How does Tik Tok make money? Detailed explanation of Douyin operation and traffic generation strategy!

Many people may now ask: Can Douyin continue to operate in 2020?

At present, there is no problem. The key lies in how to operate Douyin well. I have promoted products through Douyin and helped people build personal Douyin IP. I have been using Douyin frequently recently and also created a gaming account. The results were pretty good.

After all, it was just something I did casually, and it only took me an hour in total.

Plus, I’ve worked in operations before, so I have a pretty good understanding of operations.

First, a mind map:

1. Platform Rules

1. Recommendation mechanism

Like Douyin and Toutiao, users and works will be labeled accordingly, and then recommended to users with corresponding tags based on the work tags. If the work is popular with these users, it will continue to be recommended.

Three key factors for popularity: completion rate, number of likes, and number of comments

There is a reason why Tik Tok only gave each user 15 seconds of permission in the beginning. It is a short video, and the essence lies in the word "short". The most exquisite content must be produced in the shortest time. The shorter the video, the higher the completion rate, and naturally the more recommendations.

Of course, don't argue with me and say that I only post two or three seconds of video each time and it won't get any views.

The second is the number of likes and comments. The ratio of likes to playbacks is basically around 0.3%-1%. The higher the ratio, the more recommendations there will naturally be.

2. Account weight

Many people will feel disappointed when they see the few views of their videos after posting them. 30, 500, 1000? These are low-weight accounts.

Under normal circumstances, the account weight can be increased by correctly maintaining the account so that your account can be labeled accordingly.

How to maintain an account?

1. Be online for more than 1 hour every day;

2. Search and watch content related to your field every day. For example, if you do movie commentary, then search and watch it for a week or so.

When you normally browse Douyin, if more than half of the ten videos are related to your field, then you have successfully cultivated the account. Alternatively, you can use other accounts to enter your account homepage, click on the inverted triangle to see if the people you may be interested in are related to your field. If they are basically related, then it also means that you have successfully cultivated the account.

3. Notes

• QR codes, WeChat and other contact information cannot appear in the video, nor in the comment area. Don't think that using homophones will be okay. I can tell you clearly that homophones will still be deleted. Of course, if you just want to increase the volume to attract traffic, that doesn't matter.
• Don’t proactively send a large number of private messages to other people with their contact information, as this will be detected and reported. You can ask others to leave their contact information.
• The video should not contain any violations such as bloody, violent, infringing, illegal, politically sensitive, etc. Such videos will not be recommended.

2. Positioning

For ordinary people, positioning can be done from the perspective of monetization. For enterprises, positioning can be done through products, services, etc. There is no need to waste time on this. It mainly depends on two aspects.

1. Field

Douyin is actually divided into four major categories: knowledge, life, entertainment, and positive energy. We can indeed classify 99% of Douyin's videos into these four categories, and then further subdivide them under these four categories.

01. Knowledge

Professionals include marketing, law, skills, etc., who can provide professional knowledge in a certain field, or have their own unique insights into a certain field, which can be used to build personal IP for monetization; or they may be authoritative, such as official knowledge popularization, etc., which have higher requirements.

Non-professional ones include life tips, travel guides, historical stories, skin care techniques, weight loss methods, etc., which can be collected and organized through Baidu. The requirements are relatively low. Such accounts can be used to attract traffic or for window sales.

02. Life

Tik Tok records the beautiful life, a small thing in everyone's life, such as having a meal with friends, or recording a trip, etc. Most of these areas are not suitable for monetization, they just record everyone's life.

Among them, there is a Vlog, which is a video blog that has good monetization, for example, recording the weight loss process and attracting users who want to lose weight.

03. Entertainment

There are the most internet celebrities in this field, including singers, dancers, game anchors, joke tellers, handsome men and beautiful women, etc. No matter whether you have special skills or not, in fact, as long as you want to, you can do it.

Won't? You can find jokes online, many of the jokes of internet celebrities are from ten years ago; if your voice is not nice, you can use a voice changer; if your singing is not good, you can adjust the pitch; if you are not good at playing games, you can brag about it; as for those who are not good-looking, once the beauty filter is turned on, who is not a handsome man or a beautiful woman?

