--- title: 'How to Build a YouTube Business with Affiliate Marketing and Shopping' source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=-GO6bY5CLzs' video_id: '-GO6bY5CLzs' date: 2026-07-14 duration_sec: 0 --- # How to Build a YouTube Business with Affiliate Marketing and Shopping > Source: [How to Build a YouTube Business with Affiliate Marketing and Shopping](https://youtube.com/watch?v=-GO6bY5CLzs) ## Summary In this episode of Workshopped, Lauren Solinsky interviews Justin of Justin Tech, who shares his journey from losing his job during COVID to building a successful YouTube channel focused on pre-built gaming PC reviews. Justin emphasizes a business-first approach, leveraging affiliate marketing, data-driven analytics, and deep audience engagement to generate over $11 million in affiliate sales. He discusses strategies for niching down, using YouTube Shopping tags, and treating content creation as a sustainable business. ### Key Points - **Introduction to Justin Tech** [00:00] — Lauren introduces Justin, founder of Justin Tech, a channel dedicated to helping consumers navigate pre-built gaming PCs. Justin launched with a business-first affiliate strategy, niching down from general tech to high-ticket gaming hardware. - **Origin Story: The Take Action Effect** [01:30] — Justin lost his job due to COVID in 2020. His mother recommended the book 'The Take Action Effect,' which inspired him to start a YouTube channel focused on affiliate marketing. - **Early Struggles and Pivoting** [03:00] — The first year was rough; Justin almost had to sell his house. He experimented with various tech reviews (e.g., iPhone vs. Pixel) but got low views. He realized he needed to niche down and focus on what his audience wanted. - **Finding the Niche: Pre-built Gaming PCs** [05:00] — Justin discovered that pre-built gaming PC reviews resonated with his audience. He doubled down on this niche, negotiated higher commission rates with brands, and built trust with viewers. - **Call-to-Action Strategies** [07:30] — Justin uses 6-7 call-to-actions per video: verbal mention, animated arrow, YouTube timestamps, QR code, and description links. He treats viewers as busy people who may not be fully attentive. - **Audience Trust and Conversion** [10:00] — Justin's audience respects his honesty. He provides all necessary information upfront and only mentions links at the end. Polls show 86% of viewers find his video length 'just right.' - **Subscriber Count vs. Income** [12:30] — Justin's first $30,000 month came with only 40,000 subscribers. He emphasizes that subscriber count is irrelevant for shopping; engagement and search-driven views matter more. - **YouTube Shopping Sales Growth** [14:00] — Justin's YouTube Shopping sales grew from $34,000 in year one to $400,000 in year two, and $1.4 million in 2025. Overall affiliate sales across networks reached $11 million. - **Short vs. Long Form Content** [16:00] — Justin uses shorts for sub-$50 impulse buys and as trailers for long-form reviews. Long-form content drives high-ticket purchases (e.g., $4,000+ gaming PCs) through search-related views. - **Audience Differences: Shorts vs. Long Form** [18:30] — Long-form audience is friendlier and more loyal. Short-form audience includes more new viewers who may complain about prices. Justin uses polls to understand audience preferences. - **Data-Driven Decisions with Polls** [20:00] — Justin runs frequent polls to fine-tune content. A poll revealed that Retailer B was 4x more preferred than Retailer A, matching his sales data. He pivoted to focus on Retailer B. - **Using AI for Analytics** [22:30] — Justin exports YouTube analytics and uses Gemini Deep Research to cross-reference data across affiliate networks. He discovered which computer models were most purchased overall. - **Q4 Planning and Black Friday Live Stream** [25:00] — Justin does a 24-hour live stream on Black Friday to answer questions and help viewers navigate deals. He uses polls and AI to summarize comments from other reviews to fill gaps. - **Sponsorships vs. Affiliate Marketing** [27:30] — Justin often pushes off sponsorships because they reduce views and trust. He prefers affiliate marketing for long-form content and may consider short-form sponsorships for less impact. - **Handling Negative Reviews** [30:00] — Justin does secret shopper purchases to verify brand quality. He uses the word 'disappointing' for overpriced or misleading products, which builds trust with his audience. - **Advice for Aspiring Creators** [32:30] — Justin advises that losing subscribers is normal when shifting to monetization. YouTube will replace them with the right audience. He emphasizes providing value and using data to guide content. ### Conclusion Justin's success demonstrates that treating YouTube as a business with a focus on affiliate marketing, audience trust, and data-driven decisions can lead to substantial revenue. His key takeaway: niching down and leveraging analytics are critical for sustainable growth. ## Transcript Hello insiders. I'm Lauren Solinsky and I head up content and community for YouTube shopping and this is our podcast series. And today I'm with Justin of Justin Tech. He is the founder of his YouTube channel dedicated to helping consumers navigate the complex world of pre-built gaming PCs. Unlike many creators who stumble into monetization, Justin launched his channel with a business first affiliate