Learn How to Make Money on TikTok in South Africa, Zambia and Africa at large. It’s an understatement to say that TikTok has undergone a meteoric rise since its global release in 2018, with approximately 100 million monthly active users and two billion downloads globally. At the highest levels of government, its influence has been noted, with President Trump seeking to ban the site in the United States because of what Trump’s lawyers cited as national security concerns.
It’s natural to wonder if content creators will make money on TikTok as more attention is focused on the platform? Here’s what you need to know if you’re rising a TikTok following and curious about monetizing your audience.
Making money on TikTok in Africa is now easier than you think
It was not always the trend to monetize your TikTok content in Africa. There were few branded posts in the early days of TikTok. As a growing number of brands have entered the market, it is becoming simpler for creators in Africa to sell opportunities for sponsored content on the social network.
The amount of money you can earn on TikTok in Africa varies, but it could be lucrative if your post goes viral, just like any social media site.
It is also consciously making it easier for audiences without the aid of brand partnerships to monetize their audience. Creators can now sell merchandise directly to their fans with TikTok’s integration with Teespring, revealed in late August 2020.
As the popularity of TikTok continues to grow in Africa, more brands are flocking to the app, bringing opportunities for developers who can build TikTok follow-ups to make some serious cash.
How to Monetize Your TikTok in Africa
One of the newest ways to make money online in Africa is monetizing your TikTok. Here are some of the ways you can monetize your TikTok content in Africa.
1. Offer audio sponsorships in Africa
TikTok is a platform that emphasizes audio, with songs and audio clips on the platform often going viral, taking as a prime example Lil Nas X’s Billboard 100 hit “Old Town Road.
Artists seeking to emulate the road to success of Lil Nas X have begun paying TikTok influencers to include their audio in posts. This technique has been used by creator Skylar Krupa, who posts videos of his grandparents, to monetize his growing audience. For 25,000 followers, he charges a rate of $25.
There is no systematic way of organizing audio sponsorships, so teens who want to monetize their follow-up in this way, or even grandparents from the above example, have to reach out directly or through artist management teams to artists.
2. You can sell your merchandise on TikTok in Africa
Creators who want to directly monetise their audiences in Africa, without depending on the advertising dollars of a company, may turn to their audience to sell goods and products. The relationship between TikTok and Teespring ensures that developers and content creators in Africa can sell products directly inside the app. The incorporation enables designers of TikTok to customize a template from 180 different items.
In September 2020, TikTok and Teespring released an initial cohort of 7,000 creators to test the integration. It is expected that they will reveal how additional creators will start using the integration.
In their bio, designers can also add links to a personal website or alternative merchandise platform where supporters can buy items. For instance, @thedottist, a user of TikTok, has a trackable connection to buy her artwork directly embedded in her bio.
3. Promote a brand or business in Africa
With branded content on TikTok, audio sponsorships are not the only way to make money in Africa. To help brands or corporations in Africa introduce and sell products, creators may also exploit their videos.
4. Get paid by TikTok in Africa
Only through the platform does TikTok want to help its biggest creators succeed and earn money in Africa. A creator’s fund of $200 million has been launched in pursuit of this goal, aiming to expand it to $1 billion by 2023. TikTok will directly pay creators in Africa to create videos through this program.
TikTok was unclear about how much can be received by creators in Africa and how much would receive support from creators, including details about the minimum number of followers required to apply. Some TikTok experts have said that within the last 30 days, you need at least 10,000 followers and 10,000 views on your profile, but the platform has not verified this.
Via their TikTok profile, creators in Africa can apply. You’ll get an invitation to apply directly from TikTok in the notifications section of your messages if you meet their minimum criteria.
5. Convert Gifts to Diamonds on TikTok
For creators in Africa to host live streams where their fans give them gifts, purchased with virtual coins that are purchased inside the platform, this is a common way to earn money on TikTok in Africa. Then, creators can turn these gifts into “diamonds” (the virtual credits of TikTok) that can be cashed out.
Fans are expected to be at least 18 years old in order to buy coins.
Creators in Africa who are 18 or over can at any time withdraw diamonds for a cash value determined by TikTok. The payment is made to a Paypal account of the preference of the creator. TikTok sets regular withdrawal restrictions, which are shown during your period of withdrawal in Africa.
How Much Money Can You Earn on TikTok in Africa?
The amount of money you can earn on TikTok in Africa varies, but it could be lucrative if your videos go viral, just like any social media site. Currently, there are no third-party sources that have independently quantified how much money TikTok owners create.
London-based economist Tom Hartmann, for instance, estimated in a Medium article that TikTok creators receive around $500 to $2,000 for supported videos with 100,000 followers. Doing the math, that could mean that top TikTok creators make supported posts for anywhere between $50,000 and $150,000.
Reviewing statistics published by marketing firms is another way to predict profits. TalentX Entertainment, an influencer agency, reports that per video view on TikTok, they charge brands between $0.01 and $0.02.
Then there’s the creator’s fund of TikTok, which they hope will enable content creators across the platform to create content full time. Any details about what a full-time salary would look like have not been published, but the concept is that it will be large enough for creators not to have to work other jobs.
Conclusion
TikTok is gaining popularity in Africa and as the app grows, it will continue to provide more lucrative opportunities for monetization in Africa. You could end up reaping financial benefits if you’re willing to put in the job to develop your audience in Africa.
