Home Creative Work How to Make Money on TikTok: 16 Ways to Earn + Tips for New Creators
September 8, 2023
Freelance Writer
Suzanne is a freelance writer and web designer with 10 years of experience. She previously helped to rebuild a failed digital agency, and now she’s based in Florida running her own business.
TikTok Expert
James is a professional TikTok creator and influencer marketing specialist with 3+ years of experience. He has over 500k followers on his TikTok account, and he's helped numerous brands and individual creators increase their reach.
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NoTikTok is a video-based social media platform with mass appeal. Everyone from big-name influencers and brands to small businesses and individual creators can create content, grow an audience, and earn an income on this platform.
If you’re curious about how to make money on TikTok, keep reading. You’ll learn 16 ways to monetize your TikTok and find tips for increasing your earnings from a TikTok side hustle.
Use TikTok as a money-making tool or get paid by the platform
TikTok has more than 1 billion active users. With such a massive and highly engaged audience, TikTok is one of the best social media platforms to use to create monetized content as a side hustle—though you can also make money without being a TikTok creator. You have tons of options to explore.
The TikTok Rewards program is one of the least-restrictive and easiest ways to make money on TikTok. All TikTok users are eligible to join, but there are some restrictions based on where you live.
To participate, go to your TikTok account and grab your invitation code. Share it with friends, acquaintances, and anyone else you want to bring over to TikTok.
You’ll earn rewards points whenever your referrals download the app using your code. You can also earn points for other activities they perform, like watching videos. As you start accruing referrals, you can convert your rewards points into cash.
TikTok has an in-app tips feature. However, users only gain access to it once they have 100,000 followers. That doesn’t mean you can’t collect tips on your own. There are external apps that allow you to collect tips from avid fans.
Here are a couple of popular examples:
You can’t actively ask people to leave you a tip, but if you have a personal account with at least 1,000 followers or a business account, then you can add a link in your TikTok bio to your external tip jar. If you don’t meet these requirements, you can still add the URL to your bio or videos, but it won’t appear as a clickable link.
However, when we spoke to James Brady, an experienced TikToker who provides coaching and consultancy services for other TikTok users, he warned about one potential drawback to this approach: “TikTok experts say that the TikTok algorithm hates it when you try to drive traffic from TikTok to a third-party site. So there’s a chance your video won’t get many views if you’re typing out third-party links for tip collection in your video descriptions.”
To minimize the risk of this happening, he recommends typing out the link or handle in a comment or quickly showing a screenshot in your video. While this doesn’t guarantee that TikTok won’t penalize you, he says it might be a safer approach.
Another way to keep your content on TikTok free while earning money is to set up a subscription plan. You can use a platform like Stan Store or Patreon to create a low-cost monthly subscription for followers who want more.
You’ll need to include some kind of upgrade in your subscription plan. Here are a few you might consider:
Subscriptions are particularly effective if you’re a TikTok creator in the consultation or coaching spaces. You can use TikTok to offer high-level tips and tricks and then give subscribers more in-depth guidance and personal time with you.
Affiliate marketing is a type of content marketing where a third-party company or brand pays you for sending business their way. Considering that TikTok users are 1.5-times more likely to buy something they saw on the platform, this is a great place to do it.
To get started, you have to follow three basic steps:
When someone buys something via your link, the company pays you a portion of the sale. This is a good way to make money on TikTok if your content strategy revolves around product reviews, unboxing videos, and so on.
Note: When doing affiliate marketing, you must disclose your affiliation with the company. You can do this by adding the #ad hashtag to your post.
If you’ve created a unique TikTok brand, consider making merchandise for it. You can add catchphrases, inspirational quotes, mascots, custom designs, and more to all kinds of merchandise. Here are just a few examples:
Print-on-demand companies like Printful and Shutterfly can help you create this merch. You can also get creative and add your branding to objects that tie directly into your TikTok channel. For instance, let’s say you have a cooking channel. You could sell branded cutlery or glassware to your fans.
