How to Make Money on TikTok in 2023
Wondering how to make money on TikTok? You’re not alone. Just about everyone born before 2004 is asking the same question.
However, money-making on TikTok is just as lucrative as it is mysterious.
TikTokers with over 100,000 followers tend to make $200 to $1,000 per month through TikTok’s Creator Fund, while those with over a million followers earn $1,000 to $5,000 (or more) per month. And a select few individuals make upwards of $100,000 to $250,000 per single post when working with big-name brands (yes, you read that correctly—a single post).
How do people make money on TikTok? Well, through a few ways—we’re going to cover 14 of them.
How to Make Money on TikTok in 2023
Many of these tactics can be executed by a business, but others require you to make TikTok your business. For example, any brand can use TikTok ads to drive traffic to their ecommerce store, but you’ll need to invest more dedicated TikTok time into making money through TikTok’s Creator Fund or by becoming a brand ambassador.
You either have a business you promote through TikTok—or you are the TikTok business.
Without further ado, let’s look at how to make money on TikTok in 2023.
1. Sell Products Through TikTok Shopping
TikTok introduced TikTok Shopping in 2021 to empower businesses to sell products directly on the platform—no more sending followers elsewhere to buy your goods. TikTok Shopping adds a shopping tab to your profile, letting users see products from your Shopify catalogs. You can also tag your products in organic content you publish to send viewers over to your store.
Don’t be shy. Mention your products to your audience. Try not to go overboard and be over promotional, but also remember to give your TikTok store a shoutout every now and then.
2. Drive Sales with TikTok Ads
Use TikTok ads to drive traffic back to your website, ecommerce store, or even your TikTok Shopping tab. You could run in-feed image ads promoting your products or get creative with TopView ads (fullscreen takeovers) to boost your TikTok following—both can help you make money on the platform.
You can also use TikTok as a top-of-funnel resource to get users to sign up to your email list or SMS campaigns. This technique can help keep your TikTok account appear less salesy while still being an influential revenue driver.
Want to learn more about TikTok ads? Watch our free masterclass to get up and running on the platform.
3. Participate in Affiliate Programs
You don’t need your own products and services to make money on TikTok. Instead, use affiliate marketing to link out to other goods and make a percentage of every sale when a user clicks through and makes a purchase. Here’s how:
Place an affiliate link in your profile—then direct traffic from your organic views to click the link.
Redirect traffic to your Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest account where you can more generously place affiliate links.
Paste coupons codes and URLs in your video descriptions. Users will have to copy/paste the link into their browser.
Read more: The Ultimate Guide to Affiliate Marketing for Beginners
4. Promote Songs
Get paid to add songs to your videos. Nearly every video on TikTok has an accompanying background song for creators to lip-sync and dance to—and artists recognize this value. If you have a large enough following and engagement, musicians will pay to have you promote their music in your songs.
They know if your video goes viral, their song goes viral—and that means more downloads, concert tickets, and merch.
If you’re a musician (or aspiring musician), you can use TikTok to promote your own music. TikTok is a place to sing and dance, so it only makes sense to publish your own beats on the platform.
5. Join TikTok’s Creator Fund
The TikTok Creator Fund is TikTok’s program that pays users for creating engaging content. The more engagement your videos get, the more TikTok pays you. TikTok wants users to stick around (to make advertising money), and they’ll pay creators who help in that mission.
You need at least 100K video views in the last 30 days to join the Creator Fund. It’s still a relatively new idea for TikTok, so expect to see the program evolve and change over the coming months and years.
Everything I've Learned Spending $2M on TikTok Ads | Gerardo Perez
6. Publish Sponsored Posts
Brands will pay you to feature their products and services—this is called sponsored content. You don’t need to be a monolithic influencer to get in on the action. Smaller brands will still pay good money to work with microinfluencers who have a robust and engaged community—even if it’s not very big (yet).
You can approach brands proactively or wait for them to reach out to you. If you have over 100,000 followers and 100,000 video likes in the last 28 days, you can apply to join the TikTok Creator Marketplace, a platform that connects high-paying brands with influential creators.
7. Become a Brand Ambassador
Brand ambassadors function similarly to sponsored content, but they help in more of a long-term capacity rather than a one-off post. As a brand ambassador, you’ll likely receive compensation and free product in exchange for a fixed number of videos every week or month. The better your content performs, the sweeter your brand ambassador deal becomes.
Look for brands you love. Ideally, you can find a brand that helps you expand your network, receive gear (you actually like), make money, and have fun. Most businesses have exclusive ambassador application pages on their website, so poke around your favorite brands to see if they have any enticing programs.
8. Start a Patreon
Offer free content through your TikTok account, but entice your followers to support you on Patreon to unlock premium content. This might be:
Behind-the-scenes peeks
Exclusive content
SWAG
Personal time with you
Live chats and hangouts
Community access
Public shoutouts
Get creative. When you build a loyal following, they’ll want everything you can get. However, just ensure you put in the time to make your Patreon content valuable and worthwhile—you don’t want anyone to regret their purchase after signing up.
Build your business button
9. Find New Clients
TikTok can be an excellent platform to build your freelancing or consulting business. Publish engaging content to build your audience, and then promote your services. A follower might need your help, or word of mouth might lead you to another client.
If you build websites for a living, feature some of your projects on TikTok. If you’re an email marketing consultant, publish some of the cool campaigns you’ve created.
