One of the things I love about these posts is I get to be creative and authentic about sharing products and brands I love without sounding ingenuine. And, while these posts do include a brand or product, they are also posts that help people make an informed purchase decision.
While I primarily create sponsored and collaborative blog articles or social media posts, content creation is a field that allows you to use your creativity. You can create the types of content that most align with your personality, platform, and vision. Be it informative Instagram posts, short TikTok’s, YouTube videos, or written content, you can start out creating what you love and expand from there.
How to Get Started as a Beginner Content Creator
Today I am sharing 9 tips on how to get started as a beginner content creator, as I believe content creation is a useful way for bloggers and writers to merge doing what they love with relevant brands within the content creator niche.
1. Define Your Goals
What are you looking to accomplish as a content creator? What is your intention when working with brands on sponsored or collaborative posts? Are you simply looking to make money by utilizing your current writing skills? Or are you looking to inform your audience about brands and products you genuinely love?
Once you have established what your goals are, it is time to look at what you are passionate about, as determining your interests will help you settle on a unique niche that stands out from the crowd.
2. How to Get Started as a Beginner Content Creator: Find Your Passion
Before you start looking for brand sponsorships and collaborations, it is important to know what your passions are. Whether you love stationary, contemporary novels, or the writing lifestyle, if you know what you are interested in and where your values lie, it will be easier to find brands who share your values and fit your passions.
3. Create Consistently
Now that you know what your passions are and why you are creating the content you do, it is time to start creating and sharing content consistently. Whether you run a blog or prefer to share videos and vlogs on social media, creating and sharing content consistently is an excellent way to build your audience and demonstrate your skillset. Posting on a regular basis also helps you refine your writing skills and get creative about the types of content you put out.
4. Find Your Voice
Whether you are writing a blog post, recording a video, or taking photos, take what makes you unique and make it part of your creation process. Readers enjoy learning about how certain products and brands relate to who you are as much as they love learning about useful items.
Over the evolution of this blog, I have become more open about who I am and love sharing personal stories alongside my more creative pieces, as I am a big believer in staying true to who I am while sharing useful content in ways that I feel are authentic and honest.
I also believe that people appreciate it when creators speak honestly and genuinely about themselves and their brand work, as it adds a personal touch to an otherwise potentially generic post.
5. Choose a Platform
Once you have decided what type of content you will create, what topics within your niche you will address, and how often you will post, it is time to choose a primary platform upon which to build an audience. You could start from scratch with a self-hosted blog, choose a social media outlet such as Instagram, or utilize an existing blog as a place to build your audience, showcase your skills, and educate readers about your interests.
6. How to Get Started as a Beginner Content Creator: Build Your Audience
One of the best ways to build your audience is to post consistently on your chosen platform. However, as always, it is best to take a quality over quantity approach. While you could churn out several mediocre posts a week, I believe it is better to instead put in the time it takes to create useful or informative posts that new and returning readers alike will constantly find helpful.
Creating quality posts also demonstrates your skills and knowledge and helps establish you as a person to trust within your niche, especially if you are open about your experience and relate who you are to your content.
7. Pitch to Brands
This can be time-consuming, but it is worth it to track down and pinpoint big and small brands you would like to work with. You can also join a blogging marketplace like Get Blogged. I use Get Blogged to search blogging job listings for sponsored work that I feel aligns with my blog and my interests and Get Blogged makes it easy to pitch directly to brand representatives.
Choose brands that align with your values and niche and allow you to bring value to your readers. Then start pitching.
A pitch is essentially a compelling piece of writing that tells any given brand representative who you are, why you are interested in working with said brand, and why working with you is mutually beneficial. Read more about pitching to brands here.
8. Build Your Portfolio
Your website and social media channels both serve as examples of the work you do as a content creator. It is in your best interest to post engaging, unique content as one look at your existing content may be the deciding factor when a brand is thinking about working with you.
However, it is also useful to collect testimonials and feedback from brands you work with, as brands appreciate the chance to read peer reviews and get a better sense of who you are before committing to a collaboration.
Influencer Review is a brand-new US-based platform made with content creators in mind. Influencer Review serves as a review and content creation platform specifically for content creators and allows creators to not only post their work, including examples of their photos, videos, and articles, for brands to find but also request reviews from brands they have worked with to establish their credibility. Brands can also search for creators and content, such as articles, photos, and videos, on the platform and post calls for content creators directly on the site.
The site was founded in October of this year and has been swiftly growing since its inception. I have joined the site, as I think it is invaluable to be able to request reviews from brands I have worked with in the past and display those testimonials all in one place.
If you are an existing content creator and especially if you are just starting out, join Influencer Review, post examples of your content for brands to see, and start building a portfolio of brand feedback. You can enter my referral code 2485 and get started for free or, as founding member, you are eligible for six months free if you sign up for a Signature profile.
9. How to Get Started as a Beginner Content Creator: Use the Right Tools
There is an overwhelming number of tools available for content creators today. From video editing apps to social media post scheduling software, there are tools to make every step of your creation process just a little bit easier. Below are just a few of the tools I use to make what I do possible.
WordPress (the software my website uses).
BlueHost (to host my website).
Canva (to design and create social media posts).
Influencer Review (to collect brand feedback and display these reviews in one space).
Get Blogged (to search for and apply for sponsored and collaborative work).
ConvertKit (to create and send out my newsletter).
Unsplash (for fabulous free images).
These are just a few of the invaluable tools available to content creators today so, as you begin or pursue your content creator journey, remember that content creation is about pushing yourself, putting creativity first, and taking every opportunity to learn.
Do you enjoy reading sponsored posts and collaborative content? Have you ever worked with brands? Are you interested in content creation? Tell me below!