The key is thinking of your followers when deciding what to sell. Brady told us that if he could go back in time and give his earlier self one piece of advice, it would be that “the best way to make money on TikTok is to offer products and services that there’s a market for.” When he first gained a decent following, he started trying to sell “useless merchandise,” which he quickly discovered his viewers had no interest in buying.
If you don’t have a website of your own, TikTok Shop is a good way to make money by selling physical goods. Even if you have your own site for selling products, you can take advantage of this in-app feature as it gives your followers flexibility in terms of when and where they buy from you.
When you activate this feature, a shopping tab will appear on your profile. Users can use this tab to browse and buy your products (as well as affiliate products). However, the best way to make money from this feature is to create promotional and instructional content around certain products.
For instance, if you make candles, you could publish a series of videos on how to create different scents. Even if it’s not outright promotional, a link to the shop would give followers an easy way to buy relevant products.
TikTok ads are an effective way to broaden your reach—and quickly. If you have a business or product to sell, then using TikTok as an advertising platform can be a great way to increase your business earnings.
Ads come in a variety of forms:
There are a couple of different ways you can run ads on TikTok. Regardless of which approach you use, Brady says it’s most important that you “get to the point quickly, include strong hooks, and appear native to the platform,” meaning your ads should have the “look and feel” of a TikTok video.
One of the most cost-effective TikTok advertising approaches is TikTok Promote, which can get you up to ~1,000 views for as little as $10. 1 To get started, just select a video you want to promote, set a goal for your campaign (e.g., more followers, views, or traffic to your website), and decide how much you’re willing to spend to promote the video.
You can also run ads through TikTok Ads Manager. Ads run on TikTok Ads Manager have three parts: campaigns, ad groups, and ads. You start by creating a campaign. Each campaign contains an ad group, which in turn consists of at least one ad. To use TikTok Ads Manager, you need to spend at least $50 (daily and/or in total) for your campaign. 2
You can customize who sees these ads as well as where and when they show up in users’ feeds. You can also send people to specific landing pages on your website or shop so they can quickly capitalize on the offer in your ad.
Brady says that TikTok Promote and Ads Manager work in essentially the same way. The key differences are that “any TikTok user can use the TikTok Promote feature,” whereas “Ads Manager is more complicated, requires more steps, and has a higher minimum budget.” With that said, TikTok Ads Manager is also more comprehensive and gives businesses more advanced tools for targeting audiences to meet their business objectives.
Note: Social media advertising can be tricky. If you don’t target your ad to the right audience or closely monitor the results, you could end up getting very little return on your investment.
You don’t have to be an influencer or sell products to make money on TikTok. TikTok is one of the best social media platforms out there for getting attention, and you’ll attract genuine interest from viewers by creating organic (unpaid) content and posting videos inspired by your passion for the work you do outside of social media. According to Brady, this is the most profitable way to make money on TikTok.
For instance, let’s say you’re working a side hustle as a makeup artist or stylist. You could create tutorials that are helpful, friendly, and funny. By mentioning the studio where you work, you can increase your income by attracting new customers.
The key to getting new clients or business this way is to post fun and truly informative videos. At the end of it, your followers should be thinking, “That’s awesome, but I really don’t want to do that myself. How do I reach out to this person?”
Brady’s number one tip for driving traffic from TikTok to another site, such as an online store, is to grab the viewer’s attention early on with a strong hook. “The hooks should grab attention and show people that the video will offer them value,” he said. If you’re selling a product, he recommends finding a way to frame the product as a solution, tip, or life hack and incorporate lots of visually appealing shots of the product being used.
Building and selling TikTok accounts is a lot like flipping houses. You’re creating value by putting in the work to build a top-notch TikTok account so somebody else doesn’t have to.
Here’s how to do it:
You can see how this works on sites like UseViral and SidesMedia. This works best for accounts that are topical as opposed to influencer-focused or creator-focused. For example, you could build accounts that target news stories, politics, cute animals, or quotes.
You’ll have to invest time in building the account and growing its audience. You may also have to spend money on ads to increase the account’s reach. However, that’s a minimal investment compared to what you’ll make for selling a high-performing account.
