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Don't trust YouTube reviews

I create reviews of products and publish them on YouTube.

I'm pretty good at what I do so my review channel has over a quarter of a million subscribers.

Almost every day I get emails from companies eager to have me review their products.

Increasingly I have to say no to these solicitations.

Why?

Well it's because these companies don't actually want you to review the product, they want you to sell it.

I won't name names (yet) but a typical example was a relatively well-known (within the RC flying model and drone sector) Chinese company that approached me to "review" some of their new offerings.

Initially they simply asked "would you like to review these products?"

I responded that "yes, I would be happy to review those products" and I included my delivery address by return email.

A few days passed and I received a follow-up email from them asking me to confirm that I would comply with their "conditions" before review samples were sent.

I reviewed their "conditions" and replied "sorry, I will be unable to review your products because..."

What was it that changed my mind?

Well the companies "conditions" involved so many restrictions and directions that there is no way I could have created an honest, objective review of the products involved.

They effectively wanted full editorial control over the content, the tone and the outcome of the review. They wanted the right to review it prior to publication and submit changes that would have to be done before it was accepted by them.

They also demanded that I sign up to their affiliate program and include an affilate link to the products with the review.

In short, this company didn't want a review, they wanted me to make an advertisement for them which would be paid for by getting free product and earning a commission on subsiquent sales.

I'm sorry, that's not how *THIS* reviewer operates. A paid review which cedes all editorial control to the supplier is not a review at all and becomes a fraud on anyone who watches such a video in the expectation that it's going to be honest and unbiased.

This is the very reason that I made a commitment never to post affiliate links on my reviews. The moment you introduce a commercial imperative to a review it can no longer be trusted as a reliable source of information.

Sadly, due to massively declining ad revenues and other factors, almost all those who review products on YouTube do have affiliate links associated with the products they're reviewing. To be fair, there are still a few who can be trusted to call a spade a spade but there are also plenty who simply sell their soul to the devil and sit back to reap the financial rewards associated with doing so.

What's worrying to me, as an *honest* reviewer, is that I see quite a few other reviewers who have obviously agreed to the "conditions" this manufacturer has demanded -- but those reviewers are not being up-front and disclosing this to their audience. This is a sad fraud on the public and means that I don't take any heed of reviews published by channels that have done this.

As a member of the public however, you'll never know which is which.

This is a tragedy because online reviews used to be one of the best ways to find out whether it was worth spending your money on something. Now, unless you are 100 percent sure you can trust the reviewer, they might just be selling you a turd in order to feather their own nest.

Of course I've been talking only about the RC hobby market but you can be absolutely sure that the same tactics are being used by the manufacturers and retailers of other products across the board.

Think twice before you take a reviewer's word on something and if in doubt... just check the video description for obvious signs of an affiliate link. This doesn't necessarily mean the review is invalid but it does raise the chances significantly.

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