Half a year ago, I read an article in theClubHouse where Alex shared his journey to success on TikTok. At that time, he had about 3,000 followers, but now he has around 15,000. Alex shared what he learned about how TikTok distributes and tests videos.
Inspired by Alex’s story, I decided to try TikTok myself. Videos on this platform are handmade, closer to the viewer and aim to entertain.
I created Bonetflix account with the idea to upload trailers of movies available on Netflix so that someone can get inspiration on watching a movie by watching a trailer.
As
stated on his issue, when someone sees a video, TikTok algorithm is keen to show this video to more people, and if people promote the video to more people and it surpasses a certain threshold of views, the promotion of TikTok will be bigger.Experiments and discoveries
In a past issue, I wrote about how I downloaded YouTube trailers and now I uploaded them to TikTok. But, TikTok can mute your videos if the audio matches copyrighted music. Downloading the first two trailer results on YouTube allowed me to try with two videos if I have problems with the first.
I mixed the random recommendation system I created with Chatgpt API to create a description, using the following prompt: “Create a viral description for TikTok for a movie with the following details and showing IMDb and Filmaffinity ratings if the information is given ‘MOVIE_TEXT’”.
I also used two other TikTok accounts to boost engagement and try out things. These accounts shared the same IP address. I also tried to create more accounts using Surfshark VPN ( from several different countries), but TikTok blocked those IPs. When I used a different type of connection with residential proxies, it worked, but switching back to my regular IP got the account banned.
I noticed that most videos I saw were from Spain. TikTok recommends videos based on your location, so my English trailers weren’t reaching people in the US or UK. I learned that not only do views allow TikTok algorithm to promote videos, likes, favorites and share a video also increases the promotion of your video.
Results and Reflections
I had four trailers with more than 100 views. Interestingly, these were among the first six videos I posted. It seemed like TikTok had a system to rank videos, and my account’s score dropped over time.
With these experiences in my hand, I looked at what TikTok offers. I realized that TikTok might not be the best platform for me right now.
To monetize a TikTok channel, you need to join the Creativity Program which today requires at least 10,000 followers and at least 100,000 views in the last 30 days, which I see is far from what I can achieve with little time and offering movie trailers.
I hope this information helped you to start or not start a TikTok account.