Module 0A · section 0 · 485 words · ~4 min read
UGC Craft Basics
The trade, before any of the tools.
This is the trade. What the work is, what it's worth, how you get it, and how you keep making it once you have it.
There is no AI in this module's teaching, and that is on purpose. Not because it isn't useful — the rest of the guide is largely about it — but because these four things were true before any of it existed and will be true after. A creator who knows what usage rights are and how to price them is in a strong position regardless of what they make the video with. A creator who doesn't is in a weak one, faster.
Get this straight first and the rest of the guide lands. Skip it and you'll be producing more content, more efficiently, for less money than it's worth.
1What's in here
| Section | What it covers |
|---|---|
| 1 | Choosing a platform, and why the niche decides it rather than the reverse |
| 2 | How brand deals and rates actually work — including the part beginners give away free |
| 3 | Pitching: what to send, to whom, and what happens next |
| 4 | Content pillars and posting cadence |
Then the kit — four working assets you'll keep using:
| Asset | What it is |
|---|---|
kit/01-rate-calculator.md |
Work out what to charge, and defend it |
kit/02-contract-template.md |
A plain-language agreement to adapt |
kit/03-outreach-scripts.md |
Five situations, five scripts |
kit/04-outreach-tracker.md |
Where every conversation stands |
2About the kit and AI
Worth being direct, since the rest of this guide is about AI and this module isn't.
The teaching above is AI-free. Two of the four kit assets are not — the rate calculator and the outreach scripts both work better with help, because both involve judgement-per-case that has to be redone for every brand. Where that applies, those files carry a clearly marked section at the end.
The other two deliberately don't. The contract template stays a static, reviewed document: generating a contract per engagement invites drift on exactly the clauses that matter. The tracker is a plain artefact — the only sensible touch is drafting a follow-up when one comes due, and making the tracker itself "smart" would make it less trustworthy, not more.
Every AI section is at the end of its file and fenced off. Read the file without it and you have a complete, working asset. That is the test this module was built to pass.
3One line to take out of this module
You are not paid for the video. You are paid for what the brand is allowed to do with it.
Section 2 is where that becomes concrete, and it is the single most expensive thing beginners in this trade don't know.
Source: content/module-0a/00-module-overview.md