strategy, successfully niching down from general tech to becoming a trusted authority in high ticket gaming hardware. This data-driven approach has turned Justin Tech into a high conversion resource for gamers and is a prime example of how to build a sustainable business through YouTube shopping. So Justin, thank you for joining us. You did that really well. By the way, when every time I do something like that, it's like [laughter] I do probably five to seven takes for every intro just cuz I want my intro to just be on point. >> And if I read into a prompter, I my eyes are just too it's it's >> don't let them know I was reading. That was >> it's it's so locked on that I can't even it's it's so I have to memorize it and then I then I talk to the camera and I I have a bad memory. So, it's just this back and forth. >> Well, good thing for you. Your memory is not a part of your YouTube channel. However, gaming PCs are. >> And just like your intro said, I think what's so interesting is you literally started YouTube with the aim of affiliate marketing. Tell us about that. That is an interesting approach. >> So, back in 2020, I lost my job due to COVID. Um, it was I worked for this company that was about to hit their best year in 30 years and then they had to let go 95% of the company because co just wiped out events. Um, so I got a call from my mom and she told me that she felt like God was giving her a book to give me. She saw this book I think on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or something. She said that she felt like God was telling her to give me that book to read. And it was a book called uh The Take Action Effect. And uh that book basically just opened up my entire world when it came to affiliate marketing, how to make money on the internet. And I read that book cover to cover in a few days. I don't do that with books very often. Um, but yeah, from from that point on I knew, okay, I want to I want to start a YouTube channel and affiliate marketing is going to be the way that I make money with that. >> So, Mama Justin, well, that's not her name, but Mama, we have to we have to thank her. She's the reason we're here. >> Yeah. If she hadn't recommended that book, I would not have started a YouTube channel. >> Okay. But you did. I did. It is thriving. Tell us about the process of starting it to where you are today, cuz I know there was times where it was a little questionable. the process was was very rough in the beginning. Uh I would say that COVID probably was the biggest blessing in disguise when it came to my career. Um that first year was super rough. It we almost had to sell the house just to to pay the bills. Um, but after I kind of figured out what worked, I was able to niche down and double down on what I saw the audience um participating in and uh what related to them the best. And once I went all in on that, I was able to negotiate uh commission rates with different brands um and kind of negotiate brands against each other cuz I knew there was wiggle room in between different uh different products that people were purchasing. I knew that there I knew that the companies were making more money on these products than they were trying to make me believe that they were making. Um, so after I kind of negotiated all the brands rates up, that was about the same time that everybody was trusting my videos more for uh reviews. Um, and I actually get a lot of people in the comments now on computers that they want to purchase. They'll actually reach out to me and say, "Hey, there's this computer that I want to get. you haven't done a review on it yet, but you've helped me out a lot in the past. So, I want to make sure that you get a commission. They'll ask me to create an affiliate link for them so that I can get a commission for the computer that they buy, which is >> high praise. >> Yeah, that's when you find an audience that's like that, then that's that's gold. >> So, bumping back a bit though, that was interesting that you were able to determine like this is the niche my audience wants. How did you figure that out? >> I would say trial and error. I that first year I basically did a review on any kind of tech you could you could think of. I tried the iPhone thing because I knew that was popular. I think I got maybe two or 300 views on my iPhone verse Pixel video which I spent probably about a week making that video. So, to get two to three, I I said never again will will I do an iPhone or smartphone uh review just because it's if you're not in that niche already or you're not one of those big MKBHD type creators that like you get the stuff early, plus he's amazing. Um, if you can't compete with that, you need to find a different niche and kind of be the main guy for this other thing and not not try to be like everybody else. >> Well, that's an interesting approach. We hear both sides of the coin with affiliate marketing. Sometimes it's see what your competitors are doing. Uh do your take on it, but another way in is also find the white space. Find what no one else is doing and own that. >> But you did still have passion for it. Is that >> true with gaming PCs? It wasn't just something that you like, oh, I guess I'll hawk this today, you know? >> No. I I never do a review of something that I just can't stand cuz I I know if I take that in the long run, it's going to be that's going to be miserable. Um, so you do you don't have