You don’t need to be a creator to make money from TikTok. You can also get paid to contribute in other ways:
High-quality TikTok creation requires a lot of work. While a single creator can manage most of this alone in the beginning, they won’t be able to as their account grows. That’s where your skills can come in.
To find clients, Brady recommends creating profiles on freelancing platforms. “I think that freelancing platforms are great because the clients on those platforms are already looking to hire people, so you generally don’t have to go through the trouble of cold calling and making pitches,” he added.
Alternatively, he says you could create a TikTok account where you post videos about your work and offer tips or advice. Potential clients will then be able to discover you through TikTok.
Live streaming on TikTok is a great way to connect in real time with other TikTok users. It also allows you to break away from the typical short-form video format.
When you go live on TikTok, your viewers can send you Gifts. TikTok Gifts get converted into Diamonds, which you can exchange for cash.
It’s worth noting that you can only host TikTok LIVE streams if you’re at least 18 years old and have at least 1,000 followers. It’s also against TikTok’s Community Guidelines to ask for Gifts or incentivize users to give them to you.
You’ll need to reach 2,000 Diamonds (equal to $10) before you can exchange them for cash. At that point, TikTok will pay the balance into your bank or PayPal account.
If you’d rather not use Patreon or another outside service to upsell your followers on premium content, Series is another way to do it. Unlike Patreon, what you’re selling here is premium video content on TikTok, which can include things like courses, workshops, fitness routines, and more.
TikTok has several requirements that you’ll need to meet to use this feature:
Some users also have to show a sample of premium videos they’ve created for other platforms. However, if you qualify, this is a great opportunity to generate passive revenue. Once approved, you’ll need to create a collection of exclusive content. Add a price between $0.99 and $189.99, and then publish it.
Brand partnerships and sponsorships can be harder to come by than affiliate partnerships, but the earning potential makes it well worth the effort. With TikTok brand partnerships, a company pays you a fee or commission based on the business you bring in or gives you free products and services.
Brands are excited to partner with talented creators and influencers. While the size and reach of your TikTok account matters, some companies look for creators who have found a way to successfully connect with a niche community.
When it comes to securing brand partnerships, you have two options. One is to find them yourself. If you have brands you really love and are passionate about, send them a pitch. The other option is to use the Creator Marketplace and let top brands find you. However, only some creators are eligible to join.
Note: You have to announce branded content on TikTok. Use the “paid partnership” setting to do this.
Brand partnerships aren’t the only ones that can be lucrative. TikTok creators can also collaborate with influencers. There are different influencer levels on TikTok:
If eligible, you can use the Creator Marketplace to connect with influencers. You’ll want to start off with a well-established account and a clear concept for collaboration.
You can also try reaching out to influencers on your own on TikTok or via their agent. If the influencer is on the same level as you in terms of followers, they’ll be more likely to respond positively to your offer.
Note: Depending on how popular the influencer is, you might spend anywhere from a couple hundred dollars to more than $5,000 per collaboration.
TikTok Creator Next is a program that gives creators exclusive tools that help them maximize their earnings. There are strict guidelines for who can join. For example, you need to be at least 18 years old, have a personal account, and live in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, or Spain.
If you’re eligible, you’ll gain access to these features:
The minimum number of followers you’ll need to qualify for TikTok Creator Next depends on where you live. However, you’ll need to show that you’ve posted at least three videos in the last month and that you’ve gotten at least 1,000 views on your TikTok videos over the past 30 days.
Companies with their own TikTok accounts often need actors and actresses to star in their videos, and they’ll pay good money for people who know how to perform behind the camera. This is known as a user-generated content (UGC) collaboration. “I’ve made a lot of my income by doing this type of work,” Brady told us.
UGC collaborations differ from brand sponsorships in that you don’t post the video to your own TikTok account—instead, you send the video to the company you’re working with, and they post it to the business’s TikTok account.
According to Brady, there are three main ways to land paid UGC deals:
Although working as a UGC creator can be a good way to make money, be wary of companies that aim to mislead or deceive consumers. For example, steer clear of a brand that asks you to videotape a fake review that they can post to their TikTok account.
