So lately I’ve been getting into ‘reviewing’ stuff on YouTube (and on my

niche sites) to make $ and I thought I’d make a tutorial to show you how
I’m doing it.

I’ve been setting up channels where I personally review all sorts of gear
in all sorts of niches (both physical and digital products) and I’ve even
been branching out to work with other YouTubers to help them to start
up review channels too… and basically what I’m finding is that this simple
approach can be extremely profitable if you’re willing to put the time
and effort into doing it properly.

And I’m not talking about those terrible review sites with the stock
graphics and poorly worded articles that have probably just been copy
pasted straight off the Amazon site.

I’m talking about actually buying the products, trying them and doing a
real video review on YouTube along with a blog post with actual footage
of the product in action.

But why am I taking all of this extra effort to buy the products and to
make video reviews as opposed to just using stock images and articles?

Two reasons:
  They convert insanely well. Nothing beats a real review where you
can actually see that the person really has bought and tried the
product and as a result these types of videos convert extremely
well… even for higher end products costing $500+ allowing you to
get $50 commissions, $100 commissions and even higher.

 The competition is next to nil. So few people are actually willing

to step away from their computer for a moment to properly
review a product and then go on camera that it means that those
who ARE willing to put in the effort are able to rank and bank with
ease.

Examples...

Before I get into the ‘how to’ portion of this post though here's a quick
example of how profitable these videos can be.

The following is an income shot I just grabbed that comes from just ONE
review video of a physical product that has nothing to do with the
'internet marketing' niche.

As you can see the commissions are nice and healthy, they're regular and
it just comes in on autopilot once the video is up and ranking.

And when you consider that I've got dozens of videos like this in all sorts
of niches it starts to add up pretty quickly.
Now I can't give you the niche or show you the video for most of these
because like I said - these keywords are so low in competition that it'd be
stupid for me to 'out' them.

But here's an example that you CAN see.

I reviewed tool ‘FPTraffic’ on channel a while back which is a tool that

I’ve been using to grow and automate my Facebook pages. I basically just
put together a video where I talked about how I was using FPTraffic and
what I liked about it and towards the end I give out my affiliate link.

And basically this review video now ranks in the top spots of YouTube for
things like 'FPTraffic', 'FPTraffic Review' and even things like 'get more
Facebook Fans', 'How To Get More Facebook Fans' and so on:
Towards the end of the video I give the watcher my affiliate link and as a
result I've been making autopilot income every month since I put the
video out... without doing ANY extra promotions.

Here's a screenshot:
And because this product is recurring and because people choose to stay
signed up my earnings month to month tend to grow without doing
anything extra.

And you really can do this in basically any niche you want. You can do it
with physical products, with software, with tools, courses… whatever.

Anyway let’s get to the ‘tutorial’ portion of this post.

Step 1) Choosing A Niche/Keywords

The very first thing you’ll want to do is choose yourself a niche. Your
channel should all be based around one ‘main’ niche/type of product.

And the way in which I find ‘review’ keywords to target is the same way
that I find keywords to target in the Google search results – by using the
good old Google Keyword Planner.

Generally speaking if people search for something in Google they also

search for it in Youtube. So for example if I was to set up a review
channel in the ‘cooking/kitchen’ niche I could target something like this:
As you can ‘Bakerstone Pizza Oven Review’ gets a total of 320
searches/month.

But when we look at the competition levels in YouTube we can see that
the competition is basically non existent with just 219 results in total
turning up and not one of them is targeting ‘Bakerstone Pizza Oven
Review’ in their titles:

I’ll say it again. That’s 219 results. Not 219,000… not even a 1,000. Its
292 videos in the entire world and most of those videos still aren’t even
targeting this keyword.
What’s also cool too is that by doing this can also go after the product
keyword itself which in this example is ‘Bakerstone Pizza Oven’ which
gets 480 searches/month and again this keyword still only has 393
results in YouTube…

This really is the definition of ‘low competition’.

