hi so today I want to do a video on
sponsored content sponsorship paid
reviews and all that type of stuff
because I am getting a lot of emails a
lot of phone calls on it and rather than
treat each individual email or each
individual phone call and give them
their own responses I would like to have
one response that I can simply link
everybody to so I am getting a lot of
requests for this that and the other and
most of these requests are requests that
I think are pretty stupid there's
probably one or two of them that
actually made any sense elie the
computer guy did a really long video on
this recently and I'm pissed because he
actually beat me to it I had a I was
gonna do this video and then upload it
and the problem is that my internet
connection at work is so so [ __ ]
awful that by the time I was like 20
percent uploaded he had already done a
video so I don't really want to do a
video restating everything he said so
I'm doing my own separate video okay so
first things first here when it comes to
any type of paid or sponsored reviews
and [ __ ] like that the first things
first ask yourself is what I'm sending
Luis to review something that that is a
piece of [ __ ] product so for example
there's this one company one Chinese
company that wants to send me a light
bulb that is solar-powered so you can't
power this light bulb via anything other
than solar power now to my knowledge
again I'm not an engineer but the whole
idea with solar power is that if I put
this around sunlight or I put it near a
window or something that's where I can
get my solar power from and you know I
need sunlight or something like that if
I have Sun if I have enough sunlight in
an area that I actually have like real
like real lighting then I'm not going to
want this [ __ ] 4 watt light bulb
because I already have light and if I
don't have lights somewhere like in my
office where I have that joke of the
window that would give me no solar power
then I'm not gonna be able to power the
[ __ ] light bulb so this just seems
like a really really bad idea so I I
have no interest in doing a review of
[ __ ] that I find to be just
fundamentally fundamentally stupid now
if you if you took this idea and you had
the solar panels separate from the light
bulb or something like that so that I
can take the solar panel shove it
outside and then put the lights in here
maybe but you have the lightball it's
literally a solar panel built into it so
in order for this light bulb to work I
have to be outside when it's
sunny it's like do you see oh hey this
is just oh my god and so in the second
thing is even if that was a good idea
even if I thought that that light bulb
even if I thought that that was a really
cool light bulb this is a channel about
business philosophy life philosophy
repair and sometimes general tech it's
not like I'm not though I'm not a
[ __ ] light bulb reviewer I'm not a
light bulb installer this is not the
aisle and Home Depot that you walk down
for that [ __ ] what makes you think that
I would want to do content on that what
makes you think that my audience will
care what makes you think that my
audience is not going to hang me by my
magnet wire I used to do jumpers if I
start doing paid reviews of [ __ ]
light bulbs the second thing that I want
to go over you know all right let's say
reviews of software so one thing that
anybody who is looking to buy a piece of
software called wondershare should know
if you read reviews of the software it's
data recovery software is that they want
to pay for reviews one thing that I will
appreciate is that they offered to pay
me more than they offered to pay Jess I
think they offered me two to 250 and
they offered Jess a 100 150 so I guess
you do have a real-life example there of
men being paid more than women for the
same thing I actually wouldn't say the
same thing because I do have 10 times as
many subscribers as she does but they
offered me like 30 to 40 percent more
money but anyway so they wanted me to do
a paid review of their software and its
data recovery software and every now and
then I'll go you know I'll just try to
see how the websites do and I'll Google
like liquid damaged phone recovery
liquid damage data recovery and their
software will show up and here's the one
thing that I wanted to so I'm gonna give
my review of wondershare right now I'm
gonna give my review of wondershare its
data recovery software without ever
having touched it if you have a liquid
damaged phone if you have a short under
the PMI see if there's a ball missing
under under the YouTube chip no piece of
software will ever ever ever ever get
you your data back regardless of how
much they pay reviewers and regardless
of how much they pay for AdWords ads so
that they show up on the top of Google
when somebody searches for liquid down
data recovery if anybody shows up for
the liquid damage or a dead phone like
your phone is dead it does not turn on
anybody who is telling you they have a
software solution for that is full of
[ __ ] again how is this how does this
work with what I provide how does this
make any sense within the context of the
content that I do you know there's no
unless your piece of software like
[ __ ] 3d prints a drone that pops out
opens your phone and remove c5 202 our
effort we release is like a 3d prints to
solder ball that needs to go into the BM
I see for it to work again it's not
going to work so just cut that [ __ ] out
now the next thing stuff that has
