What Is Pearpop? How to take advantage of a new monetization tool

Content creators are constantly looking for new ways to diversify their revenue streams, so please allow me to introduce you to Pearpop, a great way to earn passive income from the content you’re already making.

Passive income is a critically important part of any content creator’s strategy because it helps alleviate financial stress and frees up time for taking on additional projects. At its essence, Pearpop is a way for content creators to earn money from brands by either a direct partnership or creating viral content that can be used for ads.

What is Pearpop?

Cole Mason, a Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, started Pearpop as a way of helping content creators earn more money from their creativity. Brands and celebrities will post “challenges” on Pearpop, setting the parameters, including the following a creator must have to participate, the type of content they produce, payout size and even approve content before it goes live.  

Brands include Amazon, Chipotle, Beyond Meat, and Netflix and the company has backing from a number of big-name investors. Once creators have decided to participate in a challenge, they tag the brand in their posts on Instagram or TikTok and are paid based on the number of views they get. Creators receive 80% of the program placement cost.

“We’ve paid out over $10 million to creators, and we’ve been proud to see how Pearpop has opened up an opportunity for creators without a massive following: 71% of earnings have gone to creators with under one million followers,” Mason told TechCrunch.

Pearpop and creators: a perfect match

Along with payouts for creating content that connects with an audience, Pearpop recently introduced “Boost Mode,” a new way for content creators to earn money. Brands are able to look through content that creators have posted to determine what’s performing well in terms of engagement and then turn those posts into ads. When a brand chooses a creator’s content, creators receive a bonus.

Think it sounds a bit like TikTok’s Creative Challenge? That’s because it is. But, Mason told TechCrunch he sees the big difference being that on Pearpop, brands already know the content is going to work. Whereas on TikTok, creators have to submit the content and hope a brand chooses it.

“Pearpop’s monetization system lets me do what I love for a living: creating content. My interactions with Pearpop are always efficient with clear communication on both ends, and the ability to easily navigate their user-friendly platform,” Kennedy Jardine, who has 2.4 million followers on TikTok, told Forbes.

Part of Pearpop’s appeal to brands is the ability to give companies seemingly organic content to use in their marketing. Brands are learning that not every ad needs to be carefully crafted and produced in a studio.

How to join Pearpop

To join Pearpop, creators must create an account and link their TikTok and other social media accounts. Once the account is ready to go, creators can start joining challenges. While creators can technically join any challenge, Pearpop recommends selecting ones that pair well with the content you already create. Then, you just submit your entry and, hopefully, start earning money.

Challenges range in payouts, but, Netflix paid content creators up to $560 to create a choreographed dance to the streaming service’s iconic opening sound, according to Net Influencer. Ibotta offered up to $1,000 for content creators showing off how the platform worked and some of the best deals.

It can be daunting as a content creator to go up against people with millions of followers, but Mason believes Pearpop’s power lies in its ability to provide opportunities to content creators with smaller followings, as well. Challenges are geared toward the type of creator a brand wants, so a restaurant in college town might want the most influential foodies in that area, not just any big-name content creator.

“They don’t care about the Kardashians or other big-name celebrities,” Mason told Fast Company. “What they care about is people in that area who have real influence.”