The team at TikTok is constantly coming up with new ways to reward content creators for doing what they do best. The TikTok Creator Rewards Program is the most popular — and often the most lucrative — but it’s not the only feature allowing creators to make bank. TikTok Series, which allows creators to put exclusive content behind a paywall, is one of these.
This feature is designed to help creators share exclusive, premium content with their audience, while also allowing them to monetize those videos. It’s worth noting that with Series, creators can record videos up to 20 minutes — that’s double the maximum length of a regular TikTok when filmed in the app.
Wondering what Series is all about, and whether you’re even eligible for it? Read on to learn more about this feature and how it works.
What is TikTok Series?
In a press release, TikTok describes Series as a “ way for creators to share their stories, talents, and creativity as premium content while further deepening their connection with the TikTok community.” Essentially, Series allows creators to put collections of videos behind a paywall and charge viewers for access to them.
With this feature, TikTok hopes to incentivize creators to make longer and more engaging videos. While TikTok previously increased its maximum video length to 10 minutes, with Series, creators can now upload content that’s twice as long.
Series isn’t just a move in TikTok’s push towards long-form, vertical video, but it’s also the platform’s attempt to build new ways to help creators make money. For instance, TikTok reworked the Creativity Program into the Creator Rewards Program, which rewards quality original videos longer than one minute. The platform has also launched the Effect Creator Rewards, which pays creators for making viral effects and AR filters.
How does TikTok Series work?
With Series, TikTok creators can publish premium, informative content behind a paywall that fans can purchase access to. A Series can include up to 80 videos, while each video can be up to 20 minutes long.
In terms of pricing, creators can set their rates anywhere between $0.99 and $189.99. Viewers can purchase access to a Series through direct in-video links or from the creator’s profile.
So, how much money can you make with Series? According to The Verge, TikTok will let creators keep all their revenue at launch. However, the platform will charge processing and app store fees, so one can expect to lose over a 30 percent cut. That said, it’s unclear when TikTok will start splitting revenue with Series creators, and what that split will look like when it happens.
Additionally, The Vergereports that creators will be able to use a new website specifically launched for Series to publish videos and track performance. To make purchases of Series, however, viewers must use the TikTok app.
Who’s eligible for TikTok Series?
At the moment, Series is only available to creators in select regions that meet the following eligibility At the moment, Series is only available to creators in select regions that meet the following eligibility requirements. To apply, you must:
- Be at least 18 years old.
- Have created a TikTok account for at least 30 days.
- Have at least 10,000 followers.
- Have received 1,000 views or more in the last month.
- Have posted three public posts or more in the last month. Your content must be original.
- Have a public Personal Account. Business Accounts, or political and private accounts aren’t accepted.
- Have an account in good standing and follow TikTok’s Community Guidelines.
Think you’re eligible? You can apply for Series through the Creator Center on the TikTok app. TikTok will then review your application and determine whether you’d get access to the feature.
What if I don’t have 10,000 followers?
If you don’t have 10K followers, but you’re interested in using Series, you can apply by providing a link to premium content you’ve previously sold on other platforms via the Creator Center. There’s a caveat, though: you must still meet all of the other requirements stated above.
7 Steps to create a TikTok Series
While you can go from concept to finished TikTok in just a few minutes, a Series takes more thought and planning to make. Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating your first Series.
Step 1: Start with an idea
Make sure you have a solid idea before you start. How? Think about your audience. What kind of exclusive content would they willingly pay an extra fee for? If you’re a fitness influencer, they might be interested in a detailed workout routine. For someone like Miss Excel, it could be an exclusive course covering esoteric Excel hacks her audience can’t get anywhere else.
Take this opportunity to research what other creators in your niche are using Series for. It might even be worth signing up for a few of them to see what they’re doing. Think of the price you’re paying for them as an investment into your own Series.
Step 2: Strategize
When it’s time to figure out your Series strategy, start with its overarching structure. How can you best introduce your audience to your topic? What are some of the sub-topics you need to cover? Is there a particular order these videos should come in?
This can be a lot easier for some ideas than others, so you may need to spend a good amount of time to figure this out. Again, research is your friend, especially when a ton of creators have produced similar content before you.
Step 3: Plan each video
Once your overall strategy is figured out, it’s time to take a similar approach for individual videos. How long should each video be? How should you organize your thoughts? Are you the kind of creator who prefers reading from a script or going off the cuff? By putting in this work before you start filming, you can potentially save yourself a ton of work fixing problems on the fly.
