So essentially my sister has 500K followers on TikTok but doesn’t make any money. Am I missing the bigger picture here?

[Aurora_Mystica]

I make like 5k to 10k a month doing tiktok shop but I post like 5 to 15 shop videos a day. Followers don’t matter in shop unless you are an influencer. I have 133k followers

[inmywealthyera]

Very simple, she’s not interested in making money

[iwannasextyou]

.

[honeydew123123]

I have 4k followers and made well over $1k from commissionable links, affiliate programs. Not much has come from TikTok except connections to brands for products.

[bahahahahahhhaha]

What country is she in. USA pays out (a smallish amount) to creators, but in Canada and Australia and the UK etc. you have no way to make money directly from Tiktok. You need brand deals, sponsored posts etc. to turn it into revenue.

[Shawon770]

It’s actually pretty common for creators with large followings not to make money right away followers alone don’t guarantee brand deals. A lot of brands now care more about engagement and niche fit. I’ve seen people like your sister start earning once they connected with the right sponsors. Personally, I use Collabstr to find TikTok influencer deals it’s super simple, and brands reach out directly, which makes monetizing way easier.

[Crescitaly]

This is incredibly common and highlights a massive gap in creator education. Your sister has built what many would consider a highly successful following, but she’s missing the business infrastructure to monetize it effectively.

The reality is that 500K followers is absolutely monetizable – the issue is strategy, not audience size. A few key observations:

1. **Email in bio is non-negotiable** – As others mentioned, brands often reach out via email first. Not having one is like having a closed storefront.

2. **Content positioning matters** – Dance content can be challenging to monetize directly, but it’s perfect for lifestyle, fashion, wellness, and beauty brands. She needs to think about what her audience aspirations are, not just what they watch.

3. **Proactive outreach beats waiting** – Instead of waiting for brands to find her, she should be pitching 5-10 relevant brands weekly with a solid media kit.

I’ve seen creators with much smaller followings make 5-6 figures monthly by treating their content like a business. Platforms like Crescitaly specialize in helping creators bridge this exact gap – turning audiences into revenue streams through strategic brand partnerships and monetization frameworks.

At 21 and with that following, she’s sitting on a goldmine. She just needs the right business strategy to unlock it.

[Chunker_Monk]

She could sign up as an affiliate and recommend her followers to purchase/adopt and will make money. Amazon has a good program and many others as well. She could also do flat free brand deals. If she has influencer friends she should be learning from them. YouTube might pay a little more. She could start by crosssposting her content to shorts.

[fonzi93]

From the comment section you mention that she makes dancing videos and stuff. As a creator I make very little money from tiktok because their requirements to monetize are so much harder. Your video has to be at least 1:01 minutes to get monetize and get at least 1000 views which with a following hard but making 1minute plus videos is really hard and even harder when your audience is used to seeing you dance for 10-20 seconds. She needs to diversify her platforms meaning cross posting on Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. Facebook and YouTube once monetize actually make you money and your videos don’t need to be a minute plus. Just per views. With her following she can easily get a following on those other platforms

[Common-Inflation-461]

This is literally what we do we started a project called Creator and we help people with an audience monetize it. Shoot me a dm

[JJoyce81]

I’m curious to find out as well.

[blueb3rrycheeesecake]

seems your sister just loves enjoying content, and TikTok is her hobby, she doesn’t plan to make a living out of it, meaning she’s not actively searching for ways to get monetized. She can easily make money with 500k followers, but she’s not searching on how to do it

[jkoramijk]

Idk if anyone stated it here, but you need to connect her to creator agencies – they help find deals, negotiate with them, and help her grow.