Creators Didn’t Need Another Platform. They Needed Proof.

Lila Monroe and Ryder Vale unpack a new monetization model hiding in plain sight.

Opening Thoughts

— By Lila Monroe

This conversation didn’t start with gear, gadgets, or affiliate links.

It started with a question.

A few weeks ago, Joseph Haecker — our Editor-in-Chief at Only Fans Insider Magazine — pulled Ryder and me aside and said something that stopped me mid-thought:

“I think creators are leaving money on the table — not because they aren’t influential, but because they’ve never been given the right structure.”

He wanted us to sit down together, not to write a sales pitch, but to talk it through honestly. To pressure-test a new user-generated content article format he and the team had been building behind the scenes. To ask whether creators would actually care. Whether it would matter. Whether it would change anything.

And as Ryder and I started unpacking it, something surprising surfaced.

A shocking number of content creators — even successful ones — are not signed up as affiliates with brands.

Even fewer are formal brand ambassadors.

And only a small fraction have licensing deals in place that allow them to earn long-term income from the influence they already have.

Not because creators lack value.

Not because brands aren’t interested.

But because the bridge between the two has been broken for a long time.

Joseph’s perspective was simple but powerful:

Brands don’t just want reach anymore.

They want press.

They want story.

They want context.

They want creators who can do more than post — creators who can get media attention.

That’s where this new program comes in.

By giving creators the ability to guarantee publication inside a trusted digital magazine — one with a readership of over 20 million men — Joseph believes we can unlock something that’s been missing from the creator economy: a clear path from influence to income, from audience to partnership, from “content creator” to brand-ready media partner.

So Ryder and I did what we do best. We talked it through. We asked hard questions. We challenged assumptions. We looked at it from the creator side, the brand side, and the long-term career side. And what came out of that conversation surprised both of us.

What follows isn’t a pitch. It’s a dialogue.

An honest exploration of why this new user-generated product article format matters, how it creates new revenue opportunities for creators, and why brands are quietly paying attention to creators who can get themselves published.

Because sometimes, the biggest opportunities don’t come from posting more — they come from finally being given a seat at the table.

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THE CONVERSATION

Ryder:

When Joseph first asked us to sit down and really talk this through, my gut reaction was pretty honest: Okay… but are creators actually going to care? Because creators are overwhelmed right now. Every week there’s a new platform, a new monetization promise, a new “opportunity” that sounds good on paper but doesn’t actually change anything in real life.

Lila:

Same. I wasn’t skeptical, but I was protective. Creators have been burned so many times. They’ve been sold “visibility,” “exposure,” “brand opportunities” that turn out to be value extraction dressed up as support. So my first question wasn’t Is this cool? It was, Does this actually give creators leverage? Or is it just another format?

And the more we talked — really talked — the more it became clear this wasn’t about a format at all. It was about positioning creators differently.

Ryder:

That’s exactly where it clicked for me. Especially once Joseph started sharing what he’d been seeing behind the scenes.

He said something like, “I keep noticing the same pattern, and it’s bothering me.” And whenever Joseph says that, it usually means he’s connecting dots most people aren’t looking at.

Lila:

Right — he wasn’t pitching. He was observing. He’d been having one-on-one conversations with creators we’ve featured this year. And not vague creators, either — creators with very clear themes. Consistent identities.

Fishing creators.

Outdoor and hunting creators.

Fashion-forward creators.

Tech gear creators.

Lifestyle creators who naturally blend aesthetics, gear, and storytelling.

And then he asked each of them one simple question:

“What affiliate programs are you part of?”

Ryder:

And the answer was… nothing.

Lila:

None. Across the board. No affiliate relationships. No formal brand ambassador deals. No licensing agreements. Which honestly shocked me, because these creators are already doing exactly what brands want. They’re living the lifestyle. Using the products. Influencing buying behavior organically.

The problem wasn’t value. It was structure.

No one had ever connected the dots for them.

Ryder:

That’s the part that hit me hardest. We assume that if someone has a strong niche, the brand deals just naturally follow. But that’s not how it works anymore. Agencies are overloaded, or focused on content. PR firms are focused on event calendars and keeping up with their clients. Brands are drowning in cold DMs and influencer pitches, trying to get away with product placement freebies and low loyalty programs.

