How Much Do We Trust YouTube Stars?

S

Setec Astronomy

Well-known member
We have a history on this forum of sniffing out hackers, shills, undeclared beta testers, etc.; who in the past have attempted to shape the opinions of forum members without fully revealing their incentives, monetary or otherwise, for providing "reviews" or opinions of products. I don`t want to go into everything, but this ranged from people who were purposefully trying to deceive us, to others who simply didn`t see their relationship as a beta tester as possibly biasing their views, or at least calling into question their impartiality.

From the beginning of the YouTube era, I have cautioned people about swallowing whole the reviews/opinions from there. It takes a long time, and equipment and software, to make a decent video, and while I`m sure for some people it`s an enjoyable hobby and they have no secondary or ulterior motives, reasonable people have to sometimes ask "what`s in it for them to do this?". In the past, when I have suggested that people make money from YouTube when they reach a critical mass of subscribers/views, I`ve been rebuffed and told that these people`s income from YouTube is so small as to in no way bias their opinions.

In conjunction with my Idrosave thread ( https://www.autopia.org/forums/car-detailing-product-discussion/193389-idrosave.html#post2195719 ), I noticed that two prominent YouTubers (not that I really spend much time watching detailing videos, so I may be wrong that they are "prominent"), in their Idrosave reviews, offered discount codes specific to them. To me this says they are getting some sort of kickback from Labocosmetica, whether that is an actual monetary kickback in the form of free product or discounts on product, or if it`s simply a reputational kickback that they get to beta test or get product to test prior to it becoming available to the public, which likely translates into a monetary kickback if that increases viewership of their YouTube channel.

If Labocosmetica was simply using a discount to promote a new product, why wouldn`t it be in their email that some members got, or on their website? Why would each of these YouTubers have their own discount code corresponding to the initials of their channel? Obviously Labo wants to know who is doing a better job selling their products, or they both would be using the same discount code.

So what is everyone`s opinion on how much marketing we are ingesting by watching ostensibly "self-help" videos?
 
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve watched detailing videos. I think I’m going to keep it that way because of it.
 
Since my retiring 15 years ago, receive "offers" to promote products in return for money. Often am requested to take part in YouTube videos. Not going to happen, as a few know I was elected to the IDA Hall of Fame. If you have read my award, it`s not for products, it is for my sharing and teaching skills.
 
The schilling was bad here before, probably just as bad as YouTubers.

Most of the videos are as worthless as some of the product posts were here. Unless someone is comparing two products with some objective testing, it’s really just a commercial.
 
PoisonTheWell said:
Forensic Detailing is usually one of my favorites when he does comparisons.
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He does paid videos as well. I do still like his content.

Eddie Colon is new and low amount of views. To little to be paid and would kill his channel this early to start schilling.

That being said…. We’ll see soon.


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Setec Astronomy said:
If Labocosmetica was simply using a discount to promote a new product, why wouldn`t it be in their email that some members got, or on their website? Why would each of these YouTubers have their own discount code corresponding to the initials of their channel? Obviously Labo wants to know who is doing a better job selling their products, or they both would be using the same discount code.
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I think you answered your own question. Companies will issue individual own discount codes (or a unique landing page on a website) in order to build metrics on which outlets and relationships generate the most sales or views of their products. A friend from college now has two successful automotive YouTube channels and podcast with his business partner. For a while they had a TV show on Motor Trend`s TV channel. They openly spoke a couple times about how the sponsor discount codes were used judge the value of the business relationship between their media outlet and the sponsor. They also admitted to not getting sponsorship from businesses they wouldn`t use themselves, already used, or would be comfortable recommending to family.

I am naturally cynical and distrust most content providers regardless of platform. Probably not fair of me, but I do. I appreciate and prefer when people are honest about being given products to review or some other form of sponsorship. At least I know where they stand without guessing. I`ll admit, to not paying much attention to reviewers on other social media platform, but when I do I`ll watch a large number of them and compare techniques, results, etc and look for trends. I won`t go with any one source, no matter how much I may/may not like them.
 
This is EXACTLY why I prefer to get my detailing product information from this forum and its members.
Not that EVERYTHING is legit or above the table, but if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is not.
I do like threads about detailing products members bought because they heard they were good, only to be greatly disappointed with the end results.
Maybe I am facetious and cheap, but I would rather learn from someone else`s bad experience than doing it on my own. Just sayin`..!!
 
Labocosmetica is just as good as carpro IME. I`m sure its a very nice product.

If you want to try a new rinseless go for it...and i enjoy watching detailing videos in my spare time. Eddie seems alright - really funny at times - and he certainty has a lot of big giveaways that i have never seen before.

He`s after giving away a free mirka ffs - sponsored i believe by Armour detail supply(not sure)...but anyhow that`s besides the point. I think he`s giving away the new rupes polisher soon, it might of already happened..

Youtube is one of the only platforms that i can find that people are talking about detailing anymore. Facebook too. Never looked into reddit, i always found it a rather stranger site personally - but i did get a lot of very good information on reddit over the years. Not detailing related.

