How to make money on TikTok in 10 ways
While the classic influencer route is a no-brainer, there are other ways you can profit via TikTok. Grab your TikTok account, get ready to make some videos, and let’s dive right in!
1. Sell merch
TikTok Shop’s 2023 launch opened new doors for selling directly on the platform, with Printful leading as their first print-on-demand supplier. This integration simplifies selling merchandise like custom t-shirts and custom hoodies to your target audience on TikTok.
With print-on-demand, you don’t need to manage inventory or make risky investments. Create and showcase your designs in TikTok videos, and let Printful handle the rest.
This method is perfect for engaging your followers with unique products, from custom apparel to diverse items like mugs and backpacks. Use TikTok Shops to manage your sales easily and turn your TikTok clout into profit.
Loren Gray, for example, sells her own branded merch with sweatshirts, joggers, and crop tops with funny messages:
2. Become an influencer
Stepping into the TikTok influencer role means more than amassing followers. It’s about cultivating a genuine connection with your audience around specific topics or niches. TikTok influencers shape buying decisions through trust, authenticity, and engaging content.
Remember ‘Tube Girl,’ this summer’s It girl? Soon after sweeping fans off their feet, she was offered brand deals by MAC Cosmetics, Boss, and Bentley Cars. Just her 2 posts for MAC Cosmetics drove the beauty company around $100,000 in earned media value.
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To get brand partnerships, you’ll need to work on growing your community and creating unique content. Start by finding your niche: what are you passionate about? What are your talents? What do you do?
There’s room for literally any topic on TikTok—from BookTok to CrochetTok. Find what you’re good at and start creating content!
Read also: How to Make Money as an Influencer
3. Join the TikTok Creativity Program
This is a successor to the TikTok Creator Fund, and it’s a new frontier for TikTok creators looking to monetize their content. Launched in December 2023, this program helps creators earn money in the US, UK, France, and Germany.
To be eligible, creators must be 18+ years old, have a minimum of 10,000 followers, and accumulate 100,000 unique video views in the last 30 days.
You can transition to the Creativity Program if you’re already in the Creator Fund. The new partner program is based on TikTok’s Creator Fund community feedback to offer improved rewards and experiences.
The program’s goal is to foster creativity and authenticity and encourage creators to produce original, high-quality content. It rewards engaging content that connects with the TikTok community, emphasizing longer videos.
Creators in this program will have access to an updated dashboard for monitoring TikTok video eligibility, estimated earnings, and performance metrics. This ensures they have the tools to optimize their content for better rewards.
4. Become a brand ambassador
If you’re eager to make money on TikTok while distinguishing yourself from traditional influencers, consider becoming a brand ambassador. This role is all about building lasting brand partnerships. Here’s how it differs from regular influencer marketing:
1. Long-term commitment: brand ambassadors maintain ongoing relationships with brands rather than go through multiple one-off brand deals
2. Genuine advocacy: you become a sincere advocate for the brand’s offerings, reflecting your authentic belief in them
3. Deep engagement: you’re deeply involved in the brand’s campaigns, seamlessly integrating their own products or services into your content
While regular influencership allows you to jump from brand to brand however you please, becoming a committed ambassador has its perks. The biggest is stability—with a long-term ambassador deal, you get a more predictable income.
5. Advertising
TikTok ads are a potent tool for brands aiming to connect with a younger audience. A remarkable example is Supergoop, a skincare brand specializing in sunscreen. Their TikTok campaigns involved collaboration with various influencers to promote products and highlight the importance of sunscreen, significantly boosting their follower count to over 1.8 million.
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When advertising on TikTok, you can:
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Reach large audiences directly where they consume content
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Increase brand recognition
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Improve audience engagement
Obviously, advertising on TikTok will cost you money at first. But it’s an important tactic to increase your brand’s presence on the platform and drive sales in the long term.
Read also: Advertising on TikTok: Why Brands Should Care About It
How do you start advertising on TikTok?
The platform has an ad offering very similar to Facebook Ads. Here are the key steps:
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Create a TikTok Ads Account
To qualify, you need a TikTok Business Account.
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While creating your TikTok Ads Manager Account, you must set up your Advertising Objective.
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Create your ad campaign
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Set up your ad group
Here, you can choose to limit your ads to TikTok or target-related applications, like India’s Vigo Video, BuzzVideo in Japan, TopBuzz in the US, and BR and News Republic worldwide. If you choose the automatic placement option, TikTok will calculate where you can get the best results with your ad and place it there.
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Set up your campaign details
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Design your ads
How much does it cost to advertise on TikTok? Although TikTok doesn’t disclose brand campaign rates, you need to put a minimum budget of $500 for self-service ads. For ad groups, the minimum is $20.
TikTok Ads formats
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Brand Takeover: This large format ad appears when users open the app. It can only show a single advertiser per day.
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Hashtag Challenge: Here you can create content trends by uploading a video with a unique challenge and encouraging your audience to participate. Promote your brand by creating a unique hashtag for the challenge.
