Hi everyone and welcome to this week's
Subscriber Sunday. Now first of all an apology - I'm looking rather scruffy,
unfortunately I have injured my hand and I can only get my left hand
this close to my face which is making it very difficult to shave and
the like. Hence no video yesterday either. I literally couldn't sit in front of the computer
typing away on a keyboard without a huge amount of pain but I'm on the mend, it's
getting better
and I should be back to fine fettle in just a few days. Now
in last week's Subscriber Sunday video we discussed a few different options for
where we could take the channel
and some of the things I'm looking to kind of do. Now,
the feedback you guys gave me was fantastic and so I've been having a bit more of
a think about how to kind of go about some of these things.
Now you might have heard over the last couple of days that a
fairly prominent blogger within the gaming community
has kicked off a patreon funding campaign.
Now this was a site I looked at, probably about six months ago
and I gave a lot of thought to whether we should go ahead and do something like that.
But we had a discussion internally and it was felt it might devalue what we're trying to
actually do here
but actually I think in hindsight that was the wrong call. In actual fact
I think sites like patreon have the ability to elevate what we're trying to do
by bringing you guys closer to well us and
obviously the things we're going to be reviewing here, the subjects we're going to be
talking about and
so on. But crucially what sites like patreon allow
you to do and to help us is to keep us independent.
To make sure that we never have to sign a dodgy contract from a PR marketing company
in order to get access to the stuff you guys want us to talk
about. But also so that we can always live up to that "an
Honest Opinion Direct from the UK" tag line that we're really proud of here.
We've never sold out yet in two and a half years and I don't ever intend that we will
but there are always pressures on channels like ours. You're always being offered
really good-looking deals if you're willing to sign that little contract, the NDA
that limits what you can say and when you can say it. I never want us to be
in that situation for the simple reason it compromises our integrity.
If you look at Metacritic you can pretty much guarantee that the first five reviews you ever
on Metacritic for any game are
coming from heavily influenced sites. In other words being influenced by
companies they're writing about. That's unacceptable. You can't trust that.
So I want your feedback about patreon.
Should we do something similar? Should we give you
an opportunity to support our work and in doing so
have a say in how we grow from here? But also
we can then reward you guys as well for your help. So for instance
here's what I'm kind of thinking at the moment. A very simple and straightforward patreon
support
for one dollar. One dollar per month, that's what you would pledge.
That one dollar per month would give you
access to us a little bit more
easily I suppose. Through polls and feedback
you'd be able to tell us the kind of content you want us to be talking about.
If there are hot news topics you think we should be taking an interest in
uncovering the truth of, then you could let us know a bit more easily.
But also, that prize pool I talked about last week,
I've got a slightly different way of doing it. A number of you gave me feedback that the
primary issue as it were with competitions on YouTube for
subscribers as it were, is a lot of people will subscribe but then never look at the content
and I absolutely agree with that. It's something I've done myself. I think we all
probably have. So how about this
for something slightly different? We would run a prize pool
but only for patrons - those people supporting us with a
dollar-a-month to help keep us independent. The prize pool would be made up of
all of the items that we've bought and reviewed. Simple as that.
So what would you get for your one- dollar-a-month in the prize pool? Well,
the simple idea is this. There would be a pool
of stuff. Ow! Ow!
There would be a pool of stuff. Now that could be anything from
games to hardware, keyboards, smartphones,
anything we've bought and reviewed but is no longer needed as such as part
of ongoing review works. So for instance we might want to keep hold of smartphones
for three months or so before we make it available in the prize pool
simple reason for that is for comparison work and so on. We can't do a comparison if we've already
given it
away to you guys.
So the prize pool would be quite simple. It wouldn't be a case of right
this week you can win a smartphone, this is the smartphone you can win,
it would be a case of well, here is the prize pool, you're a winner, what
item would you like? If you'd like a game or a smartphone
or keyboard, wherever would be useful to you from the prize pool. You would pick
we remove it from the list, it's as simple as that. By doing this
your odds of winning are much better because only patrons will be able to win
from the prize pool but you can reward us by helping us
to purchase the items that we'll review on the channel, keeping us independent
and here's the kicker... the more great content
we can produce, the more subscribers we will get
the more patrons we will have, the bigger the pool
of prizes that can be won and the more content we've got to review.
It becomes a self-fulfilling circle. In doing this
you help us grow, we can become more and more
independently-minded in the way we go about all of these product reviews
and so on. It's a win-win for everybody but obviously it
requires your support, your help. To give you an idea
over the last two years I've channelled every single penny we've made from
advertising back into the channel.
Everything you see is a result of the money we can get from
advertising to then purchase more stuff to review. Very rarely
we do get sent items by companies who like us to take a look and give an
honest opinion
but we never signed contracts and NDA's
in order to get hold of these pieces of equipment but at the same time there is still the
pressure to
well if you want to work with a company again, you probably shouldn't slag their product off.
That means a certain amount of balance in what I say, when I say it.
Now, you know, it's a fine line and it's a difficult balancing act and
it's something I'd rather not have to do frankly. I'd rather
we were able to purchase every single item that we review on this channel
so there is never a question of any undue influence or even
future influence because I'm thinking to myself, probably shouldn't rip this one
a new
one. So let me know in the
comments what you think. Our patreon.com page is up now. It's a little bit loose, I probably need to
go back and re-edit some of the
copy. I did it several months ago as I said. But let me know in the comments what you
think.
Is this something you would want to do? Would you like to support us in this way?
One dollar a month and that would give you access to not only a closer conversation with
us about
the items that we should be reviewing and the things we should be talking about
but also a prize pool that would allow you to win
the items that we have here. But exclusively for patrons only.
A reward for you guys for rewarding us I suppose you could say.
Thanks for watching. Do please subscribe to us on YouTube and Twitch
and please like and comment on these videos as well. We love to chat.