to find the thing you love the most, but you do want to find something that you still like um that not everybody else is doing because there's there's a lot of channels out there that are doing uh DIY, build your own computer um type content and that's really big. That's actually probably more people watch those videos than pre-built gaming PC v uh videos. Um, but you kind of have to find your niche if you want to stand out and be the one guy for that. And for you to get the most conversions in affiliate commissions, you kind of have to be the last trusted source in in a lot of these product searches. So that's an interesting point too with a lot of affiliate marketing, you know, conjures up the image of it's beauty influencers and it's fashion. Tech is so interesting because it's usually higher price point, higher AOV if you want to be in the no. Uh higher price point items. So how do you get your viewers to go from research to actually making the purchase? >> I'd say there's probably There's probably six six to seven different call to actions that I do on each of my videos. I'll I'll say the link in the description and I'll point, but then I have an animated arrow pointing to that that spot on the video and then at the exact same time I do the the new uh YouTube um >> timestamp. >> Timestamping. Yes. So, the YouTube timestamping that pops up at the same time. And then I talk about a QR code that's also going to be on the video. And then I say the links in the description as well. So, there's there's all these different like not not treating the audience like they're dumb, but treating the audience like they got a lot of other things going on. They're probably not paying 100% attention to to your video. they probably have their dog they're playing with on the floor or they're having a conversation while watching the video while on the internet also researching or looking up the products that you're talking about. Um, so as many as many call to actions or just things on on screen to show them this is how you buy it, uh, the better. And I've noticed conversions have really helped out with that. I love that you said that because a lot of times creators think by talking about the fact that it's shoppable or by calling out the fact that there's a product that they can click on, it feels salesy, but the way you just described it is call to action, right? You're helping them understand how they can act to get the thing that you're talking about. So, I think that's a really good call out that it education for the viewer is paramount to a new product area like this. >> Yeah. And I I think review channels are more used to doing it without feeling sleazy. Uh the channels that I feel like are the most uncomfortable with doing that are the more entertainment based channels. And when they have an audience that goes to them for the entertainment and then they throw in that kind of thing, it's going to feel weird at first. But you do it enough and YouTube is going to start YouTube knows very well who's watching your videos. So, they're going to start sending you the right people that don't care if you're trying to make money to make this entertainment product that they love watching. Um, they're not going to care if you're starting to talk about links and stuff in in the description. Um, when YouTube is literally giving you those type of viewers. >> I mean, I talk about this all the time. How awkward was it initially to say, "If you like what you see, click like and subscribe." But everybody does it and no one's like, "That was weird. that took me out of it. It's just something that was new, but now is just so part of, you know, inherently the creator's content. So, I think that's also a good call out. How does your audience respond to the fact that the heart of your content is essentially pushing towards a product purchase? I think they really respect it when I give them literally all the information that they're searching for when they're trying to figure out if this is the right computer for them to purchase. Um, even in the intro, I mentioned that I I obsess over the intros because I want them to know, you probably haven't seen me before, but trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Here's all these flashing images of what we're about to talk about. It's almost like a trailer for why this video is going to be the best thing for you in in searching for this product. Um, I want to make sure that they understand. I don't talk about the links really that much until the end of the video. Um, but I make sure that they know that they're getting all the value that they want. Um, I've done a few polls on my channel asking, okay, should I should I make these reviews longer or should I make them shorter or are they just right? And the poll that I I did that on, 7% said that it was too long, 7% said it was too short, and then the rest of all the percent said it's just right. Just keep it the way it is. So, I think I think I've kind of found like that perfect happy area of how long each section needs to be without boring them. Um, but yeah, if they're getting all of their questions answered, YouTube will even start putting your video up to the top, even when there's other creators that are a lot bigger than you, they have more views, obviously because of browse features and everybody knows who they are, um, they'll start putting your videos above theirs