Pin Money

By Tamra Fakhoorian

One of my sons once made a viral TikTok video that earned him $30,000 in two weeks. I was thrilled for him and excited by the possibility that TikTok could produce real money, not just views and followers.

I had already been posting some of my travel experiences, so I decided to see whether I could duplicate his success in some way. I had been to dozens of countries, had plenty of unusual stories, and enough footage to keep me busy for a long time.

Eventually I built up around 3,000 followers.

That sounded promising. But my son’s success had come from getting the right kind of attention at the right moment. What I had built was something different.

What Did Those 3,000 Followers Actually Mean?

My followers were a mix. Some genuinely liked my travel videos. Some became online friends and followed because they liked me personally. But a large portion came from follow-for-follow culture. We were all trying to grow, so we followed one another.

That was the first thing I had not really thought through. A follower count tells you how many people tapped a button. It does not tell you why they did it.

And if you want to make money from an audience, the “why” matters a lot.

Some of my followers loved travel. Some were fascinated by seeing places they might never visit themselves. Others were mainly interested in building their own TikTok accounts.

Those are very different reasons to be following the same person.

Then I Tried Selling Something

I only tried promoting a couple of products.

I stopped almost immediately.

It felt cheap and out of place because the products had very little connection to what people came to me for. I had built an audience around travel, unusual experiences and, in some cases, personal connection. Suddenly dropping an unrelated product into that relationship felt wrong.

That was when I started realizing that having followers and having potential customers are not the same thing.

Followers are not the same thing as a monetizable audience.

My son had proven to me that real money could come from TikTok. But that did not mean every audience could be monetized the same way, or that simply accumulating followers created a business.

The Product Has to Fit the Audience

Once people start building a following, it is easy to ask, “What can I sell them?”

I think the better question is, “Why are they following me?”

If someone follows you for budget travel tips, a travel bag, booking service or travel-related product may fit naturally. If someone follows you because you teach woodworking, tools or plans might make sense.

But if your audience has no clear shared interest, or if the product has little connection to that interest, selling gets harder very quickly.

This is also why follow-for-follow can make an account look more valuable than it really is. Those followers may be perfectly real people, but they have not necessarily shown any interest in your subject, your recommendations or anything you might someday sell.

Attention and Buying Intent Are Different Things

Someone can watch every video you make and still never buy anything from you.

They might enjoy you. They might find you entertaining. They might even feel like they know you.

But spending money requires another step. They have to want something connected to the reason they are paying attention in the first place.

That means a smaller audience with one strong shared interest can sometimes be far more useful than a bigger audience gathered for a dozen different reasons.

So What Do You Do Before You Monetize?

Before I tried selling anything today, I would spend some time figuring out what the audience is actually there for.

Look at what gets comments, saves and shares. Notice what people ask you about. Watch which subjects bring people back and which ones go nowhere.

Then look at possible ways to make money that naturally connect to that interest.

If you cannot clearly explain why your audience would care about what you are selling, I would not force it just because you have followers.

The Bottom Line

A follower count can look like a business opportunity long before it actually is one.

Before you start searching for products, sponsorships or affiliate offers, figure out why people are there and what they already trust you for. Then see whether there is a natural way to build income around that.

A big audience is nice. A relevant audience is worth more.