Tiktok is the platform that everyone’s talking about – it’s fast, it’s frantic, it’s fun. Or so people tell me.
If I’m completely honest, I’ve installed the TikTok app about 5 times now, only to give it a few hours before uninstalling it and vowing to never use it again.
But this time it’s different.
This time I’ve set my account up, and I’m ready to take on the TikTok challenge because there is no denying it, people are doing very well financially through TikTok, and in this post, I am going to explain how to make money on Tiktok in 2021.
Before I jump into the exact ways people are making money through TikTok let me explain a few things that will help you get started and give you the biggest chance of success.
History Of TikTok
Now Tiktok is a short video platform designed for mobile use which is the most popular way we consume video.
Its growth was pretty rapid and before it was known as TikTok it grew to 100m users in its first year.
In 2017 the owners bought another company called musically, a lip sync video platform, and that’s how TikTok was born.
Tiktoks success has been pretty amazing as they now have 1 billion users on their platform, mainly of the younger generation but its becoming more widely used – hence why an old gipper like me is getting started too.
Watch The Video – How To Make Money On TikTok in 2021
Prefer to listen to my dulcet tones than read my long-ass words? Don’t blame you! Check this out….
Jennifer Lopez: TikTok Vs Twitter
Now JLo doesnt really need to watch my channel to learn to make money, shes done ok for herself already, but to demonstrate the power of tiktok:
Jennifer Lopez posted the exact same video on Twitter and TikTok.
(Bear in mind that She had amassed 45 million followers on Twitter and 5 million followers on TikTok).
So you would expect better results on Twitter right?
Well, the video on Twitter got less than 2 million views. The video on TikTok got 160 million views and blew twitter out of the water.
But lets face it, I’m not Jennifer Lopez, and if you’ve ever seen me after 9 pints of beer you will know that I also cannot dance to save my life.
So that makes me wonder, is there a place for me and maybe you, on TikTok?
Isn’t it all dancing and lip-syncing music?
Well music and comedy videos are the main content tiktkor’s are producing,
Can You Make Money On TikTok?
if you check out this list from Socialblade you can see the top followed accounts and then go look at the content they are publishing, as you can see, there are over 70 people that have 20 million followers and more.
That’s pretty epic.
But there are more and more people using TikTok in different ways.
The beauty of it is how easy it is to publish – its all vertical format, mobile phone footage.
You can edit your videos in TikTok and add some nice effects or you can just use your favourite video editor on your phone.
You can create from any location and there’s no real cost, other than having a phone.
As you can, Anyone can get started on TikTok and here is why maybe you should consider it too:
TikTok Creators Fund
Generally, where there is a large audience, there is money.
And brands are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to run hashtag challenges and display adverts on the TikTok platform.
They realise the huge advertising potential that TikTok offers. Especially when marketing to the younger generations.
Now most of this money is going into TikTok itself, but they want to keep their creators sweet too – as any social platform lives and dies by its creators.
So they have formed what they call the creator fund.
A pot of cash that will be distributed to people who are accepted into that scheme – and it’s expected to pay out over $200 million dollars in the next 3 years.
Now before you get too excited.
Yes, you have to apply, and also there are some qualification criteria:
- Are based in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain or Italy.
- Are at least 18 years old
- Have at least 10,000 followers
- Have at least 10,000 video views in the last 30 days
- Have an account that fits with our TikTok Community Guidelines and terms of service
Details of the creator fund are quite vague at the moment and my gut feeling is that its there to keep the big names from jumping to other platforms.
So for the likes of me and you that’s probably not the best option yet to make money on tiktok, but one day it could be a nice little earner for us.
Selling Merch
Undeniably, TikTok is great for building a brand that you are the center point of.
As part of that there may be certain things that you become known for and are recognised for which would look great on a hoodie, laptop sticker or coffee cup.
Creating your own merch is a surprisingly easy way to make money on any platform.
Now TikTok did announce that they are integrating with Teespring so people can monetize through merch automatically, but that isnt fully pushed out yet, so the alternative is to link out to an external merch provider.
All you need to do is go to a site like redbubble, and create an account to sell your own merchandise, its all free.
Don’t stop there, because there are tonnes of other sites just like this.
Now, use your favourite graphics editor – such as canva which you can get for free and design something that relates to you.
If you’re not a designer then dont worry – it doesnt have to be complicated – you can just use text, or you can use the inbuilt effects that canva offers.
You then upload that design to redbubble and choose what products you want to sell it on.
All you do now is send people to your shop in your profile and if they buy you get a profit, and the rest is taken care of – but stay tuned to the end because theres something you do need to see here.
Tiktok is just like instagram in that it limits you to a single website link, which restricts you a little, im going to show you how to work around this so keep reading.
Sponsorship
Ok, take the big celebrity names out of that top 100 tiktokers and you are left with some names that some of you may not be familiar with such as Adison Rae, Charli D’Amelio, Josh Richards and Spencer x.
All of whom have made reportedly over $1 million dollars through growing their TikTok channels.
And fair play to them.
This is what I love about social media – it is full of opportunity.
