Can you ACTUALLY trust Mrwhosetheboss?

Can you

trust

a YouTube reviewer? What stops us from simply taking money from companies to say good things about them? It's a genuine concern that many of you have told me you have, that's how it works, every YouTuber, as long as they meet the minimum requirements, wins. some money from ads, so every time you see those double unskippable ads, as annoying as I know they can be, you are supporting that creator, but the problem with ad revenue is that YouTube only It pays you according to the number of views you get. how long each of those viewers watch and see what the demographics of their audience are, but they have almost no control over those things and to show you how much variation this can mean, a thousand views from the Maldives could pay a creator 15 thousand views. of Jamaica 0.03 500 times less that is the difference between the salary of the president of the United States and the salary of a 15 year old boy who decides to do one hour of tutoring a week and add to that because many of these companies want to advertise around Diwali Christmas, New Year, when customers are

actually

following and buying things from those ads, ad revenue for creators is good in those months, but literally on the second of January, even if all your views, your times display are all the same. earning half, so all I'm really trying to establish here is that most YouTubers need to create sponsored content from time to time, they may have full time employees with salaries, they may have to rent or families they need to support.

They need to replace equipment or buy products to make the videos, so they need some type of income that they can at least control. Okay, so since you know that a YouTuber is being sponsored for a certain video, can you

trust

the words? that are coming right out of your mouth, the way it works with paid content on youtube is that there are two types of sponsorships: you will get companies that just want to be a part of an existing video that you were going to make anyway to be mentioned for 30 to 60 seconds or you'll get companies that want their product to be the full video, as you'll remember that day when it seemed like the entire tech community was testing Dyson vacuum cleaners, but generally speaking, this is what a sponsorship deal looks like with the company. approach a creator with deliverables, what content format you want, they will give you talking points, key things they want you to highlight, a time frame and how much they will be willing to offer you for it and last but not least, with a paid video. is that the brand may take a look at it before posting it just to make sure it's okay with them, so with all that in mind, I'm not going to tell you that you can trust every sponsored review you see because clearly, there is room for a YouTuber who just wants money tell the company that yes, no matter what brand you are, no matter what the product is, I will say exactly what you want me to say, this exists, but it doesn't. me, so I just want to show you how far I can go to make sure that when you watch a video here, you get my thoughts and not the thoughts of a company, so the first thing is I won't accept a sponsorship if I don't think it's relevant.

Look, this is a technology channel. You're interested in technology, maybe lifestyle, maybe health, but what I'm not going to do is start promoting credit cards, energy drinks or vaporizers, no matter how much. They offered it to me, the second thing is obviously the product itself. I've really realized over the last few years that I don't want to blow my own trumpet, but if I recommend a product on this channel, chances are at least some of you will. I'm going to review it and buy it. I met some of you at launch events or generally on the streets and you told me I'm using this phone because it was recommended to me or I bought the xeon smooth x 2-axis stabilized gimbal because it was featured on that smartphone gadgets episode on July 27, 2020. or that wish.com tablet ok no one asked me about that but you get the point and now before I sign any contract with any company I ask.

For the product, I have a sponsored video coming up for a really cool smartphone device, but instead of signing the deal first, which is the typical way of working, I insisted on holding the device in my hand. I tried it myself. I'm sure it's good enough before I go back to the company and say I love it, let's do this and this is true for anything sponsored on this channel, whether it's a VPN service or a healthy food alternative. I've tried it, I've tried it and I really recommend it, it's very easy to see a youtuber making a sponsored video and think, obviously they're only saying that because they get paid, but if they're

actually

people you trust then it's more likely that they have done it.

I only took that sponsorship because they really like the product, for example you may know that I do a lot of sponsorships with surfsharkvpn, that's not because they pay me more. In fact, I have done everything I can to earn less to ensure myself. that I'm promoting something that I truly believe has better value for you and I insist that instead of doing the sponsored piece for half the video, which would generate more income, I leave it right at the end so that if you decide it's not interesting for you, it won't waste your time and that brings me to the next thing, like I said, brands have a say over a sponsored video or a sponsored segment, they will give creators recommended talking points, but this is where La The ball is on YouTube is stuck because while you can rest assured that I will take your money and say those things, that's not what you need to do and that's not what I do.

