r/TheSideShift

Excuses don't pay bills

I have an agency and I’m trying to understand why some creators with 50k followers barely get comments, while smaller accounts have people constantly replying, saving posts and sharing their videos.

A viral post can bring you thousands of followers, but a lot of them might only care about that one video. Growing an audience and building an engaged audience are two different things, here’s what I discovered:

1)-Likes aren’t everything:

Likes are probably the easiest and weakest form of engagement. Comments, saves, shares and DMs tell you much more about whether people actually found the content useful or relatable.

A post with fewer likes but a lot of saves and shares can be way more valuable than a random viral video.

2)-Make content people would send or save:

Broad content is easy to scroll past, a specific content performs better because people immediately recognize themselves in it.

“Fitness tips” is vague “Things I wish I knew before joining a gym” feels much more personal.

Tutorials, checklists, comparisons and step by step posts also tend to get saved because users can come back and use tem later.

3)-Reply like a real person:

Ask a follow-up question, add some context or react to what they actually said in the comments, once people realize you genuinely reply, they’re much more likely to comment again.

4)-Stop using lazy CTAs:

“Thoughts?” or “Comment below” are so generic that most people just keep scrolling.

Specific questions are easier to answer, so ask people to choose between two options, share one experience or say what they would do differently.

5)-Don’t turn into a brand account:

People connect more with content that feels natural, you can plan your videos without making them sound like they’re ads

Too many sponsored posts can also hurt trust, if every other video promotes a completely different product, ur followers will unfollow you

The main takeaway is that follower count alone doesn’t mean much. A smaller audience that comments, saves, shares and trusts you can be much more valuable than a huge passive one.

I found a more detailed breakdown on the SideShift blog while looking into this:

https://sideshift.app/blog/how-to-grow-influencer-engagement

My Boyfriend and I are creating fitness UGC for about a year now, and it's slowly turned into our full-time income. We both already spent 5 days a week in the gym, so instead of trying to force content in random niches, we decided to only work with fitness brands. We learned how to make videos that brands can run as ads is what made the biggest difference. We're now averaging around $8k/month combined, mostly from recurring clients and performance-based campaigns. Here's what I'd tell anyone trying to get into fitness UGC.
Build your content around your actual routine The best-performing videos almost never look like ads. Instead of filming a "review," we just record things we'd already be doing. Getting ready for the gym, packing meals, warming up, finishing a workout, stretching afterwards... the product naturally becomes part of the story instead of the whole story. People notice immediately when something feels forced.

Couples are surprisingly valuable A lot of fitness brands want different types of creators. Having both a male and female perspective means we can film twice as many concepts without hiring anyone else. Sometimes the same script becomes two completely different ads just because one of us delivers it. It also makes lifestyle content feel much more natural.

Film way more than you think you'll need We'll usually shoot 20 short clips during one gym session. Different angles, different exercises, close-ups, walking into the gym, water breaks, changing weights... Even if the brand only needs one video, having a huge library of B-roll saves hours later.

CPM deals changed everything At first we only did fixed-price deals. Eventually a few brands offered CPM campaigns where you still get paid for making the video, but you also earn based on how many views it generates. Obviously not every video takes off, but when one performs well it can end up paying significantly more than a normal UGC job. If you're confident your content performs, they're definitely worth looking into.

Don't obsess over having a huge following Neither of us started with a big audience. Brands buying UGC usually care much more about whether you can make content that converts than whether you have 200k followers. Some of our best clients found us because of our portfolio, not our Instagram.

Keep a swipe folder Every day we save fitness ads that make us stop scrolling. Good hooks, transitions, camera angles, editing styles... We're not copying them, but after a while you start noticing patterns in the videos that consistently perform. It's probably the easiest way to improve.

Fitness is one of the easiest niches to keep creating content Unlike a lot of niches where you eventually run out of ideas, we're already in the gym almost every day. Every workout is another opportunity to film. Different exercises, different routines, different problems people deal with... there's always something new to build content around. If you're already into fitness, it's one of the most natural UGC niches to get into. If anyone has questions about getting started, finding clients, CPM deals, pricing, or anything else, feel free to ask. Happy to share what we've learned.

