I Tried Making Money with TikTok for 30 Days

Introduction

In the next 30 days, I sought to grow a TikTok following from zero to 100K followers and make money from it. Given the current hype around TikTok, it seemed easier than ever to make a significant income using this platform. Could a complete beginner like me really achieve this? To answer this, I documented everything to provide a realistic expectation.

Day 1

I immediately started and created an account named W_speed_clips, focusing on IShowSpeed. This seemed like an easy path to go viral. The plan was simple: screen record popular videos from YouTube, edit them using CapCut, and post them. My first day was spent producing advance content for posting over the next few days.

Days 2-7

During school bus rides and breaks between lessons, I edited and posted videos. I watched numerous tutorials to improve my workflow, such as using YouTube's retention feature to quickly find viral moments. After a week of consistent posting, my account only garnered four followers, and videos averaged just 300 views, with some at zero views. The account wasn't successful, leading me to rethink my approach.

A New Strategy

I realized TikTok was oversaturated with low-quality videos due to the Creator Fund hype. To stand out, I decided to create high-quality football content under a new brand: Football Heavens. I aimed for consistency in color scheme, editing style, and font to establish a recognizable brand.

Creating the New Account

With the help of ChatGPT, I named the new brand Football Heavens and designed a logo on Canva. I sought inspiration from TikTok and planned my approach to streamline the content creation process. For ideas, I used AI, but wrote the scripts myself to ensure high viewer retention, before editing the videos.

Days 8-24

After posting my first video about the stolen World Cup trophy, I continued making new videos daily. Despite putting significant effort into high-quality content, results were still underwhelming, with only a few thousand views overall. The workload was exhausting compared to the results.

Day 25 - Optimization

I researched new strategies, including re-editing existing content for better engagement. Analyzing retention metrics, I identified where viewers dropped off and enhanced those moments with sound effects and animations. Yet, even with these optimizations, no significant virality occurred.

The Final Day

On the last day, I decided to create one final video incorporating everything I'd learned. After writing the script and converting it to audio, I meticulously edited the video with precise graphics and animations. I posted the video, hoping it would be the breakthrough I needed.

Conclusion

After 30 days, my final video only managed 2.8K views. I didn't achieve my goal of 100K followers or significant income. Despite following widely recommended strategies, my efforts did not yield the expected results. This experience highlights the challenges of succeeding on TikTok and serves as a realistic assessment of what's involved.

Keywords

TikTok
Followers
Content Creation
Viral Videos
Football Heavens
Optimization
Creator Fund
Retention Metrics

FAQ

Q: Why did you choose TikTok for this challenge? A: TikTok has been experiencing a significant hype recently, with many claiming it's easy to make money and gain followers quickly.

Q: What was your initial strategy? A: My initial strategy involved creating a TikTok account focused on IShowSpeed, using screen-recorded videos from YouTube.

Q: Why did you change your strategy? A: After a week, I realized TikTok was oversaturated with low-quality content. I decided to pivot to high-quality, branded football content under a new brand, Football Heavens.

Q: What tools did you use for content creation? A: I used CapCut for video editing and Canva for creating a logo. I also leveraged ChatGPT for generating ideas.

Q: What was the most challenging part of this process? A: The most challenging part was creating high-quality videos daily and getting minimal engagement in return.

Q: Did you achieve your goal? A: No, I did not achieve my goal of reaching 100K followers or making significant money on TikTok.

Q: What did you learn from this experience? A: This experience taught me the hard reality of content creation on TikTok. Success requires more than just following popular strategies; it needs constant adaptation and possibly a longer timeframe.