u/Medical_Bag2874

I started with little knowledge of what I was doing, what platform to focus on, what type of content to create, and if I should post on Instagram, TikTok. I didn't expect that the hardest part would be deciding how to even start with the small audience I had.

I used to think that creating content itself would be the most difficult part. But over time I began to notice that simpler content about everyday life is what people enjoy watching.

Another thing you need to put the attention are the Hooks (the first few seconds of your video) I used to stress about coming up with something original and creative, but honestly the simplest approach works best:

Find hooks that are already performing well in a completely different niche, and adapt them to yours. It sounds almost too easy, but it works because the psychology behind a good hook is the same regardless of the topic.

After about 6 months, when I had around 5K followers, I started landing my first brand deals through Sideshift. One of those early contracts was a CPM deal $1.50 per 1,000 views and one of the videos from that campaign hit 3 million views, which technically would have been over $4,500, but the contract had a cap, so I ended up getting paid $3,000 from that single video.

That was a turning point, after that video blew up, my profile kept growing and I started hitting over a million views on other videos too and the dynamic shifted, brands began reaching out to me instead of the other way around, this is my portfolio: https://app.sideshift.app/portfolio/cmAdD2RyQVQ934UJuxrJEKmgtUz1

Now, almost a year in, I'm making at least $6,000 a month from brand collaborations. And it still feels organic to me, I post about 4 times a day, and roughly every other day one of those is a collab. It doesn't feel forced because I'm still doing my regular content the rest of the time.

If you're also starting out, my biggest takeaway is you'll figure things out by doing, not by overthinking.