When planning these things out, don’t hesitate to reach out to creators or other collaborators to get their opinions. Having a second set of eyes on your work can help you identify issues you might have completely missed otherwise.
Step 4: Create a catchy introduction
TikTok allows you to include a free introductory video in your Series, so your audience knows exactly what it’s about. A strong introduction will give your audience just enough information to know if your Series is right for them, while encouraging them to pay for it.
Step 5: Film each video
Now’s the time to actually create your Series! Spend some time figuring out a setup that’ll work for you. Your usual TikTok filming setup could be just fine, but with Series being paywalled content, you might want to consider elevating your production quality a bit. Don’t be surprised if each video needs multiple takes to get right, especially if they’re longer.
Step 6: Review, edit, and re-shoot if necessary
Don’t just upload your videos once they’re done! Ideally, you should be filming everything at least once. Then, you can start reviewing your videos and make necessary edits. This gives you an idea of what your Series looks like as a whole before you start making too many changes to a single video.
You might have to re-shoot some videos, even after doing multiple takes. That’s okay! That happens when you’re working on something more complex than a regular TikTok.
Step 7: Publish and promote your Series
After you’ve finished editing your Series, make sure you have a plan to promote it. You don’t need to mention it in all your content, but consider making a big launch announcement to inform your followers. More importantly, be sure to share direct in-video links for accessing your Series in your future TikToks, and include a link to your Series in your bio.
10 ideas for TikTok Series
Now that you have a better idea of what this feature is — and how it can make you bank — let’s cover a few ideas for your first Series.
Teach the content creation game
No matter what your niche is, there’s at least one thing you can teach your audience: how to make better content. Think about it this way. If you’re eligible for TikTok Series, you’ve been in the content creation game long enough to have made a few mistakes, learned some hard lessons, and made some serious progress.
By creating an online course about content creation, you can give your audience a massive shortcut in their own journey by helping them avoid those same mistakes and learn those lessons more quickly.
Offer a premium version of your usual content
No matter what kind of content you create, you can make a premium version of it. Your audience already follows you because you’re hitting the spot for one of their interests, and there’s a way to do that even better that they’ll be willing to pay for. Here are just a few ideas for different niches:
- Podcasts: Exclusive podcast episodes with highly sought-after guests.
- Fitness: Longer workouts and in-depth coaching.
- Beauty: Product reviews and specific look how-tos.
- Tech: Longer, more detailed product reviews.
- Travel: You could put an entire trip to a top destination in your TikTok Series.
- Gaming: Long gaming sessions for popular games.
- Finance: Guides to important finance concepts.
Share your expertise in a long-form way
If you’re a creator educator, your audience knows they can go to you for guidance in your field of expertise. But regular TikToks only allow you to dive into topics in a surface-level way. That can work for sharing quick facts or debunking someone else’s misinformation, but it’s not always the way to learn.
With TikTok Series, you can create a course of up to 80 videos, with each video lesson being up to 20 minutes long. That’s enough to teach anyone just about anything.
Interview and coach people from your audience
Does your expertise translate well to a 1:1 session? Then you can start giving out coaching sessions to folks in your audience and monetize that time by turning them into a TikTok Series. That way, everyone else can learn the same lessons as the person you’re coaching, in exchange for the admission fee to your Series.
Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich fame, has a great example of this on his channel, where he interviews couples and coaches them through their financial problems. He shares those conversations on his YouTube channel so his audience can benefit from them too.
Create a custom syllabus for your niche
What if instead of just teaching your audience what you know, you guided them through their own journey as a learner? For more complex topics, from physics to philosophy, you can teach them what you know and then help them filter through other resources to find the next step on their learning journey.
You can even create TikToks that are essentially pop quizzes, helping your audience test their knowledge so they know they’re growing along with you.
YouTuber Jared Henderson guides his audience through improving their ability to read — especially in philosophy — with reading lists and tips to help them become better readers.
Host Q&As
You might have done Q&As in the past, but how much time did you dedicate to each answer? TikTok’s time limits — and the expectation that people will just scroll past what you publish — means you’re usually focused on hooking people in rather than going into a ton of depth. With a TikTok Series, you don’t have to worry about the hook. Your audience paid to watch your premium content, so you know you’ve got their attention.
Put out a call on your regular TikTok feed for questions — whether they’re about your career as a creator, your niche, or anything your audience wants to know. Dedicate a single video to answering each question, and make these questions part of your first Series.