Monetization methods: traffic generation, advertising, live streaming, display windows, and account sales.

04. Positive Energy

This field is generally not used for monetization, such as fighting counterfeiting, or some kind-hearted people, etc. This type of video cannot be predicted in advance except for a few niche areas and official accounts.

Therefore, ordinary people should try not to choose this field. Those pseudo-positive energies make me helpless. Sometimes some people will do anything to become famous. Of course, don’t take it personally.

05. Others

In addition to these four major categories, there are of course other special areas, such as selling goods on Douyin, which focuses on making money.

2. Account Type

The account type here does not refer to Douyin's certification, but what types of accounts we can create.

01. Blue V

This is an account certified by the company. However, from the perspective of monetization, it does not matter whether it is certified or not. As for the official account, I need not say much, basically all of them are certified, perhaps to convey positive energy, or perhaps for brand promotion, and of course there will be no shortage of money to be made.

As for the advantages after certification, in my opinion, it's basically just that, it just gives you a few more functions, which is insignificant.

02. Taobao Affiliate Account

This type of account focuses on selling products on Douyin, and is also a common type of Douyin monetization. It brings the showcase function of Douyin to the fullest. The most common ones are recommendations and sharing of good things. Such accounts can earn a lot of money just by releasing a video.

The current conditions for opening the showcase function on Douyin are: ≥1000 followers, ≥10 published works, and real-name authentication.

03. IP-based account

Personal IP is not the same as internet celebrity. IP is a brand. Personal brand is a comprehensive reflection of personal business value and is an intangible asset.

There are several characteristics of a successful personal brand: the ability to express your own unique insights and be recognized by others; the ability to connect with things that others think are important.

Apart from the above three, there are no special requirements for the others. You can just register an account normally and use it.

3. Account Information

1. Nickname

Keyword naming method: Use a keyword in the targeting field to combine and obtain more search traffic; for example, if you create a food account, you can name it Food Diary, Guangzhou Food, etc.

IP-type naming method: The nickname of this type of account cannot be arbitrary. You need to choose a nickname that suits you. This depends on your own feeling. You can use your real name, or some more down-to-earth names, or you can look for it from certain astrology or metaphysics.

2. Avatar

Either pictures or texts are fine, as long as it fits the positioning and nickname of your account. You can't make an account for movie commentary and use a food picture as your avatar.

3. Introduction, that is, introduce this account. When leaving contact information, you need to use homophones.

As for the other information, it’s up to you.

IV. Content

Nowadays, many people may ask me to make a hit video that will generate tens of millions of views. I don’t want to criticize these people. Let’s first take a look at the hot list of Douyin.

Most of them seem to have little to do with the average person.

Of course I know some people will say: I see that many people have more than 100,000 likes on each video. What’s going on?

It's very simple. When you have millions of fans, millions of views are just a small thing for you. When you have tens of millions of fans, tens of millions of views are also just a small thing for you. After all, the traffic of Douyin will be inclined towards these people.

These are three randomly picked fields, corresponding to 100,000 fans, 1 million fans, and 10 million fans respectively. Do you see the difference? You can see at a glance that there is a clear difference when there are more than a million fans.

But these people did not achieve success overnight. Instead, they took the right direction and used the right methods step by step to achieve their current results.

Let’s take a look at the characteristics of popular videos:

1. Audience, that is, how many users your video can cover. This is also the core. If your video content covers few users, how can it become a hit?

2. One of the following must be interesting, useful, have emotional resonance, be a hot topic, have positive energy, be a celebrity, or have luck. From a planning perspective, it is natural to start with the first three points, and occasionally consider taking advantage of hot topics.

Therefore, when creating content, first make sure that your video content meets several of the conditions. If it does not meet any of the conditions, then just leave it to fate. After all, luck is really important sometimes. You can see that others can get tens of thousands of likes for just a video they post.

Here’s how to create content:

1. Determine content direction based on positioning

The previous article mentioned that positioning can be based on two dimensions: field and account type. At the same time, the direction and form of the content are also determined here.

