How Do Content Creators & Influencers Make Money On TikTok?

Unconventional earning streams have become increasingly popular. Social media platforms, in particular, have welcomed the change and are continually rolling out new tools to help creators earn more.

TikTok is a rising star in the social media world and is a hot platform for creators. Many TikTok creators have established their own personal brands and monetized their profiles to earn a steady income. But can you become one of them?

With some determination, strategic thinking, and some direction, you can start earning off TikTok faster than you'd expect.

If you're looking to establish yourself on a social media platform and eventually monetize, TikTok might just be the best platform to streamline your efforts and kickstart your journey. Let's take a look at some of the best ways to monetize on the social media platform.

Why it's easier than ever to monetize

TikTok exploded in popularity over the past year. It’s even beating Instagram in terms of engagement! Due to this, more brands are flocking towards TikTok and working with influencers to introduce their products to a new audience. One major benefit of TikTok over Instagram is that it’s possible to grow organically on TikTok. While Instagram and Facebook constrain your reach unless you advertise, you don’t have to “pay to play” to have your content go viral on TikTok.

New shopping features

TikTok has significantly influenced the digital world and has touched every industry from fashion to music in some form or another. TikTok has made it easier than ever for new creators to interact with millions of users all over the world. Moreover, TikTok has opened up new revenue streams for creators, especially with its new shopping feature.

TikTok has created an ecommerce experience that offers both small and large businesses a new way to sell directly on the app. The feature allows TikTok creators to add a shopping tab directly to their profile, linking users to the creator’s products. Additionally, the tab offers in-app shopping, linking the user to items in a product catalog on Shopify. The TikTok and Teespring collaboration has also enabled creators to sell their merchandise directly to their followers, without the need for a middle man.

More brands are paying for sponsored content

While TikTok may be the latest edition to the bundle of social media platforms, it’s quickly becoming the most widely-used platform around the globe. With such enormous marketing potential, brands of all sizes are entering the TikTok space to advertise their products. This provides TikTok creators with an opportunity to offer their following and audience reach in exchange for paid sponsorship.

Since TikTok is still a relatively new platform, there's a fair bit of wiggle room to negotiate a reasonable rate for each piece of branded content. TikTok’s Creator Marketplace is an initiative that connects potential sponsors to TikTok creators looking for opportunities to earn revenue through branded content.

Link tools make it easy to promote multiple products and services

Similar to platforms like Instagram, TikTok allows its creators to attach a clickable link in the bio. You can add a link in the bio by changing your account to a business account and editing the settings. Beyond that, TikTok allows you to promote products and services directly with your followers.

How to make money on TikTok

So how do you actually make money on TikTok and prove your worth as an influencer? Here are our suggestions.

Promote products from other brands

Influencer marketing is growing dramatically, partly due to the large influx of users on different social media platforms and partly due to the pandemic. The pandemic contributed to more people spending time online resulting in the explosive growth of ecommerce over traditional brick and mortar retail. TikTok, like any other platform, has seen a steep growth in branded content, giving creators many opportunities to earn revenue by collaborating with renowned brands.

Most brands require a product showcase in a scripted format, but some companies let creators write their own advertising copy to ensure authenticity in follower communication. The requirement for you to be eligible to create branded content is a significant following and engagement rate.

Sell your own products

Using unique content to grow your fan base accomplishes a lot more than just growing your follower count. You can leverage your base of super fans to market and sell your own products or services. Creators and influencers have established close relationships with their followers, which cultivates trust and encourages them to buy from you. Thus, marketing your own products and services is a great potential revenue stream, and you can enjoy potentially high conversion rates.

Publish sponsored posts

Sponsored posts are a great way to leverage your following to drive revenue. Brands are actively looking for TikTok creators with an organic following and high engagement to advertise their products. They generally prefer accounts that have amassed a niche following and can guarantee a steady flow of traffic.

With sponsored posts, you can run advertisements or discuss the features of a product as written by the brand. There is little room to improvise on a sponsored post, but given the number of diverse brands on social media platforms, paid partnerships are a great opportunity to earn revenue. Apart from pulling in some appreciable revenue, sponsored posts also help you establish a professional reputation in the social media space, encouraging more brands to work with you.

Collect donations

TikTok’s donation feature allows creators to add the ‘Donation Sticker’ to their video content. The sticker lets you select from a list of available organizations. It is a feature mainly put to use by not-for-profit organizations and influencers. Not only does the donation sticker prove effective in collecting money through reliable sources, but it also leaves a positive impression on your followers.

Run an influencer agency

Agencies help influencers arrange contracts with brands. Facilitating contracts includes everything from creating engagements to managing the influencer’s projects.  Agencies also help with coordinating all the activities between the parties and charge a fee for doing so. While this doesn’t require e a large TikTok or social media presence, it does help to be reputable.

Become a social media consultant

Gathering a significant following on TikTok and having a high engagement rate on your short videos qualifies you to play the role of a consultant. Throughout your TikTok career, if you’ve learned of any strategies that help boost your interactions or overall profile, you can share the ‘secrets’ for a fee. For example, if you know the best time to post on TikTok, you can consult creators on when they should post to help boost their engagement.

However, this job requires solid experience and an insight into the workings of the platform. Another way to capitalize on your TikTok expertise is by entering into agreements to consult TikTok creators to increase engagement and exposure personally. A consulting opportunity allows you a percentage of their earnings in addition to your commission fee.

