TikTok rewards its creators pretty handsomely for any uploaded content that performs well. But did you know this isn’t the only way to cash out on the platform?
Beyond the TikTok Creator Rewards Program, there’s another monetization method you may be yet to tap into: live videos.
According to TikTok, one in five users watch live content – and 62% of those users watch livestreams on TikTok each day. Even more impressive, half of TikTok users have purchased after watching a live video.
This tells us two things: live videos are totally a popular content format, and, more importantly, they can be super lucrative.
So, how do you make money with TikTok Live? For native TikTok monetization, you’ll need to join TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program (this step is necessary, as it gives you access to monetization options, including those for live videos).
After we walk through that, we’ll share six easy methods for monetizing TikTok lives.
How to make money with TikTok Live
You need a strategy (or, ideally, a few) to leverage TikTok Live as a revenue stream.
We’ll cover these methods in depth, but as we mentioned, the first step is signing up for TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program.
Join TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program
TikTok’s Creator Rewards Program is a crucial method for creators aiming to monetize their content on the platform.
The program (which has replaced the former Creator Fund) rewards creators based on video performance. To be eligible, you must meet specific criteria: 10,000 followers and 100,000 video views in the past 30 days. No biggie.
Additionally, only videos that are one minute or longer (and comply with TikTok’s community guidelines) are eligible for monetization.
How to join the Creator Rewards Program
Creators can head to their settings and select TikTok Studio, then Creator Rewards Program. Submit your application, ensuring your content and account meet the eligibility requirements. TikTok will review your application, and upon approval, you’ll start earning money based on various performance metrics, such as views and engagement rates.
One caveat: the program is only available in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan, South Korea, France, and Brazil.
Explore the Creator Marketplace
In addition to the Creator Rewards Program, approved TikTok users can access the Creator Marketplace. This is a hub designed to connect creators with brands looking for promotional collaborations.
By joining the Creator Marketplace, you can access a range of potential sponsorships and brand partnerships - you can’t rely on monetizing video views alone to create a sustainable income stream from TikTok.
Find sponsors for your live streams
As we said above, joining the Creator Marketplace is a no-brainer. It gives you access to greater earning potential from sponsorships and partnerships. As it happens, sponsors are an ideal strategy for making money on TikTok Live.
So, how do sponsored live streams work? You partner with brands to promote their products or services during your sessions. Beauty influencers often host live tutorials or GRWMs featuring new skincare or makeup products from selected brands, while fitness creators may promote workout wear and gym accessories during live streams.
How to secure sponsors
First up, you're going to want to research brands that align with your content and audience to find potential sponsors. Sure, the Creator Marketplace is useful for connecting with brands that are actively seeking collaborations – but you can always reach out to brands you know and love directly.
Your sponsorship pitch should have what is often referred to as a media kit. Usually, this includes an introduction to yourself and your content, insights into your audience, and a clear proposal for how you plan to integrate the sponsor’s products into your live streams.
Remember, emphasize any benefits for the sponsor, such as increased exposure or alignment with your target demographic. If you have a smaller audience, use this to your advantage by explaining your engagement rate and explaining you have a close connection with your followers.
Be friendly, personable, and real. With the amount of outreach brands receive daily, thinking of ways to make your pitch stand out will help set you apart.
Successful sponsored live streams
So, which brands are actively sponsoring creators on TikTok Live?
Well, Benefit Cosmetics hosted an influencer trip exclusively for TikTok Shop creators, and all invitees created live content during the trip, featuring Benefit products and BTS glimpses of the vacation.
Taylor Becker (one of the guests invited, with over 280,000 followers) has explained that TikTok Live is a successful form of content because of the authenticity and relatability it offers shoppers. Keep this in mind when approaching sponsors – it’s a win for them, too.
Try social selling
Once you're comfortable going live on TikTok (and have a steady viewership), why not consider selling products?
Social selling is exactly what it sounds like: promoting and selling products directly through social media live streams. You could sell your own products, such as branded merchandise, artwork, digital courses, etc. – or products from other companies through affiliate marketing (we’ll get into that a bit more below).
Selling your own products
First, let's talk about selling your own products on TikTok Live. Creators can use live streams as a chance to get to know their audience, host interactive sessions, and explain physical or digital products in detail. As I said, this could be literally anything, from digital planners to secondhand sneakers.
By listing your products on TikTok Shop, you'll give your livestream viewers direct links to purchase from you within the app.
One limitation though: you can’t use TikTok Shop to sell digital products. But, there is a way around this.
If you're selling digital products, you can use TikTok Lives to promote and funnel your viewers to an external marketplace (like Whop) by using a link in your bio.