Lydia Holmes and John Clarke met while working together at a restaurant. Neither of them had formal culinary training or any real business experience, but they both liked recreating meals they had tried at different restaurants.

In 2021, they found a tiny stand for sale in the parking lot of a Home Depot and decided to take the risk.

Their original menu had a bit of everything: burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs and breakfast food. Business was pretty slow at first, but they eventually noticed that the same customers kept coming back for one specific item: their breakfast burrito.

1)- They stopped trying to sell everything:

Instead of keeping a huge menu, they focused almost entirely on what people were already buying.

Their main burrito was pretty simple: eggs, meat, cheese and around 25 extra-crispy tater tots. It originally sold for less than $9.

That single product slowly became the identity of the entire business.

I think this is one of the most useful lessons from the story. A lot of people starting a side hustle try to offer ten different services or products because they don’t want to miss any customers.

Sometimes it makes more sense to wait, see what people actually want and then go all in on that.

2)- One customer completely changed the business:

In 2022, a freelance food writer tried the burrito and later featured it in Eater Los Angeles.

The morning after the article came out, there was already a line outside the shed.

They hit their first $1,000 sales day almost immediately, and at one point people were apparently waiting two or three hours just to get a burrito.

They didn’t create some huge marketing campaign. They just made one product good enough that someone wanted to talk about it.

3)- The tiny shed eventually crossed $1M:

They continued operating from the same little Home Depot parking lot location, gradually building a local following.

In 2025, that original 200-square-foot shed reportedly generated just over $1 million in gross sales.

The craziest part is that the stand isn’t even open all day. It mainly serves breakfast and lunch and closes in the afternoon.

It’s a good example of how a small location and a short menu don’t necessarily limit how much a business can make when the demand is there.

-4) They eventually had to stop doing everything themselves:

For the first two years, the business was mostly run by the couple and their family. Lydia’s younger brothers were some of their first employees.

Eventually, one of their sons developed health problems and required regular hospital visits, so the couple hired an experienced general manager.

According to the company, sales increased around 30% during her first year.

That part stood out to me because a lot of side hustles never become real businesses because the owners are scared to give up control. They keep doing every shift, answering every message and handling every problem themselves.

Hiring someone experienced gave them the space to grow.

-5) They opened a second location:

In 2025, the couple bought a larger storefront in Orange, California, and turned it into a full restaurant with indoor seating and a coffee bar.

The new location reportedly generated close to $1.3 million after opening during the year.

Combined with the original shed, the business brought in around $2.3 million in gross sales in 2025 and now employs 29 people.

They’re also already planning another location to reduce the wait times at the original stand.

Obviously, $2.3 million in revenue isn’t the same as $2.3 million in profit. Restaurants have huge food, labor, rent and equipment costs.

Still, going from a tiny shed in a hardware store parking lot to two locations doing millions in annual sales is pretty insane.

The main takeaway for me is that they didn’t start with a revolutionary idea. They found one product people really liked, simplified the business around it and kept improving the operation when demand increased.

Probably one of the best examples I’ve seen of a small side hustle turning into an actual company.

I recently started working online, I just finished UNI and I still have my part-time job, so I spend a good part of my day at home. While exploring different online opportunities I discovered UGC, mainly through Reddit communities like this one.

I started with a few flat-fee videos, where the brand pays you a fixed amount (usually around $50 for me), they'd send the product and I just had to shoot the video.

Then some companies and brands started offering me CPM-based deals, meaning you get paid based on view performance. For these deals I have to post the videos on my own profile.

So I opened an Instagram page a couple of months ago, which quickly grew to 14K followers in the beauty and cosmetics niche. A couple of weeks ago I also started collaborating with a brand in the pet products niche, and to keep the niches separate I opened a new page.

