In recent years, TikTok has become an integral part of social media culture. This platform can make a person popular in one video and gives you the opportunity to make money from TikTok talent and creativity. At the same time, it is not even necessary to have millions of subscribers to make money on TikTok. Even a small but active audience can become a source of stable income. There are many monetization strategies for authors at all levels.However, the key is quality and engaging and quality content that can hold the attention of the audience. If you want to start earning well on TikTok but don’t know how to do it, this is the guide for you.
Earning from TikTok creators’ fund
The main method of making money on TikTok is connecting to the creator fund. The Creators Fund is a special monetization system for the platform that distributes income to all creators. Contentmakers who hit the recommendations, gained the most likes, comments and views get the most reward. Let’s understand what the requirements are to join the TikTok Creators Fund.
Requirements to join the TikTok Creators Fund
To join the TikTok Creators Fund, creators need to meet certain criteria. However, the exact requirements may vary depending on the region, metrics, current platform policies, and so on. Typically, applicants to the fund need to have a minimum number of subscribers, most often ranging from a few thousand, to tens of thousands, or more. In addition, a certain number of video views over a certain period of time is often required. The main purpose of these requirements is to ensure that creators participating in the Fund have sufficient popularity and activity on the platform so that their content can generate revenue and be competitive.
Receipt of remuneration
Rewards are calculated based on several factors:
- Views. The more views an author’s video gets, the higher their earnings. This is one of the key indicators for determining the profitability of content;
- Engagement. In addition to the number of views, it is important that the audience actively interacted with the content — commenting, liking, reposting. This speaks to audience engagement and the value of the content to advertisers;
- GEO. Earnings can also vary depending on the country or region where the content is viewed. Some countries may have higher advertising rates, which affects the final payout to creators.
Limitations and disadvantages of creator funds
Aside from all the pros, the creators fund has serious drawbacks that cause many authors to switch to alternative ways of make money on TikTok:
- Competitive Entry. Entering the Creators Fund can be competitive, especially for new authors or those who are just starting their journey on the platform. This can create barriers for those looking to start making money on TikTok from their content;
- Fluctuating payouts. Payouts from the Fund may be subject to fluctuations depending on various factors such as changes in the platform’s algorithms, external economic factors, etc. This can lead to instability in creators’ earnings and create uncertainty in financial planning.
As one way of earning money on the platform, the TikTok Creators Fund has its advantages and disadvantages, and its effectiveness may depend on the specific circumstances and strategies of each creator.
Alternative monetization strategies
Because some requirements to join the creator pool are too high, as well as third-party restrictions and low earnings without a lot of views, many authors resort to alternative monetization. Let’s consider each of them separately.
Collaboration with brands to promote products or services
One of the most popular alternative ways to earn money on TikTok is cooperation with brands. This way of earning allows you not only to get good money, but also to expand your audience and increase the level of trust in your content. There are several ways creators can collaborate with brands:
- Advertising partnerships. Brands can pay to create and publish promotional content, including product reviews, usage demonstrations or commercials. This can be a one-off collaboration or a long-term partnership;
- Sponsored content. Authors can integrate a brand’s products or services into their content, making it part of their creative. This approach allows for more organic engagement with audiences and more compelling content;
Participating in brand campaigns and contests. Brands can invite authors to participate in various marketing campaigns, often related to hashtags and challenges, which helps promote their products or services to audiences.
Selling goods
Another effective way to make money on TikTok is to sell your own products or goods through the platform. You can sell your goods, such as cosmetics, products, or clothing items by integrating links into your content. TikTok has its own platform through which you can engage in selling your goods — TikTok Shop. In order to sell effectively, authors must create attractive and unique products, keep links up to date and pay attention to the design of product packaging.
Dropshipping is an alternative selling method that allows creators to sell directly to their viewers, bypassing the complexities of warehouse management and logistics. In addition, creators can sell digital goods, content subscriptions or services, diversifying the ways of monetization.
Earnings with affiliate marketing
No less effective way to monetize TikTok content is affiliate marketing. With this strategy, authors promote offers with goods or services in their work, receiving remuneration in the form of commissions.
When a user clicks on an affiliate link and makes a purchase, the author will receive a commission on the sale. But in order for affiliate marketing to be effective, you must first choose a quality and reliable affiliate program. When choosing, you should pay attention to the following aspects:
- Product relevance. The products or services you plan to promote should be relevant to the interests and needs of your audience. The more relevant the offers are, the more likely users will make a purchase;
- Brand trust. Choose offers from brands that your audience trusts. Brand reputation affects conversion rates and the level of trust in your recommendations;
- Commission level. Pay attention to the commission level offered by the affiliate program. The higher the commission, the more you can earn per sale;
- Usability. The affiliate program should provide easy-to-use tools to track and monetize TikTok traffic. This includes access to affiliate links, statistics, support and so on.
