My Experience Making Money With The TikTok Creator Rewards Program

I tried to make money with the TikTok Creator Rewards Program for 14 days and had some crazy results. I managed to hit the requirements to get into the CRP program and get 10M views in 14 days. This is my experience with this.

6 min read

My Experience Making Money with the TikTok Creator Rewards program

Have you ever wondered if those stories about people making money on social media are actually true? I decided to find out for myself by starting a completely new TikTok account from scratch – without showing my face – to see if I could turn it into a money-making machine.

I set myself a public challenge: grow this brand-new account to 10,000 followers and make £1,000 within 30 days. The stakes? If I failed, my YouTube subscribers could unsubscribe, and I'd give away £500 of my own money.

Spoiler alert: not only did I succeed, but I crushed my goals in half the time. This isn't some get-rich-quick scheme – it's a documented journey showing exactly what worked, what didn't, and how I turned a blank slate into a money-generating account in just two weeks.

Finding My Content Direction

The first big decision was figuring out what type of videos to create. When you're starting a new social media account, you need to choose content that's both popular enough to get views but unique enough to stand out.

I considered three main options:

Voice-over with text videos – These are videos where someone tells a story while text appears on screen. They're quite common on TikTok.
Podcast clips with gameplay footage – Taking interesting moments from podcasts and putting video game footage in the background. I decided against this because it often leads to copyright issues.
Text conversation videos – Showing screenshots of text messages between people, usually telling some kind of story.

I chose the third option, but with a twist that would make my content different from everyone else's. Instead of just showing regular text conversations, I would turn them into country music songs. Yes, you read that right – I would create videos where text message arguments and conversations were turned into actual country music songs.

I called this new account "Text Anthems" with the simple bio: "Turning your text arguments into certified anthems." For the profile picture, I used a simple musical note image to match the theme.

Want to see exactly how I set up this account? Check out my YouTube video at 4:00 where I walk through the entire process step-by-step.

The Bumpy Beginning

Like most new ventures, things didn't take off immediately. My first video got about 2,260 views and only gained me 3 new followers. Not exactly viral material.

Then I made a classic mistake – I got busy one weekend and didn't post for three days straight. When you're trying to grow on social media, consistency is absolutely crucial. The algorithm (the computer system that decides which videos to show people) favours accounts that post regularly.

After six days, I had only 84 followers. At that rate, I'd never reach my goal of 10,000 followers in 30 days.

I had to be honest with myself – I wasn't putting in the effort needed to succeed. So I made a public commitment: from that point forward, I would post at least one video every single day until I reached my goal.

Finding the Magic Formula

After trying different styles of text conversations and music, I noticed something important – I needed to be more specific with my content. When people follow an account, they want to know exactly what they're going to get.

So I narrowed down my approach:

One music genre: I chose country music because I personally enjoy it, and it has a huge audience in America.
Specific story themes: After testing different stories, I found that relationship drama, breakups, and cheating stories got the most engagement.
Consistent visual style: I used Snapchat-style messages with Subway Surfers gameplay in the background so people would instantly recognise my videos.

The most important part was making sure the music actually matched the emotional tone of the messages. When the song hit a dramatic note right as the text conversation reached its climax – that's when the magic happened.

For a breakdown of how I created these unique videos, watch the detailed explanation at 8:00 in my YouTube tutorial.

The Breakthrough Moment

After implementing this focused strategy, I posted a video at 9 PM one evening. When I checked before bed, it had already reached 5,500 views – more than double my previous best.

What was different? People were commenting things like "this is a lowkey bop" and "why does this go so hard?" The song I'd created was actually good! The video had 29 shares and 16 saves – signs that people weren't just watching, but actively engaging.

The next morning, I woke up to find the video had exploded overnight: 24,000 views, 1,000 likes, 30 comments, 109 shares, and 93 saves. This was the breakthrough I'd been waiting for.

I immediately doubled down, creating and posting two videos per day instead of one. When something starts working on social media, you need to capitalise on that momentum.

The Explosive Growth Timeline

What happened next was absolutely mind-blowing:

Day 8: Started with just 94 followers
Day 9: That first viral video hit the algorithm and reached 130,000 views
Day 10: Followers doubled to 467
Day 11: By 5 PM, we had 755 followers. By 11 PM, two videos had over 200,000 views each, and we jumped to 3,645 followers
Day 12: Reached 6,000 followers with two videos hitting over 1 million views each
Day 12 (evening): Hit the magical 10,000 follower mark, qualifying for the TikTok Creator Rewards Program
Day 14: Earned £1,200 from the Creator Rewards Program

In just two weeks, I had not only reached my 30-day follower goal but also exceeded my income target. The account continued growing and now sits at over 18,000 followers.

How TikTok Pays Creators

For those unfamiliar with how TikTok pays creators, here's a simple explanation:

Once you reach 10,000 followers, you can apply for the Creator Rewards Program. When accepted, TikTok pays you approximately £1 for every 1,000 views your videos get. This means a video with 1 million views could earn you around £1,000.

This is why reaching that 10,000 follower milestone was so crucial – it unlocked the ability to earn money from all those views. And because my videos were getting millions of views, the earnings added up quickly.

To see the exact moment I discovered how much money the account had made, check out the reveal at 14:00 in my video.

Key Lessons From This Experiment

This journey taught me several valuable lessons that anyone can apply:

Find a unique angle: Don't just copy what everyone else is doing. Add your own twist to make your content stand out.
Consistency trumps perfection: Posting regularly is more important than creating the perfect video.
Test and refine: Try different approaches, see what works, then double down on the winners.
Pay attention to feedback: When people started commenting that they liked the music, I knew I'd found my winning formula.
Strike while the iron is hot: When something starts working, increase your output to capitalise on the momentum.

The most important takeaway is that success on social media isn't about luck – it's about finding a system that works and executing it consistently.

What's Next?

Having completed this challenge in half the expected time, I've set new goals: grow this account to 100,000 followers and earn £10,000. But more importantly, I want to help others achieve similar results.

For the past two months, I've been working on a secret project – building another faceless brand that's already reached 40,000-50,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram.

I'm now preparing to share all the strategies and systems I've developed through these experiments.

If you're interested in learning how to build your own successful social media presence – whether you want to show your face or stay completely anonymous – I'm creating a community where I'll share everything I know.

The first few slots will be reserved for my earliest supporters at a special lifetime rate. To get on the waitlist and be notified when this launches, check out the link in the description of my YouTube video.

Ready to see the entire journey unfold? Watch my complete YouTube tutorial where I document every step of this experiment from day one to final results.

Have you ever tried to grow a social media account from scratch?

What challenges did you face?

Let me know in the comments below!

Looking to learn more about creating content that performs well on TikTok?

Check out my FREE Beginner TikTok Course where I share more strategies for growth.