For many people, being an influencer is the goal, and making money off social media is something they could only dream of.
However, Kat Leech manages to earn £20,000 with her TikTok side hustle, despite the fact she's only amassed 37,000 followers. But how? The 27-year-old content creator shares her money-saving tips on her page @katsaves, and through working around 20 hours a week on her account, before tax she claimed to earn £21,137.
"I make a full-time wage on TikTok and I don't even have that many followers", she claimed. "I do own a limited company, which does give me tax benefits and things like that."
The amount she earned per month fluctuated though, with Kat making nothing in January, having just started her page, but building to a peak of £4,918 in December. And she's now encouraging her followers to consider making content themselves and earning money from social media platforms.
She said: "If you've always wanted to make money through TikTok, this is your sign. You do not need a lot of followers at all. I made a full-time wage. Obviously, it's not a huge full-time wage, but this year I am absolutely going to double it."
Martin Lewis issues 8-week warning to phone users ahead of huge price hikesIn a video, she shared her tips on how to get started by monetising TikTok accounts. She recommended that people pick a "searchable, monetisable niche."
To do this, the influencer looked at what was big news and decided to focus on money-saving tricks due to the "huge cost of living crisis." "People are literally searching for how to save money on food [and] shopping. That is why I chose this niche because people are actively searching for it every single day", she admitted.
She also said to attract an audience, it's essential to use the right key words and put them "everywhere" in your videos, captions, and hashtags. Kat also said it's important that you fully educate yourself on your chosen topic before you post about it - and educate yourself about the social media platform. She said: "Educate yourself on how to make good videos [and] educate yourself on everything to do with that niche that you've picked."
Kat said that you don't have to post constantly on your chosen social media, but consistency is key, and posting regularly will help you. "When I first started, I was posting two videos a day, I started doing three a day, [but] now I only do one a day because I'm way too busy for that", she admitted.
And she shared that one of the most important ways you make money on TikTok is through brand deals, saying that when you follow the rest of her advice and put the effort in, that's when you'll "gain followers and views", and "brands will come to you." "It took me two months to create this TikTok account until I started earning money from this account - it is that easy", she said.