At this point I'm only doing CPM deals and what I'm sharing here is the breakdown of the last month (technically since the start of April, so just under a month). On my first profile I hit 740K views, which felt pretty unthinkable to me. Out of those, 80K didn't count because those videos never crossed the 5K views minimum threshold we agreed on for CPM to kick in. A viral one, reached 285K views in a single week at a $1.30 CPM, that one video alone earned me $370. Another hit 230K at $1.00 CPM, and another 145K at $1.50, so an extra $217. Just from this profile, three viral videos brought in $817

On the new profile, with only 1,500 followers, one video hit 100K views in just a few hours. My phone was blowing up, and at a $1.30 CPM that earned me $130. Another reached 65K at $1.50, nearly $100, while the last one only hit 29K with a lower CPM, earning around $29 All in all, I made $1,070 in under a month from basically 6 well performing videos and a profile with just 1.5K followers. The "rejected" ones that didn't hit 5K were like 14, so with 20 videos in a month I managed to get over $1K

I put this together with a different goal than most side hustle lists.
These are side hustles that can grow into serious income, become small businesses, or eventually turn into assets that keep earning without you being involved every hour.
Some need money to start, others need skills or time. The point is to choose one that fits your situation, get good at it, and build systems around it instead of constantly jumping to the next idea.

1-UGC creation for brands
Brands pay creators to make short videos they can use on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, or in paid ads. You don't need a large audience because the company is paying for the content itself, not your followers.

2-Airbnb co-hosting
You manage short-term rentals for owners who don't want to handle guest messages, check-ins, cleaners, and small problems. Most co-hosts charge a percentage of the property's monthly revenue.

3-Local lead generation websites
You build simple websites that generate enquiries for plumbers, roofers, landscapers, dentists, or other local businesses. Once the site starts bringing in leads, you can sell those leads or rent the whole site to one company.

4-Virtual assistant agency
You start by helping businesses with email, scheduling, research, customer support, or basic admin tasks. Once you have too much work, you hire other assistants and keep a margin on the work they complete.

5-AI automation services
Small businesses want to automate repetitive tasks but usually don't know where to start. You can build systems for lead follow-ups, appointment reminders, customer support, reporting, or internal workflows.

6-Mobile meal prep
You prepare weekly meals for busy professionals, athletes, families, or people following specific diets. Taking orders in advance lets you buy exactly what you need and avoid wasting food.

7-Holiday light installation
People pay surprisingly well to have Christmas lights installed and removed safely. It is seasonal, but a packed November and December can generate a serious amount of income.

8-Mobile car detailing
Instead of customers driving to a car wash, you clean and detail their vehicles at their home or workplace. Convenience allows you to charge more, especially for premium interior and exterior packages.

9-Pressure washing
Driveways, patios, roofs, walls, and commercial storefronts all need regular cleaning. The startup equipment is relatively affordable and the before-and-after results make the service easy to market.

10-Furniture flipping
You find cheap or free furniture, clean it, repair it, paint it, or refinish it, then resell it. As you learn which styles and brands hold value, the profit per piece improves.

11-Electronics flipping
Phones, laptops, cameras, gaming consoles, and monitors are often sold below market value by people who want quick cash. Testing, cleaning, and presenting them properly can create a strong resale margin.

12-Website building for local businesses
Many local companies still have outdated websites or no website at all. You can sell them a simple professional site and charge an ongoing monthly fee for hosting, maintenance, and small updates.

13-Social media management
Restaurants, gyms, salons, estate agents, and local stores often struggle to post consistently. You can create content, schedule posts, reply to comments, and manage their profiles for a monthly fee.

14-Short-form video editing
Creators and brands constantly need TikToks, Reels, and Shorts edited quickly. Once you develop a repeatable editing style, you can manage several clients and outsource part of the work.

15-Podcast editing
Podcasters need help removing mistakes, improving audio, adding intros, and creating short clips for social media. The work is recurring because most podcasts publish every week.

16-Paid advertising management
Local businesses often spend money on Facebook or Google ads without understanding how to improve them. You can manage campaigns and charge a monthly fee based on your expertise and results.

17-SEO services
Businesses pay for help improving their Google rankings through content, technical fixes, and backlinks. Monthly SEO retainers can become predictable income because results usually require ongoing work.

18-Google Business Profile management
Local companies depend heavily on Google Maps but often neglect their profiles. You can optimize listings, upload photos, respond to reviews, publish updates, and help improve local visibility.