For example, if you want to create an emotional account, you need to determine what type of emotion it will be, whether it will feature real people, and so on. Once determined, they cannot be changed at will. Moreover, when real people appear on the screen, the protagonist cannot be easily changed.

2. Video Production

This involves a lot of details. As the saying goes, a thousand-mile dike is destroyed by an ant hole. Don't let a single detail ruin it.

01. Shooting

For ordinary people, a mobile phone that can take clear pictures will do the job. It does not require much shooting skills. A tripod will be enough if necessary. It must be ensured that there is no significant shaking, otherwise it will be a rubbish video and is not recommended.

If you are shooting a difficult and costly video such as a plot, it is usually a team, and someone will solve the shooting problems. If an individual wants to do this type of video, he can first learn shooting systematically, or find a team.

At the same time, do not use WeChat to transfer videos as they will be compressed. It is best to use a data cable.

02. Editing

Don’t tell me that editing is difficult. After all, it’s not a blockbuster movie. There are editing tutorials on Bilibili and Douyin. You can use Jianying, which is free and has no watermark, or you can use Meice, which costs a few dozen yuan a year. There are templates for many types of videos on Douyin, such as book lists, wallpapers, music, card points, etc., and these people use Meice to make accounts directly in batches.

I would like to remind you that many people don’t know how to make video covers, and Meice just solves this problem. However, I always feel like I’m advertising for others. I hope Meice can give me some advertising fees after seeing this.

At the same time, you can also make money by simply moving videos and editing them, such as film and television drama recommendations, sports, game live videos, music, Douyin live streaming, etc. I have written about Douyin live streaming before, so I will not say more about it. The others can be treated as a project, and each has its own way of monetization.

But remember, it is best not to move videos that are already on the Douyin platform. At the same time, it is best to edit them appropriately when moving them, change some parameters or mix them to reduce repetition. As for removing watermarks, you can directly search for the "KuaiDou Toolbox" applet on WeChat. It is free.

03. Music, vocals, dubbing

Although non-professionals cannot make too many comments on music, there are a few points that must be made clear:

● A good soundtrack and dubbing can make a video popular. For example, if the content presented in the video happens to be used in the dialogue of a popular film or TV series, it will be easier to become popular. If you don’t know how, you can use the popular song list of Tik Tok, which generally suits the public taste.

● The soundtrack and dubbing had better match the content of your video. I know that contrast can bring unexpected effects, but you can’t make an inspirational video with music about happy breakups, right? This is not a contrast, this is zz.

● Clearly distinguish the primary and secondary roles of music and vocals. Although music can set off the atmosphere and emotions, if you are building a personal IP and sharing knowledge, can you let music influence vocals?

● If you are good enough, you can create an original piece of music.

● You can make a series, with all videos using the same music and having their own characteristics, such as Zhu Yici.

04. Subtitles

As long as someone speaks, subtitles are basically needed. Subtitles can help users understand what you said more clearly.

As for the subtitle style, it needs to match the content style. For example, as a grown man, you can't use a cute pink font, right? Under normal circumstances, it should be in regular script, black and white, and not too fancy.

For sensitive words, homophones or letters need to be used instead, especially for those who want to do Dou+, such as selling goods on Douyin, the subtitles cannot violate the regulations, otherwise they cannot be on Dou+. Some people may ask which words are considered illegal. I just want to say that everyone should have some idea in their mind. You see, didn’t I use letters to replace them?

05. Copywriting

The key point! The key point! The key point! Many people will just write a paragraph when posting a video, but I need to remind you that if you don’t know how to make a video or the video is not well made, you must work hard on the copywriting.

The role of copywriting is to induce users to comment. A common question is to ask a question. If it is just for popularity, then the question is not necessarily related to the content. Otherwise, it is better to be relevant.

In addition to asking questions, you can also take advantage of some popular posts. For example, there is a novel by Chen Dong in the picture above. Let me just say that I am also a fan of novels. When I see these, I can't help but like and comment.

But there is often a situation on Douyin that a certain copy becomes popular and everyone is using the same copy. This is not impossible, but I would suggest some innovation because everyone's psychology will gradually become resistant to repetition.

