If you’ve even just glanced at a smartphone over the past few years, then you’ve witnessed the meteoric rise of social media as not just a digital landscape or meme think tank but as an income stream for those willing to put in the elbow grease. Now that TikTok dominates our attention spans, content creators are tapping into programs like the Creator Rewards Program to rake in the big bucks.
So, whether you started your TikTok account for the explicit purpose of starting a side hustle, or you’ve been scrolling and thought, ‘Hey, that doesn’t look so hard,’ let us go on a brief walk-through of how you can translate your screen time into some serious coin.
However, since TikTok’s future in the United States is still a little fuzzy as of this post, we will also be pointing out how you can extend the money-making opportunities off the app. You know what they say, “Diversify and make your money multiply” (or something like that).
Introducing the Creator Fund’s Replacement, the Creator Rewards Program
For content creators from the U.S., Japan, Germany — and an ever-expanding group of countries in Europe and Asia — the Creator Rewards Program has taken over from what was previously known as the Creator Fund. The changes address creators’ complaints about the previous model (namely, pitiful pay-outs).
The Creator Rewards Program is TikTok’s pivot into encouraging creators to try out longer videos that exceed 60 seconds. According to Brandwatch, this is all part of TikTok’s overall goal to keep people on the app longer (and off competing apps like Instagram and YouTube). Beyond that, some of the requirements will feel similar.
You still need to apply to reap the Rewards (you can do it all from the menu hamburger), and hit all the eligibility requirements, including, but not limited to:
- You must be working out of an eligible location
- You must be 18+
- You have to have at least 10,000 authentic followers (we’re talking stans, not bots)
- You have to have 100,000 authentic views over the past 30 days (again, summon the stans)
- Be using a personal account (TikTok wants this program to highlight original individual creators, not big brands masking as one)
Let’s say you signed up and got accepted (OMG, congrats!). Now you’re wondering when you’ll start collecting coins faster than Mario. As Fourthwall states, creators can expect roughly $4-$8 per thousand views (as opposed to the Creator Fund’s $0.40 per 1,000 views). There are also more clues as to what you can do to bolster your payouts; the Creator Fund’s payout was based on a more vague “variety of factors”.
TikTok wants new, fresh, original content, so now is the time to unleash that weird side of yourself that you keep locked up for all your business meetings and dinner parties. That uniqueness also helps keep your audience locked in for longer, which (potentially) leads to a higher payout per 1,000 views.
While you’re brainstorming what kind of content you want to test out with the Creator Rewards Program, it’s important to keep in mind that TikTok has criteria beyond the 60-second rule that your post must meet, like:
- It can’t be a Duet or Stitch
- It can’t be sponsored or an ad
- Again, it has to be original to the creator
- It must be high quality “as determined by TikTok”
- See other requirements here
Plus, TikTok holds the right to remove or suspend you from the program if you “become involved in any situation or occurrence which reflects unfavorably upon you or TikTok”, or “ you make any derogatory public statement or comment concerning TikTok”.
The bottom line? You can’t do anything that will make yourself or TikTok look bad and you can’t talk smack about your favorite scrolly app.
Thinking outside the TikTok box
Applying to join the TikTok Creator Rewards Program seems like a no-brainer, especially if you’ve already been growing on TikTok and plan to continue. However, because it won’t be a consistent income stream, it shouldn’t be your only one.
While TikTok isn’t exactly releasing a guideline on becoming a Rewards millionaire, they offer free analytics to help you determine the contributing factors behind your best and worst-performing posts. Incorporating this data can help you tweak your posts to help your account grow, and keep track of your audience’s shifting tastes.
Then, why not share the love with your other apps, like Instagram? Instagram Reels features the same aspect ratio and has the potential to connect you to a whole audience not present on TikTok, so it makes sense to share your uber-successful videos there. However, as you can imagine, Instagram doesn’t love boosting videos with TikTok watermarks, so remove any before reposting.
There are plenty of tools, apps, and tricks you can use to remove watermarks, but please, please, please only do this to your work because reposting someone else’s work without their handle in the watermark is *ahem* stealing.
Reposting your TikTok hits on Instagram can help boost your standing in the Instagram algorithm. While, unlike TikTok, that might not translate to Creator Fund dividend, it does increase your marketing power with partnerships (stay tuned for more on that later).