19-Email marketing services
Online stores and businesses need newsletters, welcome sequences, abandoned-cart emails, and promotional campaigns. Good email marketing directly generates revenue, which makes the service easier to justify.

20-Appointment-setting service
You contact potential customers and book qualified sales calls for agencies, consultants, or local businesses. Payment can be based on a monthly fee, each booked meeting, or a share of closed sales.

21-Online tutoring
You teach school subjects, languages, software, music, or professional skills through video calls. Specializing in exam preparation or high-demand subjects usually allows you to charge higher rates.

22-Tutoring agency
You begin by tutoring students yourself, then bring in other tutors when demand grows. You handle marketing, scheduling, and payments while taking a percentage from each lesson.

23-Resume and LinkedIn writing
Job seekers pay for help improving their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and cover letters. The service becomes more valuable when you specialize in one industry or seniority level.

24-Freelance copywriting
Businesses need landing pages, emails, adverts, product descriptions, and sales pages. Writers who understand conversion and specialize in a profitable niche can charge much more than generalist writers.

25-Newsletter writing
Founders, executives, and companies often want to publish newsletters but don't have time to write them. You can research topics, write each issue, and manage the publishing schedule.

26-Building a paid newsletter
You grow an audience around a specific topic and monetize through subscriptions, sponsorships, or affiliate links. The email list becomes an asset that you control instead of relying entirely on social algorithms.

27-Affiliate content websites
You create useful articles targeting people who are researching products or services before buying. When readers click your links and make a purchase, you earn a commission.

28-YouTube evergreen content
You create videos answering questions people search for repeatedly, such as tutorials, comparisons, or explanations. Older videos can continue earning ad and affiliate revenue for years.

29-Faceless social media pages
You build TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube pages around a niche without appearing on camera. Once the audience grows, you monetize through sponsors, affiliate links, products, or by selling the page.

30-Digital products
Templates, spreadsheets, guides, printables, design files, and checklists can be created once and sold repeatedly. The best products solve one clear and specific problem.

31-Online courses
You turn a skill or process into a structured series of lessons. A focused course that delivers one clear outcome usually sells better than a broad course covering everything.

32-Paid membership community
You charge a monthly fee for access to exclusive content, resources, discussions, calls, or support. Even a relatively small group can create meaningful recurring revenue.

33-Notion template business
People buy ready-made systems for planning, budgeting, studying, managing clients, or organizing projects. You can sell the templates individually or bundle them into larger systems.

34-Canva template business
Businesses and creators need social posts, presentations, menus, invitations, and advertising graphics. Well-designed editable templates can be sold repeatedly through digital marketplaces.

35-Print-on-demand products
You create designs for shirts, posters, mugs, or other products while a supplier handles printing and shipping. The main challenge is finding a specific audience rather than uploading random designs.

36-Etsy digital downloads
Etsy already has buyers searching for planners, invitations, worksheets, wall art, and business templates. Digital downloads remove the need to hold inventory or ship physical products.

37-Micro SaaS
You build a small software tool that solves one narrow problem for a specific group of users. A few hundred customers paying monthly can become a valuable recurring-revenue business.

38-Mobile app development
A simple app can generate money through subscriptions, advertising, or one-time purchases. The strongest opportunities usually solve an annoying problem for a clearly defined niche.

39-No-code app building
Tools like Bubble, Glide, or Softr allow you to create simple apps without being a traditional developer. You can build apps for clients or launch your own small product.

40-Chrome extension business
You build a browser extension that saves time, improves an existing workflow, or adds a missing feature to a popular website. Extensions can be monetized through subscriptions, paid upgrades, or company licenses.

41-Selling automation templates
Instead of building every automation from scratch, you create ready-made workflows for common business problems. Templates for Zapier, Make, Notion, or AI tools can be sold repeatedly.

42-Airbnb photography
Short-term rental owners need bright, professional photos to improve their listings and bookings. Once you have a good camera and portfolio, you can also offer video walkthroughs and listing optimization.

