with all the tweets/posts/videos on Elon Accessories, I assume you are getting some kickback for us using your links?
They do offer an affiliate program for influencers much like most of the products you see in YouTube videos today. No different than Abstract Ocean, who offers a competitive product for screen protection. I think you’re seeing a lot of people posting about the Elon Accessories product because it’s literally that good. I actually bought 2 of them (neither were free).
Now I can’t speak for others, so I can only speak for myself. I only put products in videos that I use and like. I’d rather make pennies on affiliate revenues than steer anyone in the wrong direction and lose subscribers’ trust. To that end, you’ll never see a video from me selling a product from RPM as I do not believe in them as a company. I have also turned down some free products and an opportunity at affiliate revenue because they weren’t products I would actually use. Also, I have a product for instance where the buyer using my link gets a discount and I do not get any revenues at all (the sunshade). I actually fought hard to get the discount code even after finding out they didn’t offer an affiliate program because I think it’s a great product.
I started producing videos with my phone and an old tripod I had. As I started to gain a follower base the comments would call for better quality and that costs money. In a few short months here are my expenses:
- Logo
- Intro video
- Camcorder
- GoPro (technically on loan)
- Camera suction cup mount
- Camera lens hood
- Microphone
- 2 lapel microphones
- Green Screen
- Audio recorder
- And my latest new item arrives Monday, lighting!
All said, I have a small channel and I think I’ve spent ~$800. That doesn’t include my time to come up with the ideas for the videos, the recording, and the hours spent in post production putting it all together. A little affiliate revenue really goes a long way. At the end of the day it’s up to the consumer of content to make a decision on how genuine the content producer(s) that they follow are. The affiliate revenues are small (at least at my stage of the game), but they can be quite sizeble with high follower counts. Those revenues help keep the content going though. I consider myself to still be in the “I’m having fun stage”, but as you can see it’s a not a small effort to make it all happen.