Despite being less than 10 years old, TikTok has become the authority on what’s hot in culture, politics, and fashion. As of 2024, there are nearly 108 million US TikTok users, with a sizable Gen Z audience and millions of motivated shoppers.
If you want to leverage TikTok’s massive user base to build an audience and sell products, here are 13 strategies used by the platform’s top creators and marketers. From fan merch sales to paid subscriptions, there are many ways to make money on TikTok.
13 ways to make money on TikTok
Join the TikTok Creator Rewards Program
Sell merch
Go live for virtual gifts
Partner with affiliates on Creator Marketplace
Open a TikTok Shop
Create in-feed ads
Crowdfund projects
Collect tips
Offer on- and off-platform subscriptions
Provide exclusive content with TikTok Series
Grow and sell TikTok accounts
Give personalized shout-outs
Refer new TikTok users
Making money on TikTok and other social media platforms becomes easier once you’ve gained a deeper understanding of your target audience.
There’s no single approach to monetization—instead, the highest earners use a range of TikTok’s income streams.
1. Join the Creator Rewards Program
Remember Nathan Apodaca, aka doggface208, cruising on his skateboard, sipping cranberry juice, and vibing to Fleetwood Mac? That’s the kind of viral magic TikTok loves. If you can create engaging videos that can capture a moment like Nathan’s, TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program could be your pathway to earning.
The program is for creators who produce original videos of longer than one minute—a length TikTok says generates the most engagement.
When you’re in the program, you receive boosted rewards based on the originality and popularity of your content. Discussion on Reddit suggests potential earnings range from 2¢ to 15¢ per 1,000 views. You also get access to an enhanced analytics dashboard to monitor video performance.
To qualify, you’ll need at least 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the past 30 days. Your videos must be original and longer than a minute. Plus, you need to be 18 or older and live in an eligible country.
To join, head to your profile and tap TikTok Studio, then select the Creator Rewards Program.
2. Sell merch
Whether you make dance videos or offer reading recommendations, all kinds of TikTok creators can make and sell merch for their fans.
With a wide variety of print-on-demand companies on the market, there’s a ton of merchandise to choose from. You might sell t-shirts, tote bags, pillow cases, hats, coffee mugs, stickers, or notebooks, all customized to match your channel’s vibe.
Selling print-on-demand products has benefits beyond revenue. Merch helps your fans forge a deeper connection to your personal brand, and every follower who wears your merch spreads the word about your channel.
Related article
TikTok Shopping: Everything You Need To Know To Start Selling
Embrace the power of social commerce. Set up TikTok Shop to enable in-app shopping features and product discovery for your brand.
3. Go live for virtual gifts
Most social networks have a livestreaming feature, but what makes TikTok unique is it allows followers to show their appreciation in real-time by sending virtual gifts, which can be redeemed for payment. LIVE Gifting is one of TikTok’s most useful features for creators looking to monetize their content through livestreaming.
Engaging with users live is great for building valuable relationships with your fans. Audiences that have a strong connection to a creator tend to develop a personal stake in their success, which means going live can help boost other monetization streams as well.
If you create or sell products online, livestreaming is an opportunity to showcase your items. Many ecommerce retailers find TikTok LIVE generates more interest from shoppers than livestreaming on other social media.
For example, Dasha Derkach, founder of hair scrunchie business Enchanted Scrunch, saw a significant increase in sales after switching her social media marketing efforts from Instagram to TikTok.
“It has significantly boosted our sales,” she says. “Before TikTok, we got around two orders a week, then once we started, around 100 a week. Now we also do TikTok LIVEs nearly every day and get almost 500 orders a week!”
TikTok frequently adds features to help creators create engaging streams with fun monetized elements. Try the airdrop feature, a random gift effect that enables viewers to send you supplies when you’re hosting a LIVE.
4. Partner with affiliates on Creator Marketplace
One of the most innovative ways TikTok allows its creators to make money is through its Creator Marketplace.
The Creator Marketplace helps connect brands and creators so they can get paid for creating sponsored content.
Brands looking to run an affiliate marketing campaign can browse the marketplace and quickly shuffle through content made by creators open to collaboration.
In this way, the marketplace is like an influencer agency, removing the awkwardness involved in setting up partnerships between brands and influencers.