43-Drone services
Real estate agents, roofers, construction companies, and event organizers need aerial photos and videos. After buying the equipment and completing any required licensing, each job can have strong margins.

44-Pet sitting and dog walking
Pet owners need reliable people to care for their animals while they work or travel. Building a group of recurring clients makes the income much more stable than relying on one-off bookings.

45-Mobile pet grooming
You travel directly to customers and groom their pets at their home or from a fitted vehicle. The convenience and personal service allow mobile groomers to charge premium prices.

46-Junk removal
People pay you to clear furniture, appliances, garden waste, and unwanted household items. Some of what you collect can also be resold, recycled, or donated.

47-Equipment rental
You rent out tools, cameras, carpet cleaners, generators, trailers, or party equipment that would otherwise sit unused. One item may not earn much, but a small inventory can create consistent income.

48-Event equipment rental
Tables, chairs, lighting, speakers, decorations, photo booths, and backdrops are rented repeatedly for parties and weddings. The same inventory can earn money dozens of times before it needs replacing.

49-Buying and improving online businesses
You purchase a small website, newsletter, app, or ecommerce store that is already earning money. By improving its marketing, pricing, content, or operations, you can increase the revenue and resell it.

50-Building systems around an existing side hustle
The best side hustle is  the real opportunity is documenting your process, automating repetitive tasks, hiring help, and turning something you already do into a business that no longer depends entirely on your time.

Pick one that fits your skills, budget, and available time. Stay with it long enough to understand what customers actually want, improve the offer, and reinvest the money into systems or assets that can keep growing.
I put this together with a different goal than most side hustle lists.

Food content always looked like one of those jobs reserved for people with huge Instagram accounts, but there are a few different ways to make money from it.

You can review local restaurants, create food and travel content for your own page, or make UGC that restaurants and food brands can post on their accounts and use in ads.

With UGC, you don’t necessarily need a big following and the restaurant is paying you to create the video, so the important part is knowing how to make food look good and produce something that feels native to TikTok or Reels.

A few things I’d focus on when starting:

- Pick a specific angle:
“Food creator” is extremely broad, so choose local restaurant reviews, cheap eats, gluten-free food, cafés, street food, recipes or food travel are much easier to build around.
A specific niche also makes it easier for restaurants and brands to understand why they should work with you.

- Make a few examples before pitching anyone:
Go to places you already like and film the experience as if it were a paid collaboration. Get shots of the location, the food arriving, close-ups, your reaction and anything that makes the place feel worth visiting.
For packaged food, you can make unboxings, taste tests, recipes or “what I eat in a day” style videos.
You only need a few good examples to create a basic portfolio.

- Start locally:
Small restaurants, cafés, bakeries and food trucks are usually much easier to approach than large brands.
Your first deals might be a free meal, a small flat fee or both. Once you have proof that you can create good content, you can start charging properly and offering bundles instead of single videos.

- Don’t overproduce everything:
Food needs to look appetizing, but the video should still feel like something a real customer would post. Natural reactions, close-up shots, steam, crunch and simple voiceovers usually work better than something that looks like a television commercial.

- Understand what you’re selling:
If you have an audience, restaurants may pay for access to your local followers, If you don’t have an audience yet, you can still get paid for UGC that the restaurant or brand posts themselves. Just make sure you discuss usage rights if they want to run your video as an ad.

I found this guide on food influencer marketing useful because it explains the different types of food creators and the content restaurants and food brands are actually looking for:
https://sideshift.app/blog/food-influencer-marketing-for-restaurants-and-brands

Getting paid to try restaurants and make videos sounds almost too good to be real, but as a local side hustle it seems pretty accessible if you’re comfortable filming and approaching businesses.

Fitness UGC looks easy from the outside. You film yourself working out, show a supplement or an app, say a few things about it and send the video to the brand. In reality, fitness is one of those niches where people immediately notice when something feels forced. You don’t need to be a professional athlete or have an amazing physique, but the product has to make sense inside your actual routine. Here’s how I’d approach it as a beginner:

1)Choose a specific fitness angle Calling yourself a “fitness creator” is probably too broad, it’s much easier to create convincing content when you have a more specific angle, like running, beginner gym content, home workouts, meal prep, recovery, yoga or trying to stay active while working full-time. A running app will probably prefer someone who regularly posts about running over a general lifestyle creator who has never shown a workout before. Before pitching brands, I’d also post some organic fitness content on my own account. It doesn’t need to go viral. A few workout clips, a realistic morning routine, something you eat before training or a video about a beginner mistake already proves that fitness is actually part of your life.