My response to these talking points is always this is what I mean: take it or leave it because, let's be honest, a sponsored video script should be the same as if you were making that video and not getting paid for it, it sure could mean that you cover a product that I otherwise wouldn't have covered, sure it might mean you have a slightly different angle, a slightly different thing you're looking at because it's sponsored, but it shouldn't change how you feel about it. I even had this time I was going to do. a collaboration with a very important telephone brand.

I sent them my draft of the script and it was just two sentences that we couldn't agree on. They wanted me to say it one way and they didn't budge when I told them that wasn't the case. I captured how I really felt about the device and that was enough to say okay, I'm not doing this video with you and then proceeded to make the exact same video myself without getting paid just so I could say those two sentences. The way I wanted to say them and I think most accountants would probably be yelling at me for that and that brings me to the money itself, because this is often the biggest criticism that is leveled at YouTubers who do things for money, is like the first thing they do.

I will be tagged if you make an unpopular opinion but the truth is I am not a money focused person as I have all the physical goods I could ever need but even when I didn't it was on every goal list I set for myself . myself for the channel or even just me personally money was never a factor that's why I don't have a patreon where you can donate to me that's why I didn't set up memberships on the YouTube channel where you can pay monthly to support me. Although it would take like 10 minutes, that's why I don't have a fans-only account.

Okay, there are other reasons for that. The point is that I want all my content to be free. What do I want? I want to make videos where you watch longer because that's a sign to me that I'm providing fun. I want to keep learning and improving because those things are fun to me. That's why I spend a lot of my effort trying to make this setup more interesting and more. It's fun, it keeps evolving. I want to get to 10 million subscribers so badly that these are things that I find rewarding, so if I ever feel like money or sponsorships are going to compromise you or compromise trust, which is why you watch my videos.

First of all, I'm not doing them, that's all, although I try my best to make sure I do sponsorships the way I think is right. You still have the right to know when you are viewing sponsored content. Because being an influencer is such a new field, the regulations are evolving as we go and I'm still learning them, but what I can say for sure is that in the UK, where I'm from, even if I wanted to. I couldn't make a sponsored video and not tell you that it was a sponsored video and even if I went further and tried to find some kind of loophole, the brand I was sponsoring would insist that I reveal it anyway because they would be in trouble too if I didn't.

I have done this for the last year and in the future, especially, I am going to be as clear as possible. I will tell you verbally when a video is sponsored, it will be in the video description and if the entire video. The video is sponsored, you'll see this marker in the bottom corner, so if a video doesn't have those things, no payment has been made. This brings me to another thing I feel I need to address, I never have and I will never do a sponsored review as I see it. A review is a very specific type of video where you expect the creator to have used a device over a period of time and give you their conclusive, unfiltered thoughts on a yes or no. you should buy it but it wouldn't seem right to me for that to be sponsored even if i'm saying what i think last year the xiaomi 10 t phone sponsored me to do twitter content and they wanted me to do a teaser on it. this new feature that was coming and it was something quite fun and quirky so I said yes and as part of this xiaomi sent me this store long before the launch, so much before the launch that if I had wanted I could have made a full review and I posted it at the time the phone was announced to the world.

It could have been like the deepest video on the internet at the time. It could have been amazing, but I didn't. I just felt that because I was sponsored to do those Twitter teasers even though they would have had nothing to do with any YouTube content I had made, it still wouldn't seem entirely right to do a full review of a phone that I technically paid for. They paid to promote and about that. Please note that I feel like there is a small misconception I need to address related to these smartphone brands not sponsoring channels. I'm generalizing a little but in the last 10 years that I've been making technology videos I haven't had a single company like xiaomi, huawei or oneplus say we want to sponsor you, we always want to sponsor that video, so just because a youtuber makes a Sponsored video for a brand does not turn that brand into a channel that sponsors brands.