just because the satisfaction with people that are searching for that is a lot higher. Um, but yeah, when when search related views on a video are high, conversions are very high. >> I'm so glad you brought that up because actually your subscriber count really doesn't matter when it comes to YouTube shopping, right? It's about engagement. And by the time this video comes out, we will have officially lowered subscriber count to only 500 for people to participate. Yes. Round of applause. Uh, to participate in YouTube shopping. So that's how much we firmly believe that this is accessible to anybody. Anybody can start from any point in their their YouTube journey. >> I think you're proof of that. You had a story about a video. What was it? >> So my I guess to to kind of be transparent about income. Uh my first $30,000 month was when I only had 40,000 subscribers. So subscribers mean nothing. Uh I all the time I get a question all the time I get questions uh by people asking okay so how many subscribers do you need in order to make a living or how many subscribers do you blah blah blah it's they're completely unrelated if you're making if review channels do really well um I feel like a lot of people probably actually unsubscribe after they make their purchase because they don't need my content anymore which I'm fine with um but I met a lot of people at like VidSummit that had over 500,000 subscribers that were weren't even doing it full-time yet. They still had a side a side gig going on because if if you're not making money in all different kinds of streams, you're you're going to have a difficult time making money on YouTube. Um but yeah, the first the first year that I was uh using YouTube shopping, it was about 34,000 in total sales. Um the second year was a little over 400,000 in total sales and then now 2025 >> uh YouTube shopping was uh 1.4 million in sales. >> Wow. >> Um but yeah, over the over the past three years the channel has over all the affiliate networks has been about 11 million in uh affiliate sales. >> That's not my commission. >> Go work on my YouTube channel. Goodbye everybody. I'm not making three million a year, but that's that's the rough uh overall number. >> Yeah. Well, I think I mean, thank you for sharing that because again, I think it's just another testament to if you're making content that people care about, if you're giving them information that they're seeking out, you're helping them on a journey they're already down, but you're the end point for which they make that purchase, right? >> That's awesome. >> So, like a lot of creators, you do both long form and short form content. So when do you decide what products are going to be in which format? >> Usually price point is a big factor. When I try to sell, not I hate using the word sell. I don't try to I'm not there to sell, but when I try to create content that people will like that will maybe lead to a purchase. I rarely lead to a purchase of a four or $5,000 gaming PC on a short that people are just swiping through. search related views and long form content is more for that. But when it comes to accessories, actually I asked Gemini this and I said, "Why why am I having trouble making uh why why are nobody using my YouTube shopping tags for gaming PCs on my shorts?" And it basically said that you're not going to find many people that are buying things that expensive um through shorts. But if you have things that are like the sub $50 range that the more impulse buys that they called it or it it called it um then you're much more likely to to have sales in in that aspect. But what I I tend to use YouTube or what I tend to use shorts for um is just like a little preview trailer for the short form audience to be like, "Oh, okay. Uh I can find this guy's long form version of this video on his channel, so I'll go ahead and check that out." And that's where you'll take the time to really dive in on the product, go through all the nuances, specifics. I think what's so interesting is that people really value YouTube for research as well as for content consumption. And so I think the shopping creators who are really successful understand that. And so when they're talking about a product, it's not the viral superficial, "Oh my god, I love It's such specificity that it go that the audience is able to say, I understand. I want it. Thank you. You know, so I think that's really interesting. Do you see a difference in the audience between your short form content and your long form content? >> The long- form audience is definitely the more friendlier audience that follows me, that that likes me. >> The short form, I've noticed, are people that have never heard of me before or there's more of those that have never heard of me before. They're the They're usually the ones that will complain more about high prices. Um they're usually the ones that that >> because you set the prices. >> Yeah. And they're Yeah. They're usually the ones that kind of uh I wouldn't say lash out, but they they yell at me in kind ways uh for pushing these overpriced computers through YouTube shorts. Um which most of them aren't overpriced. They're they're very good deals. Um, but yeah, I've noticed that I get a little bit more of the angry people, the people that are more budget conscious on YouTube shopping than or YouTube shorts than on the long form content. >> You mentioned that you really researched and