Here’s another example. Let’s say you have a beauty/style type channel.
After taking a very quick squiz at the Google Keyword Planner I was able
to find the keyword ‘Muk Hair Straightener Review’:
As you can see this keyword gets approximately 170 searches/month but
as you can see in YouTube there’s only 283 results turning up and only
one of the results even seems to have the word ‘review’ in their title:

And again if I search for the main product itself even without ‘review’ on
the end of it (‘Muk Hair Straightener’) then that keyword gets another
1,000 searches/month… and it still only comes up with 185 results in
YouTube and MOST of the results that do show up aren’t even targeting
‘Muk Hair Straightener’:
Hopefully you’re starting to see what I’m getting at. These keywords are
obscenely easy to rank for.

But let’s do one more example and this time of a ‘digital product’. Digital
products are great too because often they have higher commissions and
you don’t even have to wait for the product to ship or anything like that.

Let’s say I did a ‘VPN Review’ channel where I reviewed VPN services.
VPNs are basically programs that allow you to change your IP so that you
can do things like watch that are only available to a certain country
regardless of where you are in the world.
After a very quick search I found this keyword ‘Astrill VPN Review’ which
gets 590 searches a month and it’s got an affiliate program that pays out
10%-25%.

And best of all it has next to no competition in YouTube:

It’s got a measly 431 results and only the very first two videos even
include ‘Astrill VPN Review’ in their title. If I wasn’t already so busy I’d
probably even go after this keyword myself!
Then what’s really cool too is once you’ve got your channel built a bit you
can also start to target keywords like:

‘X vs Y’ Keywords: You’ll be amazed at how many people search for direct

product comparisons like ‘Coke vs Pepsi’ and it’s ridiculous how little
competition these keywords often have. Once you have already reviewed
a few products on your channel you can then start to tackle some of these
‘x vs y’ keywords too without even having to buy the products (since
you’ve already got them).

Furthermore because you already have done the research on each

product and have already tested them out these sort of videos take about
half the time that a regular review video would take.

For example if I go back to my style/hair straightener example I could

target something like ‘Cloud 9 VS GHD’ – two popular and high end hair
straighteners:

This keyword gets 390/searches a month and although it has a little bit
more competition in YouTube with 1,020 results it’s still pretty barren
with only a few results actually targeting the keyword:
And since both of these are $300 straighteners which ever one people buy
you will make a healthy commission. Find a decent affiliate program that
pays out 15% and you’re making close to $50/sale.

These ‘vs’ keywords exist in basically every single niche and hardly anyone
is targeting them (even in Google a lot of the time!).

For example with the VPN example I could target something like this:
IPVanish and HideMyAss are two different VPNs and if you’ve already
tried them both then putting together a simple ‘side by side’ comparison
of the two VPNS is super easy and as you can in the pic below… the
competition is basically non-existent:

Again the competition is non-existent with only 363 results turning up in

ALL of YouTube.

‘Best X’ Keywords: This is another cool and easy one to do especially once
you’ve already got a review up.

Just head to the Google Keyword Planner and do a search for ‘best your
niche’ and you’ll find a slew of other cool keywords that you can target:
So for example I could target something like ‘Best Hair Straightener For
Thick Curly Hair’ which gets 140 searches/month and whaddaya know it
has basically no competition:

Again these are easy to make after you've reviewed a few things already
because you'll already have a good idea of which product really is 'the
best' in each different type of category that's being searched for.
You could target all sorts of these keywords. ‘Best Ceramic Hair
Straightener’, ‘Best Hair Straightener For Thick Hair’… the list goes on.

And basically if you get a bit creative then you can find and tackle these
super low competition keywords aaaaaall day long.
Step 2) Making Your Videos

I’m not going to get into the ‘nuts and bolts’ of video editing otherwise
this post would turn into a novel and there are already a TONNE of free
tutorials out there as well as on YouTube about how to use video editing
software.

You don’t need to use anything fancy. Hell you can use Windows Movie
Maker if you want too.

Personally I use Adobe Premiere Pro just because I’m a big fan of the
whole Adobe suite and just like the way they all work together but you
can do this in anything.

What’s more important than the software you use is things like targeting
keywords, being authentic and things like eye catching thumbnails.

Don’t worry though I’ve got you covered…

Scripting / Preparation...

