How to become a content creator

What does a content creator do, and how is it different from an influencer or a blogger?

A content creator makes videos, photos, audio or posts for an audience and publishes them on a regular schedule. The other names overlap, and the difference lies mostly in what a person is valued and paid for. The table puts content creator vs influencer, blogger and UGC creator side by side.

If you want to become an influencer or a blogger, the path starts the same way: with content someone wants to watch. Experts and companies who film to build their own brand have other goals, and the guide to personal brand video is written for them.

How do you choose a niche and a platform?

A workable niche sits where three things meet: what you know, what you can talk about every week for a year, and who would watch it. Before you commit, test two or three ideas with a few posts each. You will soon see which one you still enjoy making and which one people respond to.

Pick one main platform and adapt your best pieces for the others later. For TikTok a phone and short vertical videos are enough, while longer YouTube videos take more time to plan and edit. A podcast takes the most work per episode, but one long conversation can be cut into short clips for TikTok and Reels. If you plan the podcast with a co-host, the podcast for two page compares every studio format for two people, with what each costs.

In Latvia, choose deliberately whether the channel will be in Latvian, Russian or English. One language per channel is clearer for viewers, and subtitles can open a video to speakers of the other two.

What kit is enough at the start?

For the first months, this is enough:

• a phone, filming with the rear camera;
• a clip-on microphone, wired or wireless;
• daylight from a window in front of you, or one soft light;
• a tripod with a phone holder;
• a free video editor.

The guide to filming yourself with a phone covers camera settings, light and where to put the microphone. The guide to editing a video takes you through your first edits.

Kit matters less than the schedule. Better gear can wait until you have posted for a few months and know which formats you will keep making.

How do you build a content plan and keep a schedule?

1. Pick three or four content pillars: the themes your channel keeps coming back to.
2. Give each pillar one or two formats, for example a short how-to video and a photo carousel.
3. Put a month of publishing dates in a calendar and give each date a pillar.
4. Film in batches, several videos in one session, as the guide to batch filming social video describes.
5. Keep a short routine for every post: the caption, the cover image and the posting time.
6. Once a month, look at watch time, saves, shares and follows, and keep the formats that work.

Here is a content plan template for one month, filled in for a channel about travel in Latvia. Each row is the main idea of the week; the shorter posts in between come from the same pillar.

When you run short of ideas for content, these types work in almost any niche:

• a how-to;
• behind the scenes;
• a myth and the truth;
• a mistake you made and what you learned from it;
• an answer to a follower's question;
• before and after;
• a day in your work.

Talking to a lens feels odd at first. The guide to speaking on camera covers how to look and sound like yourself when you do it.

What is UGC content, and how do brands pay for it?

UGC stands for user-generated content. In creator work it means videos and photos you make for a brand, which the brand then posts on its own pages or runs as ads. The brand sends a brief, you film and deliver raw or edited files, and the brand publishes them. A UGC creator does not need a large following, because the brand pays for the content rather than for your audience.

There is no standard rate. The fee depends on:

• the number of videos or photo sets;
• whether you deliver raw footage or an edited video;
• the usage rights: where the brand may use the content, for how long, and whether in organic posts or paid ads;
• exclusivity, if you agree not to work with competing brands for a time;
• the deadline.

Agree the usage rights in writing before you film: a video licensed for three months of organic posts is a different job from one a brand runs as a paid ad for a year. UGC for a product also needs clean product shots, and the guide to product photography shows how to light and frame them.

How do content creators in Latvia make money, and how must an ad be labelled?

A creator's income can come from:

• brand collaborations: paid posts, videos or a longer partnership;
• UGC fees for content the brand posts itself;
• affiliate links that pay a commission on sales;
• platform programmes such as the YouTube Partner Program: a channel that meets its thresholds and passes a review gets a share of the ad revenue and features such as memberships;
• your own products or services, such as a course or consultations;
• sponsors, if you run a podcast.

Platform thresholds and rules change and differ by country, so check them on the platform's own pages before you plan around them. TikTok's learning hub for creators, the TikTok Creator Academy, has video courses and articles.

Latvia's Consumer Rights Protection Centre (PTAC) has published guidance for content creators. In brief, and as general guidance rather than legal advice, it says:

• content made for money, a gift or any other benefit needs a clear, noticeable label, such as #reklāma, #apmaksāts, #apmaksātareklāma, #sponsorēts or #paidpartnership;
• this applies to video ads too;
• a gift from a company becomes advertising once you choose to post about it, and the post must be marked;
• #sadarbība on its own, or only the name of a brand or product, is not enough;
• Instagram's branded content tool, which shows only the company name, is not enough without an extra label;
• the same rules apply when you promote your own products.

PTAC's page for content creators, its overview of influencer marketing and its advertising page are in Latvian. PTAC also considers it good practice to sign a written contract that sets out the terms of the collaboration, including how the content is labelled. The European Commission's Influencer Legal Hub explains when EU law expects you to disclose a brand partnership and offers video training and short legal briefs. On YouTube, tick the paid promotion box in the video details in YouTube Studio, as YouTube's help page describes, and the video gets a disclosure label at the start.

When does a studio session pay off?

A phone at home will take a channel a long way. A studio booking pays off when the content needs:

• a talk or video podcast with clean sound for several people;
• a batch day that fills a month of posts;
• a fresh set of photos for your profile or brand;
• a lit set where your own operator can film.

At our studio in Riga you can rent the set with professional lighting for €35/h and film alone or with your own operator; microphones and cameras cost extra. The photo studio costs €35/h, with continuous light and a grey curtain lit in any RGB colour. Video podcast recording comes with a 4K camera, light and a teleprompter, at €90 for the first hour.

One recorded talk can then feed your channel for a week: the guide to podcast clips shows how to cut it into short videos.