absolutely positively nothing to do with
tech so at the very least with it with
the scamming data recovery software
whether they wanted me to end with it
with the light bulb interruptions
interruptions anyway at the very least
with the light bulb and with the the you
know the [ __ ] data recovery software
that that's never gonna recover [ __ ]
from anybody who's watching this [ __ ]
channel who has a hardware damaged phone
at least with that and has something
remotely related to technology or
something that I do every now and then
all of these companies say hi we have
brands that wish to advertise this that
and the other are you interested in
working with us here is what we do blah
blah blah and I'll say okay that's great
but you've provided me no information
like absolutely no information in terms
of in terms of what what what type of
products you work with and then they'll
say ok we'll work with this vendor and
this vendor in this vendor and I'll just
look back like
well what how how am i it's it's like a
pot and pan set for cooking and [ __ ]
like that like how the [ __ ] do you
expect me to work this into the content
that I do like even if I wanted to sell
out and make money for like promoting
this how am I going to like I don't I I
at me I barely even know how to cook
like my idea of cooking is to take a pot
shop put boiling water in it shove
broccoli in it and have like the stem
half-way sticking out then once it's
like turn it around
and then do that with a potato and then
cut an avocado and that's my dinner how
do you how am I going to do a review of
this how am I going to make engaging
content from my audience even if I were
a good cook I don't think anybody wants
to watch that [ __ ] but it's like what it
makes no damn sense it just it's not
something that makes sense within the
confines of what of what I'm doing
nobody and you just can have a lot of
people that actually hate your product
because now they're not gonna see your
product as oh wow that's a cool cooking
product they're gonna see it as oh I was
expecting to see a video from Luis today
and now I'm just seeing this [ __ ]
cooking product [ __ ] those people and I
don't think that does anybody any good
now the stuff that I will say that
actually makes sense let's get into the
stuff that makes sense here somebody
said oh hi we produce these types of
digital microscopes I'm not sure if you
need one but we would be interested in
sending you one and we're not expecting
a review we're not expecting you to say
good or bad things about it we would
just be interested in you using it
around the shop and then maybe
mentioning what you think in a video now
I want to talk about why this is a
really really good idea so the first
thing is that you have knots at you
you've told me that I get to keep the
product so if you wish to send me a
product for sponsorship or reviews or
anything like that I'm keeping the
product for a couple of reasons the
first is that I don't want to save the
box I don't want to save any of the
materials and I don't want to deal with
having to send it back to you when you
say that I have to now send it back to
you what you're saying is that I now
have a job I have work I have
responsibilities you have put you have
added responsibilities to my day but
you're not giving me anything for it so
why would I do that like I don't
understand when these companies say we
will send you this item for free but you
have to do you have to talk about it and
then send it back why would I do that I
could spend my time in a video fixing a
mother but like I'm gonna fix this
motherboard on camera if I fix this
motherboard on camera I get three
hundred twenty-five bucks if I if I do a
review of your product I get zero
dollars like tell me why I should
actually want to review your product now
if if you offer to pay me which when it
comes to reviews nobody but that shitty
data recovery software company has if
you offer to pay me
either you get you're going to expect a
good review let's face it no nobody pays
for a review expecting it to be a crappy
review and if my audience knows that it
was a paid review they're not gonna
believe a word that I say so if it is a
good review it sucks because it was a
paid review meaning that there's no
trust if it's a bad review it sucks
because you're going to hate me so it
can't be a paid review so if you're
sending me the product and you expect me
to do a review but then you expect me to
send it back now I'm not getting paid
but now there's responsibility there it
doesn't make any sense so it only makes
sense if I'm getting the product for
free and I don't have to send it back
I'm not gonna pay for a product to do a
[ __ ] review of it I am NOT going to
I'm not going to deal with oh I have to
store this here so I can send it back by
this date oh hey stop doing this for
that customer oh don't go out on that
sales call because I need you to take
this thing to the FedEx it's like no no
we're not we're not doing that so you in
the second thing with the whole paid
thing is that when you send me a product
let's say you want to send me a 100 or a
200 dollar product for me to do a review
or for me to do some type of talking
about it on YouTube and then you say I
have to send it back what you're saying
is that my endorsement is not worth a
hundred to two hundred dollars in which
case you can go [ __ ] yourself like
really you can go [ __ ] yourself I mean
if you go online like check out the
price of the crest CP 500 HD cleaner I