doubled down on what is it exactly that my audience is responding to. So, analytics must play a big part in that. How do you now look at your analytics? What matters most to you? I I never thought I actually came from an animation background like very artistic. I used to I used to work for a company where I did special effects for commercials and and TV shows and things like that. Uh I never thought that I would find a lot of fun in obsessing over data, but I really get down into those analytics. I'm constantly doing polls on my channel to to really fine-tune and figure out who exactly my audience is because they surprise me a lot of times. There's a lot of times I think that a poll is going to go one way and it goes the completely other way. So, I'm collecting all these polls just on the types of computers people like, um the versions of them, which brands they want to uh buy from, which retailers they prefer to buy from, which is another thing about analytics that was just awesome for me to find out recently was um I did a poll asking which retailer they wanted to purchase a gaming PC from. And I realized I was more on let's say retailer A versus retailer B. >> Yeah. And I was talking about a lot of the computers from retailer from retailer A, but retailer B was four times more the preferred retailer for people to buy from. And then I noticed when I looked at all of my 2025 sales data, it matched that exactly. So there's four times more people bought from that retailer for gaming PCs than the one that I was talking about uh the majority of the time. So that's those are kind of shifts where you can be like okay if they have computers that are equally valuable and you would because they're not always the same computers like this this retailer will have these and then this retailer will have other computers. Um, to be able to to pivot when you get that information is going to be not only huge for you, but your audience is going to get a lot more of what they want because if they're if they don't care or don't trust about trust this other retailer, then that's just you're wasting air time to talk about it. >> And I have to now imagine that this data that you have is so valuable when you're approaching brands for sponsorships, for partnerships, things of that ilk. Is that something you've done in the past? >> I did do that. I um I had this one poll and I said, "If my gaming PC reviews helped you make a purchase, did you remember to use my link?" And I think it was like 40% of them said, "No, I forgot to use your link." And then the other, which it's probably more 50/50 because the people that saw that poll are more likely the people that care about my content, keep following it. they're the ones that are mo most likely to say yes to that and support me. Um, so I'm going to say it's probably closer to like 50/50, which means that I'm probably double the value that a lot of these companies think that I am, but not not me. The the channel content is probably driving them double the sales that are showing up in in their analytics. And I have to say that one of hopefully uh YouTube shopping helped mitigate that challenge by offering timestamps where the product visually pops up at the moment you're talking about it to easily click on versus previously having just description links which takes you off the channel takes you out of the content. So part of the goal of YouTube shopping is to make that ease for the viewer and for the creator so that everybody's in the same place at the same time. >> Yeah. The data collection that I've been able to get by using the YouTube shopping tags has been so much more valuable because I've gotten a little I wouldn't say lazy, but I've gotten in the past where it just takes too much time to update all my links on all of my different videos. So, I've been using um external sites where um like link shorteners where I use that same link shortener in in all the videos that I talk about that one computer. Um so, there's a lot of times I don't know which video is the one that is driving these sales, which one is actually performing well and which one which type of video I need to focus more uh attention on in the future. So, but with YouTube shopping, you get to organize all that by, okay, which video. It'd be nice. I I wonder if in the future, >> listen up, engineers. >> I wonder if in the future we'd be able to see the exact moment that they decide to click on the product tag and then make the purchase. That would be an interesting statistic that I think would would probably help us figure out when the best time is to to put those call to actions. January is like my month where I get to just take a deep breath because October, November, December is just crazy. Um, crazy hours, but it's also fourth quarter is basically the same income as the rest of the the quarters combined for my content. Um, but I went just nerded out like crazy with all of the different exporting out of uh the goo the YouTube analytics. Um, and then I probably had 20 different 20 different spreadsheets and things that got exported out and I actually overloaded Gemini to where it said, "Okay, that's too many things to upload. You're going to have to choose juniors. Listen [laughter] up. >> You're going to have to choose." So, I I took I think it was 20 15 or 20 documents that I then uploaded into the um the Gemini deep research and had it just compile all of