhere to place your affiliate links. This is the URL you’ll enter on your TikTok profile and is a well-known, trusted service for TikTok users.
From there, sign up for affiliate marketing programmes such as Amazon Associates to begin collecting affiliate links related to the content you are creating on TikTok. Some popular options include the equipment you use to create your videos, products you use in your videos and services you use in your day-to-day life. This is the most organic way to do affiliate marketing on TikTok.
That being said, there are other, more lucrative ways you can get into affiliate marketing on TikTok. A quick search on your affiliate marketing platform will highlight products/services with the highest commissions, and with that in mind, you can create content geared around those to drive your followers to your profile link and (hopefully) on to buy.
3. Partner with Brands on sponsored content
TikTok is a relatively new platform, which means brands aren’t looking for you to have 100,000 followers before they want to work with you. Personally, I started to work with brands on sponsored content once I’d hit around 5000 followers on TikTok.
Micro-influencers are a big thing on TikTok because the FYP (For Your Page) is where the majority of users consume content. This means you don’t exclusively see people you follow when you’re scrolling through the app, so there’s a higher chance of smaller accounts going viral.
For brands, it can be a very cost-effective way to have their products go viral.
With that in mind, there is no right/wrong time to start working with brands, however, it’s best to ensure you’re comfortable with content creation, your audience and all the components that make up a successful TikTok video before reaching out.
By that time, you may find brands are contacting you already to see about working together (GREAT!) but if not, reach out to brands you’d love to work with, give them your rates, link to your account and put your offer to them. You’d be amazed at how many will jump at the chance to work with you!
4. Promote your own business
You could argue that this is the easiest way to make money on TikTok, however, using TikTok for business is a slightly different beast from the rest of the suggestions above. For starters, you actually have to have a business set up before you can go down this route. You also need to be very familiar with what sort of content works best for business promotion. For more tips on this, check out my post on how to use TikTok for business for plenty of insight into the style of posts you should be creating, who to follow, etc.
Takeaway: If you want to make money from content creation, TikTok is the place to be.
There is no better time to join TikTok. Gurus are advising that by mid-2023 we likely won’t see the same level of reach with the platform we’re seeing right now, so this is the time to add it to your marketing strategy and start using the four ways to monetise your account.
