Day 5: Tips, Tricks, Pitfalls & The Dark Side of TikTok 🖤

Day 5 Stats

Let's start with the numbers because accountability is everything.

• 💧 Water intake: 2 litres — nailed it
• 👥 Followers: 0 (still, but we're not quitting)
• ❤️ Likes: +4 more
• 👀 Total video views: 4,258 across 2–4 days posting twice daily

Views are climbing. The followers will follow. Stay the course.

TikTok Tips & Tricks I've Learned So Far

📍 Location Matters — Change It Manually

TikTok defaults to your current location, which massively limits your audience. Go into your settings and manually select your location to include the UK and all other countries. This pushes your content out to a global audience instead of just the people around the corner. Game changer.

🎬 Ride the Trends — The Banadul Photo Effect

I tried the Banadul Photo Effect trend and here's exactly how to do it:

1. Go to the TikTok search bar and type Banadul Photo Effect
2. Click on the result that has a video camera icon next to it
3. Select the video camera
4. Pick any photo from your camera roll — literally any picture works
5. Press and hold the record button for 7 seconds
6. TikTok creates a cool video from your photo automatically
7. Keep the music TikTok selects — don't change it
8. Write a good description explaining how to do the trend — people love a tutorial in the caption
9. Use a couple of relevant hashtags

⚠️ Hashtag Warning — Avoid #FYP and #Viral

I learned this the hard way. Using hashtags like #fypppp or #viral is too broad — your video gets lost in the noise and can completely crash and burn. I got 2 views on a video using these. Stick to more targeted, relevant hashtags instead.

What Makes a Good Content Creator?

After spending time on TikTok, here's what I've noticed actually works:

• Relatable creators who share snippets of their real lives — people connect with authenticity and look forward to seeing them
• Tarot readers promising luck, money and happiness with a strong call to action — huge followings, loads of comments and views. Love it or hate it, the CTA strategy works
• Trend tutorial creators — people who show you how to do trends perform really well. Which is exactly why I included the Banadul how-to above 😉

⚠️ The Dark Side of TikTok — Scam Alert

Let's talk about something important because I want to protect anyone reading this.

Beware of Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mummy scams.

Here's how it works: someone slides into your DMs with an elaborate story — they're in the army, recently widowed, left with a child, pulling on every heartstring possible. They offer to pay your shopping for the week, just for chatting to them. They even send screenshots of the money ready to transfer.

But here's the catch — to release the funds, they ask you to buy an Amazon voucher first.

There are no funds. There is no money. They've just scammed you out of a £25 voucher and potentially your bank details too.

If it sounds too good to be true, it is. Always.

If a sugar mummy or daddy pops into your DMs offering to pay your bills — block, report, move on.

Canva Tip — Avoid the Crown Templates

If you're a Canva paid subscriber, you'll see templates with a crown icon — these are premium templates. Here's the problem: if your audience doesn't have a paid Canva subscription, they cannot see content you've created using those templates.

So if you're creating content for social media or your store, design your own templates using standard images and elements — skip the crown templates entirely. You want everyone to be able to see what you've made.

Shopify Reality Check — Don't Fall for the Commission Chasers

You think you've got your first sale. Your heart jumps. Then you open the email and it says something like Is your shop open for orders? or Who is the owner of this store?

These are not customers. These are salespeople claiming to be part of the Shopify community, looking to take a commission from your website.

That first sale feeling is precious — don't let anyone hijack it. You built the BAD ASS brand. You had the idea. You did the work. Keep it BAD ASS and keep it yours.

📝 Pro Tip of the Day — Save Your Blog Somewhere Safe!

And finally — a lesson I learned today. Do not write your blog only in the Shopify Sidekick chat. If something goes wrong, it can disappear and it cannot be recovered.

Write your blog in Google Docs, Notion, Notes — anywhere — then paste it in. Save yourself the heartache. Trust me on this one. 😅

Day 6 tomorrow. We keep going. 🖤

#BADAss #BuildingInPublic #TikTokTips #DayInTheLife #EntrepreneurJourney