Brand deals are one of my favorite ways to monetize your platform and content. They’re flexible, scalable, and can become a reliable income stream, whether you have a blog, Substack publication, or another creator business.
In Brand Deal Strategies, my exclusive series for paid subscribers, I’ll share everything I’ve learned from closing hundreds of sponsored collaborations on my blog Let’s Reach Success over the past decade. You’ll learn how to find brands, pitch yourself with confidence, communicate professionally, negotiate higher rates, upsell your services, and build long-term partnerships.
Each post in this series will be short, practical, and focused on one specific strategy that has worked for me, or one I’ve tested and genuinely believe can help you land better partnerships.
The goal is to give you one actionable takeaway you can apply right away.
I’ll also take you behind the scenes of the brand deals I’m working on in real time, sharing email screenshots, negotiation breakdowns, pricing decisions, and the thinking behind my approach (with sensitive details removed where needed).
Now, I know most of you haven’t even heard of this monetization method, haven’t ever considered it as a possibility, or don’t think you even qualify for it.
Well, you probably do. I will create more posts soon to bust some common myths (like the fact that you don’t need thousands of subscribers, that you can approach brands yourself, you can have sponsored packages to offer them, and so much more).
But now, let’s start with the first strategy.
It has to do with negotiating.
It happened just a few days ago via email and I managed to increase the rate we worked with from $250 to $350.
Below, you’ll see the company I worked with, the emails we exchanged, what I offered, and how the deal went.