Shopify Collabs is a similar platform connecting creators with brands looking to boost awareness. Use both tools to find sponsorship opportunities for your TikTok content from relevant companies.
Get paid by brands you love with Shopify Collabs
Shopify Collabs makes it easy to find brands that match your vibe, build affiliate relationships, get paid for what you sell, and track everything in one place.
Find out more
5. Open a TikTok Shop
Another way to make money on TikTok using affiliate links or your own products is by running a TikTok shop. Shop is TikTok’s tool for in-app shopping, allowing users with business accounts to create shoppable videos and livestreams.
The key benefit of TikTok Shop is reduced friction for your audience—they don’t need to leave TikTok to find out more about your products.
Use Shop to tag products as they appear in your videos. It’s a natural way to draw your viewers’ attention to an item you want to promote.
You can also add product information and Buy buttons to your content to recommend a brand and drive traffic to an affiliate partner.
If you manage your products with a Shopify store, you can integrate with TikTok Shop to let users scroll through items from within the app.
Making it easy to shop products from TikTok is key to so many brand’s viral success.
Like many great businesses, skin care brand Peace Out Skincare was created when its founder encountered a problem that didn’t have a solution—until he created one.
After struggling with acne and hyperpigmentation, among other skin issues, Enrico Frezza started researching the skin care product development process and building his own brand of skin care products. The brand found early traction partnering with TikTok influencers to build authenticity—and make more sales.
The creators involved also monetized their accounts by being paid for content. Enrico shared how Peace Out Skincare found success on TikTok through influencer marketing on an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast.
Successfully set up your TikTok shop? An easy way to add more products to your storefront is by sourcing relevant items from a dropshipping supplier, who will ship orders as you receive them.
Connect with shoppers on TikTok
Shopify comes with powerful tools to help you tell your brand story and create TikTok in-feed ads in minutes. Make sales on TikTok and manage all your orders, returns, and payments from Shopify.
Find out more
6. Create in-feed ads
TikTok has a ton of organic marketing opportunities, but if you’re willing to spend to expand the reach of your content, you might consider creating in-feed ads with the TikTok ads manager.
TikTok ads appear in users’ For You feeds and autoplay like any other video. With paid ads, you can make sure your videos are reaching the audiences most interested in your product or service.
TikTok’s ad manager seamlessly integrates with Shopify. That means you can create TikTok ads, select a target audience, and track your ad’s performance from your Shopify store. TikTok really can be one of the best online marketing tools at your disposal.
7. Crowdfund projects
Followers are often happy to pay creators for the enjoyment and value they receive from their content. That’s why it’s important for creators to offer easy ways for followers to donate.
Crowdfunding is one accessible donation method that can take many forms, depending on the type of funding you’re looking for. If you’re looking for startup funds for a specific project, you could use TikTok to rally your followers by setting up a funding goal and hosting live fundraising events.
If you’re looking to fund a specific project, here are some crowdfunding sites to explore:
Kickstarter: Kickstarter is the web’s most widely used and recognized crowdfunding platform, giving your fundraising credibility.
Indiegogo: If you don’t have a set funding target, you might prefer Indiegogo, which offers a more flexible fundraising goal, letting you receive funds after your deadline.
Fundable: Fundable lets startups offer equity in exchange for funding, making it a great tool for finding investors. Currently, though, Fundable is available only to users in the United States.
Crowdcube: Crowdcube offers companies that succeed in their fundraising goals exclusive benefits from their partner organizations through its Crowdcube Funded Club.
8. Collect tips
For a fast and easy way to accept donations, consider using a tipping platform. Tipping platforms work just like a real-life tip jar, and viewers who like your videos can thank you with a small donation. The option is available to fans, but not mandatory, and they can donate any amount they like, any time they want.
Depending on your follower count, you may be eligible to receive tips from fans directly through TikTok. Otherwise, there are several well known tipping platforms you can link to from your channel:
TikTok gifts: Receive tips in the form of TikTok gifts, which have a real monetary value, some exceeding $500.
Tipeee: Tipeee doesn’t offer subscriptions, but its strength is its simplicity. Creators can set up a page for their fans to directly “tip” any amount they want, whenever they want.