Create in-depth reviews for your niche
Product reviews are incredibly popular, with tons of TikTok users trusting their favorite creators to recommend brands for everything from beauty products to tech and even home goods. While a regular TikTok can allow you to do a quick dive into a product and get information out to the masses, it doesn’t really let you get in the weeds of whatever you’re reviewing.
A series gives you more time, more attention from your viewer, and more space to get as deep as you need with your review. A tech reviewer, for example, might only cover basic specs in a regular TikTok, while a Series might allow them to dive into how compatible a piece of tech is with other products or even take it apart. A beauty vlogger, meanwhile, might go from doing a single look with a specific product to showing you how it pairs with just about anything in a Series.
Share a behind-the-scenes look into your content
Behind-the-scenes access to what it means to be a content creator is incredibly valuable for your audience. Not only do some of them want to be creators themselves, but everyone benefits from feeling like they’re getting a little closer to their favorite creator.
While lots of creators will put behind-the-scenes content on their main feed — or even a second channel — a Series lets you go even deeper. Imagine making your own documentary about what it’s like being a content creator in your niche? Think of all the secrets and tidbits you could share.
Create exclusive collabs
Collabs are a great way to get access to a wider audience while creating something that wouldn’t really have been possible without the creator you’re working with. But with TikTok Series, the right collaboration can be a great source of revenue, too.
Collaborations that bring together some of the most popular creators in their niche, that result in a massive project, or even just go on longer than the usual collab, could all be great candidates for a Series. Just remember that you need to find some way to make your collab extra valuable to your audience to justify its purpose as premium content.
Start a vlog
Vlogs are still massively popular, though TikTok hasn’t always been the best platform for them. Whether it’s the time limit or the doom scrolling, audiences are usually looking for a quick jolt of dopamine before moving on to the next thing. But with a Series, you can get past that endless scroll and keep your audience’s attention.
Vlogging is usually the kind of content creators offer for free, but there are ways you can make them feel like premium content. If it’s the only way your audience can see some aspects of your life, that might be enough to entice them to make a payment to get access. You could also go out of your way to vlog in more interesting places like local landmarks or with other creators.
So, will TikTok Series help you make money?
Only time will tell if TikTok’s latest efforts can help creators monetize and keep them on the platform. Some industry insiders, like The Information reporter Kaya Yurieff, are doubtful that paywalled content on TikTok will be a huge moneymaker for creators. “With so many other free videos on TikTok and across the web from creators, viewers are unlikely to dish out even a few dollars for bonus content, unless they’re a die-hard fan,” Yurieff wrote when she teased TikTok’s paywall monetization feature in February.
Looking for other ways to monetize TikTok? Grab our free guide How To Make Money on TikTok for tips and advice.
FAQ
What is a TikTok Series?
According to TikTok’s initial press release, TikTok Series is “a new way for creators to share their stories, talents, and creativity as premium content while further deepening their connection with the TikTok community.”
In simpler terms, a Series is a collection of videos up to 20 minutes each that you can put behind a paywall. TikTok creators can use Series to publish courses, highly requested tutorials, and other types of exclusive content.
Is Series the best way to make money on TikTok?
There isn’t necessarily a best way to make money on TikTok. Think of Series as just another potential revenue stream for creators. That said, Series certainly has some advantages over some of the other ways you can make money on TikTok, namely that you can set your own price — up to $189.99 — and that it’s not dependent on fickle advertisers. Note that you can expect TikTok to take a significant cut of the money you make, though.
Still not sure if Series will work for you? Here are some other ways to make money on TikTok:
- Join the TikTok Creator Fund
- Apply for the Creativity Program Beta
- Go LIVE and get Gifts from your audience
- Partner with brands
- Sell merch
- Sell digital products
- Create UGC content for brands
- Join TikTok’s affiliate program
How much money can you make on TikTok?
Well, there’s good news and bad news here. The bad news? There’s no exact data on how much you can expect to make from a single TikTok. The good news? There’s no limit to how much you can make, and there are ways you can get a decent estimate.
That’s where our TikTok Money Calculator comes in. Just plug in the number of followers you have, the number of likes you get, and the total number of videos you’ve made, and you’ll get an estimate of how much you’ll bring in through the TikTok Creator Fund, brand deals, and selling digital products. Check it out here to see what you can rake in!
Can you make a TikTok Series without 10,000 followers?
While you usually need at least 10,000 followers to start creating a TikTok Series, you can get around that requirement by submitting a link to premium content you’ve published on another platform through the Creator Center. Whether you’ve got digital downloads on a platform like Gumroad or exclusive videos though YouTube’s memberships, think of it like an application to show you’ve made quality content in the past.
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