Ethics Statement for WunderTech
Whether you’re a brand, reseller, viewer, or casual visitor, it’s important to ensure that we’re all on the same page when it comes to sponsored content. Navigating the world of YouTube and blogging is something that gets messier as you grow. The “larger” you are viewed by brands, the more complicated it gets…especially because you start getting a lot more requests.
While I don’t view WunderTech as anything other than a small passion project, brands have started reaching out to me more often and I need to be transparent about everything to maintain my integrity as a creator and trusted resource.
I view sponsored opportunities as the ability to share a new (or existing) product or service with my audience if I truly believe that I can provide value on the topic. Since WunderTech is generally focused on tutorials, I also view it as an opportunity to create a long-term relationship with a brand to help its customers learn more about the product or service through future tutorials or comparisons.
If you’re a brand and you have a great product or service, this will happen naturally. If you don’t and you’re trying to influence me (WunderTech) to create positive content solely for the benefit of the brand in terms of sales or exposure, please find someone else to work with. I will not sacrifice the integrity of WunderTech for your brand.
The guidelines below will be followed for all sponsored content or product reviews:
- If content (a YouTube video or a website article) is sponsored, meaning that an entity is compensating me financially for the creation of the content or hardware has been sent to me (for free), it will be made abundantly clear in the intro of the video or at the top of the website article. For YouTube videos, the “sponsored content” banner will appear at the top of the video.
- Sponsoring content does not guarantee a favorable review and my honest thoughts will be shared about the product(s) or service(s) and my experience with them. All thoughts are my own and will not be influenced. An objective point of view will be provided to the viewer(s) and this is not up for discussion.
- I work extremely hard on the videos and articles that I produce and previews of the video/article will only be provided for review before publishing for factual-based accuracy. If I say, or write anything incorrect, it should be fixed before being published to avoid spreading misinformation, but my opinions, thoughts, or feelings on a product or service will not be changed.
- If a brand chooses to send me a free product for review, testing, or anything related, it does not guarantee that a video or article will be created on it. I do not and will not create videos or articles in exchange for free products or services. Videos and articles created are for the sole purpose of providing content that I personally believe is a good fit for the audience.
- There are times when I will reach out to brands asking if they’d like to send me a product or provide a service so that I can create a tutorial, comparison, or product review. Generally, I have hand-selected the product or service after extensive research and know that brand or product is who will fit best for me and my audience.
- If I run into any problems during the testing or usage of any product or service provided to me, I will request answers to my questions or explain the problems to the vendor to see if a resolution exists. This is done to try and create the most accurate video or article possible.
- If a problem exists without a resolution at the time of creation, it will not be hidden from the audience. In fact, it will be highlighted to give the viewer the most authentic view of the product.
- I do not guarantee any specific number of views or audience engagement on any video or website article. The reality is that I’d love for every video to do well and reach as many people as possible, but it’s not realistic and there are far too many variables. I will watch the video, and that’s all that I can guarantee.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to read and understand this ethics statement. This obviously won’t cover all scenarios, but I’ve done my best to create general guidelines that will hit as many scenarios as possible.
These guidelines will most likely weed out the majority of sponsors, but that’s probably a good thing. My goal is to be a trusted resource in this space and these are pretty generic guidelines that basically say “let me be honest about your product/service” and “don’t try and influence me”. If that scares you, it’s best that we don’t work together. I just want to create honest and helpful content.
-Frank