Side note: i seen a few posts by budgetplan on reddit about 4 or 5 years ago now i guess - time flies.
 
noorth said:
Side note: i seen a few posts by budgetplan on reddit about 4 or 5 years ago now i guess - time flies.
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I found reddit 4 or so years ago, had no idea what it was but saw a few people link into my blog from there so checked it out. Actually supported the r/AutoDetailing group w occasional donations ‘cuz I liked their monthly reviews.

Like many ‘word focused’ places it seems to have waned as far as non-elementary discussions are concerned as time wore on; kinda mundane these days. r/Detailing is another I still follow but to be honest, not much in either of those groups that is newsworthy lately.

I do find non-detailing groups there interesting…still check in daily. Our 60” plasma TV popped last weekend and the r/4kTV group was informative on picking a replacement. For some reason the groups that deal w airlines are fun for behind-the-scenes anecdotes from employees

Saw some metrics recently for effective Instagram promotion…apparently keeping things at around 15 seconds results in the most engagement…guess it’s the age of Short Attention Span Theatre.

Nothing can compare to the (for me) heyday of Autopia around 2018-2019…good, solid content from trustworthy, experienced folks w no egos & well-developed senses of humor. Learned a TON and had fun doing it!

I enjoy reading extensively about things I’m interested in but those avenues seem to be getting few and far between as time marches on.

Edit: Detailing World seems to be one that still has good engagement & traffic so props to them!


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So I guess the answer for me today is...not so much. I think Idrosave was over-hyped. Maybe the YouTubers just got caught up in new product fever...or maybe they just don`t want to cross their "sponsors". It just reminds me, as I noted in the first post, about the Zaino beta testers who used to post here, and they would staunchly advocate for Zaino, I guess because of their fear that if they said anything critical in public, Sal would drop them as beta testers, which had personal and professional importance to them. When DMS did his video on Saturday, and the dirt wouldn`t release from his MF towel, he went on and on how it was tar and soot and ash and no rinseless would release that from the towel. (if you go to the Idrosave thread linked in the first post you`ll see the first two "reviewers" both had dirt-release problems).
 
Maybe it’s experience or maturity but new product hype is a huge turnoff for me. Especially when the product is functionally the same as a product I already have. The real game changers come maybe once a decade. Take a look at your process, what’s changed in the last 20 years? Coatings, maybe clay mitts/sponges.

Everything else has been around with incremental changes. The hype around polishers has been unreal, you’d think before last year you couldn’t polish paint. And everyone seems to ignore the fact that paint is crazy thin now.

If you are a pro, it absolutely makes sense to try new things as you run out of your favorites. But for the hobby detainers it’s a cycle of hope and regret in an attempt to fill some void. People spend all the time on the product search instead of enjoying the actual art of detailing. Sorry for the philosophical rant but it’s just a look back at all the time and money I’ve personally wasted on hype.
 
Dan said:
Maybe it’s experience or maturity but new product hype is a huge turnoff for me. Especially when the product is functionally the same as a product I already have. The real game changers come maybe once a decade. Take a look at your process, what’s changed in the last 20 years? Coatings, maybe clay mitts/sponges.

Everything else has been around with incremental changes. The hype around polishers has been unreal, you’d think before last year you couldn’t polish paint. And everyone seems to ignore the fact that paint is crazy thin now.

If you are a pro, it absolutely makes sense to try new things as you run out of your favorites. But for the hobby detainers it’s a cycle of hope and regret in an attempt to fill some void. People spend all the time on the product search instead of enjoying the actual art of detailing. Sorry for the philosophical rant but it’s just a look back at all the time and money I’ve personally wasted on hype.
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Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. lol

I really pulled in my spending the last few years personally. Coatings for me are dead, which are very expensive for instance and you don`t need 10 different towels. TRC 365 is one of my favorites and a good drying towel. 365 can do nearly everything besides drying. They are similar to carpro`s 2 face towel IMO which are very expensive. They are better quality however, They hold up longer.

Good point on thin clear coat. For new cars you probably shouldn`t be fooling around with aggressive wool/microfiber pads with heavy compounds anymore, not driveway detailers anyhow like myself.
 
I had a lot of thoughts about what Dan said, and maybe I will express them, but getting back on topic there was a lot of hype around the Stoner odorless iron remover, that got shot down pretty quickly in YouTube land (as far as it not working as well as the smelly iron removers and staining concrete), so it still may be that "the community" sets the record straight on Idrosave, if it winds up being more hype than substance.
 
The Junkman 2000 circa 2012 videos is what got me into polishing. His older videos I find to be educational and entertaining at the same time and bring me back to the basics. I find that I do search out others but it is mostly for "How to " type of things when I don`t know how to do something,,,,which is often. I am cautious when it comes to them recommending product brands.
 