Creating high-quality video content is the secret to making more money on TikTok
If you’re excited about turning TikTok into a side hustle, here are some tips to help you grow your audience and earn the most money possible.
Coming up with a theme for your TikTok account is important for establishing yourself on the platform. Below are a few examples of popular niches you could explore:
Consistency in terms of the type of videos you upload is key for building a following and bringing other TikTok users back for more.
Get to know the kind of people who watch the videos you’re going to create. What are the top accounts in this space? Who are the people who gravitate toward these posts? Which videos do they engage with most?
While it may be tempting to only post videos on topics you’re interested in, considering your viewers and what they want to see is absolutely essential if you want to make money on TikTok.
Branding is all about your style and tone. This isn’t just the way you talk—your brand shines through in various ways when you post TikTok videos. Your decisions related to these features are particularly important for establishing a clear brand identity:
Although Brady encourages TikTokers to experiment with different types of videos and formats, he also adds that “it’s 100% possible to diversify your content and experiment while maintaining a clear identity.” The key isn’t producing a bunch of similar videos—rather, it’s making sure that the videos you post work together to establish a brand identity that’s relatable, memorable, and authentic. This will help you build credibility with your audience.
“I think that the best way to have a clear identity and produce high-quality content that your followers will engage with is to always remember what your objectives are and who your audience is,” he told us. “Who are you trying to help? What are their pain points? What are their goals? What do they need? By keeping these questions in mind, you’ll be able to create content that resonates with your target audience.”
TikTok has a strict set of Community Guidelines. In addition to meeting age, follower, and video view requirements for certain monetization features, you need to ensure your account remains in good standing if you want to make money as a TikTok creator.
For example, it may go without saying, but avoid posting videos that contain anything that could be construed as hate speech or bullying. Violent or sexual content is also a no-go. But even if you’re not breaking any rules, it’s important to understand how TikTok might filter your videos based on their content so they’re only shown to particular audiences.
For example, if your TikTok videos contain “mature or complex themes,” they won’t be shown to users in Restricted Mode. 3 These users are most often minors, but considering more than one-third of TikTok users are 14 years old or younger, they may be an important demographic to reach.
Your TikTok videos should be easy to watch. Avoid hard-to-read captions, unattractive visual elements, and unclear audio. To give your videos a professional polish, try using video editing tools like the ones below:
Also pay attention to the quality of your content. It should be unique, authentic, on-brand, and engaging.
Read through and respond to comments. Let your followers know you’re listening. Ask for suggestions on what to post next, and then follow through on it. You can also host live streams and offer premium one-on-one or group sessions.
Really getting to know your followers and fans will help you establish trust and grow your TikTok audience, which in turn can help you increase your earnings.
Log in at least once a week and review TikTok analytics. Here, you’ll find tons of valuable information that will tell you how well you’re doing on TikTok. For instance, you can analyze your performance based on the following metrics:
You can also learn more about the people watching your videos, including their age, gender, and place of residence. If your posts aren’t reaching the right people, or they are and users simply aren’t engaging with them, then you’ll know your strategy isn’t working. Don’t be afraid to adjust your approach—this is key for optimizing your TikTok account.
To maximize your reach, share your TikToks on other social media platforms. You can use the in-app “share” feature to cross-share. You can also download each video using the “save video” option. Next, you can upload the video to other platforms like Instagram or Twitter to connect with users there.
However, Brady warns that each time you download or share a video from TikTok, it retains the TikTok logo. He says that many TikTok users report that this watermark causes their videos to perform poorly on other platforms, so you’re best off removing it before you share a video.
He recommends using an app like SaveTik to repurpose the video so it can be uploaded to another platform. Alternatively, you can take the following steps to crop the video:
Get TikTok stats and answers to FAQs on making money on TikTok
While TikTok can be profitable for some, there are quite a few restrictions that will limit your earning potential. It’s important to understand the limitations of making money on TikTok and align your expectations with reality before you dive into this side hustle.
According to Influencer Marketing Hub, 2023’s top earner on TikTok is Charli D’Amelio. 4 With more than 148 million followers and 47 billion views, she’s earned an estimated $17.5 million from the platform.
