Good first step in getting sponsors for my content?

[UltiTyler]

Warning: Just so that it doesn't appear as if I'm asking for publicity I will only send the link to my channel to anyone who requests it.

 

I'm having a terribly hard time trying to get companies interested in my YouTube channel/Company. Just recently I was able to receive a review sample from a fairly large tech company, but many others turn down the requests or never message back. I want to put the time and effort into finding sponsors, but I start feeling like I'm treading in unfriendly water when trying to request things from companies. 

 

Now the reason I suspect I'm not large bait for these companies is the small size of my channel. I started this channel 8 months ago, and have gathered just over 4,000 views in that timeframe, but I haven't made any actual income off of it (youtube AdRevenue doesn't cash until you reach $100). I'm not strictly in it for the money by any means, but as a hobby it gets insanely expensive to buy items to unbox on a regular basis. 

 

If I were to offer sponsor spots I would think $5-10 a spot would seem reasonable given my small audience. How does this community propose I start asking companies for  their investment. I have messaged through Facebook messenger to some company pages but I was for the most part unanswered or shut down. I sent out emails to the marketing team at a few dozen different companies back in August and didn't get a single response. Any Ideas?

 

[xmx1024]

Have a loyal following and content with substance

[Enderman]

First try to get about 100-1000x more audience than you currently have, THEN start thinking about sponsors and money.

You should not be doing youtube for anything other than a hobby otherwise you are going to be severely disappointed.

[RadiatingLight]

its not worth a company's time to get in contact with you, work out a deal, sign contracts, etc. just for a few hundred views. it's simply not enough audience to be worth the overhead involved.

[VinsinityKT]

Buy stuff for you to review to start out. Maybe stuff you would actually use yourself and ones that aren't covered as well. There are plenty of the usual reviews out there already

[Mamonos]

I will try to share some tips/experience.

 

In my experience you will start to get some consistent product placement offers when you get at least 100k view per video (and this means more or less the same amount of users subscribed to your channe, since actually not even half of them will check out your new videos). If you are sending yourself requests to the companies it is a bit different story. Some companies won't give you anything even if you have a million subs while others are more positive. If you get a good reputation as a reviewer then it's all easier but again, quantity matters as well...

 

The whole thing also depends on your country because if you are in the US that might be harder since YT tech market is almost saturated (and I mean, if everybody would get free samples and sponsors, we would all do that and nobody would buy the products...). In a smaller EU country that is a bit easier since you can get some loyal local followers (which translates in precise target market for companies).

 

Like most of other market in the world, you will need to invest money before having something in return. Invest in order to gather more audience - if you manage to do that future incomes MAY payback your effort. Nowadays we are at the point where everybody realized that it is possible to make money (or just have some FREE fun) with Youtube - reality is that like any other business in the world (again) the ones who makes money are those who had the vision to realize this possibility 5 to 10 years ago, not now.
 

Your (scripting) shooting and editing equipment and techniques needs to be at least good (nowadays level is quite hight and nobody can't stand a boring, fixed camera unboxing with bad lighting and crappy audio). Just take Linus as a reference... that is top notch, you don't actually need expensive equipment - I would say this counts about 10% in this kind of video, it's more about script, the way you tell the story, and good lightning.

 

To stand out you will likely need to invest some money (but above all, time) in a project that is PARTICULAR (again, look at Linus stuff like crazy builds and all that big stuff - on the other hand, there are already TOO MANY users making reviews of the new iphone), for example you could shoot details of a complex/particular build and then split the whole thing into several 5 to 10mintues VLOGs and publish one per day or every two days, posting the links on the most known tech/hardware forums... This way if your vids are good you may get a decent quantity of views and subscribers.

 

 

 

 

 

[stealth80]

I would look at ways to develop interest in your channel other than tech reviews if you are having to pay for the hardware to unbox/review. Some good ways would be maybe a well built PC with mods/water cooling and taking that opportunity to make some videos of your progress and "how to" videos on the way. Aka - Watercooling Video Guide to fittings, How to design a water cooling loop, How much radiator space etc etc. In depth mods you may do on the case itself. Put the build log on popular forums such LTT and others  to generate interest in your build and hopefully direct more viewers to your channel.

 

be interesting in your vlogs, and please make  sure you have good capture of both video and sound, nothing worse than listening to interference in the background of a vlog. Don't forget lighting, make your back drop appealing, not your mums old 70's wallpaper etc and try to keep it neutral aka no football teams, id purposefully not sub to a channel if there was any Chelsea/Man Utd stuff in the background. 

 

Another idea, why not do some gaming guides, reviews, revisits. Theyre much cheaper todo and again may help just to generate a little more interest in your channel. Capture as many people now whilst you need them, once you have subs and views you can start to diversify your content when you have sponsors.

 

I'm not a blogger etc, I just do my projects as a hobby and grab sponsors when I can, it's just a few things I look for when watching/noticed and a few ideas

[LogicalDrm]

Many of popular Youtubers have started by actually buying stuff they then review. Jayz2Cents and Barnacules would be the ones I know. Linus doesn't count as he used contacts and his job in NCIX product manager for getting samples to unbox. With just 4k viewers you are next to nothing for any bigger company. If nobody watches your videos now, how would company make money by giving you $100-300 product? And its not about if 1 of your viewers buys that product or not. Its about the 500 other small youtubers, streamers, reviewers etc. trying to get sponsor deal.