How to Become a TikTok Influencer (Starting From Zero)

Are you looking to become a TikTok influencer? It’s one of the best ways to make a living online by doing what you love!

In this blog post, You’ll discover the steps that will help you achieve this goal, even if you’re starting from zero. TikTok is a social media platform that is growing in popularity every day. And, it’s the perfect place to build your brand and grow your following.

If you are able to create engaging content that resonates with your audience, you can become a successful influencer on the TikTok platform and start earning. Let’s get started!

What Is a TikTok Influencer?

A TikTok influencer is somebody who has built a large following on the social media platform, TikTok. These influencers create content that their followers enjoy and engage with.

They often have a niche or specific focus that they produce content about. For example, some influencers focus on dance, while others might focus on comedy or fashion.

It’s the goal of many influencers to get paid for their efforts in attracting a huge and well-engaged audience. This means that you can partner with brands or promote your own products and services to make money on TikTok.

What Do You Need to Become an Influencer on TikTok?

There are no special skills or qualifications to become a TikTok influencer and get paid. You just need your mobile phone, preferably one with a good camera and video recording capabilities. You may need additional equipment like a tripod stand with lights.

Now, the main thing you’ll need to focus on is growing your following. You can get the numbers by creating quality content that resonates with your target audience.

Below are a few qualities and skills that could come in handy for you as a TikTok influencer:

• Creativity: You’ll need to be creative in order to stand out from the crowd on TikTok. This means thinking outside the box and coming up with new and interesting content ideas that will capture your audience’s attention.
• Social media skills: Any influencer needs to know their way around a social media platform. This includes understanding how to use hashtags, how to post content that will perform well, and how to engage with other users.
• Patience: Growing a following on TikTok (or any social media platform) takes time. You’ll need to be patient and consistent in your efforts in order to see results.
• Marketing skills: Marketing skills will come in handy when you’re trying to grow your following and get more eyes on your content. You’ll need to know how to effectively promote your TikTok account and how to get people interested in what you’re posting.
• Communication skills: Good communication skills are important for any influencer because you’ll need to be able to connect with your audience. This means responding to comments, answering questions, and just generally being approachable.
• Customer service skills: If you’re promoting products or services, you’ll need to have excellent customer service skills. This means being responsive to inquiries and concerns, and going above and beyond to help your customers.

8 Steps How to Become a TikTok Influencer and Make Money

Step 1: Find your niche

The first step to becoming a TikTok influencer is finding your niche. This can be anything that you’re passionate about or have a lot of knowledge about. Once you’ve found your niche, creating content around it becomes easier as you’ll have the ideas.

Of course, you can be random and post about anything you want on your TikTok account. No one will ask you anything. But niche selection can help you build a brand around something online and get opportunities to work with niche-specific companies to generate income.

Ask yourself these questions to find your niche:

• What are my interests?
• What problems can I solve?
• What type of content do I like to interact with?

A good niche is one with less competition but can still be profitable for you. With a niche, you could attract specific types of businesses that want to collaborate with you, and thus a chance to demand more in sponsorships.

Step 2: Set up your profile on TikTok

Once you’ve found your niche, the next step is to set up your TikTok profile. This includes adding a profile picture, a bio, and links to your other social media accounts or website (if you have one).

Your profile picture should be something that represents you and/or your brand. It could be a headshot, a logo, or anything else that you think would be appropriate.

Your bio should be brief and to the point. It should give people an idea of who you are and what your account is about. And if you’re trying to grow a business, it’s a good idea to include a link to your website or other social media accounts.

Step 3: Start creating quality content

Now that you have your account set up, it’s time to start creating content. But not just any content— you need to create quality content that resonates with your target audience.

This means posting videos that are interesting, informative, or both. If you’re not sure what type of content to post, take a look at what’s popular in your niche and see if you can put your own spin on it.

You should also be consistent with your content. This means posting on a regular basis and not going too long without posting anything. Consistency is key when it comes to growing a following on TikTok.

Step 4: Use music and sounds in your videos

TikTok is all about music. So if you want your videos to be popular, you need to use music and sounds in them. There are two ways to create TikTok videos with music and possibly go viral.

The first is to use songs that are already popular on TikTok. You can find these by checking out the trending videos and what sounds they’re using. There’s a button you can click on and see the option to use the sound too in your content.

The second idea is to create your own original sound. This can be anything from a beat you created yourself to a funny sound effect. Whatever it is, make sure it’s catchy and will get people’s attention.

Step 4: Include hashtags

Hashtags are a great way to get your content seen by more people. Your videos will show up in the search results when people search for particular hashtags if you put them in your videos. You can easily find some hot tags to add to your content by checking other people’s videos on the TikTok platform.

The best way is to use a mix of trending, popular and niche-specific hashtags. For example, if you’re in the fitness niche, you could use hashtags like #fitness, #gym, or #workout. But you could also use more niche-specific hashtags like #crossfit or #bodybuilding. The key is to experiment with different hashtags and see which ones get you the most views, likes, and comments.

Step 5: Engage with your audience

TikTok is a social platform, which means that engagement is essential. If you want to grow your following, you need to interact with the people who are following you.

