Tiktok is one of the fastest-growing social media apps with nearly a billion active users a month. It stands to reason that people will inevitably look at ways on how to make money on Tiktok. In this article, I will share with you 5 different ways people are making money with Tiktok
So, what is Tiktok? Basically it’s a video sharing app, it is a lot similar to Vine which was a micro vlogging platform but was shut down a few years ago. With TikTok, you can make short 15 second videos on anything you like. It started off as a music app where you would record yourself lip-syncing to popular songs but now you can make any type of short video you want.
As it is still in its early stages, organic reach for Tiktok is still pretty good, so if you can make half-decent videos that are interesting, you can reach a lot of people and get a lot of engagement for your videos. If you can do this, your chances of making money on Tiktok are significantly increased but as you will see, you don’t have to make videos to monetise this platform.
Most users of Tiktok are between the ages of 13-30 but that doesn’t mean if you are of the older generation that you cannot use the platform to make some money. You just have to identify a niche that has an engaging audience and then create some quality content
How To Make Money On Tiktok
#1. Become An Influencer
So, the no.1 method of making money on TikTok is through influencer marketing. What is influencer marketing I hear you ask? Well, there are a lot of definitions out there but put simply, it’s when someone builds up an enormous audience on any kind of social network, this audience engages with their content and they build a very trusting relationship. It is this trusting relationship that can be used to make money through partnering up with well-known brands who will pay you to recommend their products to your audience
However, be aware that although this is the most lucrative way to make money on Tiktok, it may also be the hardest way because becoming a real influencer is not easy. You will notice I said a real influencer is not easy because anyone can become a fake one and this is why influencer marketing has had a bit of bad name recently. How do you become a fake influencer? Real influencers have a really engaging audience, fake ones start purchasing followers who are not interested in their content and so will not engage with it.
You may have seen these types of profiles on platforms like Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram, where they have hundreds of thousands of followers (sometimes even millions) but their engagement on their content is non-existent. So, while initially, it may look like they have a huge following and are a legitimate influencer, upon closer inspection, it turns out to be all fake.
Brands have been ripped off by these fake influencers and that is why they take extra precaution before partnering up with Social Media influencers. So, while this presents the most lucrative way to make money on Tiktok, it is not a method everyone will succeed in. Luckily there are other options.
#2. Going Live
Tiktok has a kind of inbuilt monetisation feature, within the app you can purchase coins, these coins can be used to either by virtual gifts or given as a gift to Tiktok content providers.
You can exchange these coins for something called diamonds and then these diamonds can be exchanged for actual money. Tiktok keeps 20% of the actual monetary value and you get to keep the rest.
This will not make you an instant millionaire or help you retire quickly but with a decent-sized following and as long as your followers enjoy your videos when you go live on Tiktok, you can a decent income.
If you are a confident performer and enjoy talking to a live audience, this may be one of the best ways to make money on Tiktok.
#3. Affiliate Marketing Or eCommerce
One of the best ways to make money online is either through affiliate marketing or eCommerce, on most social networks, you can easily link your affiliate offers or eCommerce store, however, this is not possible with Tiktok. This does not mean that you cannot make money through these two methods via Tiktok, you just have to be a little creative.
Although you cannot link to any website on Tiktok, you can link your YouTube and Instagram channel on your Tiktok profile. If you have a good affiliate offer or run an eCommerce store, you can direct your Tiktok followers to your profile and tell them to check out your Instagram and YouTube accounts and then from there they can be directed to your affiliate offers or eCommerce store.
Again, this method will only work if your audience enjoys your content otherwise no one will want to click on multiple links just to see what you are promoting or selling.
#4. Ads
This is the only method where you don’t need an audience to make money on Tiktok. The Tiktok advertising platform is still in its early stages but it still presents an opportunity for savvy marketers to tap into a huge young audience and potentially make some good returns on their advertising spend.
Since its still a relatively young advertising platform, advertising costs are still very low and so it may be a good time to test out what works and what doesn’t.
I should mention that running ads can get very expensive before you find your winning campaign. This is especially true for a new ad platform like Tiktok, so if you are unfamiliar with running ad campaigns this may not be the best time to start. If you still want to test this platform out, make sure you have a good advertising budget so you can properly test what works, otherwise, you will be just wasting your money.
#5. Selling Tiktok Accounts
So, some of you may know that one of my favourite internet marketing forums is Blackhatworld, apart from some of the dodgy SEO services sold there, it’s a good forum where you can learn and find some good internet marketing services.
It is on that forum I found out about people growing social media accounts and then selling them. I found it strange at first, why would people purchase accounts that they could create for free? I do see the benefits now of having multiple accounts on different social media networks and although there is no service on BHW that is selling Tiktok accounts, a quick Google search will reveal that people are growing Tiktok accounts and selling them.
I really don’t know how much they are making but the demand is there and it is another way to make money with Tiktok.
Final Thoughts
Are you on Tiktok? If you are I would love to find out how you are making money on the platform (if that is your goal) and if there are different methods of monetisation other than the ones I have mentioned.