From streamer to creator: How Anthony Bate turned UGC into a full-time income

How it started

Anthony stumbled into content creation. Already live-streaming gaming content and enjoying the video-creation side of things, he was approached by someone in his circle about UGC, a world he knew nothing about.

"I didn't have a clue what it was about and certainly didn't think it was something I would be able to be successful in doing, however I instantly fell in love with the process."

That was January 2025. Since then, it's been a whirlwind.

Fitting it all in

What makes Anthony's story particularly relatable is the context he's working within. A full-time job (45 hours a week), and an 18-month-old daughter at home. Spare time isn't something he has in abundance.

"I outline what's required, dilute the brief to key steps, and just take bite-size chunks where I can which often means coming home from work, blocking 1-2 hours and choosing a few campaigns to tackle. It’s ever-increasingly easy to get stuck in the 'planning-phase'."

And once a campaign is done, he moves on.

"You can spend, as I have, hours and even days 'perfecting' a campaign but your idea of perfect doesn't always align with the brand's vision, and revisions are part of the process for both the brand and creator. Don't take on more than you can handle."

On bombing, and not overthinking it

Anthony posts content that flops. Regularly. And he's completely fine with that.

"I regularly post content that bombs! 😂 Nature of the beast, I don't get too hung up on it. Sometimes it hits, sometimes it doesn't. I just make sure to review and try to learn from those that don't."

Once something is posted, he lets it go. The focus stays on the process and the enjoyment of creating, and if he's enjoyed making it, that counts for something regardless of the numbers.

What the audience actually gives you

For Anthony, the engagement from his audience is the thing that makes the invisible work worth it.

"What many don't see is the 4 hours that went into that 30 second video, the mess around the house of t-shirts and tripods that you have to clean up after."

When an audience laughs along, reacts, or even gets riled up, that response is the nod of approval that confirms he delivered. Whether it's adoration or a bit of well-placed bait, their engagement is the signal that the content landed.

Views, followers, and the gap between them

With over 20 million views across his UGC work in the last 14 months, Anthony knows better than most how little correlation there can be between views and followers. And yet the follower count still dictates so much of what's available to him.

"Many brands won't even humour my outreach due to not having enough followers. So many times it comes down to 'what's available' rather than 'what's preferable'."

He's hoping that changes as he grows. The goal is to get to a position where he can be more selective, focus on brands he truly aligns with, and start honing in on what he actually wants to create.

What platforms get wrong

Follower count, he says, functions like a class system, locking creators out of tools, features, and opportunities regardless of the quality of their work.

"I had to really drive my follower count up to get into many UGC circles, and those followers see 1/10th of what I create if that, and likely engage with even less."

The irony isn't lost on him. His highest-performing video, 30M+ views, had nothing to do with his following. Transparency is the other frustration. Algorithm changes happen constantly, and platforms never explain them.

"Nobody really knows what any of the algorithms actually want. We all just speculate based on what is or isn't performing."

What makes a great brief

Ask Anthony what gets him excited to film, and the answer is simpler than you'd expect: clarity.

"This is our product and our target consumer, this is the video length we're aiming for, please add 3 B-roll elements and make sure to talk about the following 3 points. Here are some assets you can use and a reference video."

It sounds obvious, he admits, but he estimates that 3 in 5 briefs he receives are missing at least one of those elements. When everything is there, he's straight to camera with a clear direction and a clear sense of what the brand is after.

The money conversation

Anthony is more selective now than when he started, about the work yes, but also about what's being asked for in return. When he was starting out, he was accepting campaigns for significantly less than he does now, though he's quick to acknowledge those early low-paid jobs still have their place.

He still takes on free-product campaigns for brands he genuinely connects with, enjoying the creative process and hoping to build a longer-term relationship. But he's wised up to low offers dressed up as big opportunities.

"A video for £250 sounds great until you're hit with a request for an additional 4 hooks, 15 B-roll clips and to convert it into multiple aspect ratios."

The video that started it all

Anthony's most memorable video isn't his best-performing one. It's his worst. Around 1,000 views, a rev-share payout of £3, and he was thrilled.

"I was over the moon. I made a UGC video, it was approved, and it ran and that for me was amazing. I was chuffed with my £3."

He still watches it regularly as a reminder of where the journey began and a nudge that says, yeah, you can do this.

The Ramdam impact

Since joining in November, Anthony has made around £2,500 on the platform, with 80% of that coming in just the last two months. But zoom out to his UGC work as a whole, and the numbers become hard to ignore:

"It massively impacts other sources of income. With UGC in the last 12 months I've made more than the equivalent of 12 months in my FT job, which is crazy!"

He's been increasingly focused on Ramdam specifically in recent months, and says the opportunity keeps growing. The real-world impact has been tangible, too: UGC has allowed him to save a healthy deposit for a new house for his family and pay off any outstanding balances they owed.