Ampix0
Web Design Tutorials
Hey guys!
I want to tell you a secret, you DO NOT NEED SUBSCRIBERS OR VIEWS TO LAND A SPONSORSHIP. I'm here to tell you that you can get paid right now, today, at any stage in your channel. And I'm not talking about signing up for an affiliate program, I mean checks, signed and mailed to you.
Background:
My name is Kyle, I make web design tutorials and I got a 10 video sponsorship deal after only 2 videos and less than 60 subscribers. I don't want to speak about exactly how much money I make out of the privacy of my sponsor, but I'll say... After the 10 video deal, I could buy a very nice camera if I wanted to.
I previously had a personal "tech" based youtube channel from the time I was in middle school up until I just about finished high school. It was always something I did for fun, never had a true focus or put in any business mindset and I was able to grow to over 4 thousand subscribers, essentially just organically with no real promotion, but this is where I learned that I love youtube, and in my perfect life I want to be a Youtuber.
In a previous job of mineI was a sales rep and IT guy for a construction company, kind of a weird role. I personally contacted MASSIVE companies like LA Fitness, restaurant chains, Michaels Craft Stores, and others and set up maintenance contracts with them worth $50,000 to $5M. Why don't I still work there? Long story but that company was crooked. My point is, I know how to email a client, and how to talk on the phone. As well as the occasional in-person meeting, but god I hate those.
THINGS YOU NEED TO GET A SPONSOR
Quality Content
* Production Quality
First and foremost, and it should be obvious, you need quality content. You need to put it EFFORT. That doesn't always mean having the best gear, but it does mean getting the most out of your best gear. You need to do everything within your power to increase the production quality of your content. If you are recording yourself indoors, you need to have proper lighting. You need to have quality audio. And you need to edit your videos to the best of your abilities. This does mean you may need to do a fair amount of research on these topics to improve your quality. I am not allowed to link to too many items in this post so let me give you some subjects to Google.
How to properly light your shot.
How to clean up your audio in Audacity, Adobe Premiere, or your preferred audio editor.
Learn your video editing software beyond simple cutting. Your video will likely benefit from a contrast boost, and I personally use a small "sharpen" effect that works well with my footage to appear sharper.
* Video Content
Whatever your content, it needs to be well planned. You should be confident in your speaking (No "umms, "ahhs" or dead spaces), and catering to the viewer. That means having your proper hook in the beginning of the video and delivering consistent value to the viewer of the course of the video to keep them from clicking off. Watch time and engagement are HUGE to your sponsor as this serves as an indication of how actively your viewers are paying attention to your video, and how actionable they are, and therefore likely to buy your sponsor's product.
Beyond the quality of your content, the subject matter is of the most importance, which will influence your audience.
A Defined Audience
Who is your audience? Your channel SHOULD have a clear and direct focus, with a clear and specific audience. If you are a gaming channel, your audience is likely:
Male, ages 13-24, likely lives at home with their parents, may be looking into colleges, is highly interested in gaming content, is used to purchasing digital content online... It goes on. Identify your audience. Have a clear and defined focus, to reach a clear and defined audience.
On my current Youtube channel, I make web design tutorials. My viewers are new or recently graduated college students interested in possibly entering the web development career path. They are technologically savvy, prefer to make online purchases, and are looking for advice. Now, you need to know who your audience is going to be.,.. but you don't necessarily need to have them yet.
If you run a vlogging channel, it may be harder to define your audience if you have never considered this before. Run your channel like a business, you do have an audience, and if you are not currently catering to them, you will have a hard time growing. What do you vlog about? Who identifies with you? In your vlogs, do you surf a lot? Do you have a central theme? Identify it, and work to serve it.
FINDING THE RIGHT SPONSOR
Ok, now you have what you need to actually qualify for sponsorship in most cases, congratulations. Who should you target now?
You should NOT be accepting sponsorships for the sole purpose of getting paid. If you advertise to your viewers something they are not interested in, they will unsubscribe from your channel and never come back. Do not abuse your viewers, they are not interested in being advertised to.
