Sponsored Content on a Small Channel

While sponsored content on social media is more regulated than it used to be, it is still very much the “wild west” of advertising compared to the old standbys like television and radio. As such, the responsibility is on the content creators to conduct themselves ethically and transparently, regardless of the size of the channel. As someone who runs a small YouTube channel, I believe in this at my core, and try to conduct my channel and create content under a set of principles.

Especially for a channel of my size (roughly 2,500 subscribers at the time of writing this), there is no benefit to taking on disingenuous sponsored content. Not only are companies not throwing money at a channel of this size, but once you lose the trust of an audience, getting it back and continuing to attempt to grow the channel becomes impossible. The occasional free $20 - $100 item that you would not go out and buy for yourself is not worth the damage it can do to you reputation within the community.

So, what should someone do in the current landscape when facing an almost daily email from different overseas drop-shipping companies that want to send you flashlights or electronic cat feeders? Easy — say no. The long term growth of a community surrounding your channel/brand is far more important.

That does not mean you will not see sponsored content on my channel. Quite the contrary, I hope to continue to grow with brands and products in which I actually believe. After all, one of the main points of a guitar/gear channel is to demo and introduce fun stuff that you like to your audience. If you have not noticed, I do not tend to teach guitar lessons — I think there are far more qualified individuals out there to teach you awesome guitar licks.

Instead, I try to focus my content in two main areas: (1) how to be a professional guitarist/musician through interviews and informative content, and (2) fun and interesting guitar playing and gear content. If I feel that a company’s product faithfully fits into one of those two categories and the product is something I believe in and use, then I am happy to feature it in a video. The point of sponsored content should not be solely to earn money for the content creator, but instead (and most importantly) to help grow the community in a positive way by sharing products that can further the goals of the community.