3 Steps to Get Started In UGC

How To Make Money with UGC

In todays day and age, it’s almost a necessity to have a side hustle of some sort. For me as a full time creative, my favorite side hustle has been UGC or User Generated Content creation. This is a relatively new profession but it’s a great way for creatives to monetize their business without worrying about influence. Essentially all you need to do is create content of a product and show yourself using the item like an influencer would for advertisements.

In the past year, I have worked with several UGC brands from beauty brands to lifestyle companies. Each has been a fun way to supplement my income and allow me to be creative without having to post necessarily on my social pages. As a large fashion influencer, it can be challenging making income in my niche so UGC allows me to continue providing for my business without losing my core, personal demographic. If you’re multi-passionate like me, this is a great option for you!

Make a UGC Media Kit

The first and most crucial step to UGC is making a media kit for yourself. I learned how to make mine from Sidewalker Daily, an influencer course I took last summer. In my media kit, I start off by highlighting my past projects and creations. This has meant both photographs of products I have taken in the past few months as well as videos of products. In UGC marketing, you want to highlight whatever you are selling more than yourself. This is why trending audios are great practice for this type of selling as well as just practicing your photography/videography skills overall. As you familiarize yourself with content creation and highlighting your favorites, brands will quickly start to take notice!

Now, with your media kit I also recommend having personal statistics if you personally have any influence. This could be a small Instagram or TIkTok page where you can link up statistics of your past work. I add my influence to the end of my pitch deck so brands can double dip if they so desire. This will also help establish credibility because brands will see how your work numerically has performed alongside seeing the quality of work. As you develop your UGC brand and skills, you can also share how advertising has gone to further establish yourself.

Create a Portfolio

Example from a recent UGC project with Fragrance.com

My next tip is an underrated one but I have found it to be highly beneficial, it’s having a portfolio for your content! While mine is a hybrid of my influencer work and UGC, having any sort of portfolio living on a website is fantastic for creatives. Think of portfolios along with media kits as your resume for brands, this is where you want to really highlight projects you are proud of. You should also share a range of videos and photographs to show brands your versatility. The more you can do, the more you can share with a business and that is incredibly valuable! In my portfolio I share all of my lifestyle pillars plus blog copy, photographs and videos that are all available through my social platforms.

Create a Separate Social Media Page

Excerpt from a recent post

If you are not already an influencer, I recommend creating a separate page for your posts and content. Ideally you want to show how your work performs so brands can see your credibility. While I am a full blown influencer and a bit of a different echelon from the average person, you can easily make a UGC page to share photographs and videos. You can also see how well those pieces of content perform so you can speak directly to brands numerically what their return of investment will look like. The more you are able to establish yourself from the start, the better off you will be in the long run!

Best of Luck!

I hope this helps your upcoming UGC endeavors! I know it’s quite the buzzword these days but if you’re willing to put in the work and just try, you never know what you’ll be able to accomplish! For me, it’s been a great way to supplement my income and relieve my audience from solely watching sponsored content. While I make less from UGC partnerships, I still enjoy having them in my repertoire because it allows me to experiment with different kinds of content while also bringing in some income. I also have learned a lot from these partners to further my overall influencer career!

Until next time,

Lauren