If you’ve been sleeping on TikTok (like I was until recently), now is your sign to wake up!
With 1.5 billion users and massive potential to go viral, TikTok is firmly established as one of the biggest social media platforms of 2024.
And yes, you can make money on TikTok! I’ve found 11 main ways to make money on TikTok, including the TikTok Creator Rewards Program, brand collaborations, TikTok Shop, affiliate marketing, and more. We’ll go into more detail on all of these below.
Here are some reasons why TikTok is the biggest way to make money online in 2024/2025:
- An insane 1.5 billion monthly active users worldwide
- 137 million new users just in Q1 of 2024
- Average user spends 95 minutes per day on TikTok (more than any other social network)
- People spend money on TikTok. 55% of TikTok users have made an impulse buy on the platform
- Works for every niche
- Designed for virality – easy and quick to grow, especially relative to blogging/SEO
(Stats source: Backlinko and Sproutsocial)
In the early years of Tiktok, it gained the reputation of being for teens doing viral dances. But if that’s all you think the platform is, it’s time to open your mind.
TikTok videos cover every niche and every interest. Yes, there’s still a place for silly dances – but there are also creators making serious money in all kinds of different ways.
Let’s dive in.
TikTok Creator Rewards Program
The Creator Rewards Program (a revamping of the previous TikTok Creator Fund) is probably the most common way to make money on TikTok. It’s the main way that you can actually get paid by TikTok itself.
Basically, this is a way to earn money for creators who get a lot of views. You get paid by TikTok for videos over 1 minute long.
The amount you get will be roughly based on how many views each video gets, as well as engagement and other metrics.
The program only pays out for original content. This means you don’t earn on duets, stitches etc.
There are a few requirements to hit before you can join:
- Age 18 or over
- Based in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, or Brazil
- 10K followers
- 100,000 video views in the last 30 days
Once you hit all of those, head to the Monetization tab under TikTok Studio from your profile, and you can apply in-app. You’ll find out whether you’ve been accepted within 3 days.
So, how much does TikTok pay? It’s difficult to give a straight answer, because it depends on a lot of metrics. But it’s been estimated that most creators earn between $0.02 and $0.04 per 1000 views. That would mean $20-$40 per million views.
It doesn’t sound a lot, but consider that viral videos can get several million views – and once you go viral once your account will grow exponentially. It all adds up!
TikTok influencer (brand partnerships)
Being an influencer is another go-to way to make money on TikTok.
Influencers get paid by brands to promote them. You generally get paid per video you make that mentions the brand.
You can also work out deals for a batch of videos, or promotion across your various social media accounts, if you have them.
As your account grows, many brands will reach out to you about partnerships. But also, don’t be afraid to reach out to brands yourself and pitch your services!
Once you hit the magic 100K followers, you may be able to join the TikTok Creator Marketplace. This elite club connects big TikTok accounts with brands looking to hire them for collaborations, and it also provides training and resources to create lucrative videos.
To join, follow the ‘TikTok studio’ link on your profile, look for ‘Monetization’ and scroll to Creator Marketplace. Tap on that and it will show the eligibility requirements and how close you are to meeting them.
Generally speaking, the more followers, the more money you can expect. But engagement is also important!
So don’t be tempted to buy followers, or inflate the numbers through taking part in follow challenge trends where people won’t actually interact with you. It’s better to be patient and grow your account with people who are actually interested and engaged in your niche.
So how much do TikTok influencers make for sponsored posts?
As always, it varies a lot. But to give you a rough idea, micro-influencers (10k-50k followers) charge anywhere from $30-400 per post, whereas larger influencers (500k+ followers) can earn more than $1,000 per post.
TikTok shop – affiliate
TikTok Shop is an in-app shopping platform. It’s really powerful because users can discover new products from TikTok videos while scrolling, and then purchase directly from videos without leaving the app.
Amazingly, over 11% of US households have made purchases through TikTok Shop, and 58% of TikTok users say they’re more likely to trust brands after learning about them from TikTok creators.
So how can you make money from this? Part of the reason TikTok Shop is so powerful is that it relies on video creators to sell the products.
Creators can become TikTok Shop affiliates – what this means is that when you promote a product, you earn a commission on every one you sell.
So basically, you find a cool product on TikTok Shop, and make videos demonstrating it and promoting it to your audience. And if they buy, you make money!
It’s pretty simple to get started. Firstly you just need 1,000 followers. You also need to be over 18, and in one of the approved countries (TikTok Shop hasn’t rolled out worldwide yet).
To join, go to your profile, look for the TikTok Studio link, go to Monetization, then look for ‘TikTok Shop for Creator’. It will show you all the criteria you need to meet. And if you’re eligible, you can apply right away!
TikTok shop – seller
Do you have your own physical products to sell? Then you DEFINITELY need to hop on the TikTok Shop bandwagon!
TikTok expects to see $20 billion in merchandise sales through TikTok Shop in 2024, so why shouldn’t you get a piece of that pie?
It’s pretty easy to get set up on TikTok Shop. To start the process, create a free TikTok business account if you don’t already have one. Then navigate to ‘TikTok Shop for Seller’ under your Monetization tab.
There are no set-up fees or listing fees. Instead, they take a 5% commission when you make a sale. So there’s nothing to lose in getting set up.
You can create your own shoppable videos to promote your products. Or, join the affiliate program and let other content creators do all the work for you!
