From "Terrible" TikToks to a $25,000 Month: How Ally Sells Her Nursing School Notes

Ally didn't start with a polished product or a carefully planned business. After an expensive move across the country, the nurse and NCLEX tutor hoped selling her nursing school notes might cover a car payment.

Her first study guide was messy, and she initially promoted it with TikTok videos she admits were "terrible." Still, it sold on day one. From there, she kept improving her product and doubled down on content creation, showing her face, testing hooks and clickbait, and learning which study tips made nursing students stop scrolling.

Today, she has over 132k followers on TikTok and sells study guides through her Sellfy store, with sales reaching about $25,000 in her best month.

In this interview, she shares how understanding her audience, posting consistently, and pairing a free guide with follow-up emails helped her grow, and what she's learned about seasonal sales and burnout.

What do you do, and what do you sell on Sellfy?

I'm a surgical nurse. I graduated from nursing school in 2023 and became an NCLEX tutor. While studying for the NCLEX, the licensing exam you take after nursing school, I turned my notes into a textbook for myself. I love taking notes and keeping them super organized.

When I was tutoring people, I thought, "I'm just going to give them my study guide because it's really good." I eventually made it look more professional and started selling it. I tried other platforms before moving to Sellfy. I started promoting the guide on TikTok in 2024.

What came first: your study guide or your TikTok content?

I started tutoring because I needed money. I passed the NCLEX in 2023, then moved across the country from Washington to Texas. I thought, "How can I quickly make up for this expensive move that my husband and I just made?"

For a couple of months before my NCLEX, I studied and created this guide.

Then I decided to promote my guide on TikTok, hoping I'd maybe make my car payment.

My videos were terrible at first. I would record my study guide and talk over it: "Hey, if you want this study guide, you can message me." It worked—I sold copies the first day I posted! Then I started posting more and more.

Do you still work as a nurse while creating content?

I've worked as a plastic surgery nurse for the past three years. I was working full-time when I started creating content, but recently moved to part-time so I could focus more on it.

How has your study guide evolved?

The first version was very messy, and it had a lot of cuss words because that's how I talk. I sold it that way for the first couple of months. I even put a warning in the description because I wanted to sell my notes just the way they were.

I occasionally got messages from people saying their kids read it. My response was, "It said so in the description. I don't know what to tell you." I finally decided to pull it and redo it.

As sales picked up, I thought I should have a website and a more professional-looking product. At that point, the guide was about 150 pages of barely edited notes.

"I made it more professional and better organized. In early 2025, I started showing my face in videos and posting advice. My sales took off, and I decided it was time for another refresh. That's when I switched to Sellfy."

I made a web page and matched my study guides to it. I added a cover page, a table of contents, and a consistent style throughout so everything looked like a cohesive business.

There have probably been three versions, and it takes a long time to redo them. I retyped the entire study guide in Canva. I also double-checked all of my content because people were paying for it, and I wanted to make sure everything I had written was 100% correct.

Did polishing the study guide affect sales?

I don't know if sales increased because of the more polished product or because I got better at understanding what makes people buy on social media.

It all happened at the same time. I'm sure having a professional-looking product and website helped, but I didn't notice a huge shift from the product refresh alone.

"What really increased my sales was changing how I posted content."

In late 2024 or early 2025, I started showing my face and paying more attention to what people wanted. I thought, "If I were a nursing student, what would make me pay attention to this video and want to buy the product?"

I also added a free guide to my website. When people download it, they're automatically added to a three-email follow-up sequence, built with Sellfy's marketing tools, offering a discount code for the full product. That really increased sales as well.

How did you develop your social media strategy?

At first, I simply filmed my study guide, not showing my face, and said, "Here are all my nursing school notes if you want them." I made a rule to post every day and that helped me earn around $1,000 a month.

Then I shared a video of myself talking about common NCLEX mistakes. It got more views than anything I'd posted before. That made me think, "Maybe people want to hear from me, not just see the product."

I started talking to the camera more and experimenting with different topics, from nursing life to educational content. I realized people scroll TikTok for entertainment and things that grab their attention, not to learn. A study hack or a secret tip gives them a reason to stop, unlike a more complex topic like medications.

Once I focused on study routines, practical tips, and ways to make NCLEX prep easier, my sales grew significantly. One example is my "crazy girl study routine," which I actually followed in nursing school. The framing is intentionally a little clickbaity, but my experience behind it is real.

I also revisit videos that perform well and reuse their hooks with different wording. My account covers the same few topics, and that's never been a problem. On TikTok, people often discover individual videos through recommendations, so they aren't necessarily seeing everything I post.

Did you take any social media courses, or did you learn by doing?