This includes liking and commenting on their videos, responding to their comments on your videos, and following them back. Do a few live videos here and there if you’d like to answer questions you’ve been getting in the DMs.

Be you but be interesting. The more you interact with your audience, the more likely they are to stick around and continue watching your videos.

Step 6: Collaborate with other TikTok users

Collaborating with other TikTok users is a great way to get your content seen by a wider audience. When you collaborate with someone, you essentially piggyback off of their following.

This can be a great way to grow your follower count quickly, especially if you collaborate with someone in a similar niche as you. Cross-niche collaborations are also worth considering. Anyone else’s fan can be yours too if they like what you post.

To find people to collaborate with, you can search for users in your niche using the search function on TikTok. Simply reach out to them and see if they’re interested.

Step 7: Be consistent

Consistency is key not only when it comes to growing a following on TikTok, but finding success anywhere else. So, you need to post regularly and not go too long without posting anything.

Don’t just post one piece of content in a few weeks or a month. You need to post a few times each day to see the best results. But you can also do it on specific days in a week, although the progress will be slower.

The important thing is to create a schedule and your current fans will know when to expect new stuff from you. If you’re consistent with your content, you’ll keep people interested and engaged, and they’ll be more likely to stick around in the long run.

Step 8: Partner with brands

By this point, you’ll have gotten a good number of followers and be ready to do paid brand collaborations. Many brands prefer to work with someone that has a follower count in the thousands, with lots of views and comments in their published videos.

Speaking generally, 10,000 followers would be a good start. But the more fans you have, the merrier it will be for you.

Ways to Make Money as a TikTok Influencer

There are a few ways you can make money as a TikTok influencer.

Brand partnerships

The most common way to earn on TikTok, which has already been mentioned severally, is through brand partnerships. Brand partnerships are basically when a brand pays you to post content that promotes its product or service. This could be anything from a video review to a simple post with a link to their website.

The amount of money you can make from brand partnerships depends on a few factors, including your follower count, how engaged your followers are, and how well you promote the product or service. Do it well and you’ll have more paid partnerships coming your way.

Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is when you promote someone else’s product or service and receive a commission for every sale that you generate. To do this, you need to find a product or service that you can promote and then get your affiliate link. Once you have your affiliate link, you can start promoting it in your videos.

When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you’ll receive a commission. The amount of money you make from affiliate marketing depends on how much the product costs, the commission rate, and how many people buy it through your link.

Selling products

Another way to make money as a TikTok influencer is by selling products. This could be anything from physical products to digital products like e-books or courses.

You can make videos where you promote a product directly. For example, you could do a review of a physical product or show people how to use a digital product.

If selling online, you could add the product’s link to your profile. Sharing multiple links is possible using Linktree or any other link-sharing tool.

Fan contributions

You can also earn income as a TikTok influencer through fan contributions. This is when your fans donate money to you directly.

Ask people to support you in your videos or in the description of your videos. You need to set up a payment method like PayPal and then put the account details in your bio.

PayPal works internationally and is one of the best payment methods worldwide. When someone donates money to you, they’ll be able to do it directly through PayPal.

The TikTok Creator Fund

The TikTok Creator Fund is a new program that TikTok has set up to help its top creators make money. The fund will give creators a share of the ad revenue that their videos generate.

To be eligible for the fund, you need to have at least 10,000 followers and have generated at least 100,000 real video views in the last month. You also need to be over 18 years old and reside in select countries, including the US, UK, France, Spain, and Germany.

TikTok Influencer FAQs

How many followers do you need to be a TikTok influencer?

There is no set number of followers that you need to be a TikTok influencer. However, it’s generally agreed that the more followers you have, the easier it will be to make money as an influencer.

How much money can you make as a TikTok influencer?

The amount of money you can make as a TikTok influencer depends on a few factors, including your follower count, how engaged your followers are, and how well you promote the product or service.

That being said, the top TikTokers make millions a year. With a few tens of thousands to 100K followers, you could make a quick $500 to $1,000 even in less than a week using a variety of TikTok monetization methods, like sponsorships, fan donations, or product sales.

Can you become TikTok famous overnight?

It’s possible to become TikTok famous overnight. But this would mean that you’ve also been a very active user on the platform.

It won’t happen if you just published one or a few videos, except on very rare occasions when luck finds you. Generally, it takes time and effort to grow an audience on any social media platform, including TikTok.

Can you become TikTok famous without being good at dancing?

Yes, you can become TikTok famous without being good at dancing. There are many different types of content on TikTok, so you don’t necessarily need to be a good dancer to be successful.

Do you need to be 18+ to be a TikTok influencer?

No, you don’t need to be 18+ years old to be a TikTok influencer. However, if you want to make money from the TikTok Creator Fund, you will need to be at least 18 years old and reside in select countries. Still, there are many other ways to get paid on TikTok even as a kid or teenager, like getting sponsored, selling merch, and getting contributions from fans.

Wrapping It up

That’s it! You now know how to become a TikTok influencer. Remember, the key is to be active on the platform, produce interesting and engaging content, and grow your audience organically.

Also, don’t forget to take advantage of TikTok’s different monetization options to make money from your videos. And lastly, have fun and enjoy the process!