How do sponsorships work?

[Big Head Tech]

Hey everyone,

 

Steve here from Big Head Tech and my channel is growing well and I'm at the point where I am adding affiliates and small sponsors. But I want to know how these work. I do get ad revenue from YouTube already.

 

What I know is, these sponsors give me a kick back when people use my link or code to buy something. I also know they can pay me to make a video. 

 

Where I am not sure about is preroll ads. Are those just paid per buy, click or view on the video? I want to know the standard before I leave anything on the table.

[LinusTech]

As you've already pieced together, there are a lot of different types of sponsorships (affiliate programs, direct video sponsorship, product placement, pre-rolls, etc) but honestly speaking, you should be in channel building mode rather than worrying about any of that right now.

 

At a couple hundred views per video you haven't broken through the threshold where sponsors will want to talk to you, and even if they do, it could negatively impact your growth. 

 

Think of it this way: at a $3-4 CPM, even if a sponsor paid for mentions in 10 videos a month on your channel, that's like $5. They would spend more paying someone to fill out the cheque and mail it than they would be paying you. 

 

Keep at it, and good luck though. 

 

[Big Head Tech]

21 minutes ago, LinusTech said:

As you've already pieced together, there are a lot of different types of sponsorships (affiliate programs, direct video sponsorship, product placement, pre-rolls, etc) but honestly speaking, you should be in channel building mode rather than worrying about any of that right now.

 

At a couple hundred views per video you haven't broken through the threshold where sponsors will want to talk to you, and even if they do, it could negatively impact your growth. 

 

Think of it this way: at a $3-4 CPM, even if a sponsor paid for mentions in 10 videos a month on your channel, that's like $5. They would spend more paying someone to fill out the cheque and mail it than they would be paying you. 

 

Keep at it, and good luck though. 

 

Hey Linus, thanks for the response!  My channel I am investing a stupid amount of time/money, my day job has funded it so far, almost to the point where I am breaking even.  But that is also some of the break/fix work I do for businesses and the occasional B2C PC work.  I am grew from 30k-50k views per month from july to September and hoping to continue forward!

 

There are so many things I need to do with the channel, I get about 4 hours of sleep a day because when I get home and take care of house aspects, I am testing, benching, planning and shooting.  Assuming I don't have other work to do such as break/fix.

 

I have actually gotten to the point where manufacturers like Be Quiet & Deepcool have approached me to review products, which is a big milestone for me, but I've turned down many because I refuse to review crap products.  I see a lot of you in me, you're just an adult child who loves cool tech and do crazy things.  You're not super technical or precise, but the projects are fun and entertaining.  So keep up the good work my friend and maybe I'll be able to write off a business trip to LTX :).

[Big Head Tech]

2 minutes ago, CircleTech said:

As a frequent watcher but not really a youtuber, I have a couple of suggestions to make your content "stand out" on YouTube, since there are a LOT of tech channels on YouTube all doing relatively the same thing within the tech/PC space. 

 

I have noticed the channels that really break out on youtube consistently produce high-quality original content nobody has seen before on YouTube. It's how LTT has managed to continue to grow it's subscriber base, by basically trying every idea related to PCs/Tech and seeing what sticks.

 

The good news is there is an endless amount of things one can do with computer hardware, literally endless. I can think of 10 right now. For you, this is good news since it's impossible for all ideas to be taken. But first, let's name a bunch of examples of youtube channels who started by putting their own "Spin" on PCs to create the channels they have today:

 

Gamers Nexus:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/GamersNexus

 

Makes videos on tearing down computer parts like GPUs and doing motherboard VRM analysis.

 

Craft computing:

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp3yVOm6A55nx65STpm3tXQ

 

Started his channel 2 years ago by publishing a professional review of the chinese X79 motherboards we find on ebay all the time. His channel has continued growing since. 

 

Louis Rossmann (only sort of related to PC tech):

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/rossmanngroup/videos

 

Makes videos about ding component-level board repair to macbooks.

 

Level1techs:

 

https://www.youtube.com/user/teksyndicate

 

Takes computing deep-dives just like Gamers nexus, but on almost anything and not just PC tech.

 

You can also try what other tech-tubers have done, and just continue making high quality content for years and sell yourself as a personal brand. This is how many youtubers started out. People like Pauls hardware, Bitwit, JayZTwoCents, Austin Evans. Now, these take significantly longer to gain traction, while trying something really weird with computer hardware will get you pushed up into the recommended of YouTube algorithm. 

 

No matter what happens, good luck. But my biggest suggestion to you is to try doing something other youtubers haven't done yet. Install linux on a flip phone, Install windows 98 on an AMD Ryzen System. I don't know. Just do something different that sticks out.

 

Thanks for the feedback, and while that was not the question asked, definitely useful information nonetheless.  I don't have a true identity for my channel yet, but my focus is being real and authentic.  One thing that separates me from others is real world testing.  I add variables to my testing because in reality, the end user experience has variables and seeing how some variables can affect performance is a unique look IMO.

[Big Head Tech]

Just now, CircleTech said:

Good luck then. If you are confident in your methods, then keep doing them. You earned yourself a sub at the very least. 

I didn't say I was confident, I've been adjusting a lot, I've upped production value a bit and working to continue it, my editing has gotten better as well.  I can always improve and what I've noticed is, my like/dislike ratio is much better, mostly over 80% and even my lesser popular videos have several hundred views vs a few dozen.