Create value for your viewers
What could your users benefit from? What product would be something you and your audience would actually be excited to hear about. For instance, in my case, my sponsor is a supplier of domain names, which you will need to get a website. My viewers, being new to web development, may have no idea how to get their websites online or know that they need to buy a domain name. My sponsor allows me to give my viewers a 10% discount off their first domain with them, which is something my viewers need and want.
If you make surfing vlogs, your perfect sponsor might be board wax or a board company. Maybe product companies similar to GoPro, or other surf accessories.
Now you know what your audience needs and wants, it's your job to offer it to them in a way that benefits them. Maybe you're offering your advice on why they need such a product if they are new to the field, or maybe you can offer them a discount on the product. You need a value proposition, and that's something you can negotiate with your sponsor.
GETTING SPONSORED
Get the contact
Visit the website of the company you want to contact and look for the contact page and attempt to get in contact with anyone in the "Media", "Press", and "Marketing" departments, especially marketing. If you are unable to find their email address, contact whoever you can and ask for the email of the marketing department. Even if the website has some kind of customer service live chat, ask them for the email of someone in marketing. You can and will get a valid email contact.
Sales Pitch
If you've followed the above, you probably already have everything you need at this point. Now you need to convince this company that you are worth money. In a short but professionally written and grammatically correct email, explain that you are a Youtube Content Creator who makes videos doing "________" and you believe your viewers could greatly benefit from the product or service sold by that company, and you would like to know if they are interested in an advertising deal on your channel.
If you do not have many viewers or subscribers.
Neither did I. I focused on future growth potential for my sales pitch. In my situation, I explained that my beginner web development videos were the perfect place to advertise their domain name business as my clients are likely new to the field and will be looking for such service. I explained that channels with similar content achieved an average of "x" views after 3 years and that I believed I could achieve the same thing or better. I mentioned the reason I had contacted them so early was because, it was so crucial for them to be shown in these early videos which are directed at new web developers because the beginner's tutorials were currently being produced and more advanced tutorials would be coming in the future. I made the value proposition that they could get in early now on videos that will likely grow in the future over the next few years as tutorial videos get most of their views via search.
Ask for a phone conference, tell them you are willing to speak with them first hand and discuss your future business relationship. You need to establish trust and authority. Ultimately, you want the ball in your court.
BUT HOW MUCH DO I ASK FOR?
Ah, yes... the hardest question. In many cases, you may be looking for free products, and in the early days that is fine, but in the future, you will need cash money. So if you are looking for free products, you know what to do. Otherwise, it's down to the art of negotiation.
Affiliate methods
Not the kind you sign up for through some open program, although you can... I'm talking about a private affiliate program just for you. You could ask the client for a bounty per sale or sign up through a special link that they provide to you. And make sure this link provides a discount to your customers so there is some kind of incentive for them to sign up through you. Your sponsor will likely come to you with a percentage offer or a dollar amount and it's up to you to decide to accept it or not.
Cash Money
This is the hardest one. Especially if you are new. But it's not impossible, and in fact I did it with only two videos. Try to consider how many sales you may send to this company, and remember that it is going to be much less than you think it may be. Maybe you convert 0.5% of total view to a sale (and you wont know for sure until you've done some deals and tested it out), try and figure out how much in sales that might be over the next year or next 3 years for your sponsor and aim for a percentage of that number.
This process will always be difficult and I can only say, I would do a lot of research on the topic. In my particular case I did get a little lucky. In the negotiation, the sponsor sort of let slip that they may pay larger YouTubers $X amount of money and they couldn't pay me that much.
At that point I said, how about I throw out a number, and if you accept, we'll do it, and if not we'll do the affiliate program (which was still somewhat generous, and who knows, maybe it would have made me more money in the long run). I threw out a number and they accepted. And as a smart move on them, they wanted to lock in that number and signed a contract for 10 videos.
And That's It.
If you have any questions, post them below! And if you are a serious Youtuber, I put together a little discord channel for serious youtubers. It's invite only so send me a PM!
