I remember when I first started blogging, I couldn’t believe I was getting so many things for free, well in exchange I should say. I’m a BIG proponent of not accepting free product in exchange for social coverage BUT if you’re all about getting free stuff, you do you boo. No judgment here. At some point you’ve probably wondered, me included at the time, how the heck so many people are continually working with brands.

Well let me introduce you to something called influencer agencies. These websites are a little bit different from the full fledge agencies I’ve worked at and worked with because they’re almost solely for influencer marketing. Most of them have an application you fill out and then once you’re in you’ll see tons of campaigns you can apply to! You’re able to pitch them your ideas for the campaign and negotiate payment. When I first started out, this is how I was able to get LOADS of free product. I was constantly applying to campaigns that were on a trade basis only, again, if that’s what you’re okay with, you do you! Once I started growing and understanding more and more that I was putting way too much work into my posts JUST for free products I started looking for websites that actually had paid campaigns as well.

Below are some of my favorite agencies to work with. I started working with some of these when I had about 1000 followers and continue to work with them now. Some do require a certain number of followers, which I think is a little silly because it’s all about the content you create and not technically about the numbers. I recommend just applying regardless, who knows, maybe they’ll love your content and not care about the numbers.

AspireIQ

AspireIQ has TONS of campaigns once you’re accepted. They have both paid and product only campaigns but if you’re solely wanting to look at paid you can go to the search bar and put in “$” then only paid campaigns will appear. The only thing is you can apply for a million different campaigns and get about 2-3 a month. At least that’s how it typically is for me. One thing I highly recommend doing on this platform is writing a specific message to the brand explaining why you would be a great fit for the campaign. You can JUST apply but you want to get noticed right? Once you’ve done this, FOLLOW UP! It’s basically like an email chain with the brand on Aspire’s platform. Almost all of the collaborations I’ve landed on Aspire are because I followed up. Additionally, don’t be afraid to negotiate your rate with them if the campaign is paid. If they don’t meet your price point, it’s okay to say no.

BrandBacker

BrandBacker was one of the first platforms I used when I first started blogging and they pretty much only have gifting opportunities BUT occasionally they will offer a paid campaign. Typically you must have over 10K followers on IG. I hadn’t used this platform in a couple of years because I was over getting free product and their free product wasn’t something I was super interested in. It’s mostly skin care and beauty products. Nice brands too! I did snag some Peter Thomas Roth makeup but again, I’m not a beauty blogger so it wasn’t really what I wanted at the time. A couple of weeks ago, I came back to see if they had any paid campaigns and I landed some great deals with products I love and they met my rate easily.

Collectively

I was recommended Collectively by a brand represented by them. When you’re pitching brands on your own sometimes they’ll refer you to the company that runs their campaigns. So then the brand gave me their contact for Collectively she was able to send me over the application to apply and I was accepted fairly quick. Collectively is an agency that doesn’t have a platform where you apply for campaigns, they actually reach out to you if they have something that fits with you. I’ve been reached out to a couple of times but they were for product only campaigns. I still recommend applying for them because you never know, they may see you as a fit for a campaign that they don’t see me fit for.

Fohr

Fohr is a pretty cool platform! It’s probably my favorite because of all the information it generates for you, such as demographic, stats, etc. and the capabilities it has. I actually heard about them when I attended the HerConference in Los Angeles and their VP spoke. It’s a platform where you can go into your bulletin and answer surveys like “Are you planning on creating gift guides during this holiday season?” OR apply for paid and product only campaigns. Once you’ve answered the surveys or applied for a campaign, it’s up to the brand to reach out via email. I haven’t gotten too many campaigns from Fohr, BUT the ones I have gotten were GOOD. One of the best things I’ve gotten out of Fohr is the testimonial survey. They give you the opportunity to send a link to your followers and ask them why they follow you, if they purchase from you, etc. These answers then appear on your profile for brands to see. To take it a step further, you can download the responses and put them on your website or even tie them into your media kit.

Heartbeat

Heartbeat is great if you’re just starting out! They have a flat rate they pay for any collaborations based on your following and engagement. The most I’ve ever bbeen paid for a campaign from them is $30 + compensation for the product I had to purchase. I used them a lot starting out because they helped me build up my media kit with brands I worked with and they work with some big names. For example, I worked with Tampax and Dunkin’ for the first time on Heartbeat and having these big names on my media kit helped me negotiate higher rates with other brands because those are some pretty recognizable names. Plus, they had no idea I worked with them for $30! So really consider all angles when you’re collaborating with brands. Heartbeat has an app that you can do pretty much everything from! I’m all about this app life, how bout’ you??

