# Sponsorship?



## Deleted member 15262 (Apr 22, 2017)

Hey ya'll, I'm curious if any of you have been sponsored before, or if you've been interviewed for a magazine or blog, and what your experience with that was like (or if you have published content of your own). I have a travel video that I'm looking to professionally publish, so any personal advice would be of great help. 

Also, if you were offered, would you care to be interviewed by a blog/magazine (or me if we meet), about your travels?

If you are a blogger/editor yourself I would love to connect with you and share ideas or help promote each others content. 
I've already made a post with my video but will re-post....


https://squattheplanet.com/threads/i-travel-to-inspire.30958/#post-227545


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## Carlvanguyrios (Apr 22, 2017)

"You will never have the opportunity unless you make it, yourself." Love it. Awesome.


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## sd40chef (Apr 22, 2017)

Nice video. Awesome clips and direct positive advice. Definitely has the potential to inspire many people.
As for the interview part of your post, for me, it would depend on who is conducting the interview, the reason of the interview, and if my beliefs are aligned with theirs to a certain extent.


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## Matt Derrick (Apr 22, 2017)

i've been interviewed by dozens of people from tv shows to youtube channels to magazines. i've even had reality tv show offers, but i either didn't like them or the tv channel wasn't interested in my ugly mug 

so yeah, im down for most interviews, since i try pretty hard to put a good face on the travel culture while also giving it as it is. i've also worked with many travel bloggers and continue to work with travel bloggers, youtubers and others in the digital nomad scene. so if you need any help or advice on the blogging thing or advice on anything else, just let me know.

are you trying to start a travel blog, youtube or both? i'm a little unclear of what your exact goal is. if you're going for the youtube thing, the best thing you can do is simply release videos consistently, about once a week is ideal.


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## OutsideYourWorld (Apr 23, 2017)

Cool video! I can't help you, but i'd like to get more into publishing videos and get more into the whole blogging thing. I've been interviewed on a couple local radios in places I travel through, and had one or two posts published on other peoples' blogs.... But that's about it. I also did a few youtube videos a few years ago but never got into releasing one every week or something, and didn't edit anything 

For my next trip i'd like to do something more. Considering trying out raising money for a charity for animals as I go, and seeing if I can do much with that. Do more videos and actually editing that stuff so it isn't just an amateur mess like i've done so far  

Keep us up to date with your progress in such things, though. I think there's at least a few of us who would find such information useful. Be our guinea pig!


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## sd40chef (Apr 23, 2017)

Matt Derrick said:


> if you're going for the youtube thing, the best thing you can do is simply release videos consistently, about once a week is ideal.


Why is the best thing you can do release videos once a week consistently?
@HippieGangster , I am confused about intent. Is the intent here solely to share what you've learned thru travels to inspire/educate etc., or is it the latter with the goal to make an income from it? the overall intent leaves me confused.


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## OutsideYourWorld (Apr 23, 2017)

To keep a consistent viewer base I imagine. People will get used to you, know your habits, personality, and it'll be like a story unfolding for them. Well, it WILL be a story ;D At least that's how I see it. Imagine if you were reading a book that was released but not yet finished, and the author released chapters every now and then. A week between chapters here, a month there... etc. 

Maybe there's other reasons as well?


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## Beegod Santana (Apr 23, 2017)

No sponsorship but the union health plan has been working out pretty well...


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## Deleted member 15262 (Apr 23, 2017)

Apologies for it sounding confusing....my main intent is yes to share and hopefully inspire through my videos/photography in the long run, and maybe make a bit of income. However I'm mainly looking for sponsorship such as working together with a brand that will be advertised through my work (North Face for example) and get free gear, while publicizing my travels through their sponsorship. 

My initial question was whether anyone had experience with this


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## sd40chef (Apr 24, 2017)

HippieGangster said:


> Apologies for it sounding confusing....my main intent is yes to share and hopefully inspire through my videos/photography in the long run, and maybe make a bit of income. However I'm mainly looking for sponsorship such as working together with a brand that will be advertised through my work (North Face for example) and get free gear, while publicizing my travels through their sponsorship.
> 
> My initial question was whether anyone had experience with this


I see. Your main intent is to share your videos/photos to inspire, yet your mainly looking for sponsorship. Hmm. To me, seems like this has either an amazing potential or conflicting intent. I personally don't have experience with this, nor can I see this site being the most supportive community for this kind of aspiration, to be honest. Might be to your advantange to look elsewhere for this kind of support, though I could be wrong. I wish you all the best with your projects and travels that lie ahead.