I want to tell you a secret, you DO NOT NEED SUBSCRIBERS OR VIEWS TO LAND A SPONSORSHIP. I'm here to tell you that you can get paid right now, today, at any stage in your channel. And I'm not talking about signing up for an affiliate program, I mean checks, signed and mailed to you.
Background:
My name is Kyle, I make web design tutorials and I got a 10 video sponsorship deal after only 2 videos and less than 60 subscribers. I don't want to speak about exactly how much money I make out of the privacy of my sponsor, but I'll say... After the 10 video deal, I could buy a very nice camera if I wanted to.
I previously had a personal "tech" based youtube channel from the time I was in middle school up until I just about finished high school. It was always something I did for fun, never had a true focus or put in any business mindset and I was able to grow to over 4 thousand subscribers, essentially just organically with no real promotion, but this is where I learned that I love youtube, and in my perfect life I want to be a Youtuber.
In a previous job of mineI was a sales rep and IT guy for a construction company, kind of a weird role. I personally contacted MASSIVE companies like LA Fitness, restaurant chains, Michaels Craft Stores, and others and set up maintenance contracts with them worth $50,000 to $5M. Why don't I still work there? Long story but that company was crooked. My point is, I know how to email a client, and how to talk on the phone. As well as the occasional in-person meeting, but god I hate those.
THINGS YOU NEED TO GET A SPONSOR
Quality Content
* Production Quality
First and foremost, and it should be obvious, you need quality content. You need to put it EFFORT. That doesn't always mean having the best gear, but it does mean getting the most out of your best gear. You need to do everything within your power to increase the production quality of your content. If you are recording yourself indoors, you need to have proper lighting. You need to have quality audio. And you need to edit your videos to the best of your abilities. This does mean you may need to do a fair amount of research on these topics to improve your quality. I am not allowed to link to too many items in this post so let me give you some subjects to Google.
How to properly light your shot.
How to clean up your audio in Audacity, Adobe Premiere, or your preferred audio editor.
Learn your video editing software beyond simple cutting. Your video will likely benefit from a contrast boost, and I personally use a small "sharpen" effect that works well with my footage to appear sharper.
* Video Content
Whatever your content, it needs to be well planned. You should be confident in your speaking (No "umms, "ahhs" or dead spaces), and catering to the viewer. That means having your proper hook in the beginning of the video and delivering consistent value to the viewer of the course of the video to keep them from clicking off. Watch time and engagement are HUGE to your sponsor as this serves as an indication of how actively your viewers are paying attention to your video, and how actionable they are, and therefore likely to buy your sponsor's product.
Beyond the quality of your content, the subject matter is of the most importance, which will influence your audience.
A Defined Audience
Who is your audience? Your channel SHOULD have a clear and direct focus, with a clear and specific audience. If you are a gaming channel, your audience is likely:
Male, ages 13-24, likely lives at home with their parents, may be looking into colleges, is highly interested in gaming content, is used to purchasing digital content online... It goes on. Identify your audience. Have a clear and defined focus, to reach a clear and defined audience.
On my current Youtube channel, I make web design tutorials. My viewers are new or recently graduated college students interested in possibly entering the web development career path. They are technologically savvy, prefer to make online purchases, and are looking for advice. Now, you need to know who your audience is going to be.,.. but you don't necessarily need to have them yet.
If you run a vlogging channel, it may be harder to define your audience if you have never considered this before. Run your channel like a business, you do have an audience, and if you are not currently catering to them, you will have a hard time growing. What do you vlog about? Who identifies with you? In your vlogs, do you surf a lot? Do you have a central theme? Identify it, and work to serve it.
FINDING THE RIGHT SPONSOR
Ok, now you have what you need to actually qualify for sponsorship in most cases, congratulations. Who should you target now?
You should NOT be accepting sponsorships for the sole purpose of getting paid. If you advertise to your viewers something they are not interested in, they will unsubscribe from your channel and never come back. Do not abuse your viewers, they are not interested in being advertised to.