bought that thing you for five hundred
and seventy five dollars I bought that
new for $575 I start talking about it
check it out online go google it how
much does a crest CP 500 HD cost now it
ain't 575 new I can tell you that much
you look at the the hakko FR 801 on the
used market that thing used to sell for
virtually nothing it is now a hot-air
station that's been discontinued for
what two three years and it's still
selling for used in poor beat-up
condition for like 60 70 percent of what
it's sold retail
well I'm not saying that I'm some you
know great equipment review or anything
like that but there is something
powerful about the fact that I show you
success I show you a dead product I show
you me making it work again I talk about
why I use the gear that I use in the
specific manner in which this product
makes my life easier rather than saying
this is good product look at its spec
sheet its spec sheet says it does this
Oh looky no I actually show you it in
real world in the real world making
things working it and there is an
inherent value to that and that is a
value that can literally that you can
literally measure that you can just look
at the cost of some of these goods you
can go to ebay completed auctions and
look at the value of the FR 8:01 look at
how many am scope microscopes sold
between this time period or that i can
just log into my amazon affiliate
account and see that like i know that
that it sells so if you you're pretty
much saying that my endorsement or my
saying that this is a decent product or
the chance of me saying that is not
worth fifty to a hundred dollars go [ __ ]
yourself that it's that simple now the
reason I think the microscope thing was
good is a they're not asking for a
review which is great because the
reviews are yeah be they're not asking
me to send it back great see they're not
dictating the terms of what I say
they're simply saying use it around and
if you find it useful for something
maybe it shows up in a video I think
again this makes sense like when you say
I want a review I want to pay this and I
want this review I want to pay and then
you you get the product and then you
ship it back to us and all that it's
kind of like going on a date your first
day expecting I am going to buy dinner
and then we are going to have sex at the
end of the evening and if we don't have
sex I will be passive-aggressive and I
won't ever speak to you or treat you
well again whereas what the microscope
company is doing the microscope company
is coming to me and they're saying okay
okay you know if we get along great if
we don't get along then you know I only
spend 30 bucks on dinner no big deal and
if we get along but you know it doesn't
progress that quickly that's fine we can
always do this always you know no rush
we can always go out on another date you
know we can get to know each other get
to trust each other a little better see
that's the relationship that's gonna
work the relationship that's not going
to work is the relationship with a
jackass is like I will pay $90 for
dinner at a nice restaurant and at the
end of paying for the nice dinner I will
have sex with this person that doesn't
it's just that that doesn't create good
relationships microscope company is
saying here you can take it no
responsibility no having to send it back
no having to do a review of it and if
it's a good thing it makes its way into
a video that all we want to see is what
are your opinions on to the state of the
other and the thing is if the thing is
not a piece of [ __ ] I will use it
because that's the thing I have these
twos I don't need a new [ __ ]
microscope I don't need a new one enough
to actually jump through any hoops I
have this on my desk and I'm gonna
discover the brand name because I hate
promoting them but I had this on my desk
and it does its job I have that one for
the student workstation the problem I
have is that if I am teaching a student
and I'm sitting here that my assistant
now has nothing to work on which will be
great to have another one and if it
happens to do a good job I can include
it in a video and a lot of people ask me
Louis I can't afford a 500 dollar
microscope like the one that you keep
linking to it can I get a digital one
and the thing is I don't have any
digital ones to recommend because the
ones that I've seen they they did they
just suck you know the ones that are
cheap really suck so if this company
makes something that's good I can
provide value to my viewer so when they
ask that question I can say this thing
is actually pretty good check out what
it looks like in this video and they buy
it it provides value to me because I
have a third microscope that my that my
assistant can use while I'm teaching a
student and it provides value for the
company that now is going to sell that
product a lot in exchange for their
measly hundred or two hundred dollar
investment in sending the product to me
so that works oh yeah that works well
all around and again if the product is a
steaming pile of [ __ ] I'm going I'm
gonna say it's a steaming pile of [ __ ]
in the video I don't have it in me to
say oh thank you for sending me this
thing now I have to say something nice
if it sucks trust me you're gonna hear
about
that makes sense
but it doesn't make I don't understand
when the people think that because they
sent me something for free or that that
that magically means that like demands
can be made and that I or that I care I
