What this page is
Every door into paid brand work,
in one place.
This is a working directory, not an article. It lists 1,167 platforms, networks, affiliate programmes and brand ambassador schemes that pay creators — what each one pays, what it requires from you, and where to apply. Then it shows you how to go around all of it and pitch brands directly.
Who this is for
Creators at any size. Over half of these listings have no follower minimum at all — they hire you for the content, not the audience. Others want 5K, 10K, or a portfolio. The directory tells you which is which before you waste an afternoon applying.
How to use it
Don't apply to everything. Pick two or three from UGC & creator marketplaces to build a paid portfolio, sign up for one or two affiliate networks so every link you post earns, and add product seeding if you need stock to shoot. That's a working setup. Expand later.
Reading a listing
Each row gives you the name and link, the typical pay, the requirement, and a barrier meter — four ticks showing how hard it is to get accepted. One tick means open to anyone. Four means invite only. Sort by it when you're starting out.
About the rates
Pay figures are typical ranges reported by working creators and published platform materials. They are a planning guide, not a quote. Rates move constantly and vary by niche, deliverable, usage rights and negotiation. Always confirm on the platform itself.
A note on accuracy
Every listing here is a real company with a real programme. Pay figures are typical ranges, not quotes, and programmes shut down, rebrand and change terms constantly. If a link is dead or a rate has moved, trust the brand's own site over this page. Check the footer of any brand site for Affiliates, Creators, Partnerships or Ambassadors — that's where these programmes live.
Two things are deliberately excluded: multi-level marketing schemes, which recruit rather than hire and cost creators money instead of paying it, and any programme that asks you to pay for the chance to be considered. Neither belongs in a working creator's pipeline.
The four ways money actually arrives
Flat fee for content
You're paid per video or photo set. Fastest money, most predictable, hardest ceiling. Best for building a portfolio and paying rent.
Commission
You earn a cut of every sale from your link. Slow to start, compounds for years. This is where most full-time creator income eventually comes from.
Platform payouts
Ad revenue and creator funds from YouTube, TikTok, Meta. Unreliable as a primary income, excellent as a floor.
Your own audience
Products, memberships, newsletters, merch. The only revenue no algorithm can take from you. Build toward this.
The directory
Where to apply.
Search by brand, category or keyword. Filter by how hard it is to get in.
Finding PR
How to find the person
who actually says yes.
Every platform in the directory takes a cut and puts you in a queue. Going direct means better rates, longer relationships and repeat work. It starts with finding one named human — not info@.
Who you're looking for
Titles vary by company size. At a small brand it's the founder or a marketing coordinator. At a large one it's a specialist. Search for these, in roughly this order of usefulness:
- Influencer Marketing Manager — the single best target. Their whole job is finding you.
- Creator Partnerships Manager / Lead — same role, newer title.
- PR Manager, PR Coordinator, Communications Manager — controls the gifting list and press samples.
- Social Media Manager — often runs collabs at brands under 50 employees.
- Brand Marketing Manager — holds budget when there's no dedicated influencer role.
- Account Executive at the brand's PR agency — many brands outsource entirely. Find the agency, find the AE.
Five ways to find their name
- LinkedIn search. Type the brand name, open People, and search the titles above. This finds a name roughly 80% of the time. Free, no tricks.
- The press page. Scroll the brand's footer for Press, Media, Contact or Partnerships. Small brands list a real address there.
- Read other creators' captions. Sponsored posts often thank someone by first name, or tag the agency handle. Follow that thread.
- Instagram DM the brand account. Ask one clean question: "Hi! Who handles creator partnerships — I'd love to send a pitch to the right inbox." A social manager reads that account and will often just tell you.
- Guess the email format. Once you have a name, most companies use first.last@brand.com, firstinitiallast@, or first@. Free verification tools exist; sending to two variations is also fine.
What they're scanning for on your page
A PR manager spends fifteen to forty seconds on your profile before deciding. Here is what they're checking, in the order they check it:
Is this obviously on-brand?
Your grid has to look like it belongs next to their product. If they sell quiet-luxury skincare and your feed is neon party content, no amount of engagement fixes it. Niche clarity beats reach.
Comments, not followers
They read your comment section. Real questions from real people — "where is this from," "does it work on oily skin" — signal buying intent. Emoji strings signal a pod.
Do you look easy to work with?
Media kit ready, rates known, email in bio, replies fast, delivers on time. A creator with 8K who is organised gets rebooked over one with 80K who ghosts.
Have you shot product before?
They need proof you can hold a bottle, light a label and speak to a benefit. This is why unpaid portfolio work is worth doing — once, early, deliberately.
Audience match
Country, age, gender split. A US brand that can't ship internationally will pass on a creator whose audience is 70% overseas, no matter how good the work is.
Risk
They scan for controversy, competitor posts in the last 90 days, and undisclosed ads. Disclose every partnership properly. It reads as professional, not as a downside.