With enough creativity, you can make any business (from plumbing to accounting to software) exciting on TikTok. You just need to let your personality loose and have some fun—that’s what TikTok is all about.
10. Build and Sell TikTok Accounts
Have a knack for building audiences quickly? Do it for a living.
There are plenty of creators and businesses who’d love a headstart on TikTok. If you can rapidly build TikTok followings, you’ll have a list of potential buyers.
Think about potential industries that might want to purchase a lucrative TikTok account. You might struggle to sell an account focused on cat GIFs (or maybe not)—however, an unboxing profile or account focused on cars would likely sell much faster.
Steer away from making any of these accounts personal. You don’t want followers becoming attached to your face or name. Instead, focus your content on the subject material. This can sometimes make it challenging to grow an account, but that doesn’t stop people like 23-year-old Ramy Halloun from making $120,000 executing the same technique on Instagram.
11. Work with Influencers
You don’t need a massive following to make money on TikTok—you can just leverage the creative minds who’ve done the hard work of building loyal audiences. Partner with influencers to promote your TikTok account or sponsor your products.
A simple shoutout from the right person could make or break your business. Remember when Elon Musk skyrocketed Dogecoin’s value by 600% in a single week? That’s an example of accidental influencer marketing.
Imagine if you did it on purpose.
Influencer Whitelisting 101 | Gretta Van Riel's Ecommerce Tips
12. Receive Donations Through Live Gifting
When you live stream on TikTok, your followers can send you coin donations (which can be traded for cash). Create amazing live streams, attract a big audience, and watch the coins start pouring in.
However, be aware that actively soliciting gifts is a big no-no per TikTok’s community guidelines. The exchange needs to be natural and organic.
You need 1,000+ followers (and must be at least 16) to go live on TikTok, and you need to be 18 or older to earn gift points.
13. Raise Money Through Crowdfunding
People love to participate in crowdfunding campaigns—whether that’s financially backing your project on Kickstarter or supporting a cause on GoFundMe. Crowdfunding is projected to grow to $43.48 billion worldwide by 2028
And the success rate isn’t bad, either. The average success rate of crowdfunding campaigns is a whopping 22.4%, which isn’t bad when you consider that just 10% of startups succeed.
We recommend (when possible) launching a crowdfunding campaign related to your TikTok account’s content. It’s strange when a horse-loving profile tries to raise money for a revolutionary new board game on Kickstarter. However, just about any brand can raise money for those in need. For example, nobody will fault your brand for trying to raise funds for an orphanage, even if your account is focused on country music lip-syncing.
14. Collect Tips
If you don’t have projects or products in mind, consider asking for tips. It’s an excellent way for your audience to support your account and keep the content flowing.
Collecting tips on TikTok is similar to opening up your guitar case while you perform on the side of the street—or how Wikipedia asks you to donate every time you visit the website.
A few tipping platforms make the process quick and easy:
Venmo: Just use someone’s Venmo link, username, or QR code to visit their profile and make a donation.
Buy Me a Coffee: Buy Me a Coffee is a simple, fun way for your audience to say thanks. You can use the platform for one-time donations or ongoing memberships.
Tipeee: Tipeee wins for being the most user-friendly and also offers a fair amount of features. You can create a page to showcase your profile, update tippers, display rewards, and let the community engage.
15. Consult for a Brand
In 2023, more and more brands are investing in TikTok as the next great social channel to market their products and campaigns. Why not spend their budget with you?
If you set yourself as a TikTok expert, you can consult businesses on everything from how to create content that will go viral to which types of influencers to partner with.
Growth and reach are going to be the primary outcomes for consulting clients dipping their toes in the TikTok world. Be their guide, so they don’t make silly mistakes and speak the right language for the platform’s audience.
TikTok Money-Making FAQs
We’ve seen quite a few questions floating around our community and the internet about making money on TikTok. Below, we’ll cover a few you likely have.
How many followers do you need to have on TikTok to make money?
Technically, zero. You could have absolutely no followers and still drive traffic to your ecommerce store through influencer marketing and TikTok ads. However, if you want to be paid directly by TikTok through their Creator Fund, you need at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the last 30 days.
How many views do you need on TikTok to make money?
Another good question. Again, you don't need any to make money on the platform, but you do need a specified number of views to participate in some of TikTok's programs and access unique features. For example, you need at least 100,000 video views in the last 30 days to join TikTok's Creator Fund.
How are TikTok Creator Fund earnings calculated?
TikTok says in its guidelines that there are no hard and fast rules for calculating the funds you earn through their Creator Fund. Instead, they hint at the importance of the number of views, their authenticity, and the level of engagement of the content. That means your content needs to stop a viewer's scroll and motivate them to want to like or share the video.
Grow Your Business with TikTok Ads
Right now, TikTok is growing brands and businesses faster than anything else we’ve seen. But it’s not too late to jump on the bandwagon. Cut through the noise and competition with TikTok ads. Not familiar? Don’t worry we have a free masterclass to get you up and running.
Gerardo Perez founder of “Marketing&” a TikTok digital agency, will show you how to create your first high-converting ad from start to finish, even if you’re a total beginner. Plus, you’ll see why reposting winning Facebook & Instagram ads on TikTok doesn’t work and what Gerardo recommends you should do instead.