didn't ask to receive a you know if I'm
coming to you and saying here can I
please get this product for a review and
you set terms that's fine but if you're
saying hey Louis can you please review
this product don't come to me with
demands because you're the one coming to
me asking me to do something that I may
not even be interested in doing I can
either make three hundred twenty-five
dollars in a video and I'm not even
talking about the YouTube ad revenue
because some videos that I do make
[ __ ] three ducts three bucks some of
them make twenty bucks
sometimes they make like 500 boob that's
very much so on the rare side I can make
$325 to do this or I can choose to
review your product please like don't
think for a second that I that I really
really really care about reviewing your
light bulb you're scamming shitty data
recovery software that you're using
AdWords to try to attract people who
have liquid damage - which is [ __ ]
or or or any on this other stuff it's
just it doesn't make sense I'm okay with
the idea of a company sending me
something and if it works it works if it
sucks it sucks and it shows up in a
video is I've already I mean I'm already
kind of doing most of this [ __ ] for free
like I tell you I love the hakko quality
27 I like the Weller WH a 900 besides
the fact that I guess it makes my lights
flicker I like the am scope microscope
if somebody wants to pay for me to
actually mention their name every video
and the product is not a piece of [ __ ]
this is a big important one here so Eli
the computer guy says I will not say
something good about the product or bad
about the product I will just link you
to their page and tell you to check them
out I will not sponsor something that I
have not used that I don't know is a
good product so the reason that I'm okay
with saying you should go out and buy
this I stand behind this being a good
product is because I use it every day
I'm not afraid of you buying this and
saying oh it sucks I know that if you
buy this iron and you say Louis I can't
solder with this thing that your
recommendation sucks that is probably
you either received a broken one or you
just can't solder I can stand behind the
recommendations for the equipment that I
make because I actually use it so if
somebody wanted to pay like lets you
know if crest wanted to pay to be
mentioned in every video or Hackel
wanted to be paid so he mentioned in it
pay to me mention every video or um I am
scope wanted to pay to be mentioned in
every video that I'm ok with because
those products don't suck it's not just
that I looked at it and thought maybe
this doesn't suck it's I've actually
used the product I use it every day I
demonstrate how I can use it every day
to make money so for those eyes really
no downside swiff Bach who came to me
and said Louise we would pay you twenty
thousand dollars per video to promote
our soldering equipment no get the [ __ ]
out here if I you he came to me and said
Louis we will give you five hundred
thousand dollars a year to talk about
IOE in one video per month
I don't think I could do it if Aten said
for a million dollars a month we will
give you a million dollars a month to
stop saying bad things about the 855 858
D and how you can't remove an ISL 6259
with it I wouldn't take it because that
that product sucks I'm not even going to
tell you you should go and check out
their site and you should go see if you
like it on its own merits I will just
tell you outright that it sucks I am
opinionated based on what I use and
those opinions are not opinions that are
going to be changed for money but for a
product that I already use every day for
something that I am already like I'm
already endorsing it I already have an
affiliate link in the description of
every video already making videos
telling you you should buy that thing
dating back you know what five years ago
I don't I don't I don't mind getting I
might you know I really don't mind
getting paid on top of that but again
that's not that's most likely not gonna
happen because they're already seeing
the benefits of the advertising so for
me what I find is the Amazon affiliate
program works a lot better than paid
sponsorship or paid reviews cuz I'm
already saying the product is good I'm
already telling you go out and buy this
let me demonstrate how well this product
works let me show you how well this
product works no manufacturer in their
right mind no marketing department in
their right mind is going to say hey
this guy is already giving us promotion
for free he's already increasing the
value of our products increasing the
sales of it to an audience of almost 200
thousand people let's pay him on top of
it to do the same thing I don't think
that gives them any return on investment
so what I do rather than deal with this
whole sponsored thing because I mean
nobody's gonna come to me with in their
right mind and actually ask for that is
simply provide affiliate links I will
say this is what I use this works well
in the description below you can click
and buy this from this vendor and if you
buy from that vendor then I will receive
a portion of you know a portion or a
percentage of of the fee that the vendor
would have gotten so the reason that I
like that not the Ventura the e-commerce
solution site so what I like about that
is let's say you're selling something on
Amazon and somebody buys it through my
affiliate link you don't lose out as a
result of it the vendor themselves it's
actually shipping the product doesn't
