12 Best Strategies in 2024

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TikTok, a platform once primarily for entertainment, has evolved into a lucrative space for entrepreneurs. This article will guide you through the essentials of how to make money on the app, as well as strategies to optimize your earnings.

Ways to Make Money on TikTok

Diving into TikTok’s money-making scene? Here’s a quick rundown of the methods we’ll cover:

1. Drive affiliate conversions through TikTok Shop or start your own brand.
2. Earn through TikTok’s Creativity Program.
3. Influence for brands through affiliate offers and sponsorships.
4. Launch your own brand through TikTok Shop
5. Monetize with premium Series content.
6. Collect virtual gifts from viewers.
7. Accept tips from fans.
8. Promote new music tracks.
9. Drive traffic to external platforms.
10. Manage TikTok ad campaigns.
11. Offer TikTok consultancy and ad management.
12. Provide specialized TikTok services.

TikTok Monetization Basics

To understand how to make money on TikTok, let’s start by going over a few common terms that you need to know in order to make the best use of the platform.

• TikTok Shop: Lets users buy and sell products, with creators earning as affiliates and brands reaching audiences directly or through affiliates.
• The Tiktok Creativity Program (CRP): A TikTok-operated method of compensating certain users for popular video content.
• TikTok Coins: In-app currency that can be used to tip creators.
• TikTok Pro Account: A specialized account featuring additional analytics for content creators.
• Creator Marketplace: A TikTok-operated platform that helps brands find content creators to collaborate with for sponsored content.
• Platform Advertising: Users see ads after viewing multiple videos, or when opening the app. 

12 Ways to Make Money On TikTok

Here are 12 different TikTok monetization strategies.

1. Drive affiliate conversions through TikTok Shop, or start your own brand

The biggest opportunity for creators on TikTok right now is through TikTok Shop. If you can create quality videos—or are willing to learn how—there’s a tremendous potential to earn well over a full-time income.

TikTok Shop allows you to create short, engaging videos that sell specific products directly through the platform. Just like any TikTok video, there’s always a chance for virality if done right. This potential for massive reach is why so many people are talking about how lucrative TikTok Shop can be.

Kalodata is a powerful tool that shows trending products on TikTok and highlights creators earning the most affiliate commissions. Many top creators even have additional agreements with brands to promote products beyond affiliate commissions, maximizing their earnings.

Let’s take the brand Goli Nutrition as an example. Goli allows creators to market its supplements through TikTok Shop.

To get an idea of the opportunity size, here are some of their numbers over a 30-day period.

• Total Revenue: $9.96 million ($331.97k/day)
• Affiliate Revenue: $9.85 million ($328.36k/day)
• Items Sold: 402,410 units (13,410/day)
• Average Unit Price: $24.75

You can head to TikTok, search for “Goli,” and find videos generating millions of views. Creators often post multiple videos for a single product, so success isn’t limited to one viral hit.

According to Kalodata, one of the main affiliates for Goli is @liztk_shop, who is a standout example of what’s possible. Diving into her Kalodata profile, you’ll find she’s generating $500,000 per month in revenue from just 30,000 followers!

While promoting products as an affiliate is a fantastic opportunity, some creators take it a step further by launching their own brands on TikTok. While this approach requires upfront capital, it allows you to build a business and manage your own affiliate program. With an army of TikTok creators promoting your product, you can generate sales at scale.

TikTok Shop is a game-changing platform that combines creativity with commerce. The opportunity is massive. The key is creating high-quality videos and staying consistent. The potential for growth is why this platform is becoming a go-to option for creators looking to build sustainable income streams.

2. Get Paid Directly By TikTok

The most direct way to earn money through TikTok is to take advantage of the platform’s Creativity Program.

Formally called the Creator Fund, this program was established by TikTok to encourage users to create viral and longer video content, but the specifics of how much it pays are murky.

As is the case with making money from Snapchat (which has a similar program), who is selected for the Creativity Program and how much they’re paid is decided by the company.

That said, a TikTok creator can apply for the Creativity Program if they meet the following criteria:

• Are at least 18 years old.
• Are based in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Brazil, Korea, Japan or the UK.
• Have at least 10,000 followers with over 100,000 video views in the 30 days prior to applying.
• Have a personal account that’s in good standing and abide by TikTok’s Community Guidelines.

