Black Friday Blues

Well, I think most TikTok Shop affiliates are feeling underwhelmed, to say the least, about this year's Black Friday and all the lead-up and hype surrounding it—Q4 is going to make millionaires!—yeah, not so much. I think the people doing well are the ones with agencies, brand deals and six figure followers, just as I predicted when my own sales and views began to fall off a cliff in mid October. Also, I think the established affiliates who are making 10-20 videos a day across multiple accounts, or who are going Live for four to five hours a day are still pulling five figures, at least that's what they're saying. 

I only make shoppable videos. I don't do Lives, campaigns or collaborations and I'm not with an agency. I didn't take a course and I'm not part of a discord group that charges a monthly fee. I learned how to do TikTok Shop all on my own—and I'm still learning. That being said, since March I've done almost 500K in GMV and have made over $65K in commissions. I could be doing better, but some things I value more than a six figure income.

TikTok Shop has made a lot of people "rich" and many have bragged about quitting their 9-5's, buying their dream homes, paying cash for multiple new cars, all the while looking you straight in the face and saying, you can do it too! So many people, eager to get off the struggle bus, fought tooth and nail to become an affiliate, only to find out that it's work, and hard work at that. But where was the windfall? Maybe you just need some help, and don't worry there's plenty out there, for a fee. 

Need some good hooks? That'll be $70

Need a pro to audit your account? $150

Maybe you'll be persuaded to buy a course. $240

Or join a discord. $50 monthly

Call me crazy, but if there is enough TikTok Shop pie to go around, then why are these successful creators selling slices? I think the pie is much smaller these days due to the massive influx of new affiliates. A year ago, there was only about 100K affiliates (early adopters as I've heard them called) beta fish in a relatively small pond and they made out like bandits. They grew fast and still dominate the waters despite the addition of over one million new affiliates—it's too much, too fast and I think the algorithm had a fit processing the massive amount of affiliate content the last six weeks or so leading up to BFCM. Two very successful accounts I've been following since I started, and who are early adopters, had to up their game this last month during this BF mess. One made over 800 videos across two accounts and the other claims to have made over 1600 videos in just six weeks. That's fucking insane. So, if they are having to do that to maintain five figures a month then what hope do the rest of us have? That's just my opinion and it is also my opinion that TikTok needs to slow their roll with new affiliates. I know people are eager to get in, but with more competition in the space, you and I are going to have to work 10X harder to see the same results, or see very little success, because with each new wave of affiliates, that slice of pie is becoming more like a sliver.