Influenster

Influenster was my very first platform to use!! I have such a soft spot for Influenster because they provided me with tons of products that I would review on my blog! Influenster is mostly beauty products, which I’m totally okay with because for a while, I was being sent so much makeup I didn’t have to buy any for months!!! I’m talking good stuff like full size bareMinerals, Kat Von D, Belif, and more! Was I ever paid? Nope. BUT what is really cool about Influenster is that you’re not required to post anything! Most of the time you can post on stories, or write a review on Ulta, Sephora, or their website and they ask for HONEST reviews. Not everyone is just sent products though. Influenster has these things called snap surveys that you’ll need to take and they want to determine what products you already use or have used and they’ll ask you to review them. Once you’ve done this, you’ll be contacted a lot more to receive Vox boxes which are boxes with products! Additionally, I use Influenster as a resource to read reviews on products before I purchase them. Let me know if you have more questions about Influenster because it’s a little confusing.

Mavrck

Mavrck has been a great agency to be a part of! They’re an agency that contacts you with opportunities and don’t have a platform for you to apply on. They’ll typically email you with details for a campaign with everything stated out: brand, product, when it needs to go up, and payment. It’s definitely a variety of brands and of course payment scales. Sometimes the it’ll be for product only or product + $50 or product + $150 or product + $200 e visa card. Don’t be discouraged by the gift card payments. I totally put them on my Venmo account as a card to take money from, then Venmo Andrew all of it, then he sends it back and I put it straight until my bank account. Yes, that’s a lot but we out here trying to make a living right?! Mavrck works with A LOT of companies like Toms, Clean & Clear, and even Shark Ninja. I’ve had a couple companies I’ve reached out to send me to their Mavrck page because that’s who represents them and any time they’re doing a campaign, I’ll get an invite to apply. You can join by following this link.

Popular Pays

Popular Pays has been one of my favorite platforms to use because they have A LOT of campaigns for lifestyle and foodie bloggers and influencers. Most of my food collaborations have come from Popular Pays. They have a lot of paid collaborations and rarely have product only. One thing about Popular Pays is that if it is food you’ll have to go purchase the product yourself and it’s included in the rate they have stated OR if you’re able to type in your rate, you better include that! Typically, the rates on Popular Pays are fixed so they’re no budging, BUT a lot of them are pretty high so that’s good. I’ve worked with Kroger multiple times here and even Dunkin’. Some other big brands I’ve seen that aren’t food are Hyatt, KitchenAid, St.Ives, and Jack Daniels. Additionally, I LOVE that Popular Pays has an app. So you can do everything from your phone, like upload screenshots from posts, etc. It makes things A LOT easier and I’m down for it.

Shopping Links

Good ole Shopping Links. This was another site I started using when I first created my blog, so I’ve been on it for YEARS. Y’all I’m going to be completely honest with ya, I’ve never actually seen a paid collab on here. I’ve only ever done product only collaborations BUT they’ve been awesome and again, I’m not encouraging this, but if you wanna… you’re going to do it. I’ve worked with brands like Shoe Carnival, Sam Edelman, Marc Fisher, Calpak, Modcloth, and more!

Socialix

This is a site very similar to AspireIQ because it lists out all the different collaborations very similarly to them. You can filter them by paid and for product only, which is so nice. I’ve worked with a couple of beauty companies and even a language learning company. You’re able to negotiate your rate for the most part. Some do list their budget, which is nice to see. I’ve noticed that Socialix has A LOT of toy collaborations so if you’re a momma then you’ll love this. Don’t let that run you off though, there are some other great collabs, you’ll just have to filter through the toy ones, haha!

The Shelf

The Shelf is very similar to Collectively, in that you fill out information on their site, get accepted, and then they reach out to you via email on behalf of the brand wanting to collaborate. I’ve had some pretty good luck with them reaching out and working together. Plus they pay pretty well, but always negotiate. They make it seem like you can’t but you totally can.

Another thing that can be beneficial about sites like these is that it shows what brands are wanting to work with influencers and then you can reach out to them on your own and see if they’ll do a paid collaboration instead of only for product that’s listed on these sites. Typically I’ll find the PR contact on their media relations or newsroom page OR I reach out to them via IG DM and tell them I have an amazing opportunity that I would love to pitch to their social media manager and I’d love to have that contact information. Reaching out this way has surprisingly worked really well! Sometimes when you reach out to the social media manager they’ll just tell you the same thing that’s on the agency site, direct you to the agency site to apply to their campaign OR they’ll work with you on a paid campaign.

I save all these websites to my bookmarks bar on Google Chrome and check their campaigns every day because there is always something new and they typically don’t stay up for a while. Additionally, I recommend that you reach out to your local PR companies and agencies too to get on their influencer list. A simple way to do so is by googling “PR company Houston” or “Marketing agency Houston.” Be sure to look at their client list and if there are some you think would be in your niche, reach out to the company and let them know you’d love to be added to their influencer list and why they should add you. See more about that and word for word what I say to PR companies, brands, and more in my pitching guide here.

Let me know in the comments if you thought this was helpful, have any questions, or just want to say hi! Now get out there and start making that cash money$$$

Love always,

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