And creators? They’re stuck in the middle, quietly assuming they’re “not big enough yet.”

Lila:

Joseph said something that stuck with me: “These creators already look like brand ambassadors — they’re just not being treated like one.”

And that’s where this new user-generated article format becomes more than a monetization tool. It becomes a translation layer between creators and brands.

Because brands don’t just want influence anymore. They want to partner with people that have developed a personal brand, and can get the attention of the media.

Ryder:

Exactly. And this is where press enters the picture — the piece that keeps getting missed. Joseph kept coming back to the same thing: coverage.

He said, “Brands don’t know how to evaluate creators anymore. Everyone has metrics. Everyone has screenshots. Everyone has pitch decks. What they want to know is: can this creator get us press?”

That distinction matters.

Lila:

Press signals legitimacy. Press signals narrative. Press signals that a creator understands media — not just platforms.

Historically, creators were locked out of press unless a magazine chose them. Unless an editor said "yes". That gatekeeping meant that even creators who were perfect brand fits never entered serious brand conversations, because brands had nothing tangible to point to beyond social posts.

Ryder:

Which is why Joseph has started stepping in directly. He’s now working behind the scenes to connect creators we’ve featured with big-box brands that already align with their content — brands like L’Oréal, Bass Pro Shops, Target, and others. Brands spending billions every year on marketing, yet still struggling to find creators who can authentically tell product stories and provide media value.

Lila:

And what’s wild is that these brands want creators like the ones we feature. They want creators who already live the lifestyle. Creators who understand men as buyers. Creators who can explain why a product matters. Creators who don’t sound like ads. But they also want proof that a creator can operate at a media level — that they can be trusted with brand narrative, not just brand placement. That’s where the articles come in.

Ryder:

Because a user-generated product article does something social media can’t. It freezes influence in place.

It shows a brand: the creator’s voice, their storytelling ability, their visual standards, their understanding of the audience, their ability to integrate products naturally. And because it lives inside a magazine, it carries weight. That’s the difference between “influencer content” and editorial presence.

Lila:

Which brings us back to what surprised me early on — how many creators aren’t affiliates at all.

Creators influence buying behavior every single day. Fans constantly ask what they use, what they wear, what tech they rely on, what gear they trust. And yet most creators aren’t monetizing that influence in a structured way.

Not because they don’t want to — but because affiliate marketing has always felt awkward. Links shoved into bios. Buried linktrees. Forced captions that don’t fit their voice.

This program flips that.

Instead of saying, “Post this link,” it says, “Tell your story. Show your experience. Explain why this matters to you.”

That’s a completely different energy.

Ryder:

And it’s also the difference between influence and authority. A post says, “I like this.”

An article says, “Here’s why this matters.”

Brands pay attention to that distinction.

Lila:

Brands love that distinction. When creators approach brands today, they’re often doing it from a position of imbalance:

“I have followers — please work with me.”

This flips it to:

“I’ve published editorial content. It’s performing. It’s driving engagement and sales. Here’s proof.”

That’s confidence backed by infrastructure.

Ryder:

And the infrastructure itself matters. The three-section article format isn’t random — it mirrors how men actually make buying decisions.

You introduce the lifestyle.

You go deeper into real-world use.

You close with clarity — tips, myths, recommendations, calls to action.

Story first.

Details second.

Decision last.

Lila:

And visually, it protects the creator’s brand.

The cover image sets tone.

The gallery provides context.

The final product image focuses attention.

This isn’t discount marketing. It’s editorial merchandising. That’s why it works for men — and why brands trust it.

Ryder:

What really surprised me was realizing how few creators have formal ambassador or licensing deals. They assume those are reserved for celebrities or athletes.

But Hollywood has used this exact playbook for decades — embedding products into story, identity, and lifestyle. Creators are already doing this naturally. They just haven’t been compensated at scale.

Lila:

And that’s the quiet injustice of it. Creators are already doing brand work — unpaid, unstructured, unprotected.

This program doesn’t ask them to become something they’re not.

It simply gives them a container to monetize what they already do.