The pitch that gets opened
Short. Specific. One idea. No life story. Subject lines that work are plain and concrete:
- "Dear Sir/Madam" or no name at all
- Three paragraphs about your journey
- "I'd love to collaborate!" with no idea attached
- A media kit attached to a cold first email
- Asking what their budget is before offering anything
- Copy-paste that still has another brand's name in it
- Their actual first name
- Under 150 words
- One specific, shootable concept
- Two or three links, not twenty
- Proof you already use or understand the product
- A clear, easy next step
The follow-up
Most deals come from the second or third email, not the first. Wait five to seven business days, then reply in the same thread — never start a new one. Keep it to two lines:
Follow up twice. Then stop and put them on a list to re-pitch in three months, ideally around a new launch. Silence is almost never about you — it's budget cycles, or the person left.
When they ask for your rate
Answer with a number, not a question. Hesitation costs you the booking. A workable starting structure for a creator under 20K:
- One UGC video, no posting: $150–$350
- One Reel or TikTok on your page: $200–$600, scaling with views not followers
- Bundle of 3 videos: price at roughly 2.5× a single, not 3×
- Whitelisting / paid ad usage: add 30–100% on top, and cap it at 3, 6 or 12 months
- Exclusivity in your category: add 20–50%, and never agree to it indefinitely
Getting seen
Stop editing.
Start posting.
The single most common reason a creator never gets a brand deal isn't bad lighting, a cheap phone or the wrong niche. It's that they made eleven videos this year and posted four of them.
Why perfectionism is the expensive choice
You cannot think your way to knowing what your audience wants. You can only find out by posting and reading the response. Every video you sit on is a data point you didn't collect. The creator who posts 100 average videos in a year will beat the creator who posts 12 immaculate ones — not because average is good, but because by video 40 they aren't average anymore.
Reps compound in ways that planning does not. Your framing gets faster. Your first three seconds get sharper. You stop re-recording the same line eight times. That only happens on the other side of publishing.
The trade you're actually making
A video you polish for six hours might be 15% better than the one you shot in forty minutes. Nobody scrolling can perceive that 15%. But six hours is four more videos — four more chances at the one that breaks through. Perfectionism doesn't buy quality. It buys fewer lottery tickets.
What to do instead
- Set a posting floor, not a quality ceiling. Four posts a week, non-negotiable, whatever they look like. Volume first, refinement later.
- Give yourself a hard timer. Ninety minutes from filming to posted. When the timer ends, it goes up as-is. This one rule fixes most creators.
- Batch on one day. Get ready once, shoot six pieces, one outfit change. Then you're not renegotiating with yourself every morning.
- Keep a running list of 20 ideas. The blank page is what kills consistency, not the filming.
- Reshoot your winners. When something performs, make three more like it immediately. Most creators post a hit and then move on — that's the real waste.
- Review monthly, not daily. Look at 30 days of data at once. Day-to-day numbers are noise and will only make you anxious.
What actually moves you toward brand deals
Pick a lane and stay in it
"Beauty" is not a niche. "Fragrance layering for people who hate sweet scents" is. Brands buy the specific audience, not the big one. A tight 3K beats a scattered 30K.
Shoot product before anyone pays you
Use what's already on your shelf. Make three spec pieces for brands you love. That folder is your entire portfolio and it's the fastest thing you can build this week.
Fix the first two seconds
Retention is the only metric brands and algorithms both care about. Cut every intro. Start mid-sentence, mid-action, mid-result.
Make your bio a business card
Niche, location, and an email address. If a PR manager has to DM you to find out how to book you, some percentage of them simply won't.
Talk about brands unprompted
Tag them. Genuinely. Brands watch their tagged feed, and a huge share of first deals start as an unpaid post someone at the company noticed.
Reply to every comment for a year
It compounds reach and it builds the engaged comment section PR managers scan for. It is unglamorous and it works.
What to stop worrying about
- Your camera. Daylight near a window and a clean lens outperforms expensive gear in a dark room.
- A cohesive grid. Nobody discovers you on your grid anymore. They discover you on one video.
- Your voice or your face. Every creator you admire hated their early videos. That feeling never fully goes; the videos still have to go up.
- Follower count. A large share of the directory pays for content and never looks at your following.
- Being late to your niche. Audiences don't want the first person, they want a person who feels like them.
- Deleting flops. Leave them. They cost nothing and occasionally wake up months later.
A realistic first ninety days
- Weeks 1–2. Choose the niche. Rewrite the bio with an email. Shoot three spec pieces from products you already own.
- Weeks 3–4. Sign up for two UGC marketplaces and one affiliate network. Start posting four times a week.
- Weeks 5–8. Apply to ten campaigns a week. Expect a low hit rate early — that is the normal experience, not a verdict on you. Accept one or two gifted collaborations purely for portfolio.
- Weeks 9–12. Build a one-page media kit. Find twenty brands you'd genuinely wear or use, find a named contact for each, and send twenty direct pitches.
At the end of that you will have a portfolio, a rate, a pipeline and real data about what your audience responds to. None of it required going viral. All of it required posting.