Other top earners also make millions of dollars from their TikTok accounts every year. Some of the top TikTok influencers make tens of thousands of dollars from a single TikTok post. Arishfa Khan, for instance, has almost 29 million followers and over 1 billion likes and earns an estimated $24,000 per post. However, not all posts earn money, and a lot of their earnings come from sponsors.
Compensation amounts vary so drastically and depend on such a wide variety of factors that it’s very difficult to estimate how much you’ll be able to make on TikTok. Your money-making strategy, follower count, and type of audience base will all play a role in your income from TikTok.
For example, Brady says “the world of brand sponsorships is like the Wild West.” There are no set rules, and there’s plenty of money up for grabs. “I’ve seen really great creators undervalue their work and only request $100 for a collaboration. I’ve seen creators charge $50,000 for a collaboration (but these creators had amazing stats and usually offered additional usage rights for the video),” he added.
For brand sponsorships on TikTok, Brady says professionals in the influencer marketing space say that the general rule is charging the dollar equivalent of 1%–5% of your follower count. In other words, if you have 100,000 followers, you can expect to be able to make $1,000–$5,000 for a collaboration. However, your exact earnings will depend on a variety of factors, including your performance analytics, compatibility with the brand, audience fit, and authority in the space.
By contrast, although TikTok doesn’t publicly state how much it pays creators in its Creator Next program, numerous sources suggest that TikTok pays between $0.02 and $0.04 for every 1,000 views. These are pretty small earnings, which is why it’s important to use other methods to make money on TikTok.
Starting out, join the rewards program, add affiliate links and codes to your content, and sell merch. You won’t earn much at first, but you can use those startup funds to fuel your side hustle, produce better videos, and devote time to consistently posting on TikTok.
You don’t need any followers at all if you plan to use TikTok as a money-making tool. However, if you want to get paid by TikTok, most of its monetization features require you to have between 1,000 and 100,000 followers.
However, according to Brady, a TikToker’s follower count is gradually becoming less relevant to their estimated earnings, at least from brand sponsorships. Instead, he said, “What really matters is the type of audience the influencer has and how much authority/trust that influencer has built up.”
Instead of just looking at your total accumulated number of video views, TikTok takes into account how many views your page has had in the last 30 days. Depending on how you’re planning to earn money on TikTok, you need between 1,000 and 100,000 views.
TikTok offers plenty of money-making opportunities for those who have what it takes to become top creators
In 2022, TikTok was the most-downloaded app in the world, and its popularity continues to rise. While long-standing social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook have undergone quite a bit of turmoil, TikTok remains a strong base for a side hustle.
In addition to its skyrocketing growth, TikTok is accessible to anybody with a device that supports the app, and it offers plenty of unique and creative ways to make money, both through active marketing and selling and through passive earning methods. With that said, not everybody can become a highly paid TikTok star.
Brady’s opinion is that anybody can make money on TikTok, but it’s not a good side hustle for people who give up easily. “It requires work,” he added. “It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. It requires patience and the willingness to learn as you go. I think the people who are best suited for a TikTok side hustle are people who can commit to working on their craft almost every day.”
The biggest obstacle to making money on TikTok is the limited access to monetization features. While TikTok does a good job supporting popular creators, smaller accounts have to do a lot of work on their own.
If this is your side hustle, you might not have enough time or energy to devote to filming, editing, and publishing your videos on top of growing and engaging with your audience.
That said, consistency is key. If you’re willing to play the long game and stay on top of video trends, there is money to be made.
TikTok has over a billion users. If you get to know the platform and its users, that’s a massive market to tap into. Even if you start small, there will always be room to expand your earnings.
Plus, TikTok is fun. While other platforms require you to summarize your thoughts in around 100 characters or choose from a limited set of photo filters, TikTok offers so much more potential—there’s plenty you can do with video content.
Lastly, you can get creative about how you monetize your content. Even if TikTok doesn’t pay you directly, your affiliate partners might, as will the clients that discover you on TikTok and the people dying to get their hands on your merch. Once you understand all the ways you can put TikTok to work for you, you’ll be able to start making money from it.