How to make more income through social media

There’s no guarantee that you’ll make money from TikTok. But if you want to improve your chances of success, here are our suggestions for generating consistent income from TikTok.

Understand your audience

TikTok, more so than any other social media platform, runs on user preference, so the key to success as a TikTok creator is understanding what the users want to see. You can review trending videos in your niche to learn about sounds, dances, and scripts that are best received by your target audience.

Create a unique profile

Given the vast opportunities TikTok presents creators with, many influences have established themselves on the platform. To stand out from the competition, it's best to make your TikTok profile unique. This entails using an attention-grabbing bio, an interesting profile picture, or even creating a custom 'link-in-bio' mobile site to reflect your brand.

Interact with your audience

Creating and uploading content alone isn't enough to drive engagement. You also need to actively interact with your followers through comments and other TikTok features, such as duets and stitch. Interacting with the followers on TikTok videos makes them feel appreciated and encourages users to continually engage with your new content.

Get more followers

Creating and uploading content alone is not sufficient. To drive engagement, you must actively interact with your followers through comments and other features offered by TikTok, such as duets and stitching. Additionally, you can use viral sounds and hashtags to get on the trending page. Interacting with the followers makes them feel appreciated and boosts engagement and views from the same users when you post again.

Create consistent content

Uploading content regularly helps increase exposure and grow your following. Sticking to a regular schedule boosts engagement both from your existing followers and other users. It’s good to post at least three videos each day, so your viewers have something new to look forward to each day.

Promote your content on other social networks

Social media no longer functions as separate units; instead, a cross-platform network is created which requires interaction with all different units. Content creator can now be a full-time job that requires full-time attention. For example, TikTok is an app predominantly used by younger audiences, whereas Instagram tends to be used by Millennials and Gen-Z. By integrating many different platforms, you can reach a much broader audience.

How much do influencers earn from brand deals?

The amount of real money internet celebrities make off of brand deals is mainly dependent on the number of active followers amassed. Typically, famous TikTok creators, such as Charli D’amelio, Addison Rae, and Loren Gray, earn a hefty $500 to $20,000 for each piece of branded content.

How much do influencers earn from affiliate links?

Earning revenue through affiliate links hasn’t proven to be largely successful with TikTok, relative to other platforms. However, in aggregate with other platforms, influencers make anywhere between $50 to $20,000 per month.

How much do influencers make products and merch?

The modern influencer culture trend has made selling merchandise a success symbol for social media personalities. As a result, content creators with a substantial following can earn $4,000 to $50,000 from selling their own products.

How much do influencers make reselling clothing?

Apart from selling their own merchandise, influencers make a reasonable sum reselling clothing by customizing the clothing to fit their brand. The amount they make depends on different factors, including their conversion rates and their number of followers.

How much do influencers make promoting songs?

TikTok is a platform that capitalizes on its users’ auditory and visual creativity. Therefore, it’s no surprise that TikTok creators can earn anything between $1,000 to $1,500 per song on each promotion.

Frequently asked questions

Making money on TikTok can be confusing. Here are some of the most common questions about making money on TikTok.

How many followers do I need to get paid?

TikTok can offer money directly through its creator fund. TikTok has set a specific criterion to be considered eligible to apply for the TikTok’s creator fund. You need to be at least 18 years of age and have at least 10,000 followers.

How much money can you make?

Generating revenue from the TikTok app is possible through various sources, such as advertising branded content or promoting sponsored posts. Monthly revenue can vary from $50 to $50k every month.

Does TikTok pay creators for videos?

TikTok doesn’t pay its creators for uploading content on the platform. Instead, it only offers TikTok creator’s fund for those eligible for it.

How do you get paid?

Earning revenue on TikTok is possible through various sources. For example, you can get brands to sponsor your content, or you can make money from advertising their products.

How much can you earn?

Earning on TikTok varies depending on your active follower count and engagement rate. There are multiple revenue streams, but a majority of them require an active engagement on your account.

How much does TikTok pay per 1000 views?

TikTok doesn’t pay its creators for the content they create.

Make money with Beacons

Beacons is a responsive mobile website builder that helps TikTok creators streamline their monetization efforts and drive revenue.

Promote multiple products and links

With Beacons, you can promote all your products and best content in one place. The platform lets you build custom mobile sites and list all your best products. Creators can use Beacons to sell products directly from their bio, and accept payments with Stripe and PayPal.

Build your following on multiple social media platforms

Got a YouTube video with over 10k views or a TikTok post that went viral? Put all your best content on one single mobile page and promote your best work on multiple social media platforms. Creators with multiple social media accounts can use Beacons to sync their following and grow their fanbase.

Build a website optimized for selling

Beacons was built with creators and social media monetization in mind. The AI-driven platform starts by asking you a few simple questions and proceeds to design a responsive website with your best content. Use Beacons the way it was meant to: to help you earn.

How to get started

Building a loyal fanbase takes time, effort, dedication, and a fair bit of creativity. As a creator or influencer, your goal should be to consistently provide value to your audiences and establish a steady stream of revenue.

All the hours you put into managing your TikTok account, growing your following, creating content, and analyzing audience insights are unpaid until you start monetizing. With Beacons, creators and influencers can streamline their passive income streams and focus on creating what they love.

Get started today with a free trial to learn more about why Beacons is a top pick for creators.

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