lose out the customer doesn't lose out
they're not paying more for the product
it's just it gets taken out of Amazon's
cut so that for that for me that works
very well because a big proponent of
brick components of this channel is me
giving equipment recommendations all the
time and what I found with the one thing
I found about this that actually really
does make sense all around is one of the
things I've said about business is that
doing things for free is something you
can only do for a certain amount of time
so for example answering board repair
questions I used to answer board or pair
questions in the comments when I had
like two or three thousand subscribers I
could add twenty thousand subscribers I
know have 10 times as many questions so
then I would only answer me half of them
then when you get to a hundred thousand
or 150,000 subscribers but you find is
that there are just too many so that's
not scalable I'm one person I can't
answer all these questions for free I
wouldn't get anything done so I open up
a forum one of the things I find with
the equipment recommendations again two
thousand three thousand subscribers I'll
link every now and then at two hundred
thousand subscribers it's like non-stop
what he used for this one he used for
that but he used for this foot use for
that would he use for this one use fat
what he used for this one use flat what
he use for this one I use for that with
the soldering iron use whatever hydro
station use what kind of microscope to
use with a pot Air Station use with have
a microscope to use with app starting
station use with have a higher station
use were there banal cities with heaven
also use here whatever tip to using the
micro Saturn pencil whatever tip to use
in regular line what type of to use for
waking what type of tip to use for the
regular iron whatever tip to use in a
set micro sobbing pencil what type of
tip to use for working on the regular
line it gets it gets really [ __ ] all
like I know that you think that I'm I'm
joking but when you're scrolling through
the comments when you're scrolling
through that is really what it looks
like it's like the same question over
and over and over and over and at one
point you just don't want to [ __ ]
answer it however if there's a chance
that if I answer that question with an
affiliate link that I can actually make
some money now now it's actually
worthwhile I can go through that and
answer all those questions knowing that
if I answer those questions and to a
decent degree of quality that there's a
good chance somebody may actually make
the money so here's the thing when it
comes to the comments and the equipment
recommendations if I get home and it's
1:00 in the morning and I'm tired I'm
about to go to sleep what do you think
will make me more likely to respond to
every single one of those equipment
questions that I've answered 50 million
times in every other video in comment
section making nothing or the chance
that if you actually click all that
stuff that I may wake up tomorrow and
see ah I made 40 bucks off of that guy
buying all the stuff that I talked about
it's probably the latter so that's a way
of kind of making it sustainable
so what I try to do is I try to take the
things that I don't like doing and I try
to see how can I turn it into an
opportunity I don't like answering board
repair questions you know on all these
different mediums however what if I can
hire somebody to help me answer them
make money great I know Jessa hates
answering equipment questions she hates
it so I thought okay I can comment I can
I she actually gave me admin access to
her channel why why anybody would do
that is beyond me but she so I went
through and I noticed that she has like
301 on three years she's like two years
of content where she's never answered
any equipment questions ever so I
literally scrolled through and I just
answered every single one now people
watching your videos that want to know
what equipment she uses can now see in
the comments what equipment she uses
which is great that's a good thing if
they buy it through the links I provided
then I get paid okay that's a good thing
so it's a good thing all-around good
thing all around so those are the things
that's the stuff that I look for when it
comes to like opportunities to make
money through doing something it has to
be sustainable it has to make sense it
has to provide the exact same value that
I'm already providing but I can't like
reviewing a solar-powered light bulb a
channel that this liquid damaged
hardware repair reviewing software data
recovery like do you really want to pay
me $200 to plug a liquid damaged phone
into the computer and say yeah seems
like the software didn't [ __ ] fix it
[ __ ] this [ __ ] uninstalled like well
yeah it may be funny it may wind up be
they may have some comedic relief but I
don't think the company is gonna be that
happy with that again it would be really
great to just take that 200 bucks take
that license key plug in the phone with
the short end of the PMI C and go yep
looks like this stuffs [ __ ] don't
work
would've been funny to put maybe it
would have been funny for me to like
plug in a solar powered light bulb into
the ceiling over here and just like
twist it in and then go yep doesn't
light up piece of [ __ ] but
that that just doesn't make sense it
doesn't and if you know it doesn't make
any sense so that's it so if you are
trying to send me [ __ ] what make sure it
makes sense