06. Questions and Answers

● Which video format is better? Common formats are 9:16 and 4:3. Horizontal screen is not recommended as it affects the user experience.

● The time when the video is released actually has little impact. What is destined to be popular will eventually become popular.

● Is it useful to watch live broadcasts when the video has no views? I've tested it myself, it may not be useful.

● Is it useful to brush data? It is useless in most cases, and Tik Tok has also recently cracked down on the practice of inflating traffic; the few effective ways to inflate traffic rely on comment guidance.

3. Data Analysis

Many people may have overlooked a feature of Tik Tok, namely the Creator Service Center. Through this, you can analyze and see why your video is not popular!

The golden three-second rule, some say 3 seconds, some say 5 seconds, but it doesn’t matter. They all want to express that the first few seconds are very important. Words are not enough, so let’s look at the data.

Did you see it? The number of viewers dropped sharply within the first few seconds, which means that this part of users was not attracted, the completion rate decreased, and the recommendations naturally became less. Of course, I know where the reason for this video is, what about you? Is it because of unnecessary drama? Or is it a meaningless beginning?

When the completion rate reaches 80%, combined with the normal ratio of likes and comments, it will be easy to reach one million views. In the data analysis, I will only talk about this viewing analysis. After all, this is more intuitive. If there is a sharp drop, we should reflect on it and avoid making similar problems next time.

As for the like ratio, we have already mentioned it before, so you can roughly determine the number of views by looking at the number of likes on other people’s videos.

5. Monetization Methods

1. Selling Accounts

In most cases, it only costs a few cents per fan, and you can do it in bulk, such as the editing and moving mentioned above, or using beautiful album templates.

2. Accept advertisements

You have all seen it, do you need me to say more? As long as you have fans, you can take the offer. As for how to take the offer, people will contact you after you become famous, or you can search on Baidu and leave your contact information. Anyway, people who take the offer will basically not lose money. As for the advertisers, no one knows.

3. Douyin showcase

Whether this display window can make money has little to do with the number of your fans. What determines whether your display window can make money lies in the account positioning and content. As I also said, Douyin’s live streaming can bring this function to its fullest potential.

4. Live broadcast

One is live streaming selling goods, and the other is live streaming giving gifts. Douyin is still a little short of this. Among them, live streaming selling goods is not something that can be done by just being an internet celebrity. Many aspects are involved, such as marketing skills, product selection, etc., which all require teamwork; as for gifts, it depends on your ability.

5. Drainage

I have already clearly told you how to leave your contact information. If you want to use Douyin to attract traffic , the purpose is very clear.

If you want to attract male fans, post videos of beautiful women;

If you want to create a wallpaper public account, then create wallpaper videos and let users go to the public account to get them directly;

If you want to do micro-business and sell skin care products on WeChat, the normal way of thinking is of course to post some effects and recommendations of skin care products; if you think divergently, you can build a personal IP, or teach others how to take care of their skin; or if you want to sell weight loss products, you can make a weight loss Vlog, etc.

There are many ways to attract traffic, but the logic is that you post relevant videos to attract relevant users, and they should be very tempting so that users can actively look for you. The key is to increase exposure and improve conversion rate!

6. Tik Tok training

I don’t know whether those who work on Douyin have made money this year, but those who do Douyin training have made money, both online and offline. I have also written an article about my offline training experience before.

The above are just a few common ways to monetize. There is no need to introduce other ways such as opening a business store and paid consulting, as they require certain conditions.

The operating strategy of Tik Tok basically ends here. Whether it is monetization through Tik Tok or traffic generation, I think this article is no worse than those paid courses. The only thing missing is a step-by-step tutorial on how to shoot and produce videos.

Finally, can success be “replicated”?

I put quotation marks around this question because “copying” does not mean blindly plagiarizing. “Copying” other people’s success means planning through scientific methods, and finding ways to solve problems one by one when they arise.

Just like the projects I worked on include WeChat Official Accounts and Douyin, there are countless people doing these two things. I "copied" other people's methods, but I did not plagiarize their works. Instead, I thought about surpassing their achievements.

Author: Tianwenge

Source: Tianwenge