Buy Me a Coffee: Buy Me a Coffee prides itself on being built for creators, as opposed to businesses. Followers are sent to a page where they can purchase as many “coffees” for the creator as they like. “Coffees,” in this case, are $1 payments transferred to the creator via PayPal or online banking.
Ko-fi: Ko-fi offers tips, memberships, and ways to offer users commissions for personalized content, like a custom tutorial or video chat.
9. Offer on- and off-platform subscriptions
Crowdfunding works for standalone projects, and tipping is a simple way to collect funds quickly. But what if you’re looking to secure a more regular passive income stream?
Subscriptions turn your one-time viewers into long-term supporters. On TikTok, you can use the Subscription feature where fans pay a monthly fee for perks like badges, subscriber-only livestreams, and exclusive access to videos.
Whether you’re sharing behind-the-scenes secrets or early access to your best videos, a subscription makes your most dedicated fans feel like VIPs.
Remember to keep subscription costs low. That way, you can offer modest rewards and focus on recruiting a large number of subscribers. A $1 subscription is an easy sell to a dedicated fan. If you have a lot of dedicated fans, those dollars start to add up.
You can also promote subscriptions on an external platform, such as Patreon, to your TikTok followers. Patreon lets creators and influencers generate revenue through paid memberships. On the platform, you can offer membership tiers with exclusive perks for your biggest supporters.
10. Provide exclusive content with TikTok Series
With TikTok Series, you can put up to 80 videos behind a paywall, so that viewers are directly compensating you to access them.
Series videos can be as long as 20 minutes, allowing you to dive deep into your channel’s subject matter. You could put together a package of related content, such as a 30-day workout challenge, an episodic narrative, or a set of cooking classes.
To get started with TikTok Series, you need at least 10,000 followers, as well as 1,000 views in the past 30 days from at least three original posts.
Set up your series by going to TikTok Studio, finding the Series option, and following the steps.
11. Grow and sell TikTok accounts
A lateral-thinking approach to making money on TikTok is growing accounts and selling them. If you have a knack for building engaging profiles and a deep understanding of what drives audience growth, you could start a business as a channel seller.
Here’s how it works: You start a TikTok account, choose a popular niche where you can consistently create content, and spend time building your following and engagement. Once the account has many followers and good engagement, you can sell it to businesses or influencers looking for a head start.
There are several marketplaces where you can sell TikTok accounts. Here are a few examples:
Flippa: An established website for buying and selling digital assets.
Fameswap: A marketplace for buying and selling social media accounts.
PlayerUp: A secure middleman service for transferring TikTok accounts.
When selling an account, demonstrate its value with metrics like follower count, engagement rates, and information that shows the quality of the channel’s audience.
12. Give personalized shout-outs
Shout-outs are a fun way to connect with your audience. They’re also a format that can easily be monetized. Birthday wishes, congratulations on milestones, and personalized greetings make your followers feel special, and they may be willing to compensate you for taking the time to reach out.
Platforms like Cameo have popularized this concept, allowing influencers to offer personalized messages for a fee. You could promote a Cameo account on your TikTok profile, or offer shout-outs directly during your livestreams in return for virtual gifts. Try encouraging viewers to submit requests for shout-outs with a recommended reward per message.
13. Refer new TikTok users
All active TikTok users who meet minimum age requirements can refer new users to the app in return for TikTok Rewards—virtual points earned by persuading people to join TikTok, interact with videos, and create content.
Rewards can be converted into small amounts of cash at a rate determined by your location. Once you’ve built your earnings, you can withdraw them to your bank account or PayPal account. In some countries, Rewards can also be redeemed for things like coupons and mobile top-ups.
Check the Task Rules page on your app to see TikTok Rewards points you can earn, and the tasks referred users can complete for extra points for themselves and you.
To generate a referral code for a new user, head to Profile, then either Discover or For You. Tap the TikTok Rewards banner, then the coin icon in the upper left corner of the screen. There, you should see a referral link and invitation code.
After that, your friend must enter the referral code within 24 hours to earn invitation rewards points. When new users watch videos via the Activity page, they and you will earn extra points.
As time goes on, new users can also earn points by posting videos and interacting with content.
Who is your TikTok audience?
To make money from your TikTok audience, you need to know who they are. And on TikTok, users are likely to skew younger. A majority of users are under 34 years old, with around a third of active users under the age of 24.