2)Build the product into a real situation The biggest mistake I see in fitness UGC is making the product feel separate from the rest of the video. Someone films a workout and then suddenly holds a bottle in front of the camera for five seconds. It’s obvious that the sponsorship was added afterward. The product should be part of the situation from the beginning. A fitness app could appear because you never know what to train when you arrive at the gym. A supplement could be part of your pre-workout routine. Recovery equipment makes sense after a difficult session. Activewear should probably be shown while you’re actually moving, not only while standing in front of a mirror. For example, don’t just say that an app creates personalized workouts. Start with the problem of wasting time at the gym because you don’t have a plan, then show the workout the app created for you.

3)Make it feel native to TikTok Fitness content doesn’t always need cinematic lighting, a spotless gym and perfect editing. The video should be clear and the audio should be understandable, but slightly imperfect footage can make the content more believable. A quick clip filmed after a real workout may feel more natural than a perfectly rehearsed testimonial recorded in your bedroom. The hook is still extremely important I’d also film multiple openings for the same video. You can keep most of the content identical and test three completely different first sentences. Sometimes the idea is good and the only thing killing the video is the opening.

4)Talk about problems people really have Not everyone relates to someone with a perfect body doing an advanced workout in an expensive gym. A lot more people relate to feeling uncomfortable at the gym, having no idea which exercises to do, struggling with consistency, training at home or trying to fit workouts around work and university. Fitness content can still be aspirational, but the viewer needs to see themselves somewhere in the story. That’s also why a smaller creator with a specific and engaged audience can sometimes be more useful than someone with hundreds of thousands of random followers. The creator who documents learning how to run their first 10K could be perfect for a running app. Someone who trains at home because they work long hours could be a much better fit for home workout equipment than a professional athlete.

5)Find brands that understand UGC I wouldn’t waste time contacting every fitness company I can find. I’d focus on brands already posting creator content or running UGC-style ads. That could include fitness apps, smaller activewear companies, gyms, recovery products, meal-planning apps, equipment brands and sports accessories. When a company is already using creator videos, you don’t need to explain why UGC matters. You can focus on showing why your content would fit their audience. Even if they change the idea, you’ve already shown that you understand the product and its customer.

6)Don’t lose your own voice Some fitness brands send extremely detailed scripts. Obviously, you need to include the important talking points and avoid making claims the brand hasn’t approved. But reading a script word for word usually makes the content sound unnatural. Fitness content depends heavily on trust. People can tell when someone suddenly starts speaking like a marketing department. I’d ask whether you can rewrite the script using your normal language while keeping the required information and CTA. Your natural delivery is part of what the company is paying for. You should also actually test the product before filming. Use the features of the app, wear the clothing during a workout and understand how the equipment is supposed to be used.

7)Look beyond views Views matter, especially when a campaign is performance-based, but they’re not the only sign that the content worked. A smaller video can still be valuable when people are asking how the product works, saving the workout, sharing their own experiences or tagging someone who might use it. Whenever possible, save screenshots of the results and ask the company whether it can share clicks, conversions or retention data. That proof will help you land the next deal much more than simply having a nice-looking video in your portfolio. You need a clear angle, a believable routine and the ability to make content people would still watch without the sponsorship. For anyone already doing fitness UGC, which deals have been easiest to find: apps, activewear, equipment, supplements or local gyms?

