What is up guys? Jon Rettinger here. For the past few months, I’ve been joining the video series on advice for aspiring tech reviewers and advice for YouTubers in general. I would like to continue that with some more advice for you guys and for those of you that are looking to expand your audience or maybe start making YouTube videos. I’ve got a few bits and pieces that I’ve learned over the past couple of years that I’d like to share with you guys. Certainly there’s much more that I need to learn but as I kind of get a sense of what works and what doesn’t, you know, maybe you guys can be the beneficiaries of my experience. So maybe you can check out my past videos for some of the old advice that I’ve offered but I’ve got some sort of some new advice with little bit of different take than I had in the past.
So one of the few questions that I get is, ‘I want to review things. I want to review technology but I don’t have a big enough audience for companies to send me products or I don’t have enough money to buy products to review.’
And that’s ok. You don’t need to be rich or have any money or even have any subscribers to review technology. There are few ways you can go about it inexpensively while you’re building your audience. So let me tell you guys a few things that have worked for me. The first is, give your take on a device. So for instance what I did a few days ago with Palm Pre. I do not have a Palm Pre in hand, I just gave my take on it, what I thought about it, what I thought it was going to do in the industry and how it is going to shake future cell phones and I open up a discussion to the audience.
You know, your videos are more than just you talking to somebody. It’s also a discussion of what follows below in the comments. If you can prompt a nice discussion not only can you learn from your viewers or your future viewers, you know, it’s only a nice chance for them to get to know you and if they like your content, hopefully subscribe and subsequently build your audience base. So that’s a very simple way. Just talk about the product. You don’t necessarily have to have them in handy. You don’t have to do it in box, or your review or have an overview, whatever you want. Just talk about technology it’s not so bad.
The next option, and this one just costs a little bit of money but not much, just review very inexpensive products. If for example, you’re an Apple fan and you have an i-phone, review some i-phone applications and keep it 99 cents or review free applications. You know use what you have at your disposal. If you have a Blackberry Storm, pick up a case for a Blackberry Storm for maybe 20 bucks and review the case and start building your audience that way. You don’t naturally, holistically, kind of build it up from the ground up. I think your audience will eventually respect you more as your subscriber base grows, and your viewers grow, knowing kind a where you came from to you know where you guys want to be. So you can, you don’t have to spend a lot of money even just a little bit.
Next thing is, review things you already have. If you have a wireless mouse, for example on your computer, review it. If you have an older digital camera, review it. People are still looking for information on these things. If you’ve got a fancy keyboard, or whatever you have, give it a review. Someone out there is going to want to know bout it. And that someone may tell a friend, and that friend may tell somebody else. And you never know things could really snow ball from there. So again for the last time, you don’t have to have a lot of money or spend any money to start reviewing technology.
And next video advice is kind of a carry over from previous videos. You guys have to have confidence in yourself or at least you have to project confidence. You have to do your research. You have to know the product. If you’re giving out incorrect information or regularly giving out incorrect information, people aren’t going to respect you. They’re not going to respect your videos. You’re not going to see your audience experiencing minimal growth unfortunately. So do your research, be confident in the videos that you are putting out there and the words that you are saying. And be very mindful of what you’re saying. Try to be careful with your ‘uhms’ and ‘ahhs’. I know that’s difficult but really try to be mindful of it. It makes you look much less pro… much less professional rather.
And the next bit of advice, if you are going to reach out to other YouTubers or if you’re going to look at every job to companies, be very careful on the language that you’re using in your emails. Guys I can’t stress this enough, I get so many emails that say, instead of spelling out Y-O-U, they just say ‘U’, or the title is just ‘Read Me’. You know, people aren’t going to be responsive to that especially if you’re asking them for something, and you’re trying to get their attention. In a way that’s a little underhanded in the language you’re using in the emails. It’s very juvenile. No one’s going to take you seriously. It’s going to be hard to get the exposure that you need.
And the next thing is if you’re going to reach out to some YouTubers and you’re asking them to promote your video, you’re going to have a very hard time getting a response, if me for example or another YouTuber is going to promote your video, or mention you in Twitter post or something, we’re going to be inundated with other people with the same request. And unfortunately, it’s very hard to accommodate everyone. So to keep things fair, most people would generally, decline those requests. So, while it never hurts to ask, don’t be discouraged if those requests don’t come through.
You know, I get those quite a bit, I know people way more popular than me get them as well. And it’s a nice little segway so don’t be discouraged. Don’t be discouraged guys. Have confidence and know that you’re not going to build your audience overnight. It’s not going to take, a one week, two weeks, no matter how many videos you put up in that amount of time. It’s going to take months, just like any other job. It’s going to take time for you to get acclimated, for you to learn, and for people to take notice.
So guys, hope you enjoyed this advice for aspiring tech reviewers. And also one last thing that I do want to share, I’ve mentioned this on my other video, just like the one I did for quick TV a while back. People send me some really cool links and some cool promotions that sometimes I could share with you guys. Well, there is a very, very, very neat one going on right now and the chance to win some pretty kick ass prizes. And it’s being done by Moe Films, Spikely, and actually AT&T is involved as well. And this is really cool if you’re trying to be a tech reviewer. That is why I’m mentioning it right now.
What you have to do is you can choose, I think about, 10 or 12 companies and you make an advertisement for them at home. Make a video for one of their products, or one of their services. Each company has their own set of guidelines. And you enter in a contest for Moe films. You can win a chance to go to Con, which is pretty cool, in the South of France I believe. They were giving away a trip to American Idol Finale but that’s past. You can win NCAA Final four tickets for next year, chance to get recognize and get some money. There‘s a lot of really, really cool prizes. And I know you guys like to make videos, I too make videos, so it’s a nice chance to get some reward for your hard work.
I’ll put a link to that up in the side bar. And I actually read about it on AT&T’s FaceBook page so you can check it out there too if you like. Anyway guys, for exclusive content you should follow me on Twitter, twitter.com/jon4lakers. Hope you are having a nice day, having a nice weekends, whatever day you are watching this, you have a weekend coming up at some point and I will see you guys in the next video. B-bye.
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