Check out our feature on Whop mentor Mino Lee, who teaches his students how to monetize livestreams on both TikTok and Instagram
Print-on-demand services
What about using TikTok Live to sell your own merchandise? If you're thinking, "I don't have the means to manufacture merch and risk not having it sell", well, let me stop you right there. Why not use a print-on-demand service?
Print-on-demand (POD) services can be a pretty clever way to start a side hustle, allowing you to sell custom merchandise without any upfront investment for inventory.
All you need to do is create unique designs (based on your personal brand and content style). You can then sign up for a POD marketplace of your choice and choose which items you'd like to feature your design on for sale: t-shirts, mugs, and phone cases are popular. Create your listings, and you’re ready to start selling.
During livestreams, show off your merch and provide your viewers with direct links for purchase.
Tip: Think about what your audience would actually want to rep from you. Got a viral skit? Great! Throw a quote on a hoodie or a bucket hat. Have a solid audience built around the same passion? Come up with a fire slogan, and create some hype among your community.
Promote affiliate products
Earlier, we mentioned checking out affiliate marketing as another pretty easy way to make money on TikTok.
If you're new to affiliate marketing, here's the basic rundown: you promote products of your choosing and earn a commission on each and every sale made through your referral links.
It’s a bit more flexible than brand partnerships, which can demand a heavy load of content or prevent you from working with other conflicting companies. Typically, affiliates have no conflict of interest to worry about – but their compensation can be lower than those from brand partnerships or sponsors.
How to find affiliate programs and products
To get started, look for affiliate programs online that work with brands relevant to your niche. Similarly to partnerships and sponsors, an engaging pitch and media kit outlining your metrics will help you land work. Once you’re accepted as an affiliate, you can start to incorporate products into your live streams.
Authenticity is important in affiliate marketing, or it can come across as disingenuous and sales-y. The best affiliate content feels natural, not staged. So, how do you remain genuine while really hoping for sales?
The easiest way is to look for products your viewers truly find valuable and interesting. This way, it comes across as a genuine want to help rather than an off-brand flog.
Of course, your options may be limited as you’re still growing your following and engagement – but smaller brands can be just as rewarding to work with while you grow your fanbase. Remember, commissions from different programs will vary, so select those with competitive rates to maximize your earnings.
Ready to learn TikTok affiliate marketing from a pro? Check out Media Labs, where members are partnered with brands directly.
- What is high-ticket affiliate marketing? A complete guide for beginners
- The top affiliate marketing tools to help you get rich
Things to remember with affiliate marketing on TikTok
When it comes to posting branded content (affiliate, partnership, or sponsored) on TikTok, there are a few things you need to be mindful of.
Whenever you post branded content, you have to enable the commercial content disclosure toggle, which is available in the settings when posting.
Doing this means your Live will be automatically labelled, indicating to viewers that it is branded content.
Beyond that, the product or service you promote should be sufficiently clear, and you can’t make false, deceptive, or misleading claims about products.
For the full rundown on branded content rules, visit TikTok's legal page.
Accept live gifts from your audience
TikTok gifts are the bread and butter of live streaming.
They allow fans to directly support their favorite creators during live videos, often with interactive features. Think of it as a tip – and to receive tips? Just like a waiter connects with their table, you need to connect with your audience.
This means your live content needs to be engaging, valuable, and interactive. You need to give your audience a reason to tip, so be consistent with your live streams and listen to feedback to maximize gift earnings.
How do gifts make money on TikTok?
Once you turn on live gifting, your viewers can use TikTok 'coins' to send virtual gifts to you, which pop up on the screen during your streams.
Collect these gifts/coins and TikTok will award you with diamonds. Still following me? Ok good. You'll see the total number of diamonds collected in your summary at the end of your live.
Here's some quick maths: You need 200 diamonds (equivalent to 400 coins) to earn one dollar. And not to rain on your parade, but TikTok does take 50% of your earnings, and creators must earn at least $100 before withdrawing any cash.
TikTok also has other gifting features, such as gift voting, guessing games, and lucky airdrop gifts. Using these more interactive elements can keep your audience engaged during livestreams.
Sell TikTok subscriptions
TikTok subscriptions allow you to provide exclusive content and perks to subscribers in exchange for a monthly fee.
Following the lead of platforms like Patreon and YouTube, TikTok sponsorships aim to give creators more options for monetization and better content for users.
Obviously, you need a hot audience for this. But if you've got one, let them know that subscribing will grant them access to more live streams, badges, or behind-the-scenes content that regular viewers miss out on.
Setting up TikTok subscriptions
You guessed it: the first step to offering subscriptions is to ensure you meet TikTok’s eligibility requirements.
If you do, great! Head to TikTok Studio and click on the Subscription button—you can also find it on the Go LIVE page. If you’re eligible, you’ll see an option to join.
