Today, earning money through social media is no less than a mainstream career. People have started pursuing content creation as their full-time job. The number of likes is one of the main metrics through which content engagement is judged.
Do likes really matter to get paid on TikTok? Let’s find out.
How Many Likes on TikTok to Get Paid?
On TikTok, likes do play a significant role in making money. They are a clear indicator of engagement a creator gets on their content. However, views and followers matter more significantly than likes to make money on the TikTok app.
If you have more likes on your videos, that means users like to watch your content and you have a high engagement rate. Several brands can reach out to you for the same. The higher the engagement rate, the higher you can charge. The engagement rate is not solely based on likes; factors like comments, shares, and views also play an important role in it.
However, TikTok Creators Fund pays a content creator based on the number of views and followers. It does take into account the authenticity of likes while calculating the pay. Also, your TikTok account must follow all the community guidelines.
A creator needs at least over 1,00,000 views in the last month and a minimum of 10000 TikTok followers to get paid by TikTok. It is estimated that it pays creators between 2 and 4 cents for 1000 views.
How To Get More Views On TikTok
There are several ways through which you can get more views on TikTok:
Upload your content with right hashtags
While uploading your content, use trending and relevant hashtags. A new set of users will be able to discover your content leading to more views. Research hashtags that are trending in your niche. Also, do not use a lot of hashtags, use 4-5 hashtags only.
Upload your content at the ‘right time’
Upload content at a time when there is a high engagement rate. According to Influencer Marketing Hub, it is best to upload content at 6 AM, 10 AM, and 10 PM on a Monday. It is because a lot of users around the world are most active at those times.
Use other social media platforms to promote your videos
Share your TikTok video as an Instagram story, Instagram reel, and YouTube shorts. Make use of other social media platforms to gain more views as well as followers. Leverage the community that you have built on other social media platforms and bring them to follow you on TikTok.
Engage with your followers
Your views can increase significantly if you engage with your followers. You can do that by simply replying and liking their comments and DMs. You can even perform a duet video with one of your follower. This will also build your credibility in front of them. They might share your content with their friends and family. This will help to get you more views and also help you to develop a strong TikTok community.
TikTok ‘Promote’
TikTok let’s creators advertise their content using TikTok Promote. It works like an advertising campaign. You would have to pay for it. TikTok will display your videos on the feed of relevant users as sponsored ads. You can even set the campaign goal to ‘more views’ and get more viewership. It is a great way to get organic views.
Collaborate with other TikTokers
You should engage with other creators of your niche and make videos together. It will mutually help both of you to gain more views. You can leverage their audience and vice versa. TikTok even offers a ‘duet’ feature, try using it.
Also read: How To Get More Views On TikTok After Posting
How to Make Money on TikTok
Brand Partnership
TikTok has a high engagement rate and has more than 1.7 billion active users – which makes it an ideal platform for advertisers and marketers. You can make money on TikTok by doing multiple brand partnerships.
Brands will reach out to you for creating sponsored content for their products and services. You can get paid for every sponsored post or sponsored video you upload for the brand. To get a brand deal, creators can also register themselves on the TikTok Creator MarketPlace. It is a platform through which creators and brands can collaborate.
Make sure that you have a balance of sponsored and non-sponsored in your feed. Always promote products/ brands which are authentic to yourself and value the system.
Sell Your Own Products
A lot of influencers have started using TikTok to sell their merchandise. It will not help you to make more money, it will also help you to build a strong personal brand around yourself. If you have built a strong community on TikTok, leverage it and sell your merchandise. TikTok is a great social media marketing platform for small businesses.
Influencers sell clothes, mugs, notebooks, posters, accessories, etc around their personal brand and make a significant chunk of money. Some content creators have even started their own clothing/makeup lines and use TikTok to promote their products.
Affiliate marketing
Creators can earn money via affiliate marketing. Brands will give you links to their products or services. You can either place it in your TikTok bio or as a caption. The brand will pay you a commission whenever a user clicks on that affiliate link.