One survey shows a growing number of millennials joining the platform. Social networks tend to be most popular with teens at their inception—so a head start on catering to TikTok’s older users could give you a big advantage in a few years.
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to TikTok, but having a solid understanding of your audience, together with platform-wide trends, will put you in a position to sustainably monetize your following.
Always put content first
The tricky part of using social media to sell products is not overdoing the amount of promotional material you publish.
Your fans understand that you need funding to keep creating the content they love. However, no one wants to follow an account that feels like a constant advertisement.
This is especially true with TikTok, a platform geared toward forming personal connections with your audience.
Users appreciate good content, so it might help to take a content-first approach. Rather than starting with your sales pitch and building content around it, create the content first and let it inspire the best ways to monetize your account.
That’s an approach that worked for Parade, a sustainable underwear company that found success by advertising to millennial and Gen Z customers on TikTok. Parade’s growth marketing manager, Darya Dziadzenka, quickly found that the most effective TikTok marketing content is authentic: it prioritizes relevance and humor over chasing sales.
“The key thing to success on TikTok is making the content as organic to the platform as it can be,” Darya says.
Your TikTok posts should offer value to your audience—not just sell to them. Another great example of this approach is Partly Sunny Projects, an online plant brand shipping California greenery across the country.
Founder Sonja Detrinidad started the business as a distraction from the stress of her day job and took to TikTok to capture the process. It didn’t take long for TikTok audiences to fall in love with Sonja’s captivating personality. Her authentic TikTok videos align with her audience’s interests.
What makes Sonja’s use of TikTok for her business so successful is that she is focused on creating content she knows her viewers enjoy. Sonja covers topics related to gardening, effectively capturing the attention of the exact type of follower that can be turned into a customer, and occasionally going viral.
Join the creator economy
Creators aren’t just artists anymore. They’re also entrepreneurs, marketers, salespeople, accountants, founders, CEOs—and everything in between. In the creator economy, stars are self-made out of their own creativity, passion, and desire to build something unique.
Time is money for artists—and making more money from your art grants you more time to create. If the money itself isn’t rewarding enough, the extra time it buys will be. TikTok is one of many platforms offering creators the ability to make money online. Do what you already do best—and get paid doing it.
Don’t forget to check out our tips for how to make money on YouTube and how to make money on Instagram.
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How to make money on TikTok FAQ
Can I make money on TikTok?
Yes! Anyone can make money on TikTok with the right tools and an effective strategy. If you’re looking to make money on TikTok, take a look at the tips above and start considering which strategies are best for you.
How do creators make money on TikTok?
The most successful TikTok users make money through a combination of revenue streams that can include sponsorships, fundraising drives, product sales, and accepting tips. TikTok users can also promote products through an affiliate link to get paid directly from brands. Making money on TikTok is also possible for larger accounts through programs like creator funds.
Do you get paid for uploading videos on TikTok?
TikTok does not directly pay creators to produce and upload videos. TikTok does offer funding for creators in the form of the TikTok Creator Rewards Program. Still, payment varies based on factors like the number of video views, engagement rates, and the authenticity of users engaging with the post.
In some cases, brands might pay a popular micro-influencer to create videos, but TikTok’s highest-paid users usually monetize their accounts through multiple income streams. Multiple income streams provide greater security, but your audience is the biggest factor when deciding how to make real money on TikTok.
How do I get paid on my TikTok account?
How you get paid depends on the method you choose to monetize your TikTok content. Usually, you will get paid through whichever app you use for monetization, whether that’s a tipping platform, TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program, a crowdfunding site, or your own online store platform (in the case of selling merch or your own products to your fans).
How many TikTok followers do you need to get paid?
The number of TikTok followers you need to earn money varies by monetization method. To join the Creator Rewards Program, you need at least 10,000 followers, while only 1,000 followers are required to receive gifts on TikTok LIVE. Alternatively, there’s no set follower count for users who are paid for posting sponsored content. Selling merchandise in a TikTok shop also doesn’t require a specific follower count.
Related article
TikTok Shopping: Everything You Need To Know To Start Selling
Embrace the power of social commerce. Set up TikTok Shop to enable in-app shopping features and product discovery for your brand.