It’s up to you how you want to set up your subscriptions, what exclusive content you’ll offer, and what the pricing structure is. However, as a guideline, TikTok recommends starting at a lower tier to test the waters out with your fans. If it’s successful, you can add more exclusives (and raise the price).
TikTok provides built-in perks for your subs to access, and you can choose which to enable—or you can create your own. Popular perks include Discord server access, bonus live streams, personalized stickers, and subscriber-only videos and forums.
Worried about TikTok taking your hard-earned cash? We feel that. That's why we recommend offering subscriptions on an external platform like Whop. You can feed users through the link in your bio – and when you do? You'll keep up to 97% of your earnings from those visitors and their purchases.
Beat that, TikTok.
How else can you make money with TikTok?
As you've learned, TikTok live streaming offers you quite a few monetization opportunities. But let's get one thing clear: it’s not the only way to make money on TikTok.
These same strategies, like affiliate marketing and social selling, can be applied to your regular TikTok posts. This can extend your earning potential beyond live streams and to your regular content. Our recommendation? Aim for a mix of both.
TikTok Shop also allows for direct product sales through the platform, integrating ecommerce with your content. And you don’t need to use live videos to use TikTok Shop, you can still upload regular shoppable videos and use the dedicated shop page to make frictionless sales.
But here's our brutally honest take:
Relying solely on TikTok’s native monetization features might not be the most profitable venture.
The reasons for this are pretty simple: TikTok’s revenue share and platform limitations can impact your overall earnings, with eligibility requirements and TikTok taking a large chunk of your earnings.
For a more flexible and potentially lucrative approach, consider using a platform like Whop.
Enter Whop: Your partner in TikTok monetization
While TikTok offers unmatched opportunities for exposure, audience building, and engagement, its fees and cuts can make it hard to turn a passive profit.
You can keep more money in your pocket by integrating Whop with your TikTok strategy.
Think of your whop as your main hub, where you can direct your TikTok audience. Here, they'll find subscriptions, free and paid communities, digital products, bonus livestreams, or whatever else you want to sell. You can sell any digital product on Whop.
And the best part? We don’t charge any initial or ongoing membership fees. You’ll never catch us taking 50% of your earnings, either – in fact, our fees start at just 3% of each sale that comes through your direct links.
Partner with Whop and start making more money from TikTok and livestreaming today.
FAQs
How much does TikTok pay?
TikTok’s payment structure for creators varies widely and depends on several factors, such as video performance, engagement, and location.
The platform offers a Creator Rewards Program, where earnings are tied to the number of views, likes, shares, and comments a video receives. The amount paid per view can fluctuate, but TikTok creators generally earn between 2 and 4 cents per 1,000 views.
Besides direct payments, TikTok also enables creators to earn through brand partnerships, sponsored content, affiliate marketing, TikTok Shop, and livestreams. All of these opportunities can significantly increase earnings, particularly for those with large followings and high engagement rates. TikTok has revealed that the rewards formula focuses on four key pillars to decide remuneration for each piece of content: originality, play duration, audience engagement, and search value. Focusing on these will help you make more money for your content.
Read more in 'How much does TikTok pay creators'?
Who is the highest-paid TikToker?
While it’s impossible to know the exact earnings of the top creators, we can guess at who the top-paid TikToker might be.
As of recent data, Khaby Lame has the most followers on the platform, overtaking Charli D’Amelio. Khaby gained fame for his distinctive style of simplifying overly complicated life hacks with his signature deadpan humor and expressive gestures. His relatable approach has resonated with a global audience, substantially influencing the platform and numerous brand deals and sponsorships. His popularity has led to other revenue streams, such as merchandise sales and collaborations with various brands and media outlets.
Charli D’Amelio still has the most likes on TikTok and reportedly earns around $100,000 USD per post. She gained fame for her dance videos and quickly became a top TikTok creator in its early days. Charli’s earnings, like Khaby’s, are not solely from TikTok's Creator Fund. She, too, would see a significant boost from brand partnerships, sponsored content, and merchandise sales.
The 100 highest paid TikTokers
How can I make money on TikTok without going live?
If you’re feeling a bit apprehensive about streaming, let us remind you that you don’t need to go live on TikTok to make money!
Even if you don’t go live, several ways to monetize your presence on TikTok exist—in fact, most of the methods mentioned throughout this guide can be applied to regular TikTok content, too. Consider affiliate marketing or sponsored posts. Even without going live, many brands will pay you to create content featuring their products or services. Head to the Creator Marketplace and start exploring collaboration opportunities.
Beyond those methods, TikTok’s shopping feature, TikTok Shop, allows you to sell your products directly through your videos. And if you don’t want TikTok to take huge commissions on each sale? Simply use a link in your bio to direct your audience to an external storefront, like Whop, where you can keep up to 97% of your earnings.