Don't just quietly pay YouTubers for every nice phrase they say about you, it's largely a black and white case: this is a sponsored video where the brand approved its posting and this is not a sponsored video where the brand has no absolutely nothing to say. not at all, okay, there is one thing that I would say is a gray area and it is something that I had in mind when I used to watch technology videos before making them myself and reviewing samples, so it probably won't come as a surprise to you that Sometimes me and all the other tech YouTubers are sent some of the devices we review by the companies themselves.

It is the only way we can post videos of those devices the moment they are announced to the world, but this creates an obvious question because if YouTubers, creators and writers depend on manufacturers to send them devices. So does that create an incentive for us to say good things about them so we can keep getting those samples? Yes, to be perfectly frank when I started receiving them. samples from about seven years ago, part of me was nervous about criticizing that brand, as far as I know, I still spoke my mind, but it's entirely possible that somewhere subconsciously my opinion was affected by the fact that I did .

I didn't pay for the item and second, I was trying to build good relationships with the brand, but very soon I started to see this differently. I realized there are like a hundred tech channels, they're all bigger than me and they're all growing faster. As for me, we all cover the same products so the only thing I could offer was to be helpful, even if it means getting kicked off a company's reviewer list, that's worth it if I get kicked off because I feel like I'm telling the truth because in the long run I hope viewers realize that and would be happy to wait about two more weeks for me to buy my own version of that device and review it myself.

This whole idea of ​​trying it out. to be useful, that's why I spend so much time trying to keep my videos concise. That's why I don't spend 40 seconds introducing the topic of the video when I think the title and thumbnail are enough tolet you discover it. It's why I don't spend a lot of time on relatively niche products unless I think they have a really interesting story behind them, and most importantly, it's why I try to make sure I give you good information, at least based on my experiences. . and my preferences I'm biased, yes I prefer products that are blue and white, as you can probably tell, I don't use wireless charging, I place more importance on battery life and cameras than most because those things are important to me , everyone has biases, but the crucial thing for me is that those biases are not affected by brand relationships.

I'll give you an example. A couple of weeks ago I made a video titled Don't Buy This Smartphone I was using a review sample, they sent the phone, they even offered to send money with it which I declined and after trying it it became very clear It just wasn't worth it. in very clear terms that's what I said, if this company wants to send me their next phone to review they are welcome but I don't think they will and that's okay this doesn't mean I'm just going to openly criticize everything companies do of smartphones, for the most part the technology is good now, but that means that if Apple and Samsung are going to be disingenuous about eco-friendly packaging, I'll say so if some Xiaomi products look like carbon copies of Apple's.

I'll say it and if OnePlus really gets a feature of their phone wrong I'll say it and so far at least no major brand has had a problem with it, don't get me wrong I've had smaller companies. saying how can you say that about our device or we will sue you because you hurt our sales, but for the most part, the big companies get it, the reviewers will review. I've had moments where I completely broke a record. trash a video only to have them email me later that night and tell me what a really helpful comment it was.

I recently made a video about xiaomi where I openly criticized their terrible product naming schemes and their alarming similarities to iphones, but they actually went so far as to share that video on their main official xiaomi twitter account companies don't care authentic content, so the point is that since I got serious about reviewing I haven't worried at all about offending brands, the last thing I want to quickly address is I hear a lot of people say that I have a ghostwriter, someone who writes my script for me and then I just take it in front of the camera and act.

That's not how we do things, we try to make the videos fun, but I am very aware that the main purpose of them is to inform, so every rating, every recommendation, every word of the script is mine. I spend about 60 of my time writing the script. Well, if I had to leave you with one conclusion from this video, it is that. deciding what to trust deciding who to trust i think if you trust a creator then you can trust that even with their sponsored content they will only do it if they believe in that product b they will only accept it if they can say what they want and they will make it very clear when they are being sponsored because, even though you trust them, it's good to know the process behind that video.

Yes, I realized I spent the last 10 minutes checking myself, but I hope this was helpful. I'm going to be working with some companies in March on sponsored content and I hope you find it fun and informative. Okay, thanks for watching. See you at the next one.