The very first thing you want to do is simply buy the product and play
around with it. Make notes about what you do and don’t like about the
product as you use it. If there are downsides/things you don’t like about
the product don’t be afraid to add them because it will make your video
seem a lot more genuine which will result in more trust and ultimately
more conversions.
You don’t have to write an entire word for word script or anything like
that but in my experience your video will come out waaaay better if you
do a little bit of preparation first and actually figure out roughly what
points you are going to cover and address rather than trying to ‘wing it’
on the spot.

Recording Your Videos...

Grab your notes and a camera and start yapping away about what you did
and didn’t like about the product.

Just keep it simple. Pretend like you are talking to a friend and are
explaining what you did and didn’t like about something and it’ll make it
seem a lot easier. And remember this is YouTube – not TV. You don’t need
to be ‘corporate’, you don’t need to ‘hard sell’… just be genuine and real
and don’t worry too much if you stuff up a word or about getting
absolutely everything 100% perfect.

Alternatively if you are camera shy then you can shoot a bunch of ‘up
close’ footage of the product being used and then simply record a
voiceover later.

With digital products you can just record your screen while you use
product using something like Camtasia and then talk over the top of it.

Audio quality is much more important than video quality though. If people
can’t understand what you are saying then they’ll never buy what you are
selling so if you can – try to pick up a decent microphone.
Basically any microphone is better than the shitty ones that come in built
with cameras – personally I use and recommend the Blue Yeti which you
can pick up for about $150. I know A LOT of other Youtubers that use this
exact microphone too and it really will give you 100x better quality than a
camera microphone will.

Then at the very end of each video you want to give two call to actions:
one to buy the product that you are promoting and one asking the viewer
to subscribe.

So you can say something like this:

“To find out where you can buy yourself GHD hair straightener at the
cheapest price online then click here to check out my blog where I’ve put
up links the absolute cheapest places to buy authentic GHD hair
straighteners online. And for more cool videos don’t forget to hit the
subscribe button!”

Cutting/Editing your videos...

As I mentioned before I’m not going to get into exactly how to edit a
video (it’s not that hard… just pick a video editing program and play with
it until you get the hang of it).

However I do have a couple of pointers that should make your videos

more successful:
  Use jump cuts. This is basically what every popular YouTuber does
and all it means is cutting out the boring bits, the ‘umms’ and
‘aaaahs’, the long silences etc. Nobody wants to watch a 30 minute
video just because you were too lazy to cut out the unnecessary
bits. Nobody wants to watch you yawning. Keep it short, to the
point and remember people have ADD attention spans these days.
This will in turn increase your average viewer duration (aka: how far
into your videos people are watching) which will then increase your
YouTube rankings. If you’re audience retention is under 50% (you
can check this in your YouTube analytics) then you probably need
to make your videos shorter and more ‘to the point’.

 Add background music to keep the ‘pace’ of your videos up. I add
background music to just about every video that I make no matter
what niche it’s in and it really helps to add a bit of ‘pace’ to your
videos and to make them more interesting and engaging. You can
find free royalty free tracks that you can use in the YouTube Audio
Library or paid ones over at AudioJungle.net.

Step 3) Optimizing Your Videos

Once you’ve got your first video rendered it’s time to upload the video
and to optimize it so that it ranks in not only YouTube but hopefully inside
of Google too.

And luckily this isn’t too hard to do. We just need to make sure that we do
a few things:
Optimizing Your Videos For Your Keywords: This is super easy to do.
Basically just make sure that you include your keyword in your title, your
tags and your description:

Also try to make your title catchy, your description at least 200 words and
add any other related keywords that you can find in the Keyword Planner
tool to your tags section.
Create A Custom YouTube Thumbnail: The more eye catching your
thumbnail is the more traffic you’ll get. It’s the first thing people notice
when they search for videos or look in the related videos section so
custom thumbnails are a must for every video otherwise YouTube will just
pick a random segment of your video and show that as your thumbnail
which is the last thing we want!

If it's a physical products you can just take a photo of the product itself.
Put the product against a nice background and just snap a pic. But if it's a
digital product you can hit up sites like PhotoDune.net or
GraphicRiver.net (these are paid sites but you can also use free royalty
free image sites too) and search for a picture that's related to your niche.

