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At Busy Blooming, we’ve seen firsthand how creators can successfully scale their earnings by understanding the right strategies for brand deals. Recently, a viral Business Insider article about our founders sparked significant interest in how creators can make substantial money from social media.
In this blog post, we’re breaking down the lessons we’ve learned along the way, showing new and current creators how they can maximize their brand deal potential and start charging what they’re worth.
1. The Power of TikTok: Monetizing Beyond Views
We’ve found that TikTok offers immense growth potential, not only in building a following but also in monetizing content. Unlike platforms like YouTube, TikTok allows creators to partner with brands in unique ways—brands are eager to purchase content for use on their own social media platforms. Additionally, whitelisting (where brands put ad spend behind your content) is an opportunity to boost your earnings.
When brands boost your videos with paid ads, they can reach significantly larger audiences, sometimes generating millions of views. This provides an additional revenue stream for creators, and it’s essential to charge extra for this service.
2. Charge for Usage Rights
When brands want to use your content (e.g., a TikTok video) on their own social media, you should charge a fee for each month the content remains active. We recommend charging 30% of the original content fee per month. For instance, if your original TikTok video costs $1,000, the brand would pay an additional $300 per month for continued use of that content on their platforms.
This simple strategy can turn a one-time brand deal into a long-term revenue source, significantly increasing your overall earnings.
3. Understand Whitelisting and Exclusivity Fees
As mentioned previously, brands may also want to invest in whitelisting or boosting your content through paid ads, and this opens another opportunity to charge. We suggest charging an additional 20% per month for whitelisting, where a brand promotes your content as an ad to a broader audience.
Another important factor is exclusivity. When a brand requires that you avoid partnering with competitors for a set period (e.g., you’re working with a camera brand like Canon and can’t collaborate with Nikon), you should charge for that exclusivity. A good starting point is to charge around 20% of your original fee for 30 days of exclusivity.
4. Differentiate Between Dedicated and Integrated Content
It’s always important to distinguish between dedicated and integrated content can make a significant difference in earnings. Dedicated content—where an entire video focuses on a brand’s product—should be priced higher than integrated content, where the product is simply mentioned as part of a larger video.
For example, if a brand deal requires a full dedicated product review or tutorial, that content should be charged at a premium. In contrast, if the product is only mentioned in passing within a vlog, that would fall under a lower rate. This distinction ensures you’re fairly compensated for the level of focus and effort each type of content requires.
5. The Value of UGC (User-Generated Content)
We also encourage creators to explore the potential of User-Generated Content (UGC), which allows you to produce content for a brand’s social media without needing to post it on your own platforms. UGC is an excellent way to diversify your income stream while still leveraging your skills as a content creator.
For example, creators can produce videos for a brand’s Instagram or TikTok accounts without having to share that content with their own followers. This provides an additional layer of revenue and can be a great option for creators who want to work with brands but prefer not to post every collaboration on their profiles.
Maximizing Your Earnings
By shifting focus from simple base rates to a more structured pricing strategy that includes usage rights, whitelisting, exclusivity, and UGC, creators can significantly scale their income. At Busy Blooming, we’ve seen how these adjustments can turn smaller brand deals into much larger opportunities for growth.
Our Key Takeaways for Creators:
Always charge for usage rights to allow brands to continue using your content.
Take advantage of whitelisting and exclusivity fees to boost your overall earnings.
Differentiate between dedicated and integrated content when setting rates.
Explore the potential of UGC to generate income without posting on your own platforms.
Creators deserve to be fairly compensated for their work, and these strategies will help you get there. By learning from our experiences and implementing these techniques, you can maximize your earnings and grow your brand with confidence.
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