Almost every first brand deal is one of two things, and I want you to know which one is on the table before you say yes. Mixing them up is how good creators end up doing paid work for free.
Your niche is how brands find you
A brand looking for skincare videos wants someone who already makes skincare videos. Your niche is how you get found, and it's how Plug decides which brands to put in front of you. Name the thing you'd be the obvious choice for, even if it feels narrow. Narrow is the point.
UGC is a video the brand runs itself
UGC means user-generated content. You film a short video, hand over the file, and the brand posts it or runs it as an ad. Your follower count never comes up, because the brand isn't buying your audience. It's buying production: a real person using the product, made faster and cheaper than a studio could.
A first video for organic use sits around $25 to $75. If the brand wants to run it as a paid ad, that's a separate line on top.
Gifted means product instead of money
A gifted collab is free product for content. No cash moves. It's a fair trade when you'd have bought the product anyway, you want that brand in your corner, and the ask is small. It stops being fair when it arrives with a paid deal's list: three videos, a posting schedule, ad rights.
My rule: take gifted when it builds your portfolio, and never count product as income.
You can ask for both in one message. "I'd love to be on the list, and if there's budget for a paid piece I can send a rate" gives the brand two ways to say yes.