Those previously enrolled in the Creator Fund can switch to the TikTok Creativity Program. There’s no need to go through another application process. 

Becoming a TikTok star with over 10,000 followers can take some time if all you do is record a short video every once in a while, so this direct method of earning is one of the harder strategies on this list. However, it also provides one of the most stable opportunities for income if you’re accepted into the program. 

As noted earlier, there is no set amount per view or per video. TikTok claims they decide how much a content creator is paid based on views, engagement and “other factors.” However, some creators report earning around $4-$8 per 1,000 views. This means a video with 1,000,000 views could potentially earn around $4,000 to $8,000!

TikTok also advises that you can maximize earnings through the Creator Program by focusing on the following:

• Extended videos. Only videos longer than one minute qualify for the TikTok Creator Rewards Program.
• Tutorials. Step-by-step guides, whether it’s a dance, a recipe or a DIY project, can captivate viewers from start to finish.
• Narrative content. Use compelling language and visuals to tell a story. Whether it’s a travel vlog or a day in your life, make sure there’s a clear beginning, middle and end.
• Question hooks. Start your video with a question to pique curiosity. As viewers seek the answer, they’re more likely to watch your video in its entirety.

3. Create Premium Subscriber-Only Content

TikTok’s introduction of the Series feature marks a significant shift in the platform’s monetization landscape. At its core, Series offers creators the ability to charge viewers for access to premium content. 

On the surface, Series presents a direct revenue stream: instead of relying solely on ad revenue or brand partnerships, creators can set a price for their specialized content. 

The pricing for a Series can be set anywhere between $0.99 and $189.99 and currently TikTok doesn’t take a cut of that fee.

This could be particularly lucrative for those offering niche tutorials, exclusive insights or in-depth content that caters to a dedicated audience. For example, a digital artist might offer advanced design tutorials.

However, the success of this model hinges on two factors: the quality of the content and the creator’s existing audience engagement.

High-quality, value-driven content is likely to attract paying viewers, but a strong existing follower base is important to kickstart this revenue stream, as Series videos don’t appear in the TikTok organic feed. 

4. Receive Virtual Gifts

Another (often under-leveraged) TikTok monetization option is the virtual items offered to users.

There are three types of virtual gifts on TikTok: 

• Coins. This is the user-side in-app currency. Users can purchase coins using their own money and redeem them for gifts in the app.
• Gifts. These are virtual items that can be posted on videos or live streams to thank or praise creators for making awesome content. Users purchase gifts with coins, then hold on to them for disbursement when they see a video they like. The bar for getting live gifts is lower than for video gifts: TikTok requires you to have 10,000 followers to receive video gifts, but just 1,000 followers to receive live gifts. 
• Diamonds. This is the creator-side currency. Gifts that a creator receives can be converted into diamonds, which creators can then redeem for real money. 

As for the price of coins, this is the cost as of August 2024:

Users give gifts to a TikToker when they watch their live stream or video, which is when the conversion to Diamonds occurs. Diamonds cannot be purchased and can only be earned from gifts. 

Diamonds can be converted to real money. 

At the time of this writing, one diamond is only worth around five cents. With that said, popular content creators with a large audience can leverage this to make a significant amount of money. 

Here’s how the process works step-by-step from the creator’s perspective:

1. A creator goes live on TikTok and starts making content.
2. Viewers who pop in and enjoy the content can donate gifts, which have been purchased with coins.
3. Based on the coin value of the specific gift, TikTok will allocate a number of Diamonds to the creator. 
4. The creator can then redeem those Diamonds for cash and transfer the funds into PayPal or another supported third-party platform. You must have at least $100 worth of Diamonds to cash out.

Note that Diamonds cannot be converted back into gifts.

5. Receive Tips

TikTok’s tipping feature was launched in December 2021. While tipping online creators is a much more common practice in Asian countries, the practice is gaining traction in the U.S. and has the potential to become a significant source of income.

Unlike live and video gifts, online creators receive 100% of the money they get from tips (because tippers cover the processing fees).

To receive tips, you must have a Stripe account to process payments. Only personal TikTok accounts are eligible for tips (not business accounts). Tips max out at $100 per transaction. 

6. Leverage the TikTok Creator Marketplace

The TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM) connects brands with TikTok creators to boost their sales and/or increase brand awareness. In other words, it’s a built-in tool that facilitates the production of sponsored content.