No courses, just months of consistent posting, paying attention, and figuring out what works for my audience. I regularly look back at my most-viewed videos and the hooks people respond to. Selling other products like scrubs through TikTok Shop helped me learn, too.

The opening of the video is especially important. I use different wording for what I say and the on-screen text above my head, giving viewers two reasons to be curious. Something like, "There's a hack that will make your entire NCLEX prep easier," makes a nursing student want to hear more.

Which platforms did you try before Sellfy, and why did you switch?

I started on Etsy, and within about two months, they had shut down my shop twice and kept my money. I lost about $700, which was huge when I was just starting out and desperately needed money. I don't even shop on Etsy anymore because that experience really hurt.

Then I used SendOwl for about a year and a half. When sales picked up, I was consistently meeting their threshold and paying a fee for each product sold. I thought, "That's not fair. It encourages me not to make more sales."

I started looking around and found Sellfy. Setup was easy, and all the students who bought my guide received it—something I'd had problems with on the other platforms.

"Before switching to Sellfy, I used to get Instagram messages every day from people saying, 'I never got the guide.' I don't know whether the delivery emails were going to spam, but I had to email people the guide directly. I don't have to do that with Sellfy."

The email setup I was using with Zapier also works really nicely with Sellfy, which is wonderful.

How much revenue do you make on Sellfy, and how does it vary by season?

It fluctuates a lot. In 2026, even the slower months on my Sellfy store have brought in around $10,000 to $11,000. This has been my best year because I feel like I've figured out what works.

"I think $25,000 has been my best month so far. I only see it going up because I'm getting into my groove."

The peak months, when people are graduating, are May and June.

I was feeling a little down about making $10,000 in September 2026 because that wasn't great compared with May and June. But in September 2025, I made only $4,000, and that's a pretty big difference. So, I try to focus on growth instead of just the monthly numbers.

What have you learned about handling slower sales months?

Most people take the NCLEX around graduation, so May and June are high months for me. December and January are also strong because people graduate in December. September has consistently been my slowest month, and I don't know why.

Outside April, May, June, December, and January, I shift my marketing more toward nursing school content and less toward NCLEX content.

"When I was only posting NCLEX content and had really low months, it used to freak me out. But I've learned to detach. Everything has ebbs and flows. Even if I have a low week with no views or comments, something seems to take off the next week. I've learned to hang in there."

There haven't been any huge failures.

How do you manage daily content creation and avoid burnout?

I try to post every day, but I haven't been as consistent lately. I think I experienced burnout after doing it every day for so long that my brain put up a mental block. I didn't even want to go on my phone or doomscroll.

"Recently, I started almost 'clocking in' for an hour to work on TikTok, emails, and everything else. I turn off grayscale on my phone only during that time. It helps me separate work from simply being on my phone."

Posting is super important, but I also respond to messages every day and reply to comments on videos from the past week. I browse my For You feed and comment on posts from other nursing content creators I follow.

How do Instagram and TikTok compare for your business?

I started on TikTok well before Instagram, and I'm a lot less active on Instagram.

I get a lot of views on Instagram, but fewer people click my links.

TikTok still drives most of my sales.

What income streams do you have besides digital products?

"About 95% of my online income comes from digital products."

About a year and a half ago, I tried promoting scrubs and similar products through TikTok Shop on my nursing study account. I stopped because I wanted to focus on selling my own product.

I guess that was a failure. I wanted to experiment, and a lot of the videos went viral. I made thousands of dollars from those scrubs, but I felt it diluted my business, so I stopped. I still have a separate TikTok Shop account, but that's different.

I also recommend products through Amazon affiliate links. I work with Mometrix on prep for the TEAS and HESI, entrance exams for nursing school. I don't have guides for those exams, so I collaborate with Mometrix and have a discount code.

I've also worked with companies such as UWorld and Archer.

What would you like to develop next?

I get tutoring requests every day, but I don't have time to take everyone on. I'd love to build a small network of tutors I trust so I can refer people instead of turning them away.

Now that I'm working part-time, I'd also like to offer study consultations, especially for people who've failed the NCLEX. When I tutored repeat test takers, I often found they knew the content, but they needed a different approach to studying.

Sometimes I read a message and think, "Can I just call you?" I'd love to talk through what they're doing, figure out what isn't working, and help them prepare with a clearer plan.

What advice would you give someone who wants to sell their knowledge online?

1. Figure out exactly who your product is for. Put yourself in their shoes and think, "What would I want to know if I were this person buying my product?" That's what I did, and things really took off when I started thinking about which hooks would work for a nursing student.
2. Figure out social media. That's what helped me become successful at selling digital products.
3. Be more present and active on social media. Comment on people's posts, like their content, and reply to comments on your own posts. TikTok rewards that. I feel that when I spend an hour or an hour and a half on the app, even just doomscrolling, I get more views.