that data and it cross referenced computers from different retailers, different affiliate networks. I know YouTube is my my main one now, but there's other affiliate networks that I'm uh partnering with right now, too. Um, but uh it was able to cross reference all of the different computers and the ones that didn't like within the YouTube analytics, it doesn't always tell you exactly which which product it is, but sometimes it'll give you the what's the word for >> you are >> skew. Oh. Oh, wow. >> Okay. So, so the it'll find the skew, cross reference it across all the websites and then find the match. And it basically did that and it showed me, okay, which computer over all the affiliate networks was the most purchased computer. It tells me how many orders. It just it organized the data in any format that I wanted it and it it's deep research has been huge. >> I'm really glad to hear you say this. On another episode of workshopped, uh we will dive into AI and sort of the advantages. So I'm I'm glad to hear you're utilizing it for things like analytics. It's really interesting you said Q4 is that, you know, mad dash. How do you plan ahead for that? What do you do to plan your content knowing it's going to be the busiest time of year? >> That's another situation where I start using a lot of polls. Like I ask I I think last November I did there's a couple weeks where I feel like I did a poll almost every day just trying to figure out exactly what was the best thing for them. Um, I was asking them about uh I do a 24-hour live stream on Black Friday each year to where I'm just sitting there answering questions in the chat. It's it's never like a lot of people in the chat all at once, but it's enough for the tw for every hour that come in and out to where it's it helps a lot of people make purchases on that day. That's that's kind of the hot day where I just focus really really hard on all the specific deals. Um provide as much value for um helping people find uh help helping people not get ripped off by these best uh best deals on Black Friday because a lot of times >> a lot of times they're not really deals. They're just they mark them up the week before and then they mark them down on Black Friday. So, I kind of try to help people navigate that as well. Um, but yeah, just doing a lot of polls, asking a lot of questions, reading all the comments, um, using AI to sum up the comments on other reviews that are similar to my reviews so that I can make sure to answer the questions that those other videos didn't answer. Um, so I always find that you're kind of at an advantage even when you are the last person to make a review on a product. Um, I know a lot of people want to see like the first ones, but to be the last person, you can basically fill in all the gaps where they missed out. Um, and just really give them exactly what they need to know for each of these products. It's so interesting you said that as well because I have to imagine as a creator you may think well there's so many people reviewing this type of product or there's so many people making content about beauty or fashion like how am I going to stand out? So I think it's really interesting that you can use that to your advantage. You can leverage what's been done before and do your own spin on it. So I think that's great advice. >> It's nice to be able to to finally talk about this stuff because >> which is a therapist couch here. >> This is the This is the whole reason why going to to VidSummit and the YouTube shopping socials and all these creator networking events is so awesome because there's so many creators like me that you talk about this stuff to the average person and you can just see their eyes glaze over and they just I can see in their eyes saying I don't care. Stop talking. Stop talking. And it's like I have so much in my head about that to talk about and not as much to talk about about the topics that they want to talk about that it it's sometimes it just feels >> uh like I I got so much in me that I want to give out that I just can't. But things like this at Creator Insider, you're in a safe place. >> Um but actually, all joking aside, I think what you're describing is treating YouTube like a business, right? It's your full-time job. And so it's looking how to maximize monetization opportunities. It's looking at how do you leverage analytics and I think the people that are going to have long-term success on the platform are those creators that are going to do that extra work, not just do the viral this product or that product because that's kind of a one flash in the pan, right? I think what you talk about and what you've done >> is constantly engage with your audience, constantly ensure that their needs are being met >> and they're literally paying you back for it, right? So, you talked a lot about your performance analytics. How have you leveraged that to get brand sponsorships and deals? >> I've actually been kind of more actively pushing off sponsorships. Oh, really? Um, just because it's when I when I spend a good week or 10 days, however long it takes to to make one of these reviews, to just have like a locked on sponsorship amount for that um, isn't usually it's not as appealing. And then I then the video gets less views because you put the sponsored thing on it and people don't trust it that much anyway. So, it almost feels like kind of like a I'm not going to say a