This platform offers analytics about creators’ accounts, which helps you see how your audience is growing. It also tells brands about who your audience is and helps them decide whether your account is a good match for their products or services. 

The beauty of TTCM is that you don’t need to have a huge following to connect with brands. As long as you have a minimum of 10,000 followers, you’ll have access to companies that may be willing to pay you for a shoutout or a partnership.

Keep in mind, while having 10,000 followers gives you access to TikTok Creator Marketplace (TTCM), you can still collaborate with brands independently. Even if you don’t have a large following to secure upfront payments or retainers, many brands are open to paying for video views and/or offering commissions. You can reach out directly to brands featured in TikTok Shop to explore potential partnerships—a common practice among creators.

7. Promote New Music

For aspiring music artists, TikTok is a fantastic resource for gaining attention. And that means creators can earn money by including certain music in their videos. 

Currently, this can be done through a couple of third-party apps (such as PlaylistPush) that pay a fair amount of money for popular users to add songs to videos.

Third-party musicians reach out to these promotion apps, which serve as middlemen and get their music on a popular creator’s page. 

Alternatively, TikTok musician accounts have been on the rise and many new artists have emerged on the platform, leveraging their popularity to gain followers/streamers on sites like Apple Music and Spotify. 

Some have even parlayed their TikTok success into record deals.

8. Influence for Brands

TikTok is a great platform for influencer marketing, similar to Instagram and Twitter. 

Addison Rae (@addisonre) is perhaps one of the best examples of this strategy. While she’s part of the TikTok Creativity Program, she has also launched her own clothing brand (aptly named Addison). Her influencer marketing campaigns often revolve around the promotion of this brand. 

However, you don’t need your own product to sell on TikTok; there is plenty of money to be made selling or promoting the products made by others. 

A TikTok influencer may be involved in the following activities:

• Affiliate marketing
• Brand ambassadors
• Sponsored events
• Sponsored posts

To connect with brands who are willing to pay for these things, many TikTokers contract with brand sponsorship agencies, which are companies that play matchmaker between online influencers and brands that want to sponsor their content. (This arrangement is similar to TTCM, but the arrangements happen outside of TikTok.) 

TikTok influencer rates vary significantly depending on their follower count and engagement levels. Micro-influencers (10,000-100,000 followers) typically charge between $25 to $125 per sponsored post, while macro-influencers (500,000-1 million followers) may charge $1,200 to $2,500 per post.

Note: TikTok users can apply for the Amazon Influencer program, which enables you to promote products and earn a commission on sales. Learn more in our article on how to become an Amazon Influencer.

9. Drive Traffic to Somewhere Other Than TikTok

While users don’t typically drive traffic to other platforms within their videos, a content creator can link their Instagram or YouTube to their account profile.

However, you can also add a link to your own website or use a service like LinkTree in your bio. This allows you to promote that link through the content you create, driving users to a platform where you can leverage affiliate marketing (or sell your products and services), such as a blog.

For example, if you’re a personal finance creator discussing investing, you can use LinkTree in your bio to link to the various brokerages you recommend.

Additionally, as Twitch has proven to be a solid way to make money, gamers will often upload clips of their highlights or live streams from video games in an effort to drive traffic to their Twitch or Discord channel, which is another good example. Since these platforms aren’t supported by TikTok, you’ll have to verbally tell your viewers to find you on Twitch or Discord or put the link in your bio.

See also: Here’s how much you can make on YouTube.

10. Promote a Service

Promoting a service is a great way of making money with TikTok.

One creator, Heather Felix, gives an example of how: 

“[A] creator I’m friendly with, who makes fashion videos, offers personal styling advice for a fee and has a sizable client base and income now.”

This unnamed creator learned how to market to their niche and offer styling advice to clients for a fee.

A TikTok user offering a service can work for multiple niches.

For example, graphic designers could feature their work in a TikTok video and offer classes for their followers. Music producers could feature tracks they put together and offer to teach others how to do the same. 

This model allows a creator to determine the prices for the services they offer. 

Additionally, you could combine this tip with the TikTok Creator Marketplace to bring other creators on board who are willing to advertise your service for a small commission. 

11. Manage TikTok Ad Campaigns For Businesses

TikTok is a relatively young platform with a young audience, and not all business owners view it as a viable source of marketing or income. Even if they do, relatively few understand what it is and how it works in enough detail to leverage it for those purposes.