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## Matt Derrick (Apr 24, 2017)

HippieGangster said:


> Apologies for it sounding confusing....my main intent is yes to share and hopefully inspire through my videos/photography in the long run, and maybe make a bit of income. However I'm mainly looking for sponsorship such as working together with a brand that will be advertised through my work (North Face for example) and get free gear, while publicizing my travels through their sponsorship.
> 
> My initial question was whether anyone had experience with this



well, here's the deal. everyone (and i mean _everyone_, myself included) likes to get all excited about sponsorships and advertising, and youtube money, and all that crap, but you're all putting the cart before the horse as the saying goes.

it used to be that people asked these questions about travel blogging, but that market is stupid saturated right now, so now everyone's asking the same questions about being a youtuber, but it's literally all the same shit.

first off, you need to throw all those ideas in the fucking trash can right now. if you prioritize sponsorships and advertisers over content, you're doomed from the start. the only path to success in the youtube (and travel blogging) market is content, and LOTS of it. no one is going to give you a sponsorship until you've hit a certain level of popularity on youtube, probably at least 10,000 subscribers.

remember, sponsorships aren't you getting free shit for no reason. it's a type of advertising, and if no one is watching your videos (or you don't have very many up yet) there's no reason for a sponsor to give you _anything_, since they won't get jack out of it (i.e. no word of mouth advertising).

so... what to do? well, like i was saying, you have to have _content _and tons of it before you can even _consider _getting any kind of sponsorship. once you start putting out videos once a week (more on that in a minute) you can count on it starting to pay for itself in _maybe a year at the soonest_. that's a year of making interesting content that people want to watch.

second, you have to have a niche. the most obvious example here is that StP is the only website for 'punk' travelers, meaning people that generally hitchhike, train hop, and get around with extreme budget travel methods. if you can find a niche for your channel and an audience interested in that niche, and you produce quality content for a long enough period of time that you start to build an audience, THEN you will start to see returns (whatever form those returns might be, advertising, sponsorships, etc).

travel blogging works _exactly _the same way and every travel blogger and youtuber will tell you that what i say is true. this has come from 10+ years of studying and watching travel bloggers, and the people that are experts in this area i either know personally or have bought/read their books. i also did the website design for locationindie.com which basically specializes in training folks in all kinds of ways to make money while traveling. lastly, i have personally made a decent amount of money off of one video i made that went viral, so i have a pretty good idea of how that works, and i've been studying youtube in anticipation of making high-quality videos for StP's youtube channel.

so. all that said, you need to make sure you're passionate about making videos, and basically forget any ideas about seeing any returns on it. if you can picture not having any sponsorships or advertisers still after one year of doing it strong and consistently and that doesn't make you want to quit, then you're off to the right start. passion first, build your community/audience next, and then you (might) be able to cash in.

the key is that you need to release videos consistently. this can be any schedule you like, whether it's once a week every tuesday or every two weeks, etc. but releasing regular videos on a schedule will keep the audience interested in watching, even looking forward to it each week, and sharing those videos with others, which is the key to youtube success. if you start slipping and only releasing videos once a month, or just whenever, no one is really going to pay attention and you're viewership will die off.

anyways, all this stuff is actually covered quite extensively in the youtube creator academy. believe it or not, youtube really wants people to be as successful as possble, because that's how they make their money. if your show is good, more people will watch, which means they can serve more advertisements on those videos (which they then split with you once you have monetization set up) and usually, everyone wins. that's the idea anyways.

check out the creator academy, there is literally dozens of hours of material on how to make your videos better, retain viewers for longer periods of time, and use all the tools youtube has available for making your channel a success. everything i've talked about or hinted at is pretty much covered there.

sorry for such a long post, but i hope this helps you make some sweet videos, i really think you have the talent for it.


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## Deleted member 15262 (Apr 24, 2017)

Thank you Matt Derrick for a very honest and in depth answer, you're definitely right about that


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