Alison McCarthy would love to stop and smell the roses, but she'd rather turn them into cash to pay off her student loans.
Last week, the 28-year-old healthcare worker set herself the challenge of trying to pay off the last of her student loans by livestreaming on TikTok. She asked viewers to buy and send her roses. This is a virtual gift that the streamer can redeem for real money.
McCarthy was inspired by Etch-A-Sketch artist Jane Labovitch, who livestreamed her creative process in 2022 in exchange for roses and other gifts. Within 30 days, Labovitch was able to pay off $13,484.58 in art school debt.
On March 8, Mr. McCarthy posted a video mentioning Mr. Labowich's story. “Should I do that?” she asked her followers.
Yes, she should do that, affirmed 13 million people who watched her video. Ms. McCarthy jumped at the opportunity and began streaming her live every day starting Friday, March 8, chatting with viewers for up to three hours at a time and collecting thousands of roses along the way.
“I answer questions, but sometimes I touch on economics,” she said. luck. “Right now, a lot of people are asking me how they can do the same thing, so I'm giving them advice on content creation.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, she had earned $7,310 from TikTok, but the majority of her earnings actually came from TikTok's Creator Rewards Program.
Mr. McCarthy uncovered the issue based on the receipts he examined. luck: She earned $3,082 in gifts from viewers and $4,228 in the beta of TikTok's creativity program, which rewards creators for high-performing videos. She has $7,500 in student loans, but estimates she will need a total of $9,500 after accounting for her taxes.
debt repayment journey
Ms. McCarthy completed her first bachelor's degree in business administration in 2018. The following year, he decided he wanted to enter the medical field, this time pursuing a bachelor's degree in medical imaging. By the time she earned her second degree and started full-time work in 2021, she had just under $20,000 in student loans.
“I make a decent salary, so I'm not struggling,” said McCarthy, who lives in Pennsylvania. luck. “But all I want to do is pay off my debt as soon as possible.”
McCarthy's pursuit of a debt-free lifestyle led her to take on a number of side hustles, including driving as a contractor through the Amazon Flex program and delivering for DoorDash and Instacart. In 2022, she began documenting her debt payments on TikTok with videos about her finances, telling her viewers how she spends her paycheck and splitting bills with her fiancé.
She occasionally made viral videos, but their numbers were inconsistent. Until this month's mega-viral hit and livestream, McCarthy was making about $300 a month through TikTok's creator program this year, she said.
For McCarthy, TikTok's algorithm remains almost a black box. To evaluate payments to creators, TikTok uses an “optimized compensation formula that focuses on four key areas: originality, watch time, search value, and audience engagement,” according to the company. using.
McCarthy said content creation is a much less consistent side hustle than Amazon Flex deliveries. But on the other hand, it hardly feels like work.
“I don't think that's going to work,” McCarthy said. “It's not difficult…it's kind of fun.”
How much do TikTokers earn?
Roses are one of the most popular TikTok gifts, but the menu also includes virtual ice cream cones, pretzels, treasure chests, and more. According to the company, TikTok will collect 50% of the revenue it earns from virtual items “after deducting any required payments to app stores, payment processors, and any other adjustments required under our terms and policies.” The amount will be reduced.
TikTok declined to share cost breakdowns for individual gift items, but it costs a user 1 virtual coin (equivalent to about 1 cent) to buy and send a rose. In McCarthy's case, viewers pay her a cent to give her a rose, and she pockets her half a cent for each rose she receives.
“That's the worst thing,” McCarthy said of sharing profits with the platform. She added her Venmo username to her TikTok profile to receive direct donations, but to little avail.
“I think I got maybe $10 from Venmo,” she said.
For some TikTok creators, live streaming can be very lucrative. Pinky Doll, the “NPC streamer” who briefly became an internet staple last summer, revealed that he earns between $2,000 and $3,000 per stream.
Transparency sells
McCarthy is part of a growing number of influencers who openly discuss their finances and benefit from transparency.
The “loud budgeting” trend that took TikTok by storm this year encouraged young people to openly set financial boundaries with friends and family. His TikTok videos with the hashtag #WhatISpend have racked up more than 421.9 million views, and a 2023 Harris poll found that more than half of Gen Z and Millennials are concerned about their salary. We found that people are more willing to post online.
“I'm sure some of the comments were like, 'Oh, you're just begging for money,'” McCarthy said. “But in any of my videos, I'm not begging. I'm just asking people to donate and participate.”
For McCarthy, the idea of strangers on TikTok chipping in thousands of dollars to help her remains daunting to her. But the comments she received showed that many people could relate to her student loan plight.
“We all have some kind of struggle,” she said.