waste of content, but it doesn't feel like it's providing anybody as much value as I think they deserve. Not even the brand, because I think the brand the brand wants to get as much exposure as they want to when they get less exposure for things like that. And even when I make it more of an entertaining thing, that's not really sending them consumers. that's sending them people that just get entertained by watching an unboxing or watching uh whatever fun thing that I'm doing with the video. Um >> that's an interesting take though because I think a lot of creators probably think the opposite. Oh, if I get a brand deal, I will have made it, right? But what you've done and what you continue to do is just lean in deeper to the platform and what's already available. >> Yeah. I feel like for for brand deals for me, I like to treat it more towards uh well, maybe I can do a short for you for for less money because I feel like my short form content is more it feels like a like a second channel to me that doesn't isn't really affected by the main channel. I don't feel I don't [clears throat] feel bad making a quick 60 minute or a 60-second video sponsorship or sponsored video. Um, but yeah, when I have to when I need to make like a 15-minute long one, it just it feels it feels it hits different. >> Yeah, and that makes total sense. Now, that being said, workshopped this podcast will take any brand deal anyone wants. Now, I will say that brand deals, I am starting to consider more brand deals that are somewhat not related to my content because when I can do not rel I wouldn't say not related, not related to the product that I'm reviewing because then it's kind of more um it's it's helpful for the audience, helpful for the brand, but it doesn't take away from the review. the review can still be a review, but it's like once you put something else in there that's still computer related that doesn't seem like it takes away from any other brand. Um, but those are kind of harder ones to find where it's like it still applies to your very small niche, but it doesn't it doesn't make people trust you any less about this one brand if it's like a competing brand. Um, if that makes sense. >> That totally makes sense. When it comes to analytics, which ones for you, right? Because affiliate marketing is your bread and butter. Which analytics matter most? View count, offer click, like what what counts? >> I think the one that I I tend to go to in the most daily is uh total total sales, not even commission. I I'm I try to because each commission is a little bit different across different retailers. Um, that's kind of how I gauge my performance on is this is this really striking a nerve with people. Is it something that they're they're liking that they want to see? Um, am I helping them near the end of the videos? Because even on videos where I don't give the computer the best review, there's always a buying opportunity in the end where um I have a section in all of my reviews at at the end where I talk about these are the best gaming PCs for every budget. So there's there's a 1,000, 2,000, 3,000, 4,000, and then five or 6,000 >> spaceship price. >> Uh yeah. >> So I make sure to that anybody watching the video, even if that's not the computer they're they're going to end up going with, there's always something that they can buy if they are in the buying mode. >> This is like segways a keep on a coming. Um great segue into what do you do if there's a product that you don't want to review? Well, are you worried about hurting a brand relationship? Like, how do you treat that? Cuz you want to be honest. >> Yeah. >> But >> there there is one that I'm working with right now that I spent a good two week a good two weeks on the video and I learned some stuff about the brand that I needed to figure out more information about. So, that was like a good two weeks that I thought I was going about to be like to post a video, but I can't because there's just some questions that I I've been asking myself and I even brought my wife in on it trying to figure out if if this is something I should post. Um, so I'm actually doing a secret shopper purchase from this brand now. um just to make sure that my the user's experience is going to be the same as the experience that I had because they they sent me a computer. It was it was good, but then I'm reading all these other reviews from other people. I I still read and watch the reviews of other reviewers and um other actual customer purchases. And when I'm seeing a lot of things add up that don't make sense with my experience, then I that's when I'm kind of like, all right, I need to do a a secret shopper purchase and figure out if this is legit that these people are talking about, if this is something they fixed, like they said they fixed. Um, but yeah, I'll use the word disappointing a lot. if there's a computer that's that's not really uh up to par. There's one thing that I think with a lot of these um reviews, a lot of them, most of the computers aren't bad, but the one thing that I would say disappointing the most is when they they kind of play games with their prices and when they start when it does seem like they are kind of ripping people off, that's when I kind of have a little bit more of an emotional like against them. uh thing because most people know what the most people in that niche know what these computers are supposed to cost and