TikTok is undoubtedly a rising star in the short video-sharing social media platform. This platform has millions of active users worldwide, which means it is the right platform to promote any products or services and earn money from it. However, to be able to monetize your TikTok account, these are the very first steps that you need to take to get a certain recognition on the platform; 

• Be Authentic: Internet users crave genuine content. Although we currently live in highly filtered images or videos in the social media world, authenticity is still important. Create content and build your account—specify its characters, define your niche and stick to it.

• Audience Engagement: There are a million ways to engage with your audience on TikTok⁠—you can use the Q&A feature, duets, and video replies to comments. Try to utilize these features frequently because TikTok users expect a more “personal” touch⁠. Boost your TikTok engagement rate so that your content will land on the For You page.

• Frequent Posting: The key to keeping you at the forefront of your followers’ minds is to be consistent in posting engaging content. Keep your content valuable in the eyes of TikTok’s algorithm. This will enhance your opportunities to go viral and expand the scope of your audience.

• TikTok Analytics: Creating TikTok content without evaluating your results will be bad for your account's growth. Use TikTok analytics tools to measure your success and let you know which content is working and which is not.

Once you have successfully earned certain recognition in the TikTok community, you can apply any of these five ways to monetize your TikTok account.

Become a TikTok Influencer

Since your TikTok account already has engaged audiences, you can use it to finally become a TikTok influencer. You have built an account with a loyal and engaged following then you’ll be able to get influencer partnerships with brands that want to connect with your audience.

Some people might think that you need millions of followers to become an influencer. Surprisingly, you don't. To be a TikTok influencer, you don't need to have millions of followers. Nowadays, a lot of brands prefer to work with nano-influencers, micro-influencers, or influencers with a smaller number of followers. It's because influencers with smaller numbers of followers mostly have a closer connection with their followers than mega influencers who have millions of followers.

Pro tip: to become a good influencer, you have to have a niche or a specific theme or topic for your account and content. This way, brands will be able to identify whether you’re the right influencer for the products and services they’d like you to help promote or not.

Publish Sponsored Posts

Although you cannot use direct links on TikTok, you can do hidden advertising (product placement) in your video content. Showing a product or service, recommending them, or creating viral, trending videos incorporating the products, is another way you can publish sponsored posts.

You can also post videos promoting any brands' products and services, for example, posting your video doing a morning skincare routine using products that you promoted.

Get Paid to Promote Products by Joining Affiliate Marketing Program

Another way to monetize your TikTok account is by joining affiliate marketing programs and sharing the link on TikTok. Choose any product from brands that you trust, sign up to affiliate marketing programs, post any products that are aligned with your niche, create a link directory in your TikTok profile, share the product link in your link directory, 

When people see a product they want, they can find it easily in your bio and make the purchase, and voila! For every successful transaction directed from the link you shared, you will get a commission. The more subscribers who come and buy the product, the more payment you will receive.

Get Creative

TikTok not only lets you show up and share your talent with the world but also makes it possible for you to use your skills and creativity to support your career and livelihood. Especially if you're a creative person, you have probably been dreaming of using your talent to make a legitimate income. Now you will be able to live your dream and turn it into reality.

Show your talent through TikTok content and be consistent. Once you have lots of engaging audiences that are loyal to you, it will attract brands within your niche to ask you to promote their products or services. There are endless possibilities for creativity and innovation on this platform—your journey to success can be both rewarding and fun.

Sell Without Annoying Your Audience

TikTok users enjoy good content, thus it might help to put up with a “content-first” strategy. Since the tricky part of using social media to sell products is to not exaggerate the amount of promotional material, you need to try to control it so that your content is not all about selling products.

Your followers know that you need funding to keep creating the content they love, but nobody wants to follow an account that just feels like it’s advertising constantly. Instead of starting with your sales pitch and building content around it⁠, try to create the content first and let it encourage the best ways to earn money from your account. This is especially true with TikTok since the platform itself is driven toward forming close interaction with your audience.

Pro tip: use followers analytics and TikTok analytics tools like analisa.io to understand your audience. By using information from these analytics tools, you will know what your audiences expect from your content. This will guide you to create more enjoyable content in the future.