Create value for your viewers
What could your users benefit from? What product would be something you and your audience would actually be excited to hear about. For instance, in my case, my sponsor is a supplier of domain names, which you will need to get a website. My viewers, being new to web development, may have no idea how to get their websites online or know that they need to buy a domain name. My sponsor allows me to give my viewers a 10% discount off their first domain with them, which is something my viewers need and want.
If you make surfing vlogs, your perfect sponsor might be board wax or a board company. Maybe product companies similar to GoPro, or other surf accessories.
Now you know what your audience needs and wants, it's your job to offer it to them in a way that benefits them. Maybe you're offering your advice on why they need such a product if they are new to the field, or maybe you can offer them a discount on the product. You need a value proposition, and that's something you can negotiate with your sponsor.
GETTING SPONSORED
Get the contact
Visit the website of the company you want to contact and look for the contact page and attempt to get in contact with anyone in the "Media", "Press", and "Marketing" departments, especially marketing. If you are unable to find their email address, contact whoever you can and ask for the email of the marketing department. Even if the website has some kind of customer service live chat, ask them for the email of someone in marketing. You can and will get a valid email contact.
Sales Pitch
If you've followed the above, you probably already have everything you need at this point. Now you need to convince this company that you are worth money. In a short but professionally written and grammatically correct email, explain that you are a Youtube Content Creator who makes videos doing "________" and you believe your viewers could greatly benefit from the product or service sold by that company, and you would like to know if they are interested in an advertising deal on your channel.
If you do not have many viewers or subscribers.
Neither did I. I focused on future growth potential for my sales pitch. In my situation, I explained that my beginner web development videos were the perfect place to advertise their domain name business as my clients are likely new to the field and will be looking for such service. I explained that channels with similar content achieved an average of "x" views after 3 years and that I believed I could achieve the same thing or better. I mentioned the reason I had contacted them so early was because, it was so crucial for them to be shown in these early videos which are directed at new web developers because the beginner's tutorials were currently being produced and more advanced tutorials would be coming in the future. I made the value proposition that they could get in early now on videos that will likely grow in the future over the next few years as tutorial videos get most of their views via search.
Ask for a phone conference, tell them you are willing to speak with them first hand and discuss your future business relationship. You need to establish trust and authority. Ultimately, you want the ball in your court.
BUT HOW MUCH DO I ASK FOR?
Ah, yes... the hardest question. In many cases, you may be looking for free products, and in the early days that is fine, but in the future, you will need cash money. So if you are looking for free products, you know what to do. Otherwise, it's down to the art of negotiation.
Affiliate methods
Not the kind you sign up for through some open program, although you can... I'm talking about a private affiliate program just for you. You could ask the client for a bounty per sale or sign up through a special link that they provide to you. And make sure this link provides a discount to your customers so there is some kind of incentive for them to sign up through you. Your sponsor will likely come to you with a percentage offer or a dollar amount and it's up to you to decide to accept it or not.
Cash Money
This is the hardest one. Especially if you are new. But it's not impossible, and in fact I did it with only two videos. Try to consider how many sales you may send to this company, and remember that it is going to be much less than you think it may be. Maybe you convert 0.5% of total view to a sale (and you wont know for sure until you've done some deals and tested it out), try and figure out how much in sales that might be over the next year or next 3 years for your sponsor and aim for a percentage of that number.
This process will always be difficult and I can only say, I would do a lot of research on the topic. In my particular case I did get a little lucky. In the negotiation, the sponsor sort of let slip that they may pay larger YouTubers $X amount of money and they couldn't pay me that much.
At that point I said, how about I throw out a number, and if you accept, we'll do it, and if not we'll do the affiliate program (which was still somewhat generous, and who knows, maybe it would have made me more money in the long run). I threw out a number and they accepted. And as a smart move on them, they wanted to lock in that number and signed a contract for 10 videos.
And That's It.
If you have any questions, post them below! And if you are a serious Youtuber, I put together a little discord channel for serious youtubers. It's invite only so send me a PM!
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