Sell digital products
Digital products are simply any product that exists online, not in a physical form. Popular digital products to sell include online courses, ebooks, workbooks, printables, Canva templates, stock photos/videos, and so on.
At the moment there’s a big trend for selling MRR courses on TikTok. MRR stands for Master Resell Rights – so you buy a course, and own the rights to sell it on as your own. People are making BANK with these courses! We’re talking multiple $1000s per week.
MRR or PLR (Private Label Rights) are a quick and easy way to start selling digital products. You don’t have to create them yourself, you can sell them over and over for 100% profit each time, and you can set up automated systems so you don’t need to worry about shipping or inventory!
But of course, you can also create and sell your own products, in whatever niche you’re in. You can also sell coaching, online training, services – whatever you have to offer.
So how can you sell your digital products on TikTok?
New accounts can’t post clickable links, so you will need to concentrate on building up your followers first. You can also sell in DMs or direct people to your website.
Once you hit 1000 followers, you can put a link in your bio. You can put a link directly to your offering there, or use a service like Stan Store or Beacons.ai which lets you quickly set up a virtual storefront linking to multiple different products.
Then, you simply need to create content promoting your products and directing them to your link in bio for more info.
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing works similar to selling digital products, but you don’t even need your own product to sell!
Instead, you find an awesome product you want to promote, and get a special tracking link called an affiliate link. When someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you get a commission.
It’s even easier than selling digital products because you don’t even have to deal with customer service or setting up the tech stack to distribute the products.
But on the other hand, you have less control as affiliate programs could change their products or commission rates at any time.
To make bank with affiliate marketing on TikTok, first you need to build up a TikTok account in your chosen niche, and build up to the magic 1000 followers to get your link in bio. Then you have a few different options:
- Put your affiliate link right there in your bio
- Use a link-in-bio app or a platform like LTK (popular with fashion bloggers) to promote multiple items
- Promote a freebie or low-price product to get people onto an email list, and then create a sales funnel to promote your main product (works great for high-ticket items where people need warming up)
You can also put your link in video descriptions, but it won’t be clickable so people will have to go the extra mile to copy and paste! This works better if you have a special incentive for people to use your link, such as a unique discount.
Grow and sell TikTok accounts
Did you know that TikTok accounts are assets that can be sold or flipped, just like houses?
Yep! Many people want to make money on TikTok with one of the methods we talked about above – but they don’t have the time, patience or know-how to grow their following.
That’s why there are websites out there dedicated to buying and selling TikTok accounts. If you can grow an account to a decent number of followers, you can simply sell the account on for a one-off payday.
The price will depend on various criteria like niche and engagement. But to give you a very rough idea, you could expect to earn anywhere from around $150 for 2,000 followers up to $15,000+++ for 1M followers.
Here are some popular sites for selling TikTok accounts:
You also put something like ‘account for sale’ in your bio, and you will likely get people DMing you about it.
TikTok account manager
Lastly, are you great at growing TikTok accounts but not interested in being an influencer or selling products yourself?
If you want to play on TikTok all day without building your own brand, do it for somebody else – and get paid!
Social Media Manager – or, specifically, TikTok Manager – could be the job for you. There is a huge market out there for people who want a TikTok account for their business but don’t have the time or even know where to start.
Your clients could be bloggers, influencers, online business owners or even traditional brick-and-mortar businesses! All savvy business owners recognise the importance of social media these days.
Typically, this would be a freelance job. You would charge each client a monthly fee for an agreed package, for example a fixed number of posts and a report on stats. You can work with as many or as few clients as you wish.
Look for clients on freelance marketplaces like Upwork, Fiverr and People Per Hour.
TikTok Ad Manager
Many brands want to get on TikTok because it’s a great source of free, organic promotion. But they also have the opportunity to advertise on TikTOk, to reach an even greater audience!
Anyone can take out paid ads on TikTok, from the biggest companies to small independent creators.
If you can master the knack of creating and optimising effective ads on TikTOk, you can offer your services for a fair fee. You will need to show you can produce effective ad campaigns that bring in leads and sales for your clients.
Build a paid community
TikTok now offers a Subscription option. If you enable this feature, you can ask your followers to pay a monthly fee in return for exclusive content.
You can offer exclusive LIVEs, videos, threads, badges and stickers, or unique perks like the chance to game together.
Subscription is a way to develop a more predictable monthly income, without the ups and downs that come with trying to go viral to get Creator Rewards money! You can also build an engaged and loyal community, which gives you the chance to sell other products, merch and so on.
You can set your monthly subscription anywhere from $2.99 to $99.99.
There are several eligibility requirements, which you can check out under the monetization tab in your profile.
Video Gifts
If you’ve built up a loyal following who love your videos, they might be willing to pay you just for posting!
TikTok has a built-in feature called Video Gifts. Users can purchase Coins, which they use to send gifts to creators they enjoy.
You will get approximately $1 for every 200 Diamonds collected through Gifts.
As always, there are a few eligibility criteria. You need 1,000 followers, an active account, and you must pass safety moderation.
This might not be the quickest or most effective way to earn money on TikTok, so most creators combine it with other methods such as the Creator Rewards Program.
But if you meet the criteria, you may as well enable Gifts under the Monetization tab and see what happens!
Post and earn: start making money on TikTok today!
As we’ve seen, TikTok offers endless opportunities to turn your creativity into cash. With these 11 proven strategies, you’re now equipped to start earning.
So, pick a method, get creative, and turn your TikTok passion into profit!
Related posts
📌 Pin it for later!