The biggest way to earn at the moment is through sponsorship – where brands reach out and will pay them to promote or be the face of certain products – and this could be cosmetics, clothing, energy drinks.
Now these are usually going to be big money one-off deals for the most part, but something I have learnt from creating content on youtube is to never rule anything out.
Even my small humble channel gets emails from some pretty impressive software companies offering me deals to work with them – and whilst that may be just about the geekiest thing I’ve ever said in my life – it’s still pretty cool 🙂
TikTok will be similar.
Especially if you become recognised for a specific niche that has a very targeted following.
First up, you arent going to get these from day 1, so you need to put the work in and create an engaged following for your channel – start building up those key metrics of:
- Followers
- Likes
- Number of views.
Make Sure you register yourself on the creators marketplace which allows companies to connect with you and collaborate, but also make sure you have some way of contacting you in your profile (more on that in a moment)
It’s widely reported that a lot of sponsored posts are paying around 1 or 2 cents per view, now that may sound a pittance, but TikTok videos can generate big viewing numbers, so if you can get 100 thousand views on your video then that could pocket you $1-2000
But the main takeaway here is to rememeber that unless you get started you wont make anything.
Contracting & Consulting
Whilst looking at how to make money on TikTok in 2021, I realised that not everyone was increasing their income ON the platform.
There are more and more people showing up on the online freelance platforms such as fiverr and upwork, that earn money using their experience and expertise with TikTok.
Growth experts, video editors, even actors and dancers if you need to hire one.
So as you grow your channel, think about all the different componenets that are involved and how you can help people and companies with their own tiktok journey.
Check out these listings that are making a small fortune to do shoutouts for people
Cross Promoting Your Business
I mentioned earlier, that i am starting on TikTok myself, now i create content that shows legit ways to make money without any of that fake guru crap.
I teach digital marketing skills that anyone can learn. No dancing, no lip-syncing, and i certainly wont be showing off my dad bod.
So whats the main driver for me to get started on TikTok ? and how can this help you?
Theres three reasons I will quickly go through
a ) Over the last 6 months i have watched a few people I follow and respect, blow up their YouTube channels, and I mean in one case they went from 2 thousand subscribers up to 60 thousand and its changed their life.
They used TikTok heavily to drive people to their YouTube channel by using the links in their profile, and creating short videos that were like trailers for their YouTube content.
I can no longer ignore those results, because growing my youtube channel is my biggest priority this year.
b) There are now more and more niches growing on TikTok, so whatever your speciality is, which could be graphic design, bullet journals, DIY, or even witchcraft, there are more channels and followers looking for non dancing content.
c) Its quick to create TikTok content, but also there are other platforms that are trying to dominate the same market – YouTube has launched its shorts feature, Instagram has reels, and so what I intend to do is repurpose the content across all of the platforms and then come back here and tell you which one is working best – so if you havent already hit that subscribe button.
So you can see how TikTok can be great way to feed into your other platforms or website to cross promote your business.
Now lets talk about my favourite business model no matter what platform you use and why its perfect for anyone starting up.
Affiliate Marketing
I talk a lot about affiliate marketing on my Blog. The reason being – I love it.
Its the triple win for me, and let me explain what I mean.
Affiliate marketing is when you promote a product or service using your special affiliate weblink, and if someone clicks that link, and buys the product then you get a commission.
For me, the key to this is promoting product that you love yourself.
As you understand why people need them and you build a reputation and trust by recommending good solid products.
Ive made some big sales over the last 12 months via my blog and youtube channel and it’s made a huge difference to me and my family. and that’s the beauty of it.
The triple win.
You see, everyone benefits.
- I make a commission
- T vendor gets a new customer and a sale
- The buyer gets help and information they need when looking for a problem-solving product
We all win.
The Problem With Monetizing TikTok
TikTok does have one downside though when it comes to some of these monetisation strategies and let me explain how you can workaround that.
So unlike blogs, YouTube and platforms like Facebook, where I can post my link in multiple places, with TikTok I only have one place on my profile that I can add a link.
So if I create a video about one product, and then a new video about something else, then I can’t link to both of them at the same time.
Instagram has the same issue.
So let me show you what I do to get around this.
I use a mobile landing page, which allows you to really easily build a website with:
- Links to your affiliate products
- Other social media platforms
- Email list
- YouTube videos
- Messenger links (if you are trying to encourage a conversation.)
Some of these tools can even add checkout pages and sell your products directly from this page.
Depending on which one you use there are tonnes of options that makes that one link you can use in TikTok be much more versatile.
And you don’t have to worry about creating complicated websites or paying huge sums of money.
Now in my case I have used an app called taplink, which I bought as a one off lifetime deal for around 50 dollars, instead of paying for a monthly subscription elsewhere.
At the time of writing, the best deal for Taplink is here, go check it out yourself.
I hope this post (or video) helped explain how to make money on TikTok in 2021. A you can see there are many strategies, and as the platform grows there will be more new and exciting ways introduced too.
When they do, I will make sure I tell you all about them so make sure you subscribe, and in the meantime, read the post below to learn more about affiliate marketing and making money online.
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