At times, they might even ask you to make a video and offer a personal promo code. There are many affiliate marketing platforms where you can register like ClickBank and Amazon Associates, to name a few.
Virtual gifts
You can earn virtual gifts via your followers and earn money. Whenever you do a live stream, any TikTok user can buy virtual gifts for you with their real money. You at least need to have 1000 followers to get gifts. Each gift is worth coins. For example, Panda is worth 5 coins, Concert worth 500 coins, etc.
The gifts creators receive are then transferred into diamonds which are worth 50% value of the coins. That means 100 coins is equal to 50 diamonds. Later, creators can encash diamonds when they have reached the amount of $100. Also, you cannot withdraw more than $1000 a day.
Start a Patreon
Once you have gained a decent number of followers and built a strong community, you can entice your followers to support you. Patreon, where you can provide them with exclusive content, including Behind-the-scenes, one-on-one chats, etc. Make creative and valuable content on Patreon so that signed-up users can ask their friends and family to support it.
Find New Clients
Make use of TikTok to find potential clients and business partners. Publish engaging and meaningful content that is similar to your business. For instance, if you own a product/service that is based around finance, create content around the same. Just make it creative, fun, crisp and exciting. A lot of other businesses can collaborate with you or maybe ask you for your services.
Collect tips
You can earn money by collecting tips from your followers. It’s like an artist performing on the street and people donating money to them, only now it’s virtual. There are platforms like Buy Me a Coffee, Venmo, and Rupee where users can go and tip their favourite creators. You can only do this when you have built a strong relationship with your community.
Top Earners on TikTok
TikTok mega influencers earn money in millions. Yes, that’s true. Let’s look at the top 5 TikTok most paid TikTokers according to Forbes 2022 list.
Charli D’Amelio
She is the most followed TikTok influencer and clearly earns the highest amount of money via TikTok. She estimated annual earnings are over $17.5 million. In 2019, she started posting short videos of her dance moves and soon, got viral.
She has collaborated with brands like MorpheCosmetics, Dunkin Donuts, and Prada to walk in their fashion week. She has her own clothing line, co-founded with her sister, Dixie D’ Amelio.
Dixie D’Amelio
Dixie takes after her sister; she earns more than $10 million. She focuses more on music. In 2020, she released her single “Be Happy”. It was the most trending video on YouTube then and gained the first position in Billboard’s Top Thriller US. She has more than $57 million followers on TikTok.
Addison Rae
Addison is the third most paid TikTok star after the Amelio sisters. She earns more than $8.5 million annually and has 86 million followers. She has collaborated with high-end brands like Fashion Nova, Reebok, and American Eagle and started her makeup line, Item Beauty. She also was the main protagonist in the Netflix film “He’s All That” and has signed several other movies with the OTT platform. However, their names have not been revealed yet.
Bella Poarch
Bella Porach earns more than $5 million per year. She has grown tremendously over the last two years and now has more than 87 million followers. She is into signing and does branded content with brands like Google, Prada, Tinder, etc. She has released her own single, ‘Build a Bitch’.
Josh Richards
Josh Richards earns more than $5 million per year. He is not only creative but also known for his entrepreneurial side. He is the Co-founder of the talent management agency Talent X. He is also the Chief Strategy Officer for a similar short-form content app, Thriller.
He has Co-founded a venture capital company called Animal Capital. To add more, he also has his own energy drink business, Ani Energy. Apart from this, he has partnered with brands like House Party, Reebok, etc., on TikTok.
Conclusion:
TikTok is an excellent platform to make money. The number of likes, views, followers, and comments – of them plays a major role in making money on TikTok. However, more than these metrics, creative, exciting and engaging content will always find its way to monetize itself. These metrics are important but do not just obsess over them. If you create good content, these metrics will automatically come towards you and help you make a decent sum of money.