For the VPN example I could search for 'privacy' and find something like
this:
Then when you've got your picture take it over to your favorite image
editing program (I use Photoshop though you can use Gimp or any other
photo editing software you like) and then just add some text to it to make
it pop:

The ideal size for thumbnails is 1280 x 720 pixels.

Annotations & Cards: The last thing that we need to do before we can
publish our video is to add annotations and cards to the video. These are
basically those links that you see over the top of videos that people can
click on to go to another site.

And basically we want to use 'annotations' and 'cards' to link back to our
website where our affiliate links are.
Before you'll be able to use these features you'll need to make sure that
you have associated your website with your YouTube account which you
can do by going to the 'Creator Studio' section on YouTube and then to
'Channel' and then 'Advanced':

Once you've got your site linked to your YouTube account you'll then be
able to add annotations and cards back to your site at the point where
you say "and if you'd like to buy this than click here etc" that link back to
your blog post post about that particular product.
And you also want to include a ‘Subscribe’ annotation at the point where
you ask your viewer to subscribe. You’ll be amazed at how many people
will actually click through to your website or subscribe to your channel
just because you asked them too.

Then once you’ve done all of that just publish your video!

Step 4) ‘Promoting’ Your Videos

Once you’re videos are finished and uploaded the hardest bit is over.

If you pick your keywords well then often you’ll find yourself ranking on
the first page of Google literally minutes after pressing the ‘publish’
button. Hard to believe when you are used to the longer wait of SEO but
it’s definitely possible and by no means uncommon. 9 times out of 10
your video will appear somewhere on the first few pages of YouTube for
your keyword within literally minutes.

However with a bit of promotion we can really kick off our videos helping
us to truly cement our rankings.

By giving a bit of a ‘push’ to our videos we can drive some initial views,
comments and likes to them all of which will help to ‘launch’ your videos
getting them ranked even higher and helping them to turn up in the
‘related videos’ section of YouTube.
And the main way that I do this is simple – I use social networks.

For every channel/site that I build I set up a Facebook, a Twitter, a

Pinterest, a Google+, a Reddit, and and then I use these accounts to
promote my videos.

Now I’m not going to get into exactly how I use eeevery site because I’ve
already posted guides on most of these sites but you can check some
tutorials I've posted in the past on the Fix about how I do this:

Tumblr: Just set up a niche related tumblr, start to follow niche related
people, start posting your videos and so long as your videos don’t totally
suck ass you WILL get reblogs, likes, views, comments and subscribers.

Pinterest: Pinterest is also allows you to post and share out your videos
in much the same way.

Reddit: Reddit is definitely a little bit trickier as these guys marketing

radar is higher but still totally, totally worth doing if you do it right and a
single good submission can literally kickstart a channel from 0 to 100
subscribers in a day.

These three alone are enough to get your channel rolling but if you want
to give it some extra juice I’d also recommend also hitting up Facebook &
Google+ groups. There are groups on these social networks for just
about every niche in existence and sharing your videos inside of these
groups is a super easy way to get traction.
Misc Tips ‘n’ Tricks…

Before I finish – here are a few more tips and tricks that’ll help you to
make even more money…

 If a product sucks – you don’t have lie and say that it’s good to
make $. If something sucks just simply refer them to another one
of your videos where you reviewed a similar product that’s
actually good. It’s as simple as saying something like ‘at the end of
the day though the X just isn’t as good as the Y which I reviewed a
while back. You can check that out by clicking here.’

 Don’t be afraid to target high value products. It takes around the

same amount of work to make a video for a $10 product as it does
for a $500 product. But with a $500 product you’ll be getting
much, much higher commissions. Lower priced products are still a
good way to ‘get your feet wet’ and to start making your first few
bucks but ultimately I’d recommend re-investing the money that
you make on the lower priced products into higher and higher
ones if you can because this will send your earnings up
exponentially.

 Coupons / exclusive discounts work great if you can get them.

Some affiliate programs will offer custom affiliate coupons that
you can use so that every time someone uses one you get a
commission. Some programs might not have this option
automatically but if you email them nicely they may be willing to
hook you up with a custom coupon. Then simply give the coupon
code towards the end of the video and your viewers will dig it that
they get a discount and buy, buy, buy.