Entrepreneurial teenagers concoct genius plan to get paid to leave comments on people’s Instagrams

Though the majority of nonprofessional TikTok users see the platform as a way to kill time during the day, one group of teenagers has found a way to strategically utilize the social networking service to create a lucrative side hustle.

Sami, a high school student from California, came up with the idea with her friends to leverage TikTok as a marketing platform simply because, well, they were broke.

“Being in quarantine as broke high school students, we had to get creative,” Sami told In The Know. “I feel like TikTok can be so random and there’s so many things people will do just for the sake of a TikTok — just as it used to be for ‘do it for the Vine’ — so we wondered if there was a way we could make money through the app.”

So how exactly have Sami and her friends been able to make money via TikTok? Well, on August 4, Sami uploaded a video to her account offering to have her and her friends leave a comment on any Instagram account for just $2.

@samiwamyy

venmo – sami-jara || tell me what you want me to do/account @ on the transaction!! #foryou #fyp

♬ original sound – gabriella.rae

Want some artificial hype on one of your Instagram photos? Venmo Sami $2, and she and her friends will spam the heck out of the photo of your choosing.

“It’s perfect because who doesn’t want to be hyped up on their Instagram posts and feel beautiful?” the teen explained.

Sami and her friends aren’t afraid to get down and dirty in the comments section, either. For the same amount, the teenagers will also “spam a Republican you may know with ‘Biden 2020’ comments.”

“We also have an option that people can pay us to spam Republicans with ‘Biden 2020’ comments because we noticed (and strongly agree with) TikTok being a very liberal platform,” Sami explained. “Since the algorithm would be set for liberal teenagers/young adults to see our video, we thought we’d give it a shot and see what would happen.”

According to Sami, some TikTok users have even submitted personalized requests, which Sami and her friends happily oblige.

“One girl asked me to DM her boyfriend and flirt with him to see if he was loyal,” the teen revealed. “That was interesting. Someone also ended up paying ME to hype all of US up which I thought was super cute. Who knew so many TikTok strangers are so sweet?”

Sami’s TikTok strategy has certainly paid off. According to the entrepreneur, the video has already had more than 274,000 views and received upwards of 35,000 likes, generating more than $550 in revenue.

“I can hardly believe it,” Sami said. “Some days I get a LOT of Venmo transaction notifications, but other [days] I’ll have like four. Regardless, it still blows my mind I get any at all.”

If you enjoyed this story, find out how one woman makes $9,000 a month working as a virtual assistant.

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