And that’s a huge missed opportunity, because advertisements appear between strings of TikTok videos that don’t allow viewers to skip for about five seconds.

In North America alone, TikTok has over 1.5 billion users. So from a digital marketing perspective, this is a goldmine for any business owner looking for advertising space. 

That’s where you come in: you can make money by serving as a paid TikTok ads consultant. These consultants create TikTok ads for brands and companies to run on their accounts.

TikTok recently launched The Creative Exchange to help connect advertisers with creative service providers to produce content tailored for TikTok ad campaigns. This includes ad managers, but also video production, animation, graphic design and strategic content planners. 

This is one of the best social media management jobs for freelancers because the upside is huge. Paid ad campaigns can have a direct impact on a client’s bottom line — which means it’s easy to connect the work you do for them to the amount of money they make. As a result, effective ad managers can command significant rates ($50 an hour or more).

12. Become a TikTok Service Provider, Consultant And/Or Manager

On the same theme as the list item above, some successful TikTok users transition into working as consultants and/or managers for other, less experienced users who want to expand their audience.

For example, people or brands will often hire an experienced TikTok consultant, through the creative exchange or outside, to help them run their TikTok account and grow it to new levels. TikTok managers are in charge of managing an entire TikTok presence for one or more companies. This involves choosing hashtags for them, collaborating with other influencers, and engaging with comments from viewers.

Beyond consultancy and management, there’s a growing demand for specialized TikTok services. Service providers offer a range of expertise, including video editing, sound design, animation, content strategy and trend analysis. 

Experienced service providers can become official TikTok Marketing Partners, which gets them added to a directory of verified consultants. 

Brands and influencers alike seek professionals who can enhance video quality, optimize content for virality, and navigate the platform’s ever-evolving algorithms. By offering such specialized services, individuals can position themselves as indispensable assets in the TikTok ecosystem.

How Much Money Can You Make On TikTok?

Let’s get one thing out of the way: you probably won’t become a millionaire from the TikTok platform. 

The amount of money you can make is also entirely dependent on the strategy you choose to employ. 

On the high end is someone like Tori Dunlap, a nationally recognized money and career expert who decided to launch a TikTok account. In an interview with Making Sense of Cents, Dunlap outlined how she managed to grow her TikTok account from 0 to 350,000 followers and earn $60,000 in six weeks from the platform alone.

Other highly successful niches on TikTok are dancing, comedy and cooking. These popular niches help creators amass large followings.

Additionally, some people are making money from the platform in an indirect way. For example, Jen Ruiz (@jenonajetplane on TikTok) was quoted as saying:

“Directly, you can make money through the Creativity Program, gifts during live sessions, sponsorships through the Creator Marketplace and apps that pay you to promote new music. Indirectly, I use TikTok to drive traffic to my site, boost ad revenues, drive book sales and make affiliate sales. I got 10k+ views to my website last week alone from TikTok.”

While Ruiz did not specifically mention how much she earns from TikTok, she left a career as a lawyer to become a full-time travel blogger and uses TikTok as a main part of her business strategy.

So clearly, the possibility of making enough money on the platform to leave a full-time job does exist. 

Tips For Growing Your TikTok Business

Regardless of the TikTok monetization strategy you choose, views are everything. As a TikTok creator, you need eyes on your videos and profile if you want a chance at making money on the platform. 

Growing your business and your TikTok followers for your account can be done similarly to other social media platforms with some basic strategies:

• Use popular hashtags (ones with thousands of followers) in your posts as much as possible.
• Collaborate with other users who are in your TikTok niche. By coordinating your efforts, each creator can tap into the audience of the other.
• Be consistent and stick to a theme for your profile and your videos. This will help you build a genuine and loyal audience.
• Leverage effects and other fun aspects of the TikTok video creation screen.
• Make sure your profile picture is friendly and, if possible, reflects what your account is all about.
• Use popular songs on your videos. This will increase the likelihood that your video appears on a user’s feed.

Above all, focus on increasing the traffic to your profile. Other helpful strategies center around connecting with your audience on a deeper level. After all, nobody wants to support a person who pretends their following doesn’t exist. 

If you’re hitting a creative wall, reach out to your followers. Live stream and talk with them, and ask what content they would like to see created. All of these tips can help you slowly start to grow your TikTok. 

FAQs About Making Money On TikTok