How to make money on TikTok with affiliate links

You make money from TikTok videos with affiliate links in two ways: tag products through the TikTok Shop affiliate program, or send viewers to the link in your bio, where your Amazon or brand affiliate links live. A clickable bio link needs at least 1,000 followers or a Verified Business Account. TikTok Shop has its own eligibility rules, and both routes need TikTok's commercial content disclosure turned on.

The bio link rules

For most creators, the website link on your profile is how a TikTok viewer reaches an outside site, such as Amazon or a brand's store. As of October 2026, TikTok's help page "Adding a website link to your profile" says you can add a website if you have at least 1,000 followers or a Verified Business Account.

To add it: open your profile, tap Edit profile, tap Add next to Links, and enter the address.

A few things to know before you switch to a business account to get the link early:

• TikTok's Creator Rewards Program, which pays for qualifying videos over one minute, is only open to personal accounts. TikTok's help center lists 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 30 days as its entry bar.
• The link rule names a Verified Business Account, which is a separate verification step. An ordinary business account on its own is not listed as qualifying.

Most creators point that website link at a link-in-bio page that holds all their links, so one tap leads to every product.

TikTok Shop affiliate versus external affiliate links

These are two different systems, and many creators use both.

TikTok Shop affiliate eligibility

As of October 2026, TikTok Shop's US "Creator Eligibility Policy" (dated September 25, 2026) says a self-applying affiliate creator must be at least 18, be based in the United States, have at least 1,000 followers and pass identity verification.

Creators with fewer than 5,000 followers are placed in an Affiliate Creator Pilot Program for at least 30 days. During the pilot you can only promote products whose shop has a Shop Performance Score of 95% or higher, you are capped at 3 shoppable videos a day and 3 shoppable LIVEs a week, and you cannot join campaigns. You leave the pilot once you reach 5,000 followers and have been in the program at least 30 days. Rules differ in other countries where TikTok Shop runs, so check the policy for yours.

When external links make more sense

• The product is not on TikTok Shop, such as software, travel, courses or most specialist gear.
• You want one recommendation to work across TikTok, YouTube and Instagram.
• The brand pays more through its own program, or offers a longer tracking window.

The trade-off is the extra step. A viewer has to stop the video, open your profile, tap your bio link and find the product. Every step loses people, so the link page needs to be fast and obvious.

The disclosure toggle

TikTok's Branded Content Policy defines branded content as content promoting a third-party brand in exchange for payment or another incentive, and it lists a product you earn a commission on "via an affiliate link or promotional code" as an example. For those videos you need to switch on the commercial content disclosure toggle in the post settings.

The same policy says viewers should not have to visit your profile or click links to understand what is being promoted. Name the product out loud or in the caption, not just "link in bio." The toggle does not replace your own disclosure either. The FTC says a platform's tool alone may not be enough, so say it in the video too. The affiliate disclosure guide has lines you can copy.

What works on TikTok

These are patterns, not guarantees:

1. Show the product doing the job. A 20-second demo of a headlamp in the dark tells viewers more than a review script.
2. Say exactly where to go. "The headlamp is the first link on my page" beats "link in bio," because the viewer knows what to tap.
3. Make the link page match the video. If a viewer arrives from a headlamp video and has to scroll past fifteen links, many will leave. Put the product from the latest video at the top.
4. Keep the page light. Most TikTok traffic is on phones, often on mobile data. A heavy page loses people before it finishes loading. You can test your current page with the free Linktree speed check.
5. Track by video, not just by link. One video can drive most of your sales while another gets more views. You can only see that if each video has its own tracking.

Tracking which TikTok video earned the sale

TikTok Shop reports its own affiliate sales inside TikTok. External affiliate links are harder, because the network only sees a click from "TikTok" with no video attached, since every viewer came through the same bio link.

Vyrl solves this with video words and share links. Your TikTok bio link is vyrl.at/yourname/tt, so every visit from TikTok is labelled as TikTok. For a specific video, you say a word on camera, such as "go to vyrl.at/yourname/storm," and every click and sale from that visit is credited to that video. Vyrl adds the network's sub ID to each click, so when the sale comes back by postback (Impact, CJ, Awin, Everflow) or through the Amazon Earnings report upload, it lands on the right video. Pages are plain HTML, typically under 50 KB, so they load quickly on a phone. See video words and share links for the setup, or Amazon sales by video if you mostly link to Amazon.

Quick checklist

• Reach 1,000 followers, or get a Verified Business Account, for a clickable bio link.
• Apply to TikTok Shop affiliate if your products are sold there and you meet the rules.
• Use external affiliate links for everything else, through one fast link page.
• Turn on the commercial content disclosure toggle and say the disclosure in the video.
• Track sales by video, then make more of the videos that earn.