Talon Krebs was sitting in an 8 a.m. college class when he realized one of his TikTok videos was taking off.
A few weeks earlier, he’d posted a video about a digital business card available through TikTok Shop. When he glanced at his phone during class that February morning, he saw he had already earned $100 in commissions that day alone.
“I was blown away,” the 23-year-old told Business Insider. “That was my biggest day already.”
The video kept gaining traction. By the end of February, he’d earned more than $10,000 in commissions from the product.
Krebs, a University of Nebraska alum who graduated in May 2026, now works full time as a TikTok Shop affiliate. He promotes products in short-form videos and earns a commission when someone buys through his shopping link.
The gig earned him six figures last year, according to a 1099 form reviewed by Business Insider.
Starting with a few hundred dollars and a personal TikTok account
TikTok offers affiliates more than one path into its shopping program. Krebs said its pilot program requires 1,000 followers but limits participants to a handful of posts each week. The main program offers more flexibility, he said, but requires at least 5,000 followers.
Krebs already had about 24,000 followers on a personal account he started in high school, a following he had built by posting about sports and other interests. His startup costs were minimal: about $100 to $200 for products to promote, including a three-pack of sweatshirts he bought because he needed hoodies anyway.
Filming his first few videos felt “uncomfortable,” he said. He kept the hoodie video simple, dropping the still-packaged sweatshirts onto a table and talking about them on camera. It led to a sale — and about $3 in commission.
“When I saw that, I was blown away,” he said. “I was like, ‘Wow, I just made money from my phone.'”
The barrier to entry can be low: New affiliates can film on a smartphone, use TikTok’s built-in editing tools, and even make videos about eligible products they already own. Krebs also spent about $1,500 to join Media Labs, a community that connected him with other affiliates, offered video feedback, and held weekly calls. Unable to afford the fee upfront, he paid in monthly installments.
For him, the biggest barrier to entry wasn’t financial. It was getting comfortable being visible online.
“I got flamed. I got made fun of,” he said, noting that his peers weren’t used to seeing him make product videos. Learning to tune out that reaction was “a big hurdle” early on.
Posting up to 30 videos a day
Krebs’s main source of income is tagging products directly in videos and earning a commission on sales attributed to those posts, but he has other ways to make money as a creator. He does paid posts for brands and creates user-generated content, or UGC, that brands can use on their own channels. He also earns commissions when brands run his videos as ads on Meta platforms through a service called TRIBE.
TikTok Shop commissions offer the biggest opportunity, he said, because a video’s upside is not capped by a flat fee.
“One video can make you an unlimited amount of money,” he said. Working directly with a brand, by contrast, typically means earning a set amount.
Krebs focuses most of his effort on his primary TikTok account, where he typically posts 10 to 20 videos a day. He also runs two other accounts, including a faceless account he uses for quick-hit product videos and experimentation. Across all three, he aims to publish 20-30 videos per day.
He batch-films three to nine videos per product before editing them himself or sending them to an editor. Most run 30 to 50 seconds. A good video, he said, begins with a strong hook that stops someone from scrolling, then clearly shows how a product solves a problem.
His biggest products have included an electric screwdriver, an electric snow shovel, and items from an NFL merchandise brand called Pegasus.
TikTok Shop is a launchpad, not the end goal
Krebs has built a profitable business through TikTok Shop, but he doesn’t see affiliate income as something he can rely on forever.
“I don’t have equity in my TikTok Shop business,” he said. “I can’t exit my TikTok Shop business.”
He’s now using some of his earnings to develop a caffeinated bone-broth brand that he expects to launch early next year. The product, still in development, is intended as an alternative to a morning coffee or an energy drink.
TikTok Shop has made Krebs money, but building his own brand is his attempt to turn that income into an asset.
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