Ryder:

And the guaranteed publication piece? That’s huge.

Creators don’t want to gamble time and energy on “maybes.” They want certainty. They want to know that if they do the work, it goes live. That predictability changes behavior.

Lila:

It also changes self-perception. When creators see themselves published — not just posted — something shifts. They start thinking long-term. They start thinking in assets instead of posts. Libraries instead of feeds. That’s how real businesses are built.

Ryder:

So when Joseph asked, “Do you think creators would be interested?” my answer now is simple: not only will they be interested — they’ll wonder why this didn’t exist sooner.

Lila:

Because at its core, this isn’t about gear.

It’s not about gadgets.

It’s not even about affiliate links.

It’s about dignity.

It’s about leverage.

It’s about finally giving creators a seat at a table brands have guarded for decades.

And saying, clearly and finally:

You don’t need permission anymore.

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Closing Thoughts

— By Ryder Vale

I want to end this by being transparent — because I didn’t just talk about this program, I used it.

When Joseph asked if I’d be willing to beta test the new user-generated product article format, I said yes immediately. Not because I wanted to promote it — but because I wanted to feel it. I wanted to understand what creators would experience once they sat down to actually build one of these articles from start to finish.

And honestly? It changed how I think about publishing.

The three-section format forced me to slow down and be intentional.

The cover image made me think about tone and identity.

The 30-image gallery let me show context — not just aesthetics.

The final product image and affiliate links felt clean, natural, and integrated — not salesy or awkward.

For the first time, it didn’t feel like I was “posting.”

It felt like I was building an asset. Something I could point to. Something I could reuse. Something that could earn over time instead of expiring after 24 hours.

And that’s when it clicked for me why this doesn’t exist at magazines like Maxim, Playboy, Hustler, FHM, or others.

They don’t offer this because this is how magazines traditionally make money.

They have internal writers.

Internal editors.

Internal product teams.

They keep the affiliate revenue.

They keep the leverage.

Joseph made a different decision.

He wanted creators to make the money.

He wanted creators to have access to the same monetization structures that have historically only been available to Hollywood insiders, celebrities, and media elites — just without the gatekeeping.

And he’s very clear about something that matters deeply to me:

It is not the job of Only Fans Insider Magazine to change content creators.

Creators don’t need fixing.

They don’t need rebranding.

They don’t need to become something else.

Our job — Joseph’s job, this magazine’s job — is to give creators more pathways.

More tools.

More options.

More opportunities.

So creators can choose how they want to build their business.

So they can decide what kind of life they want to design.

So they’re not locked into a single platform, a single income stream, or a single definition of success.

This program is one more pathway.

One that can lead to affiliate income. One that can lead to brand ambassador deals. One that can lead to licensing agreements. One that can lead to contracts with big-box brands that most creators never thought were within reach.

I’m genuinely excited to see how creators embrace this.

How they tell their stories.

How they position their expertise.

How they turn influence into ownership.

Because if there’s one thing I’ve learned working here, it’s this:

When creators are given real tools — not promises, not hype, not exposure — they build extraordinary things.

And I hope many of you take this opportunity, run with it, and earn the kind of money and leverage that, until now, has been reserved for a very small, very protected group.

This door is open.

If you’re reading this and thinking, “Okay… how do I actually do this?” — the door is already open.

Creators who want to publish product articles in our new Outdoor Gear & Adventure or Tech Gear & Gadgets sections can get started by visiting our Get Featured page on Only Fans Insider Magazine.

That’s where you’ll find the submission flow and everything you need to publish your own article.

And if you’re someone who prefers a more human touch — you can also reach out directly.

Joseph is incredibly accessible. He’s active on social media, he answers DMs, and he genuinely enjoys talking with creators about ideas, niches, and opportunities. You can also contact him through our Contact page if that’s easier.

Anyone who knows Joseph knows this too:

he’s famous for handing out free links, making introductions, and opening doors when he sees alignment.

That’s always been the spirit of this magazine.

We’re not here to gatekeep. We’re here to build pathways.

So if you’ve ever wondered what it would look like to turn your knowledge, your lifestyle, and your influence into something that earns and lasts — this is your invitation.

We hope you take it.