Best practices in affiliate marketing disclosure
- Transparency. It’s important to honestly and transparently inform your audience that you are using affiliate links and receiving commissions on sales. This builds trust and respect for you as a content creator;
- Informing. Only share with your audience products or services that you actually recommend and that can benefit your subscribers. Inform them about the pros and cons of the product so they can make an informed choice;
- Integration into content. Integrate affiliate links naturally into your content so that they don’t look like direct advertising, but rather a recommendation from you personally. This will help keep your content authentic and increase the likelihood of purchase from your audience.
TikTok Donations
The virtual gifts and tips feature on TikTok allows viewers to send a variety of virtual gifts or tips during live broadcasts. These gifts and tips can be purchased with real money by viewers and converted into currency that the content creator can convert back into money. This is a way to incentivize viewers to support and participate in broadcasts, and helps creators earn additional income for their creative work.
Strategies to drive viewer engagement
- Interesting content. Creating engaging and quality content is key to attracting and retaining viewers’ attention. The more engaging and interesting the content, the more likely viewers will want to support the creator;
- Audience Engagement. It is important to actively engage with viewers during broadcasts by responding to their questions, comments and suggestions, asking questions and engaging them in conversation. This creates intimacy and interaction between the creator and the audience, which can encourage them to participate and support;
- Encouragement and gratitude. Recognizing and thanking viewers for their support and participation in broadcasts can be a powerful incentive for further engagement. Creators can highlight the names and messages of those who send gifts or tips, and run special promotions and giveaways for active participants.
Tax implications
Earnings from virtual gifts and live tips on TikTok may be subject to taxation depending on the jurisdiction and the amount of income. Content creators should be prepared to take these earnings into account when filing their tax return and comply with the laws of their country.
Optimizing your earnings
Even if you have chosen a suitable monetization strategy and even started earning your first income, you should regularly optimize your earnings by integrating various improvements in content, profile promotion, monetization methods and so on. Let’s take a look at the different ways to optimize your TikTok earnings.
Creating high quality and engaging content
The foundation of creating popular content on TikTok is high quality and engaging videos. It’s important to create content that will evoke an emotional response from your target audience and keep them coming back for more videos. The first thing you need to do to create quality content is to decide what your goals are. Determine exactly what you want to convey to your audience and what emotions or reactions you want to elicit from your viewers.
Another key aspect of creating quality content is to keep the viewers’ attention.Use vivid imagery, unexpected plot twists or exciting moments to keep your audience’s attention until the end. Also try to offer something new and original that sets you apart from the many other creators on the platform. This could be your style, humor, creative ideas, or unique approach to content. In addition to this, it’s important to keep up to date with current trends and preferences of your audience. This will help you create content that is closer and more relatable to your viewers.
The importance of consistency and audience engagement
Consistency in content posting and audience interaction play a key role in the success of your TikTok account. Follow these aspects to promote your TikTok profile more effectively:
- Publish content on a regular basis. Aim to update your account regularly with new videos. This will keep your audience’s attention and maintain interest in your content;
- Create a recognizable style. Maintain a consistent style and image for your account so that your audience knows what to expect from you. This way you can build a loyal audience and increase your profile recognition;
- Actively engage with your audience. Respond to comments, ask questions, take polls and invite viewers to engage with your content. This will help build a closer relationship with your audience and make them part of your community.
Video editing and optimization techniques
- Trending sounds. Use popular soundtracks and audio effects that will grab viewers’ attention and help your content stand out;
- Hashtags. Use hashtags that are relevant to your content to increase its visibility and engage more of your audience;
- Montage and special effects. Experiment with different editing techniques and special effects to make your content more interesting and appealing to viewers. This can be done in various video editors, such as CupCut, which we talked about in this article.
Understanding your audience
Understanding your audience is a key element of successful content creation on any platform, including TikTok. Understanding the demographics and interests of your audience allows you to better tailor your content, making it more appealing and relevant to viewers. That’s why encouraging creators to analyze their audience is so important.
How to analyze your audience
- Use analytics tools. TikTok provides analytics tools that allow you to study the demographics of your audience, such as age, gender, geographic distribution, and more. Use this data to understand who is watching your content and what they are interested in;
- Analyze comments and feedback. Read the comments under your videos and study feedback from your audience. This way you’ll learn valuable information about what your viewers like and what they’d like to see more of;
- Conduct surveys. Conduct polls in your video descriptions to find out what your audience thinks about different topics or content formats.
Adapt content to your audience
Once you have information about your audience, use it to tailor your content. This can include choosing topics, styles, and formats that best suit your audience. For example, if you notice that your audience likes humorous videos, try creating more content in that style. If your audience is young and active, create more dynamic and energetic videos. Constantly update your content and monitor your audience’s reactions to adapt it to their needs and preferences.
Conclusion
Despite all the nuances, any author can start earning on TikTok. By using the right monetization methods and constantly optimizing your content, making it higher quality and more engaging, this platform can become not just an additional way to make money from TikTok, but a full-fledged source of income. If you want to learn even more about how to promote your TikTok account, we recommend you to read this article.
