The way to Make Cash on TikTok Promoting PowerPoint Templates

• Jakob Welle-Smogeli, 21, began posting TikToks whereas recovering from an accident.
• Smogeli’s eye-catching movies of PowerPoint shows went viral, and he monetized his platform.
• The content material creator shares how he capitalized on viral TikTok fame and grew his presentation model. 

This as-told-to essay relies on a transcribed dialog with Jakob Welle-Smogeli, a 21-year-old school junior whose PowerPoint movies went viral on TikTok. His revenue has been verified by Insider. It has been edited for size and readability.

I’m a junior at Central Connecticut State College on a soccer scholarship. In the summertime of 2022, I used to be in Norway, the place I am from, recovering from a damaged jaw. I might immediately fainted and brought all of the affect on my jaw. I used to be caught in mattress with nothing to do.

I began making TikToks about PowerPoint shows from my mattress. Six months later, I had 3.8 million TikTok followers on my faceless profile and have remodeled $150,000 from my model.

I observed a development of Excel creators and movies going viral on TikTok 

Final summer time, laid up in mattress, I used to be scrolling by means of TikTok and observed the latest success of content material creators making Microsoft Excel tutorials.

I assumed that if folks can get a great deal of views — and even earn cash — by creating content material round boring software program like Excel, I might replicate it with visually interesting PowerPoint shows.

I hadn’t made loopy PowerPoints earlier than, however I used to be vaguely conscious the software program was able to rather more than what the common individual makes use of it for. I began making cool PowerPoints from mattress and recorded them for TikTok and Reels. 

I posted the primary video in July 2022 below the deal with “jacobppt” and it popped off instantly. The put up’s success did not really feel actual — it nonetheless does not. The third TikTok I ever posted has 22 million views. 

I by no means anticipated my movies to go viral

Creating the content material was enjoyable, and I had nothing higher to do, so I saved posting. I had no concept that over the subsequent few months, it will grow to be a completely fledged enterprise. 

It was fortunate that my first video was common as a result of I did not do any analysis earlier than I began posting; I simply created content material randomly. In hindsight, my early movies have been “good” short-form content material, however I did not know they have been good on the time. 

Over the summer time, I learn extra about what made short-form content material carry out properly and began being extra intentional with the shows and movies I posted. I replicated video buildings that I knew would go viral. 

My intention at first wasn’t to create content material to show it right into a enterprise, however fairly shortly, I began enthusiastic about how one can flip the eye my movies have been stepping into income.

Monetization wasn’t my fundamental purpose, nevertheless it shortly turned a gorgeous choice

I’ve all the time been entrepreneurial. I’ve labored on initiatives earlier than whereas finding out, however they failed fairly quick. My pal and I began a mission serving to Norwegian college students enhance their check scores. However Jacobppt was the primary mission I might doubled down on. 

I began contemplating promoting templates for my PowerPoints in August 2022. Different entrepreneurs I adopted on TikTok bought issues on Gumroad, a platform for promoting digital merchandise. 

Over two weeks in September 2022, I constructed out a bundle of templates to promote on-line. However I prioritized making content material and beginning my junior 12 months at school over creating this product, so some days I might solely spend an hour constructing out my templates, and different days I might work properly into the night time.

Seeing my PowerPoint templates generate actual revenue was wonderful

It was mid-September 2022 after I formally launched my templates. I used to be sitting with my shut pal in my dorm. I set the templates dwell on Gumroad and instantly needed to see if the hyperlink labored. I despatched my pal $18, the value of the templates, on Venmo and my pal purchased them on Gumroad. I refreshed my account and noticed $17.20 — my first revenue after a small charge. 

We went loopy leaping up and down. It is the most effective second whenever you lastly see one thing you have made can generate actual revenue. 

My sister, who’s finding out economics and enterprise administration in Norway, helped me get the Jacobppt model registered as a enterprise there in October. We froze funds in Gumroad till we would arrange our enterprise correctly. She now retains monitor of our firm’s monetary scenario so we are able to make knowledgeable choices on future strikes.

In that first month, we made round $30,000. By November, I used to be making as much as $50,000 a month in template gross sales. 

After releasing my templates, I turned extra intentional with the way in which I created content material. I actually take pleasure in experimenting with other ways to transform site visitors from my short-form content material on Instagram and TikTok into web site site visitors on my Gumroad profile. 

Between September 2022 and February 2023, I remodeled $150,000 from Jacobppt. I’ve made $127,000 in template gross sales and a few brand-partnership offers on my TikTok.

I am fortunate sufficient to be younger and nonetheless have the help of my household — so I may be open to taking dangers

After I began making movies, I used to be targeted on what number of views I might get — attempting to get 2 million or 5 million views. Now, I spend extra time enthusiastic about how one can develop the Jacobppt model in a wholesome and enjoyable manner.

Corporations additionally began contacting me about consulting on their inner PowerPoints and making their pitch decks extra thrilling. 

I am going to nonetheless examine if a video performs properly, however I do not let the views — or the revenue — have an effect on me. My life-style is just about precisely the identical. All of the revenue goes straight again into the enterprise in Norway. 

I have been open to taking dangers in beginning this enterprise due to my mindset. I am nonetheless at school, I nonetheless have a loving household, and if a enterprise enterprise goes to zero, or if it goes properly, I am going to dwell just about the identical life.

If Jacobppt ended tomorrow – like if the US have been to ban TikTok – it will suck, however I might take a look at it as a very good run. I see a future in consulting on company shows. There’s positively a marketplace for pitch-deck consulting. 

After school, I wish to go into enterprise capital. I benefit from the means of constructing corporations, so I wish to pursue that keenness in any kind it takes.

My finest recommendation for folks beginning companies is a cliche, nevertheless it’s to start out fairly than do a great deal of analysis. I am all for studying, however the factor that actually helped me is to closely deal with output, truly creating that Tiktok for Jacobppt, and posting that first video.