'I made £4,500 on TikTok with just 4,300 followers - as a nano-influencer'

Bethany French, 28, posts vlogs of her attending festivals and raves as well as general lifestyle content.

She is classed as a 'nano-influencer' as she doesn't have access to the TikTok creator fund - which you need 10,000 followers and 100,000 views in the last 28 days to be eligible.

But Bethany earns £300 a month by working for different companies to promote their 'sounds' and entering campaigns.

She uses the extra money to "treat" herself to clothing, makeup and experiences like going to dinner with friends - and she spends just seven hours per week uploading up to four videos per day.

Bethany, a pension administrator, from Middlesborough, says: "I started to be more consistent around a year ago. I didn't really like my job to be honest and I enjoyed making videos so I started posting as many as I could.

"I create a lot of festival and rave content, and music. When I came out of my last relationship I had a lot of spare time and I realised I could be doing something with that spare time.

"My wages from my job goes towards my bills and anything extra from content creation goes towards going to raves, or treating myself to anything extra I want to spend it on.

"I've made £4,500 in the last year. Hopefully within the next year I'll go full time with it."

Bethany first started posting on TikTok when the app first launched, but began creating content consistently in 2025.

She began researching 'how to' videos on YouTube about TikTok to see how she could make money from her content - without having a high number of followers.

Now, Bethany makes her content creation work alongside her nine to five, and on a monthly basis can earn between £200 to £300 - as well as getting free samples sent to her from brands in exchange for content.

Clothing brand Halara sent Bethany £500 worth of clothing for six video uploads, and she has also received other items like protein powders and magnetic eyelashes.

"I have loads of different companies I work for," she said. “There are campaigns you can enter.

"The way it works is they send you a content brief and the opportunity to enter and depending where you come and your engagement rate depends on the amount of money you earn.

"The highest I've earned from one video was £85. Festival content tends to come a lot over summer.

"They'll send a lot of briefs over about summer festivals promoting certain sounds. You might need to upload a video of a festival and write 'festival season is coming'.

"A lot of it is promoting music and certain sounds which helps towards promoting festival and rave content a lot. I've noticed a range every month between 100 to 150 followers extra to my page.

"I know the creator fund starts when you reach 10,000 followers. I heard with the creator fund your views are supposed to be lower and it can be slower to get money.

"I'm hoping next year I can pursue it more."

To others thinking of starting their own TikTok side hustle, Bethany advises being consistent and to not "overthink it".

"A lot of videos I didn't post at first because I was embarrassed of what people thought," she said.

"I'd say not to be afraid to post, be consistent with your posting and be yourself. My family and friends love it.

"Whenever we go anywhere they ask me to video things. My friends as well - I don't have a massive following but when we do go out people do recognise me."

Bethany's top tips for content creation:

- Be consistent

- Be your authentic self

- Post what you enjoy

- Have a branding

- If you spot a certain video getting a certain amount of views, post more of those type of videos