Monetization & Deals

Usage Rights & Licensing

What it means when a brand wants to use your content.

3 min readLast updated August 2026

Overview

Usage rights determine where, how long, and for how much a brand can use your content. They are the difference between a creator who sells posts and one who sells media.

This document explains the common licensing terms and what to charge for each.

The tiers

Social-only usage — the brand may repost your content on their social channels. This is the default included in most deals.

Ad usage — the brand may run your content in paid advertising. Ads reach an order of magnitude more people than organic posts.

Ownership — the brand owns the content outright and can use it anywhere, including TV and print, forever.

  • Each tier up multiplies the value of the post.
  • If a brand asks for ad usage without additional payment, request a 2–3× uplift.
  • Get usage terms in writing — verbal agreements do not survive a campaign.

Territory and duration

Limit ad usage to a region (e.g. India only) and a duration (e.g. 90 days). If the brand wants to extend, that is another invoice.

Put the limits in the contract. The API-driven deals module in PulseHub stores usage terms alongside the deal so both parties agree before posting.