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Branded Effects: This ad type allows you to create custom augmented reality filters to incorporate into your content.
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Influencer package: When you choose this format, TikTok will set your brand up with a TikTok influencer related to your brand’s target audience, who will create sponsored content.
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In-feed ads: These ads look like regular TikTok videos and appear organically on the users’ For You page (FYP). They can be 5–60 seconds long (TikTok recommends up to 34 seconds) and include a CTA button to link to an external website.
6. Gather donations
TikTok is an effective platform for both generating revenue for yourself and raising money for causes you care about. You can ask your TikTok followers to support a nonprofit through a donation sticker, which links to an organization you want to support. Create a specific hashtag for the campaign and ask your followers to use it when sharing and promoting the campaign.
TikTok’s viral reach makes it ideal for nonprofit organizations and charities. Some examples of successful charity campaigns include:
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Young Scot: a youth organization with millions of followers. Their TikTok videos are used for fundraising campaigns and reward programs.
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British Red Cross: they use TikTok to provide information from how to perform first aid procedures to public health concerns.
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Malala Fund: their viral videos raise awareness about the importance of girls’ education.
There are some types of charities that perform especially well on TikTok, for instance, any nonprofit related to animal protection. Social causes like women’s rights issues, racial equality, or LGBTQ+-related causes also tend to go viral on the platform.
7. Host live streams
TikTok’s live stream feature allows creators to connect with their audience and monetize their content. A notable example is The Weeknd’s virtual concert, which attracted 2 million unique views and raised $350,000 for the Equal Justice Initiative through merchandise sales.
Streaming live content allows creators to make money. The platform has a monetization model where you can earn money through virtual gifts: your fans can buy virtual coins with actual money via the app, then use these coins to send you a tip if they like the live video.
Keep in mind that TikTok will take 50% of the coin value.
To make the most of your live streams, stay engaged with your audience. Popular TikTokers use live streams to do Q&As, share interesting stories, perform, or promote their brand partnerships.
8. Become a TikTok consultant
If you’re an expert on TikTok, why not cash in on your knowledge? Since this social platform is still new, you can earn money helping people and brands create their TikTok strategies and grow their following.
Once you grow your account to a steady follower base and spend some time on the platform, you’ll learn a lot about what content performs well and how the TikTok algorithm works. Then you can offer your services as a TikTok consultant. You can do this right from your account by announcing it in a video or series of videos and putting a link to your webpage in your bio.
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You can help your clients by explaining how to make money on TikTok and offer related services such as:
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Writing a captivating bio and video descriptions
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Growing their follower base and engagement rate
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Getting brand collaboration and sponsored posts
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Creating engaging content
9. Sell TikTok Shoutouts
This feature allows fans to pay influencers for custom videos. Creators and influencers can charge a fee in return for custom videos like birthday greetings, private songs, and so on. Fans can pay with coins that can be converted into diamonds.
How does it work? If you’re an influencer, you can add the request button and set your own rate for custom videos. As this feature is only available in select markets, the app prevents users in non-applicable regions from requesting videos.
The user requests the video and pays the creator in coins, which they can later transform into diamonds to withdraw cash. The creator will send a confirmation email for accepting the task in up to three days. Then the user gets the custom video in a week via TikTok direct messaging.
Learn More:
10. Join the TikTok Rewards program and refer friends
The TikTok Rewards Program allows TikTok users to earn points by referring new users to the platform. Here’s how the program works and how you can benefit from it:
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Joining the program: to participate, open the TikTok app, go to your profile, and click on the TikTok Rewards banner to find your unique referral link and code.
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Earning Rewards: you’ll start earning points when your referred friends download TikTok and enter your referral code. These points can be accumulated and redeemed for money and other rewards. Over time, there will be various tasks and challenges that you and your friends can complete in exchange for rewards.
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Converting points to money: your earned points can be exchanged for actual money, coupons, or mobile top-ups in certain countries. The rewards are converted to cash at a fixed rate, which varies depending on your country.
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Withdrawing cash: to withdraw money from your points, link your e-payment channels like PayPal or your bank account to TikTok, and you can then withdraw the amount you desire.
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Regional thresholds and limitations: different regions have distinct limits for withdrawing cash. This doesn’t mean the money will be lost, but there’s a set minimum and maximum to how much you can withdraw at once.
By joining the TikTok Rewards Program, you can make money on TikTok simply by expanding your network and encouraging more users to join the platform. There isn’t a minimum follower count like with many influencer marketing programs, but a large following on other social media platforms can help.
Ready for a TikTok challenge?
Whether you’re selling merchandise or exploring other monetization methods, TikTok offers many opportunities to make money.
If you want to make money on TikTok by selling your products, Printful is here for your printing needs. We arrange printing, production, and distribution to keep your fans happy with your products.
Learn how you can partner with Printful to generate income from TikTok and start selling TikTok merch today!