when it's just outrageous and they're trying to act like what nothing's nothing's wrong that's when I kind of have to call them out and use the disappointing word. >> But presumably uh or presumably though you do have videos where maybe there's a product that you're disappointed in. Um you'll still review it, right? But you'll give that honest feedback. I think that honesty, I have to imagine has just only continued to earn you more trust with your viewers so that when there is that spaceshipped priced, you know, uh, PC, you actually might get someone to buy it. Right. When whenever I review a computer with uh zero enthusiasm, uh it tends to get a lot more purchases in that best gaming PC for every budget section of the video. So, it's like I feel like when they see that kind of honesty, they're like, "Okay, well then this probably is a good one because he just said the one that uh he made this really nice thumbnail for uh he just said this one's not really that great." So, if he's saying one's not great, then obviously he was this isn't a bot review. Um that's when they start trusting even the the stuff that's at the end. So, I think comparing products is definitely the key into allowing your audience to realize this is not bought and paid for review. This is these are actual comparisons. This is actual data. We spend 10 plus days on each of these computers just making sure that we're like looking at all the ins and the outs, the thermals, the game, the FPS for all these games. Um, running all these test >> like she knows what that means. [laughter] um frames per second for all these games. It's basically like how how fast these games run, how smooth they look uh with high graphics settings. Um they want to see all those charts and sometimes it's boring data to report on in a review. But those are the parts that a lot of people skip to because they just there's a lot of people that just just want the hard data. They want to know what the price toerformance ratio is. That's another thing that I have in my videos. It's a very nerdy data thing. Um, but it's basically the frames per second per dollar ratio of all these computers. So, it that basically shows where its value is for how expensive it is versus how it performs. And that's one of the charts that uh once you start collecting a lot of these reviews, that's really valuable for people. So, all of my reviews will have charts like that. And I think with any niche when you have um charts where you're comparing 20 50 different products, people really value that data in making their purchase. >> And I have to say it's worth, you know, for the viewers to understand that this methodology that you're describing is across any genre, right? Could be makeup, it could be fashion, anything where someone's going to spend real money on something. the more in-depth review, the more details, the more comparisons that you can give helps make the purchase process much more seamless. So, I think that >> while we're talking about something very tech-related today, the practice is very practical. What advice would you have for somebody who maybe is a gamer or who considers themselves to be in the tech space but thinks affiliate marketing, you know, YouTube shopping isn't for them. They're not a saleserson. What would you say to that? >> I would say that yes, you probably will lose subscribers. You probably will uh get hate. You probably will get people that um start turning on you because you're starting to sell things. But all that really does is change the YouTube algorithm into recommending your videos to the right audience. So you don't you really don't want only the audience that that watches you just for entertainment and doesn't care about you as a person um creating the value or you as a person that uh still needs to to pay the bills. Um, so when you get a lot of these people that that watch the videos that don't really have the money to buy things, it's it hurts to lose those people, but YouTube replaces them with people that do have the money to buy these things. I noticed when I first started YouTube, um, I did a lot of, uh, if you comment, uh, you could be, uh, one of my winners for this gift card, and I did a gift card winner on each of my videos. And what I noticed that was doing was feeding my videos with a lot of these people that were constantly asking for a free computer. Like I was just getting all these comments and saying, "Hey, uh, do you have any extra computers that I can have?" And it was like people that were seriously thinking that because I did a gift card that I'm going to full of computers I can just give away. And I got more people asking about gift cards. So, it's like you tell YouTube who you want your audience to be and they just keep giving you that audience. So, if you change your format, you're going to lose that audience at first, but then you're going to get them replaced with the right people that actually respect your content and that actually respect what you do and want what you are reviewing. >> And that is why we call YouTube your fairy godmother. We don't, but we probably should. >> We should. Justin, thank you so much for sharing how you treat your channel like a business, utilizing analytics, understanding your audience so that you can make the most value for them, which in turn makes the most value for you. So, thank you again and we'll see you next time, Insiders.