How to make money on TikTok and Instagram: a 2026 guide

Yes, you can make money on TikTok and Instagram. For most creators, though, the money does not come from the platforms themselves, but from partnerships: affiliate links that earn commission on sales, personal discount codes, paid posts for brands and sales of their own products. You do not need hundreds of thousands of followers – a smaller profile with a clear topic and followers who trust you can sell more than a large profile without focus.

The guide goes through the ways creators make money, how affiliate links and discount codes work in practice, and the ad-labelling and tax rules you need to know from the first post. We are a Danish network, so the rules we describe are the Danish ones – disclosure and tax rules differ by country, so check your own if you post from elsewhere. We promise no amounts: what a profile earns depends on topic, audience and effort, and figures from other creators can rarely be verified.

5 ways to make money as a creator#

The platforms' own payment programs – payment for views, gifts in live streams and subscriptions – are not in the table. Which of them are open to accounts in a given country is decided by TikTok and Meta themselves, and it changes. Check your app's creator settings to see what your account has access to, and do not build your plan on them: most creators in Denmark earn their money through partnerships.

Affiliate links on TikTok and Instagram#

An affiliate link is a personal link to a store. If a follower clicks and buys, the sale is recorded and you get a commission – a percentage of the order or a fixed amount the store has set. You do not need stock, to send parcels or to handle returns. The store only pays once there is a sale that holds.

The link can go wherever the platforms allow links: in your bio, in a link collection in your bio, in stories and in descriptions. Because a link in the bio is far from the video, you need to say it clearly in the content – "the link is in my bio" – and ideally have a page with your recommendations gathered together. With a sub-ID per channel you can see with us whether the sales come from TikTok, Instagram or your YouTube channel. How links and sub-IDs work is described under links and, step by step, in the docs under links and sub-IDs.

Personal discount codes: commission without a click#

Many followers do not click links – they remember the code from the video and type it in at checkout later, perhaps on another device. That is why many creators work with discount codes. At Affilyflow there are two kinds of code. A personal discount code is a code the store has tied to you. If a customer uses it, you earn commission on the sale – even if the customer never clicked your link, for example because they declined cookies or bought on another device. A general code that the store gives to all its affiliates, on the other hand, does not earn commission on its own – there it is the link that counts.

If the customer has both clicked a valid affiliate link and used a code, the click always wins. And the code has to be recordable by the store's setup: personal discount codes work with our script, the WooCommerce plugin from version 1.11.0 and Stripe for one-off payments – not with our Shopify app yet. If you get a personal code, you can see it on the program's page in your dashboard. Read more about codes in the glossary under affiliate code.

Ad labelling: the Danish rules you need to know#

If you get a benefit for mentioning a product, the mention is advertising. The Danish Consumer Ombudsman (Forbrugerombudsmanden) explicitly mentions payment, free products, discounts, gifts, experiences and commission from affiliate agreements. No actual agreement is required, and mentioning your own products is also advertising. The rule is in the Danish Marketing Practices Act, and as an influencer you are personally responsible for complying with it.

• Write "Reklame" or "Reklame for [brand]" (advertising for [brand]) as the very first thing in the post, and label each post separately.
• In videos, the label must come first in the title and be visible where the video is shown. In stories and images without text, it must be in the image itself in clear lettering.
• With an affiliate link, "Reklamelink" or "Annoncelink" must appear above the link or directly next to it. "Affiliate link", "affiliate agreement" or "this post may contain ad links" is not enough.
• Hashtags, tags, a label at the end of the text and phrases such as "in collaboration with" are not clear labelling. The platforms' own labels should be supplemented with "Reklame" at the start of the post.
• The label must not require the follower to scroll or click further to see it.

Breaches can be punished with fines, and on its page about social media the Danish Consumer Ombudsman has listed Danish rulings where influencers were fined DKK 15,000 to 40,000 for hidden advertising (the page was updated on 19 December 2024). Read the rules directly at the Danish Consumer Ombudsman (in Danish), and see our entries on the Consumer Ombudsman's influencer rules and ad disclosure. If you post from another country, look up that country's rules – they are not the same everywhere.

Tax on what you earn as a creator#

The Danish Tax Agency is clear: income from affiliate marketing is taxable, and so are free products, gift cards, discounts and sponsored items – even if you did not ask for them. If it is a hobby, the profit is taxed without the labour market contribution; if you run it as a business, other rules apply. When the income reaches DKK 50,000, you must as a rule register for VAT, and the value of products and gift cards also counts here – check on skat.dk how the period is calculated.

The Danish Tax Agency has a dedicated guide for content creators on skat.dk, which describes where the income must be reported. We have gathered the Danish rules for affiliates in affiliate income tax and VAT in Denmark – and whether you are a hobby or a business is covered in hobby or business. If you are taxed outside Denmark, your own country's rules apply.

How many followers do you need?#

There is no threshold for affiliate links and discount codes: you can earn commission from your first follower. Brands paying fixed fees, on the other hand, look at reach and engagement, and here a micro-influencer with a close-knit audience often has an advantage in a niche. What matters most is not the number, but whether your followers are the right ones for the products you recommend.

If you want to know more about how affiliate marketing works from the ground up, read our guide to affiliate marketing. If you see social media as part of a broader plan, a site can be a good supplement – see build an affiliate site – and more ways to earn extra money are in make money from home and make money online.