If you are active on any social media platform, you must have come across a lot of product videos which are promoted not by some known influencers, but by everyday people like you and me. These videos are known as UGC. What does UGC stand for, and how are creators making 10 to 15k$ a month making UGC? If you have 0 followers, how can you get started as a UGC creator.
UGC stands for user generated content. So, user generated content is content, whether photo, video, text, a review, anything that was authentically created by an everyday user of that product or brand.
Why do companies love UGC?
To make professional video content and video ads brands need to hire their own video production team, social media team, or marketing team or they can work with influencers to create content and promote their products.
UGC kind of acts like the middle ground for them where they don’t need to spend on video production costs or pay money to influencers to post their content. In UGC they get to partner with everyday people who themselves create content for brands and do not charge to post content. A lot of brands love for it to look like it was created by an everyday person or user. Oftentimes, this casual content comes across as more authentic to a viewer because it doesn’t look like the typical overly produced ad. This is more in case of product or service reviews, which also increase trustworthiness of content amongst the user base.
How can you get started as a UGC creator?
You’re looking for like a quick and easy way to make a little bit of money with no effort, this is not it. You will definitely have to put in some practice to perfect your skills, creating UGC content.
Step number 1 – Study what UGC content looks like
Before you create anything, it’s wise to familiarize yourself with other UGC content so you know what’s currently performing well and how you can create your own content. You can go to a TikTok ads website and see what ads are currently running on TikTok. A lot of those you will notice are UGC content.
You can organize by industry to see what content looks like in specific industries. The reason you want to pick an industry is similar to the same reason that you would want to niche down as an influencer or content creator. If you’re creating UGC content for brands in the travel niche and your portfolio is all travel related content and you start pitching to brands in the travel industry, this is going to be a huge win for you and the brands because they’re going to see that you are an expert in their industry.
Step number 2 – Build Your Portfolio
Now that you have an idea of UGC content and what it looks like, build your portfolio. Find some products that you use every day. It can be anything like your clothes, bag, make up kit, skin care products, anything that you are familiar with and use every day. Now these aren’t necessarily the brands that you’re going to be pitching to, so don’t get scared or intimidated by grabbing these things. Just focus on creating because you genuinely love that product.
Remember during this creation process, you’re going to use the inspiration of the UGC content that you had saw before on that TikTok ads website. So you’re pulling inspiration to see what’s currently working and then pulling that into your creation process. After you’ve created some content, you’re going to put that content into a portfolio either on your website or in a media kit.
If you don’t have a website, just go to Canva and create a portfolio website from one of their existing templates.
Step 3 – Find and Apply to UGC Earning opportunities
There are various opportunities for making money using your own UGC portfolio. Here are some of them below.
- Sign up for Amazon influencer program. This is one of the best earning opportunity for UGC Content creators. You can check our article for an in- detailed information of Amazon influencer program regarding how to sign up, what are the requirements and so on.
- Sign up for TikTok Shop Affiliate program. This is another excellent opportunity for UGC content creators. In TikTok shop affiliate program not only you can find ecommerce sellers who are actively looking for UGC content creators, but you can also check which products are giving higher commissions, which videos are trending and more.
- Sign up for existing UGC jobs. Here you can always sign up for websites like Fiverr and Upwork, where clients with existing UGC jobs come to hire talent for their projects. Unlike the above programs which pay you commissions on sales made, these jobs are more of a fixed income per piece of content. You can expect to be paid anything from a 50$ to more than a 1000$ depending on your previous UGC work experience, your influencer status and more.
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