Gadgetory

hey what's going on everybody I'm Noah from technobuffalo and this is what are we up to move the third installment this little series we're running on tips for aspiring bloggers and vloggers and tech reviewers and journalists and and such and i'm going to try i actually shot this video a couple times a couple weeks ago and just it didn't quite come out right and if you've watching my videos you know i have a propensity to ramble on and on and and boots are like I'd shot like 20 minutes of me just going in circles so I'm trying it again answering trying to answer one of the questions that I get asked most and John everybody else I know who works in this industry which is how do you get the products to review and there's not a simple answer to it and also the answer has changed in the you know 10 or so years I've been doing this I've been covering yeah I've been with TechnoBuffalo for about five months now or so before that I was with phoneDog for close to five years and before that actually worked for a website called powerbook central that covered APPL related stuff yeah I can hear all you out there now like I'll see I told you as a fanboy and before that a couple of other publications so on the answer is definitely changed over time especially as blogs that become more popular and more and more people are able to publish their own stuff whether written or video and you know therefore have an audience and and then approached the companies and say hey I want to get on your reviewers let's head out how do I do it so here are a few tips like i can i can give you that that you know it's not a one two three connected out to answer about a few tips that i think are valuable and hopefully will help first of all i said this before but I'll say it again you need to just get start you need to just just whatever you are interested in covering if it's reviewing products you need to find a way to start to get some products to review them without people giving them to you so you need to buy them or borrow them or you know whatever it is or get into covering stuff that that's sort of like on that on in the ecosystem of what you want to cover so if you want to cover smartphones and you can't find a way to get them start covering apps start covering cases you know that kind of thing and then build up an audience but you have to do it yourself first when i first started when i was at powerbook central i was writing columns and then i started approaching companies about doing reviews and eventually got some stuff headed my way and then eventually a pair review i did on a pair of earphones got picked up by gizmodo and then that really helped and so you just have to kind of keep at it when i was at phoneDog i started out i reviewed my phone and then i borrowed a friend's phone and that i bought a phone and sold it i reviewed that one and then i traded that one on craigslist and a couple times i bought a phone in a carrier reviewed it and then within the 30-day trial period so you have to just figure out ways to do that if you don't have the money or if you're smart and you don't want to spend you know thousands of thousands of dollars just to get going because you might do it for a month or two and decide you don't like it or not build an audience or you know might lead you doing something else so you want to try to not lay out a ton of money you know right off the bat if you don't have to that being said if you're going to buy something to review be strategic about it and spend your money on i would say spend your money on something that you think is going to get a big audience so you know as much as i'm going to open it up for family jokes again there's no doubt that Apple products get a big audience whether you know lover items think they're great think they're not a review of the brand new whatever it is the brand new iphone the brand new ipad you know will get a lot of traffic on YouTube a lot of traffic on the web it's almost guaranteed there are some other products that are like that as well but not that many so that might be a safe bet if you have a limited budget and you're going to spend money on a product now when we're talking about how to get stuff for free again first of all remember we're talking about getting loners I'm not talking about having companies send you stuff for you to keep that does happen once in a while that a company will offer that if we decide to keep something for whatever reason we're bound by our own ethics and also now by the law to disclose that online but the vast majority of the things that you see me reviewing you see now on techna Buffalo etc are loners especially in the cell phone industry again so if you want to get into that a couple of tips one learn how to present yourself professionally and i'm not talking about shaving before you go on camera I'm talking about writing learn how to write a good email introducing yourself get him to the point saying who you are why the people in the other end should care spell check it proofread it if you're not so sure about your writing skills get somebody else to help you out really what you can do is you can write the email your the body of the email once that talks about who you are and who your audience is and then you can just kind of use that and customize it you know who you're sending it to make sure to include traffic stats if you have an audience if you have subscribers if you have a website and you have good traffic if you have a lot of Facebook followers a lot of Twitter followers you know whatever it is if you don't have stats that you think can compete with the larger outlets look at what makes you unique maybe you are the president of you know the AV club at your high school or maybe you are an independent consultant who you know does technical support and advises people on what phones to buy and you have a bunch of clients and so you have influenced that way you know whatever it is find your unique angle and and sell yourself that way so you need to you know write a good email or a couple of them and then go to the websites of the company you're interested in look for the press or media section and find out you know what the address is a lot of times you'll have kind of a generic address you know like press at blah blah blah calm or something like that that's who you send it to be very cordial make sure to include your contact information if you don't hear from them you know in within a week let's say follow up but follow up politely and don't you know you can be persistent but don't don't overdo it don't people get these people get emails you know tons of them a day asking for free stuff so just be you know be persistent be polite let them know you're interested in reviewing but also say you know you'd like to get on their press list you'd like to get you know more information about the products and and start that way and that leads into the next thing which is developing relationships with people is huge so if somebody does send you something make sure to say thank you make sure to be polite I'm shocked in this industry I mean I can be a jerk sometimes believe me I know but I'm shocked at how many stories I hear of people who think that you know they're just they're rude to the PR people or whoever it isn't the other end the media people because they feel entitled you know I've got a blog so you have to give me what I want you know we're people would let you know treat somebody nice and they're more