u/General_Strategy_106

A cruise brand recently approached me and wanted me to shoot what the actual experience looks like from a traveller’s perspective. They wanted videos that felt natural and could be used for Reels, social media and marketing, So instead of paying for the experience, I created content for them ( yk ngl it was my childhood dream to travel in a cruise ship , today i got to experience that and that too for free )

The collaboration included things like:

1. Cabin and room tour
2. Walking around the ship and showing different areas
3. Food and dining experience
4. Activities and entertainment
5. Lifestyle B-roll throughout the trip
6. Short-form videos with voiceovers

This collaboration came because of my friend , he is an experienced UGC creator ( 5 yrs exp) so he referred me , hence brand approached me and asked for my portfolio , after they liked my portfolio we discussed rest of the terms like payment , date of travelling etc .I am travelling with my husband and its the best feeling ever :)

I am working at a company that pays exactly just at the minimum, with no other benefits to enjoy. But at the same time, this side hustle is what keeps me afloat. I found this side hustle by accident when I was scrolling through job markets and saw one post looking for a mystery guest. It sounded weird and suspicious but as I looked through the description, it was just a mystery guest to rate hotel service.

So, hotel companies hire us (mystery guests) to evaluate the guest experience and how their hotel staff accommodate us. Of course, we’re not supposed to announce that we are evaluators, we should always act like a normal customer like someone on vacation.

You don’t have to be extra with your stay, the company will give me a set of assignments to do that I should pay attention to throughout my entire stay. Such as checking the booking process, check-in, staff communication, room preparation, and the overall experience. Then after all that, I will create a REALLY detailed report of what happened, even including timestamps and dates. I check-in pretending like a normal guest, but I’m observing like an evaluator then writing a report as if Karen was writing it on her Facebook posts with every necessary and unnecessary detail.

worked night security, downloaded a mobile payout testing app, completed 20-minute user testing tasks on my phone while sitting in the booth. cashed out $20–$30 a night straight to PayPal.

saved $2,800 over 4 months and bought a clean 2008 Suzuki DRZ400 dual-sport cash. didn't tell my manager.

After writing UGC scripts for a while, you start seeing the same formats over and over again.

Some are overused for a reason. They’re easy to adapt, easy for creators to work with, and when the angle is good they still perform.

These are the 3 templates I'd probably use the most right now.

1.) Problem/Solution:

This is the obvious one, (old but gold) but it works because people immediately know whether the video is relevant to them.

Instead of opening with the product, start with the exact problem it solves. The more specific, the better. Then explain what you were doing before, why that wasn't working, and bring the product in naturally as the thing that fixed it.

A basic script would look something like:

"If you struggle with [specific problem], this might help. I used to [old solution], but [why it sucked]. I started using [product] because [reason], and now [specific result]"

A mistake here is using a problem that's way too generic, "I wanted to be more productive" means nothing, its better to try something like "I was wasting two hours every morning manually doing X"

2.) Product Demo (only for good appealing products):

This is probably my favorite for apps and tools because you can let the product do the selling.

Start with what you're about to accomplish, then immediately show the process. You don't need 10 seconds of context before the viewer actually sees the thing they're supposed to care about.

Something like:

"I found a way to [desired result] in [time]. You just [step one], then [step two], and it gives you [result]. I used it for [actual use case] and this is what I got."

Screen recordings are perfect for this. If someone can understand why the product is useful just by watching you use it, there's no reason to bury that under a huge script.

3.) Storytime:

This one is harder to get right, but when it works it feels the least like an ad.

The product shouldn't really be the story. It should be the thing that appears naturally because of what happened.

"[Interesting thing] happened to me last week. I was trying to [goal] when [problem happened].

I tried [first reaction/solution], which didn't work, so I ended up using [product]. [Interesting result/twist]."

The easiest test is removing the product from the script. If there's still a story you'd actually listen to, you're probably on the right track.

If the entire story collapses without the product mention, you've just written an ad.

I also wouldn't give these scripts to a creator word for word. The structure is more important, so give them the angle and the points they need to hit, then let them talk like they normally would.

There are a bunch of other formats worth testing too. I found a pretty good breakdown of 12 of them here:

https://sideshift.app/blog/ugc-script-template