TikTok Gifts and Tips
TikTok Gifts and Tips are like those birthday cards you get from Grandma with $5 stuffed inside. While on the surface, they might seem similar, there are some key differences:
Goin’ LIVE: TikTok Gifts
These are basically roses fans can throw at the feet of their favorite TikTokers, except that online personalities can then turn around and exchange them for cold-hard cash. Your fans can use very real money to buy TikTok Coins (see TikTok’s Virtual Items Policy here), and then use Coins to purchase virtual items (little animations, doo-dads, and images) and reward you during your LIVEs.
Depending on how popular your LIVE is, TikTok will award you Diamonds, which TikTok says you can request to cash in for payout.
For your regularly scheduled programming: TikTok Tips
If TikTok Gifts are the dollars you’re throwing around at drag brunch, TikTok Tips are the more discreet fold of bills you leave under the salt shaker at the diner. Users can choose to use their stash of Coins to buy virtual items to tip regular TikTok videos. According to Nerdwallet, you need to have at least 100,000 followers to qualify for tips and allow for them in your settings.
However, remember that because of fees, TikTok Coins and virtual items hold less value than the cash used to buy them. Creator Logic has broken down the rough value of virtual Gifts and Diamonds (at least, of their publish date), but they can change anytime.
Thinking outside the TikTok box
While TikTok Gifts and Tips are a great way to bolster your income (and to see what content resonates with your audience), by no means is it the only place to get a little extra love from your audience.
If you’ve been diligent about consistently building up your other platforms, like YouTube, Instagram, or even your Substack, then there’s no reason you can’t add a way for people to tip you on these platforms. Sites like Buy Me A Coffee, or apps like Venmo, Cashapp, or even Zelle offer a quick way for your fans to send tips.
Additionally, if you’re going LIVE on TikTok more often than not, think about branching out to other streaming services like Twitch. According to Engadget, Twitch is opening money-making opportunities for all streamers, knocking down previous views and playtime requirements to earn revenue.
So, if your audience can’t get enough of you on TikTok, this is the perfect time to announce your new Twitch streaming schedule. BTW, you can pretty much stream anything on Twitch, from your cooking show to a cozy craft ‘n chat night, so there’s no need to call your 15-year-old cousin to teach you how to play Fortnite.
#Sponsored with Branded Content
As outlined in TikTok’s Creator Academy, the Creator Marketplace is the ability to connect to companies and brands that are looking for new customers through a champion of their demographic (i.e. YOU!). The Creator Marketplace, naturally, has criteria you must fit into (see here).
If you already have a TikTok account with plenty of followers and a well-defined brand and image, you’re probably already working towards this. If not, you should consider it, since nearly 67% of content creators say they earn the most from their sponsorships.
The Creator Marketplace allows brands and companies to filter through different TikTok content creators to find the person that best fits within their style, voice, and other criteria. That means that it’s more important than ever for you to solidify the niche and branding of your account so that the right kind of opportunities can find you.
Just as a note here, make sure you’re only spending energy on the deals that resonate with your brand; being disingenuous can do serious damage to your brand. The goal is to make your account attractive for potential brand deals and sponsorships.
But that’s not to say that you need to wait for your payday to find you. Part of your job as a social media superstar is hunting down opportunities that best serve your account and your audience. So, you should also keep an eye out for businesses you want to work with, and remember that when you approach them, you offer something that can seriously help them out.
That’s right — you, yes, you — are a marketing and business badass who created and cultivated a social media empire with many followers. How many followers?! Be proud of your work, and even better, be prepared to enter a serious business discussion.
Thinking outside the TikTok box
Remember, when you reach out to businesses (or even when they slide into your DMs), you have more to offer than just your TikTok account, even though that’s what they may be inquiring about. If you’ve been diversifying your accounts and working on growing outside of TikTok, bring that into your negotiations.
But first, you’ll need to back it up with the numbers. Ensure you’ve done your homework on your number of followers across all platforms, your reach, and what that means for potential business partnerships. Spend time working on a social media report as part of your larger strategy; you’ll be ready when any opportunity arises!
TikTok is a vital tool in your kit as a social media partner, but if you’re putting the work in, there’s no reason you can’t also be a partner on Instagram or YouTube (if the opportunity is right).
Behind the Paywall with TikTok Series and Subscriptions
Here’s what you need to know about TikTok Series, Subscriptions, and what to do off the app.
TikTok Series
TikTok Series allows eligible (see details here) creators to put up to 80 videos ranging from 30 seconds to 20 minutes in length behind a paywall. You do need to sign up for the feature, but once you’re set up, you can upload videos and set the prices to unlock your posts (from $.90 up to $189.99).