You guys have to explain something to me. I don`t watch a lot of YouTube videos, in general. I find a lot of people simply don`t know what they are talking about. Just for a trip down memory lane, remember back when there was no YouTube? I remember when Mike Phillips (back in the Meguiar`s days) first teamed up with Richard Lin, whose day job was videographer, to make the first detailing videos. That was a combination of a high-level corporate detailing product trainer, who teamed with someone with the right equipment and expertise to shoot and edit video.

At the beginning of YouTube, there was a time limit, IIRC it was 7 minutes, so posters had to be succinct, and they had to be able to edit their videos. Today, any yo-yo with a cell phone can put a video on YouTube, and why should he bother to edit it, if you have to watch stuff that should have been edited out, his statistics and income are better.

But here`s the point I`ve been trying to get to--for whatever reason I have been watching a lot more detailing videos in the past couple of weeks, and I have seen more detailers with discount codes (last night I watched a minute of a demo of the new Meg`s ceramic AIO, and this gentleman had 9 different discount codes posted below, some for detailing products, some for energy drinks, and some for...other stuff?). This gentleman, like some others, did not seem shy in saying the quiet part out loud that he made money from you watching his video and also using his discount codes.

Also, everyone seems to have a podcast, and during the podcast, people are GIVING THEM MONEY. This is the world upside down to me, some of you don`t remember a world before cable TV, but back in the "antenna" days, we used to get TV for free. The tradeoff was, we had to watch commercials, because that advertising revenue was how the station paid for the programming. Then came cable, that we had to pay for, and...well, we still had to watch commercials, but that seemed like a fair trade for the better reception from cable. Then came paid cable channels, and for darn sure we weren`t going to pay for commercials on that!

So explain to me the concept of a YouTube detailer with a podcast, that I`m watching interspersed with commercials that I have to click out of, I`m bombarded by sidebar advertising and suggestions, I`m bombarded when I go to my free email by ads related to what I was watching on YouTube, the podcaster is getting paid by YouTube for me being willing to be bombarded by those ads in order to watch his podcast, and on top of all that, PEOPLE ARE GIVING THEM MONEY??? In some cases $20??

I don`t get it; PT Barnum comes to mind. I still have more thoughts on the intersection of social media and forums, and what that means for the future of this site, maybe a separate thread. I`ll note that I have not seen any of these detailers with a discount code for Autopia Car Care or Autogeek.

Ok, I can`t hold it in--this is the same question that was asked years ago about Facebook, when people started to ask "how does Facebook make so much money when it`s a free service??" and the answer became clear that Facebook was able to provide highly effective microtargeting information that advertisers were willing to pay a lot of money for. Kind of like in the old days when companies like Griot`s would buy mailing lists from car magazines to send catalogs for detailing supplies to car magazine subscribers, which was a lot more cost-effective than just sending catalogs out to everyone. Anyway, the question was--would you pay for Facebook in order to use it without ads? The answer was of course, no.

I think this has come up with detailing forums--would you pay to participate in a forum that was not beholden to sponsors, that would allow you to talk about any product, if this forum went away? Would the 3 of you who held up your hands be able to pay enough to do it? Not holding my breath. Maybe my next column (ha ha) will be about the democratization of information that was the promise of the internet, that flopped. I`d say we are more manipulated by advertising and advertisers, and people with lots of money who want to manipulate us, then we have ever been.

If you liked this post please send money to setecastronomy @ areyoufreakingkiddingme .com
 
Setec Astronomy said:
So explain to me the concept of a YouTube detailer with a podcast, that I`m watching interspersed with commercials that I have to click out of, I`m bombarded by sidebar advertising and suggestions, I`m bombarded when I go to my free email by ads related to what I was watching on YouTube, the podcaster is getting paid by YouTube for me being willing to be bombarded by those ads in order to watch his podcast, and on top of all that, PEOPLE ARE GIVING THEM MONEY??? In some cases $20??
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From what I understand the economics of podcasts and Youtube video`s are terrible until you get a massive following.

Very often on the podcasts, unless the podcaster is reading their own content, the adds you`re hearing are inserted by the podcast platform hosting environment and/or production company and none of that revenue goes to the actual person doing the pod cast. The add copy they read themselves is usually for sponsors who pay the person doing the podcast.

Youtube isn`t much different. Under a certain subscription level, Youtube won`t even put adds in the video, so the only way to generate revenue is from sponsorship via discount codes or embedded adds. Once you cross over a threshold high enough to have YouTube insert adds into your videos, the owners of the contents get fractions of pennies for each time their video is played. If the video creator wants to generate any revenue at all, the only way to make it viable to even cover production costs most of the time is via discount codes tied to corporate sponsorship and/or individual sponsorship from viewers/fans via platforms like Patreon.

For people who want to make videos and podcasts their full time income it takes huge amounts of add revenue and sponsorship to make it happen. Even those who have other income, but want to simply cover material/production costs need something on the side because the platform hosts likely going to pay very little, unless your massively popular.

All that to say some people value the content someone is making and are willing to contribute to keep more coming.
 
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