This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. So glad you're here. My name is Chris Guillebeau. We have talked a few times over the course of nearly 1500 episodes.
Wow, is that right? Nearly 1500 episodes. We've talked a few times about TikTok. And actually, to be precise, we've talked about that in more recent episodes because I don't know if it was even around when we started so many days, weeks, months, and now years ago. Now TikTok, I would say, you know, follow me on TikTok, like I would normally say in this situation.
Hey, let's talk about TikTok. By the way, follow me there. But I'm actually not there. And I don't plan to be there because it's not something I would do well at. Like I know my limitations.
I know what I'm good at, what I'm not good at. But I also recognize, here's the thing, like I recognize that it has millions of users, especially in these 16 to 24 year old demographic. I'm a little bit aged out of that myself. And with more than 80% of the audience being Chinese. Although I see that that figure comes from 2019.
So my sense is that it's actually becoming much more global lately. But obviously that's the origin. Now, why am I talking about TikTok? Well, we have a listener question, but I just want to say, I want to preface it and say, even if you don't plan on getting on whatever the next, you know, network or whatever thing is, it is important to pay attention to what's happening in the world of communication. And that's the key distinction to me.
It's not just technology. It's not just quote unquote social media. It is about communication. How do ideas transfer? How are people reaching out to other people?
How are they interacting? What is the means of response? And all that kind of stuff. I think if you pay attention to that, even just loosely, you're going to learn something. It might inspire something completely different, perhaps.
So our caller today is a fitness coach with an idea to use the platform to create instructional videos. I'll let him tell you a bit more about the specific idea. And I will have some comments on monetization. I actually think I have something helpful to say here that could be useful for anybody who wants to build this kind of platform. But maybe as I said, for someone else as well.
So quick message from our sponsor. And then how can I profit from injury recovery videos on TikTok? [Music]
Hi, Chris. This is Derek and I'm a fitness coach who's been trying different ideas during the pandemic since my client work is much more limited. My latest project is to make short instructional videos on injury recovery.
I'll post them on TikTok and Instagram and try to bring views to my site. I'd also like to ask for donations through PayPal. The way some influencers do. But I don't want to muddle the message. Any tips?
Thanks for your help. [Music]
Hey, Derek, what's up? Thank you so much. Really admire the vision here. It's also been interesting and admirable just to see how many people who are in the fitness world, how they have adjusted in the pandemic age.
I saw all kinds of people trying different stuff last year. And some things work out and some things don't, just like a lot of stuff in life. But as it goes for this idea, I actually made some detailed notes for myself here because I thought it was interesting. I also think, just to be transparent as always, it's no small challenge to do this well. So I wrote in the description for this episode, can a fitness coach use TikTok to create instructional videos?
Well, of course, almost certainly. Can he make money from such a thing? Maybe, that's the key point. But I would say if you are gonna make money with it, here's what needs to happen for this to actually take off, whether it is TikTok, Instagram, or something else. Number one, amazing content, which is easier said than done, of course, the quality bar is really high these days, which is good.
I mean, it creates a better user experience. It encourages all of us to work harder. But I think especially with TikTok videos because such a younger generation, so many millions of users around the world, people are growing up doing this natively, you have to have something that's really, really good. Second, you need amazing virality or you need something that really spreads, right? 'Cause lots of good content doesn't spread.
You need something that is popular, right? You need something that is popular, that is comment worthy, that people want to tell their friends about. And of course, lots of folks on TikTok do that really well, but it's not something you can just kind of snap your fingers and have. So amazing content, amazing virality, or at least let's say really good virality. And then number three, an actual monetization plan that connects the free videos, the ones that spread virally with a relevant way to get paid.
So any one of these three things is hard to do well, but you'll really need to do all three, okay? And that said, it's not impossible. Like obviously some people are doing this, and I find it inspiring myself, but even more valuable than whatever they're paid, whether it's through those PayPal donations or something else, is those huge numbers of followers some of these people are able to reach. It really is just tremendous, it's a whole new world. And I would say also like a final comment there, like try to do anything you can to get those followers to connect with you on multiple platforms, right?
So to use the eggs in baskets analogy, you wouldn't want all your eggs in the TikTok basket or the Instagram basket or any other technology platform. And then just briefly on that last point about the actual monetization plan that connects the free videos that spread virally, all I mean there is like, there has to be some logical extension, whether it is like, hey, all this content is free, you know, click here to donate. I mean, that's probably the most basic, you know, an easy and obvious one. There could be something else as well. But you can't approach new technology and new communication networks with old strategies and always expect the same results.
And the people who are successful are often the ones who are able to adapt. So I wish you well, Derek, I wish anybody else out there well who's trying this, let me know how it goes. I would love to get some more lessons to share with the rest of our community. sidehustleschool.com/questions where you can always come to give me some feedback or ask your question. We will continue to feature them throughout the year.
And thank you for joining me. New episode every single day. My name is Chris Guillebeau, this is Side Hustle School. [Music]
From the Onward Project.