TikTok doesn’t currently take a cut, but there are processing and app fees (not to mention that TikTok could change the pay structure if they wanted to). If your audience can’t get enough of your content and is always commenting for more, this is a great way to test how far they’ll follow you. Of course, getting consistent Series views depends on you being a trusted personality. So, ensure you’re engaging with your viewers in the comments, posting consistently, and generally being active online.
If commenting or answering your DMs all day/every day is outside your bandwidth, this is a good place to consider inserting a little automation. And hint-hint-nudge-nudge, Manychat is the go-to automation for over 1 million creators. You can even try it for free if you’re curious about testing it out (and don’t worry, we won’t make you sound like a bot).
TikTok Subscriptions
While TikTok Series allows your followers to pay a one-time charge to access your gated content, Subscriptions let you offer your fans even more content behind a monthly Subscription fee, ranging from $2.99 to $99.99.
Besides videos, you can offer exclusive LIVE sessions, special stickers, and badges that let your subscribers show off their support for you. While TikTok does offer special rewards and bonuses for follower counts and views, that does mean that they are taking a cut of your profits (just as they are with all paid features). After their take and other app fees, you get a little over a third of each subscription fee.
Thinking outside the TikTok box
Certainly, TikTok isn’t the first and only platform to host content behind a paywall. Patreon, Substack, Buy Me a Coffee, and *ahem*, ‘the other one’. You can even paywall content on your website with features from Squarespace and WordPress. Considering that TikTok Series caps your content at 80 posts, it’s a great way to entice people to follow you on alternative platforms. Maybe they can watch some of your content on TikTok, and find the rest on your other platforms.
Plus, while TikTok Subscriptions might be the ideal place for some people to view you, a wider audience exists. Just think of all those people on Twitch, YouTube, and heck, even in the dark trenches of Reddit who aren’t stumbling across you on TikTok. Don’t they deserve to witness your brilliance, too?
If you’ve grown a supportive fanbase on TikTok, maybe it’s time to reward them with a discount so they can view your work elsewhere. By asking them to comment or DM for a link or code for your other content, you’re not only helping them stay in touch with you, but you can also gather additional information that you can take with you, no matter the app you’re on.
Collecting audience information (like emails) is extra important when you consider that there may be a future (in the U.S.) when you don’t have TikTok Subscriptions or Series. Automation is also helpful here, so you can focus on other things while the robots help you build your contact lists.
Hey! That content’s not gonna make itself!
TikTok Shop
Picture this: While scrolling TikTok on your lunch break, you see a post of someone sporting an absolutely-to-die-for jumpsuit that’s screaming your name. Before your leftovers are finished spinning in the microwave, you’ve clicked-to-buy, and your jumpsuit dreams are only days away from coming true.
This is the beauty of impulse social media shopping. TikTok Shop makes purchasing easy and even easier for you to connect with new customers. This NerdWallet article outlines the nitty gritty of starting your TikTok shop, which includes signing up as a TikTok Seller (it’s best if you use a business account for this), and then once you’re approved, you can upload and sell products.
To promote your goods and services, you can do livestreams, post ads, post shoppable videos, and open up the option for your fellow TikTokers to become affiliates. Then, as long as you send out products within two business days, as per TikTok’s rules, you’re golden!
Thinking outside the TikTok box
If you’re selling things on TikTok, you should also be selling things outside TikTok. You can import products from an existing store into the TikTok shop. So, you should consider basing your store on a site like Shopify, BigCommerce, or your website.
That way, you can sell from one location and source customers from TikTok, Instagram, and your mailing list.
Thinking Big Picture
Making money on TikTok (and your other social media platforms) isn’t as quick and easy as some creators might have you believe. It takes consistency, some creativity, and a whole lotta tenacity.
Just like TikTok is constantly exploring new avenues of income and expansion, you should think about how a combination of paywalled content, selling products, partnerships, and programs like ad-revenue sharing or the Creator Rewards Program can work for your brand.
As we’ve stated, TikTok’s future is uncertain, but that’s nothing new. Apps change, adopt new algorithms, shut down and start up constantly. Making your content and products fluidly applicable to all corners of the internet will make you a nimble player in the social media game.
But just because you might be the sole content creator (for yourself or a larger business), you don’t need to go it alone! Lean on options like Manychat’s automation tools to help avoid burnout so that you can keep the joy of creating content and connecting with your audience alive and well.
