WEBVTT

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welcome to a new segment that i'm calling honest answers where i take

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questions that you guys ask me and answer them honestly today's question

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one that i've received many times is how do you guys get companies to send

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you the samples of computer hardware that you're always showing off

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well let's get started

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the master case 5 by cooler master gives you the freedom to truly make your

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mid-tower pc case your own with a variety of modular parts and accessories

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check out the link in the video description to learn more so there are

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two underlying meanings to this question whenever people ask me some of them want

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to become product reviewers or vloggers or they just want a sponsor to you know

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throw them a free video card or SSD for their new rig while others are just idly

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curious about how it is that we get all these cool products to review or show

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off since most people are astute enough to figure out that no one is crazy or

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wealthy enough to buy all of the stuff that they need to run a tech review

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channel our size let's start with the folks who want to

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know how to get review products for themselves since that's a simpler answer

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and here it is sorry but basically you

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can't if life worked that way that would be super cool but it doesn't

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unfortunately and the odds of a pr or media relations contact even replying to

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you unless you're affiliated with a significant publication is very very low

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software sometimes works on a different set of rules since there's no actual

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bill of materials for emailing someone a license key but physical items that have

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a real cost like money that had to be paid to a

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supplier or a factory associated with them are not handed out without some

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kind of benefit in return this is known as roi or return on investment now there

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are exceptions i actually had a viewer contact me once asking for advice on how

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to review some ssds that he had managed to finagle out of crucial and Intel of

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all people i mean minus tech tips has never gotten an SSD sample from crucial

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to which i replied well dude you really should have thought

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of that before you requested review samples ssds are among the most

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complicated devices to properly review then i gave them some homework that

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involved reading every SSD article ever published on a non-tech starting with

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the x25m review which he either didn't do or didn't understand based on the

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finished video and that is exactly why most people

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never will and probably never should get a review sample if a pr agent cares

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about his or her job because they've generally given little to no thought to

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the roi i used to handle sample requests at ncix by the way don't bother

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contacting retailers why would they have samples

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and i'd get presentations that are like hey if you guys give us eight 24 port

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network switches we can have a 200 person lan party and i'd be like

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good for you delete instead of asking what a hardware

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manufacturer can do for you instead of sending a presentation that outlines the

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cool games you plan to play on your free graphics card figure out what unique and

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compelling value that you will provide in return which doesn't mean that i'm

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saying that you should be some kind of a cheap horror ripple shill that was close posting

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misleading positive reviews in exchange for a product most brands by the way

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will not even be willing to engage in that kind of marketing because a it's

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deceptive to the real customers and b in america anyway it is outright illegal so

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find another way to justify it i mean maybe a really cool guide centered

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around that product or prominent positioning in a build log with many

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posts in the threads across a bunch of forums online which i guess leads us

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pretty well into how we handle things part two of this how does Linus tech

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tips get access to review samples well

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it's pretty straightforward the company thinks that their product is awesome so

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they send a unit to us and hope that we will agree with them and post a

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favorable review pr really doesn't get any cheaper or more

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effective than that since sending out a loaner unit is just the price of a

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return label and even a keeper unit is only the cost of the product itself

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which is nothing compared to a decent sized ad campaign on facebook or a tv

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commercial or whatever they are taking a risk that the findings

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we present won't be positive but with some exceptions astro never replied to

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me again after i posted a negative review of their a50 wireless headset

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most of the brands that we've ever worked with value our honest feedback

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even if they didn't get the result they wanted and will work with their product

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development team to make it better the next time around

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though with that said we've gotten to the point where sending us something

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isn't that risky since a negative review seems to generate a bump in the sales of

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a given product for some reason anyhow so it's gotten pretty easy for us

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to request whatever it is that we need which leads us back to the first answer

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again before wrapping this up why is it easy for you Linus but not for

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me the viewer brands love

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influencers and they come in many forms influencers who are really good at

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something directly related to the product so like esports players gaming

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and preferably winning with logitech or razer mice would be a perfect example of

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this influencers that are good at something only sort of related to the product or

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service being offered so this is where the good old picture of the athlete on

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the box of wheaties comes in or influencers

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that are just cool so cool that brands want their products

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nearby however untalented the individuals may be

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wherever consumers are directing their eyeballs that is where brands want to

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put their products which is how content like sevengamers1 CPU came to be

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so that my friends is what you will need if you want anyone to reply to your

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emails influence or eyeballs which means that

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if your plan is to be a phone reviewer or something and you don't see a way out

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of this chicken and egg box where you can't get any phones until you're an

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established phone reviewer and you can't be your phone reviewer until you get phones then frankly you need to get more

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creative i mean i worked at a computer retailer which is how i got access to

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computer hardware and lots of guys start out making simple guides that are

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applicable to any device to establish themselves before they get into the more

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high-end stuff that is either expensive or you need a media contact for you'll

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need to think outside the box because i can guarantee that your path to success

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will be different from mine or anyone else's i hope this video clears it up

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and on that subject tunnelbear tunnelbear is the easy to use vpn app

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for mobile and desktop it lets you

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tunnel to 20 different countries allowing you to browse the internet and

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use online services as though you are in a different country so whether it's

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something as mundane as you know oh hey i want to watch that online video but

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it's region locked or something as

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obscure as like that time that i wanted to buy a google glass

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and they wouldn't even allow people outside of the us to access the website

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let alone enter payment information and buy the bloody thing tunnelbear has got

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you covered they've got apps for iOS Android pc and mac they also have a

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chrome extension and it's super easy to use like seriously they actually made it

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like so easy a toddler could do it the application just pops out of the system

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tray and there's like a little switch and you just click on the switch and it

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goes i'm off click i am on and when it's

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turned on your connection gets encrypted with aes 256-bit encryption and your

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public ip gets switched so that whatever websites and services you're accessing

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look at you and think oh gee this guy is coming from orgale is coming from this

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other place but actually you're from a completely different place

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and they keep it simple there's no pork configuration dns or any other nonsense

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tunnelbear handles that in the background or the underground as it were

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they do have tunnels these bears the best part of tunnelbear is that you can

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actually try it for nothing they will give you 500 megs of data for free so

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you can figure out if tunnelbear is right for you before you go to plunk

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down a few bucks a month for an unlimited plan and oh by the way you can

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save 10 on that by going to tunnelbear.com LTT which is linked in the video

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description all right so thanks for watching guys if

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this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit

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that like button or even consider supporting us directly by using our

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affiliate code to shop at amazon instructions up there by buying a cool

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shirt like this one or with a direct monthly contribution through our

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community forum now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click

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that little button in the top right corner to check out the video where i open up

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holy a system that can accept eight graphics

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cards all at once

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which by the way was a review sample oh yeah leave a comment if you have

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suggestions for future questions answered whatever i call this segment