likely to treat treat you nicely in return so you know if somebody does send you something even if it's just a letter saying you know thank you for your interest we can't we've a look at a number of review devices available but will you know we'll keep you in mind for the future right back to that saying thank you you know ask them if if there's anything you could do or if it's okay if you follow up with them in a month or something like that the next thing is if you have the chance go meet these people in person if there's an event in your town if you live near you there's going to be a trade show or you know you're able to get to somebody like CES or ctia or if one of the larger sites is having a reader meetup that kind of thing a lot of the sites you know have these events there's a Gidget event in San Francisco pretty soon you're where I live and a lot of these events I've done some very small events and we have sponsors and so there'll be people from the companies whether their cell phone companies or accessory makers or software companies or whoever it is and you go to these events and you can meet people and those oftentimes are the people who you know or either the media PR people who they work with those people and then all of a sudden you've met somebody and once you meet somebody and you know it's not just an email it looks like everybody are all the other emails that you get every day but you've actually met the person and you can remember something about them that goes a long way so if you have that chance you know get to one of these events again it doesn't have to be one of the huge shows you can look for whatever's going on if there are usergroups related to you know whether it's a if it's directly what you're interested in again if you're interested in like cell phones and tablets if it's directly related that great but maybe its peripheral maybe it's like a flash developers group and then through that maybe you can meet somebody who has an association you know with Adobe because adobe works with a lot of these cell phone makers now to put flash on their phones or you know maybe maybe Google or you know who knows maybe somebody related to Apple whatever it is and then the second thing kind of with that is back to the whole ecosystem thing you know even if you're not necessarily interested in reviewing cell phone cases and you really want to review cell phones cell phone cases not only do the people who make the cell phone cases often work with the cell phone makers themselves because in order for a company like spec to make a phone that's going to fit the new HTC incredible too you know they have to be working with the people at HTC and Verizon to get the dimensions of phone and get it right so not only sometimes might those people know people who eventually you can meet but also it's a lot cheaper and easier for a case maker to give you a twenty-dollar case to review than it is for a wireless carrier to give you you know a phone that retails for six hundred dollars off contract that also has service on it you know like they have to there's a different level of trust going on there and they just have you know fewer those to give out then a company might have cases to give out so you might be able to get your foot in the door doing things like that you know doing coverage on the big devices getting your hands on them when you can reviewing them when you can and then in the meantime doing lots of stuff like cases and apps and accessories and kind of building up an audience that way because once you have an audience then you're able to say to you know the PR manager at you know whoever apple or sprint or whoever it is you're able to say hey look I have this many subscribers I have you know this big of a Facebook following I've been on my local TV news as as the gadget expert you know whatever it is and when you have that kind of following then they're going to say hey you know it actually would be worth one of our 100 devices to send out across the country it'd be worth it to try one of them on this person because you know she's got a following on facebook and there's there's going to be a legitimate return on investment there so I'm so those are kind of my basic tips again you know get started anyway you can first of all ah be willing to get stuff on your own don't wait to start getting free stuff or loaner stuff sent to you find a way to do it on your own try not to spend your own money at the beginning if you have to spend your own money or you want to spend your own money be very strategic about it look for something that's going to get you you know a big high interest item again you know the appellate immersion our are Hugh of huge interest tablets are big right now you know it but when you're watching this video if the year from now it might be different and then definitely the thing i didn't mention but you have to self-promote you know once you get if you get a little bit of a buzz if something you did gets picked up when I had that earphone review picked up by gizmodo years ago you know I jumped on it and that was my chance to start hitting you know sending emails to other companies saying hey I reviewed these earphones and they got a lot of buzz and they got picked up by you know this place in this place I would love to check out your earphones to compare them so you know do things like that and then develop relationships with people whenever you can other bloggers other vloggers PR people you know go out to events introduce yourself in person whenever you can have business cards when you meet people in person write a very professional email follow-up politely be nice you know those are the best steps that can give you and and it's harder honestly than it was a few years ago because there's so many more bloggers and video bloggers out there who are asking for these these review units I get all the time I get phone calls and emails from the PR people i know at these companies saying hey you know Gino uh Jerry Smith because we got an email from Jerry Smith saying that he he worked for you and we couldn't find his name anywhere there's all kinds of scams and stuff going on and so that the people who have the devices to send out or a little more you know they have to be they have to choose more carefully than they used to as well they should so there's more competition but there's also you know more opportunity since blogs have become a main you know a big force in the media today and and believe me the PR people take it seriously they know that you know it it's less is Noah going to give it a good review or not then it's what what's the audience going to say you know the audience on whatever site is those are the ones who they really want to reach they want to reach them you know through me through John through whoever it's you guys and girls so anyway hopefully that's helpful definitely you know hit us up on technobuffalo on the video channel over on social media with more questions and we'll definitely try to answer them and I am getting John John to participate we're going to do like I said we're going to do a video on some production tips and techniques I'm gonna try to get John Q to talk about that because you know he's got a dlsr he shoots on I shoot on a little camcorder so he knows what's up way more than I do anyway till next time I'm Noah thanks for watching and good luck just keep at it if you love what you're doing find a way to make it work see you later