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TikTok monetization gives you the opportunity to make money from your hobby. If you’re good at making videos and have something unique to share with the world, you can easily turn it into a reliable source of income using these simple strategies.
5 Popular Strategies on How to Make Money from TikTok
In 2023, TikTok is the 6th largest social platform with 50 million daily active users and billions of downloads. However, is it a good platform to make money? When it comes to social media these days, it’s not a question of “which” because all platforms offer some kind of monetization options. The question you should be asking yourself is “which platform is right for you?”.
Each platform serves a specific type of audience and has its own unique culture. For example, TikTok content is for Gen Z and millennials, with short and sweet snackable content with its own unique style of editing. Imagine posting TikTok style content on LinkedIn, it just wouldn’t work.
So, ask yourself – are you good at TikTok content? Is that something you resonate with? If the answer is yes, then TikTok is the right choice for you! If you’re more about creating long videos in horizontal format then you should consider YouTube instead.
But no matter what platform you end up choosing, you will make money in any case especially if you manage to build a fan base of people who like your videos. Now, with that out of the way, let’s move onwards to strategies.
1. Join TikTok’s Creator Next Program
First thing’s first. Before looking at external ways to make money, make sure that you’re eligible for TikTok Creator Next. It’s a program that lets you use TikTok’s monetization features so you can turn your love for content creation into, as TikTok puts it, “something greater, whether it’s a side hustle or business.” You need to meet the following requirements to be eligible:
- Have at least 1,000 followers
- Must be at least 18 years old
- Must have posted at least 3 videos in the past month
- Videos must have at least 1,000 views
Joining this program first before doing anything else helps you stay on track. If you can successfully meet the minimum requirements, you can rest assured that you’re moving in the right direction towards earning money on TikTok. Monetization features include:
- TikTok Creator Fund: TikTok raised $200M to give to creators who get a lot of views. However, this feature has even more eligibility requirements and is only available to creators based in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.
- TikTok Creator Marketplace: This is a place where sponsors or brands meet creators to collaborate. Brands are free to join but creators are admitted on an invite-only basis. If you think you won’t get your TikTok invite any time soon, you can join another social marketplace for creators and brands such as Paysenger for free with no eligibility requirements.
- Livestream Donations: TikTok Gifts is a way for fans to support their creators during live streams. These virtual gifts can be withdrawn by creators and turned into real money (TikTok keeps 50%).
2. Collaborate with brands
Once your audience size starts growing, brands will find it worthwhile to place their ads on your channel. Usually you’ll have to wait for brands to reach out to you. The amount of brands that reach out to you depends on your niche and audience size. You can accelerate the process by being proactive and reaching out to brands yourself. However, you must have a solid portfolio and an active TikTok presence to show to them. Luckily, this can easily be achieved by using a social marketplace like Paysenger.
On Paysenger, you can find sponsors, brands or creators to collaborate with a whole lot easier. To do that, simply:
- Download Paysenger on iOS or Android (or use the Web version)
- Create a Creator profile
- Post content to populate your portfolio
- Reach out to potential partners who have the same target audience and content as you
Also, without using a social marketplace you usually have to send a lot of messages to get a response. On Paysenger, all of your messages are paid so brands and creators get back to you immediately. Of course, you get a refund if they don’t respond.
3. Sell products or merch
Product sales are a lot more profitable for TikTok creators who have a loyal audience base. That’s because they can sell products organically without spending money on ads. They don’t need to factor in advertisement cost and can earn bigger margins. You can either sell e-commerce products such as clothes, cosmetics, electronics etc., or launch merch with your brand logo (if you’re popular enough). The best part is that product sales are very easy to set up. You can easily create an online store by using a platform like Gumroad or Shopify.
4. Become an affiliate
Affiliate marketers earn commission for selling other people’s products on their websites or social channels. TikTok can be leveraged for this because it’s generally easier on the app to get a lot of views than on YouTube, Instagram or Facebook. Additionally, TikTok’s algorithm gives everyone an equal chance to go viral (regardless of how many followers you have). So, even if you’re a completely brand new account, your content will still be seen by a lot of people. This is perfect for affiliate marketing.
5. Sell subscriptions or one-time premium content
TikTok it’s 100% free to use for all viewers. That’s why creators can only grow their income by adding external revenue sources and through advertisement (that’s how TikTok makes money as well, by the way). However, if you feel like you can provide even better content to your most beloved fans, you can create it exclusively for them in exchange for money. Monetization platforms like Patreon, Paysenger and Ko-Fi allow you to do exactly that. You can create a VIP experience for your top fans and offer them exclusive content in a variety of ways. Let’s take a look at what each subscription platform helps you accomplish.
Patreon
Patreon is one of the oldest monetization platforms in the list. It allows creators to offer premium content as part of recurring subscriptions to their biggest fans. Fans can pick a tier and each tier unlocks VIP benefits such as:
- Behind-the-scenes footage
- Ability to meet the creator or have a video call with them
- Exclusive big-budget videos that are not available for free
- And so on
Razedmod, for example, offers exclusive access to PC video game mods and shaders that they create. If you pick a more expensive tier, you get access to more benefits and additional mods. However, almost every single creator on the internet has a Patreon account. Patreon is primarily used for recurring payments from fans. It’s generally impractical for fans to purchase fixed subscriptions from several creators at the same time. That’s where on-demand premium content comes in.
Paysenger
Paysenger uses an on-demand content model where fans can send requests to creators for exclusive content. For example, if someone wants one-on-one time with a creator, they can simply request it on Paysenger in a single transaction instead of purchasing an entire monthly membership. This applies to all types of content. Creators can take requests for images, videos, social media posts, shoutouts, Tweets, and so on.
Neural Diaries is a Paysenger creator with over 800 followers who offers AI-drawn photos and videos. You can request them to redraw any photo in any style for $8. They also create music videos for your songs for $10 (or equivalent EGO tokens). Moreover, creators earn money on Paysenger not only through a bunch of VIP fans, but also through the entirety of audiences that consume their content (including those not subscribed to them). Ever like, comment and view you receive on Paysenger pays you EGO tokens (a cryptocurrency) that can be exchanged for dollars or withdrawn.
Ko-Fi
Ko-Fi, which is pretty much identical to Buy Me a Coffee, is designed to “quickly say thanks” to your favorite creator by buying them a coffee, pizza or a beer. You can purchase virtual coffees, pizzas or beers for very little money and give them to your creators to show your love and support. Ko-Fi focuses on quick donations instead of Patreon-style recurring subscriptions. Usually, it’s nice to have this option in addition to Patreon and Paysenger because people can pay you without even signing up.
Final Word
A lot of people believe that your success on social media depends on your number of followers. As if, as soon as you hit a certain number of followers, some kind of lightswitch turns on and they start getting paychecks in their bank account. Social media companies do offer monetization features to invite creators to post content on their platforms. However, money raised directly as part of these programs fluctuates a lot and is usually not enough to grow as a content creator.
Yes, this even applies to YouTube. There are a lot of examples of content creators on YouTube living glamorous lives and doing expensive stunts for views. However, the biggest chunk of their money comes from sponsors, fans, and other external side projects such as merchandise sales and affiliate marketing. So, if your goal is to become a successful content creator, you should focus on building a long-term reputation in your community or niche.
The number of followers on your profile doesn’t hold any value if your audiences don’t genuinely love your content and are not willing to take online actions such as buying merch or subscribing to your Patreon. If you want to monetize your TikTok account, create engaging content, and build a loyal following, use Paysenger to monetize your efforts. Sell on-demand content, collaborate with influencers, find sponsors and brands to work with, and turn content creation into a reliable income source.