Hi everyone, First of all, this is not meant to be a flex. I really want to make that clear because I know that some people get jealous and start talking negatively. I’m simply sharing my experience because I think it could help other people, also, I’m happy to write about it here on Reddit because I don’t really have many people I can talk to about this. Anyway, I bought my first car at 20 years old, it’s a BMW, and I paid for it entirely in cash, no loans at all and it cost me around $10K (second hand obv)

This was a huge milestone and probably one of the things I'm most proud of so far. My parents were never able to buy me a car, we were not poor, but simply we weren't wealthy enough to afford something like that. For years, I got around everywhere on my bike, no matter the weather, and seeing that car parked in front of my house today reminds me of all the sacrifices, hard work, and long hours that went into making it happen. The feeling of accomplishment means much more to me than the car itself. I’ve been working continuously since I was 16, I worked in the restaurant industry for almost two years, waiting tables in the evenings after school. I kept doing it because the tips were pretty good, and I’ve always been someone who saves money, I’ve always put money aside and never really spent much on going out or unnecessary things. A few years ago, I also started doing some online work. Since I’m a bit of a nerd, I got into online services, mainly Meta Ads and social media management. However, for almost the past year, the market has become really difficult, running Meta campaigns has become much more expensive, so companies are less willing to pay for those services. Because of that, I started seeing an opportunity in the UGC (User Generated Content) space. Basically, companies pay creators to make videos for them and I thought it was worth trying because the barrier to entry is basically zero: you just need social media skills, which I already had, a smartphone, and that’s pretty much it. Companies send you products, you create videos, and that’s how it works. I started about a year ago, doing a couple of campaigns, and after just a few months I began seeing the first results and making some good money. The real breakthrough happened toward the end of the year, when I signed contracts with two large apps to create videos for them. Obviously, making videos for apps is much easier than for physical products, and on top of that, these two companies offered me CPM-based contracts. In other words, I got paid based on performance (The first month was like 2$ x 1k view, then we changed the contract) Some of the videos went extremely viral, you’ve probably even seen them on TikTok, haha and they generated millions of views. In total, over the last six months, I’ve earned more than $30,000 working from home as a side hustle. (Of course, I pay taxes on all of it, but it’s still not bad at all) Some of the deals came through referrals, while others came through Sideshift where companies can find creators interested in producing UGC content. Now I have a really strong portfolio with a lot of successful case studies and proven results. Because of that, I receive a ton of collaboration requests from brands and apps every month I can't even accept all of them anymore because there simply isn't enough time.

My next goal is probably to build my own agency and start scaling this into something bigger than just myself. Obviously, it's not "easy money" at the beginning you have to learn how to create content that performs, communicate with brands, and build credibility but after a year of doing it consistently, the opportunities can be pretty insane. Anyway, that's been my experience so far. If anyone is curious about UGC, finding clients, pricing, getting started, or anything else, feel free to ask me anything. I'd be happy to help and this is my portfolio: https://app.sideshift.app/portfolio/TJyx7jVQEvTwsP4y9KbVh2y4azu2

Used to work as a VA for almost a year. It did not work out for me and I was unemployed after that so I decided to try UGC

The first thing I did was create a new account specifically for UGC and looked at what other creators were doing (hooks, pacing, angles, edits, etc.) I also checked what my favorite brands were posting and tried to recreate those types of videos.

I used random makeup products, beauty stuff, hair products, whatever I had. I would just use them to make content like I was already getting paid for it. I posted those as examples to build a portfolio

I only had around 1.2k followers that time so I wasn’t really getting inbound messages from brands. I started doing a lot of outreach and pitching email, out of 300 brands only 5 of them replied

I also started applying on platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Insense. Most of the offers there were still pretty low at first, rates averaged only $50 per video.

When I started getting gifted collabs. I took almost all of them. Gifted collabs are actually a good opportunity because It gave me experience working with brands, trying new products, following briefs, and improving my content style.

I probably stayed in that phase for around 2 months while building my portfolio. My first brand deal that offers me $1500 for 10 videos came from SideShift. I still occasionally took gifted work, but only if it made sense for my portfolio or the product was genuinely useful to me. Quick tip: Having good relationships with brands also helped a lot because it can lead to monthly retainers.

Now I make around 2-3 figures a month from UGC, so guys just keep trying

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, or Facebook Reels. 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. Sounds small, right? 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.

Now, almost a year in, I'm making at least $6,000 a month from brand collaborations. (the half goes on TAXES tbh) 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.