Hacking How bad do the flashcart sites want good reviews/feedback?

[Iamapirate]

I saw this YouTube video for the R4I 3DS Gold, and the YouTuber said the flashcart site sponsored him, and gave him the R4 for reviewing purposes, and even got a DSTwo.

Now, this guy only has like three subscribers, and about 800 - 900 video views, which is small, since I have 10,000+ views on one video I've made.

Do you think they are getting desperate for good reviews and advertising?

 

[Clydefrosch]

i would expect they had a callout on their forums or something and people just asked to be part of it. new sites and new products often result in these 'make a review for us and keep your item' things. might be that he was a very active member in their community.

obviously they like to have many people report good things on forums. but they've always done that.

 

[FAST6191]

Was the guy a standalone youtube type or part of a bigger site (I know there are not that many any more but who knows)? Equally what would you rate the quality of the review as (views are not the only metric worth considering, around here we certainly recruit of the merit/skills basis and if I saw a channel likely to blow up* I would try to get in on ground zero) and did the shop refer back to it on their page listings (having use of a video review in your pages is not a bad thing after all and takes effort to do)? Also consider what it cost the flash cart company -- bulk wholesale on something with R4 in the name is not that much (on shoptemp they sell for $10 USD it seems) and you can probably write it off as a business expense (either advertising or something else). When you say "DSTwo" as well you might be considering it from the perspective of some of out younger members for which it is a reasonable amount of money ($40 or so retail at the higher end, bulk discounts get it well into the mid 30 USD range) but frankly I have had sessions in the pub that cost more.
Likewise though it was always the case there are surprisingly many fly by night/have a go types opening up a flash cart shop (it has never been easier after all, give or take how you might feel about paypal) and they may not be the best at business and that could count as an ill considered move. Equally being so many in number it has shifted a bit and now more closely resembles the dating site model -- technically it is quite easy but you have to have deep pockets for advertising or prices to get your name out there.

"10,000+ views on one video I've made"
Is it relevant to the matter at hand? I could make some obscure topic technical channel tomorrow and get nowhere if popular is my goal but if I put a lyrics video of a popular song up it might well be my most popular video by orders of magnitude.

There certainly have been cases of reviews being asked for and retailers, suppliers and manufacturers attempting to game the system and likely there always will be but it is not so clear cut as you might think.

*I have watched many youtube reviews of flash carts, tutorials for modding things and other things you get from moving in these circles. I can not really think of a single one that not a component of a larger text review that I would link up for someone give or take some reviews, footage of and tutorials for a few pieces of actual homebrew. Of course this might be a reflection of my general disdain for the youtube set's seeming opposition to editing, scripting and cinematography.

 

[Iamapirate]

Didn't look much into it, so I dunno if the site advertised it.

This guy wasn't with the site I believe, but he certainly sounded like he was trying to sell the product.

I was just saying, I dunno why they would give away the best flashcart and $50, to somebody that isn't really that popular.

I'm just wondering. Why bother with this guy, when there are tons more, with more subscribers and views.

 

[FAST6191]

Most of what I said was a series of what if questions based upon the reviewer in question's scenario, quality of work and the deal offered. $90 (we deal in money in a lot of the real world and "best flashcart" means very little) that you can write off as an expense for a properly made video review (or possibly even two) and maybe general review that you can use and a permalink to your site is a bargain, if they look like they might be a good long term thing then it is a bargain at twice the price.

Similarly are subscribers and views the be all and end all of metrics? Subscribers always seems like an artificial metric (or worse) to me but of course I am so backwards as to not have a youtube google account and still use bookmarks.