+6,000,000 views & +6,000 followers in less than 6 weeks! (10 TikTok thoughts)

I started publishing daily videos on TikTok 5,5 weeks ago.

Since then I've published mostly 2 videos per day.

Most of them are fast to create. Depending on the video it has taken 5-30 minutes to create a video.

But then I've also spent a lot of time answering comments which has been kinda fun but also time-consuming.

Anyways, I wanted to share some thoughts what I've noticed so far about this platform.

I hope you get some interesting value out of it. If you've also started your TikTok journey, feel free to share your insights in the comments. I'd love to hear from you!

And even if you wouldn't have started on TikTok, let me know what your thoughts about all of this!

10 TikTok Facts That I've Noticed

1. It's easier to get traffic and views than anywhere I've ever seen.
2. Most viewers are very young people. Less than 18 usually.
3. Even though most are kids, there are also some adults using the app.
   
4. IMPORTANT: Your videos will primarily be shown to the people that are in the country that your SIM card is registered.
   There may have been a way around this but it was so complicated that I didn't bother to do it.
   If the video gets enough engagement, it starts showing the video also to other countries nearby. If it still keeps on getting engagement, it shows to other countries too. So for me it works like this:
   1. Finland (because I'm from Finland)
   2. Sweden/Norway/Denmark
   3. Other countries
   Most of the people who comment under my videos are from Finland and Nordic countries. But for example, when one video got 1,5 million views, it got also 100,000's views from the US.
   
   
   
5. Comments can be very rude. Because a lot of viewers are kids, they don't have same kind of manners as most adults. They don't know how to filter their bad words so comments can be extremely rude. This surprised me at first.
   -> PRO TIP! Use comment filters.
   TikTok allows you to filter comments so that if there is a specific word in a comment, it won't publish it (In the same way as in YouTube).
   Therefore, I've added dozens of rude words in the filtered comments and this is helping to keep the comment section now much cleaner. Once I encounter rude words, I simply delete the comment and add the word in the filtered comments.
   Another option would be simply let them come but I think it's better for everyone to filter such negativity because it's not mature.
   
6. TikTok traffic isn't "high quality" traffic... But it can still be profitable. Now if you compare 1,000,000 views on TikTok to 1,000,000 views on YouTube, YT views are much more valuable every day of the week.
   Even 5,000 views on YouTube may be probably more valuable than 1,000,000 views on TikTok. Depends on the content of course...
   BUT!
   It doesn't mean that TikTok views wouldn't have any value at all. The reason I got started on TikTok was that I saw several Internet marketers making $1,000's on TikTok with a relatively low effort so I wanted to try it myself.
   At the moment, I also enjoy the game and I want to see where it leads.
   
   
7. Young people will become older. Someone might think, "If they're all young, does it have any value to show them videos?" Yes it does. A person who is 15yo today will be 18yo in 3 years.
   Let me tell you a story from my own life...
   I think it was in 2013 or 2014 when I saw Brian Tracy's video for the first time on YouTube. I didn't know who is this guy and I didn't want to listen to him.
   Fast forward to 2018 and I bought a ticket to Brian Tracy's event for 2 persons. It took 4-5 years for him to make a sale but it happened. And over the course of those years I've recommended his content to many others.
   I saw Tony Robbins' video for the first time also in 2014 and I thought like, "Who is this guy? He's just some American guru?"
   Fast forward until today and I've spend money on his online course, live event and I've promoted his courses and content to others.
   => Even if you wouldn't make the sales today, it doesn't mean that you couldn't make them along the way!
   
   
8. Some people will don't like you, but some people will love you.
   Even though I mentioned above that you'll get a lot of comments on TikTok that are hateful, you'll also get some positive comments.
   I've received many messages saying, "I love your content!" "I wanna see more videos from you!" "Don't stop doing this!" "I don't understand why you've got so many negative comments. I enjoy these videos."
   
9. Growth seems to be exponential. This applies to basically any platform but in a nutshell, the first 100 followers is always the hardest. Next 100 are easier. And then it gets easier and easier.
   A lucky thing with my TikTok journey was that the first "serious" video got immediately more than 150,000 views so I didn't have that initial hard phase. But still now it's much easier to get views and followers because I've got more videos there.
   
   
10. TikTok may suddenly start promoting your old video. TikTok algorithm is still a little bit of a mystery to me.
    Sometimes it shows a video on For You page for several hours and it gets 10,000's views and it just suddenly stops. Then it doesn't get views for several days or even a week. And then suddenly it gets 100,000's of views. And then it stops again.
    Anyways, this leads us back to point #9. If you have more videos on your TikTok profile, you have more chances that TikTok will start pushing and promoting one of your videos. At least that's how I've figured out. Tell me if you have a different view of this.
    For me this was actually surprising because I thought that TikTok promotes your videos only after publishing for a day or two.
    It promotes your day for a day after publishing. Then it may promote it for another day. Then it doesn't promote your video for a week and again suddenly it may start showing your videos to 10,000's of people.
    What I draw as a conclusion from this is: Keep on creating and publishing content because it will increase your chances of getting viral videos.

Future Plans?

I'm gonna keep on seeing where does this TikTok game lead.

It's been fun and I know it has already generated money because many of the TikTok followers have come to my YouTube channel and I believe they're getting value out of my videos.

I'd like to see where does this game lead in the long, long term. I'm anyway going to stay in this Internet marketing and make money online industry for years and decades to come so kids will became adults over time.

A known fact is also that in order to make a purchase, an average customer needs to be exposed to the product for 7 times on average.

So if some people resist at first they make purchase later. Just as I did with Brian Tracy and Tony Robbins.

I'm going to create my own Internet courses in the future (about YouTube at first) in addition to my current email marketing course. So I'm just thinking how awesome it would feel in the future to have someone who had watched my TikTok videos coming to my course and even becoming an affiliate. How awesome would that be? :D

Time to take steps towards that.

Cheers

- Roope "Exploring the TikTok game" Kiuttu

PS. Now I'd love to hear from you.

What are your thoughts about TikTok?

Have you used TikTok yourself? What has surprised you and what have you learned?

Let us know in the comments below.