The TikTok Shop Affiliate tools

Basics Run your first real affiliate test — the right product, posted right, counted honestly

• The product-pick filter scorecardSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapter 3

  Score a product 1–3 on five things — commission in cash, price, demand, can-you-show-it, return risk — before you film. Three are pass/fail gates, so a dud is thrown out whatever its total, and your strongest survivor rises to the top. The week of filming you don't waste.

• The pre-post compliance checklistDownload TXT

  chapter 4

  The thirty-second gate you run before every shoppable video — disclosure toggle, say-it, show-it, caption, and only-claims-you-can-back — so you never lose a video to a checkbox. Plain-English, not legal advice.

• The settled-commission trackerSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 1 & 8

  Log each sale, mark it settled, returned or pending, and see the money that actually stayed next to the flashy figure that flashed up. Because a sale isn't a commission until its return window passes — the settled total is the one that's yours.

Intermediate Turn lucky commissions into a system that pays every week

• The settled-commission tracker — IntermediateSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapter 9

  The upgraded tracker for when you're posting at volume. Log each order's estimated commission, then add the final figure beside it as it settles — never overwriting, so the gap shows your refund reality. It works out each product's return rate against a cull line you set, your settled cash view, and a rolling settled baseline — so you can see whether a week landed above or below your own recent normal, judged against your numbers, never a stranger's screenshot.

Advanced Break the filming-hour ceiling and build an operation that lasts

• The portfolio & resilience dashboardSpreadsheet XLSX

  chapters 7 & 10

  The dashboard for running a scaled one-person operation without the wheels coming off. Enter each product's and each brand's settled income and it works out their share against the concentration cap you set — flagging anything that's grown too large to depend on (chapter 7). Then it runs the binary scale check (chapter 10): pre-declare your buffer, rework and settled-income limits, enter today's actuals, and it returns one verdict — green to add your next increment, or red with the exact discipline to fix first. Wired so a thin buffer or an unmitigated high risk forces a stop.

Kept current The follower ladder & commission ranges, checked by hand

The fastest-changing figures the Basics book touches — who can join, and what a sale pays. Checked by hand and dated. The book's method doesn't move; these numbers do.

⚠️ These change, and they differ by country. Treat them as a shape to expect, not a quote — always check the requirement TikTok shows you, in your country, on its own creator/affiliate screen before you rely on a figure.

• Starting with no followers — possible if a brand invites you to promote their shop (you can only promote that shop's products), or via a linked/official-account setup. You can't summon an invite, so most beginners plan around the self-apply path below.
• Self-apply to the open marketplace — around 1,000 followers (US, early 2026) lets you apply yourself and promote anyone's products. Below ~5,000 you're placed in a 30-day starter phase (the Creator Pilot), which caps how many shoppable videos and LIVEs you can post while you learn the ropes. (We don't print the exact cap — it changes and differs by country; read it in-app.)
• Lifting the cap — leaving the starter phase takes about 5,000 followers, time in the program, a clean Creator Health Rating (TikTok's own account score — you clear its bar), and a set task; TikTok also offers an earlier lift if you pass its early-removal checks.
• What a sale pays — commission is a share of each sale, set by the seller and varying widely by category (often somewhere from single digits up to around a third). Remember: returns claw the commission back, so plan on the settled figure, and check the live rate on each product.

Checked at source 2026-10-12; next review due Jan 2027. Dated copy, not a live feed — confirm on TikTok's own screens before you rely on a figure. Nothing here is legal or financial advice.

Free calculators Live tools you can use right now — no download

• Commission calculatorCalculator Live

  See the commission that actually settles after returns — not the flashy estimate the app shows first.

• Earnings estimatorCalculator Live

  Turn monthly views, click and conversion rates into an estimate of your monthly commission income.

• Income goal plannerCalculator Live

  Work backwards from a target income to the sales, clicks and views it would take to reach it.

• Engagement rate calculatorCalculator Live

  Your video's engagement rate from views, likes, comments, shares and saves, with a benchmark read.