How to Become a Toy Reviewer on YouTube - The Ultimate Guide

Wondering how to become a toy reviewer on YouTube? If so, you've come to the right place.

In recent years, toy review channels have become some of the biggest channels on YouTube. Many of these channels also earn a significant amount of money. But how can you join the club and become a toy reviewer on YouTube?

In this article, you will learn:

How to Start a Toy Review Channel
How to Get Free Toys to Review on YouTube
How to Make Toy Videos

Read on and learn everything you need to know about creating toy reviews on YouTube.

How to Start a Toy Review Channel

Starting a toy review channel is easier said than done. While recording and uploading videos might seem easy, the process is quite difficult for beginners. To ensure you're able to start a channel and hit the ground running, make sure you focus on the main areas of importance.

Here's how to start a toy review channel:

1. Pick a niche
2. Research experts in your niche
3. Determine your video style
4. Create your YouTube channel
5. Prioritize video SEO
6. Design good thumbnails
7. Focus on consistency

Let's go over this process in more detail.

1. Pick a Niche

If you intend to grow an audience that will support you by watching your videos consistently, it's in your best interest to pick a niche to base your channel around. Channels that do not target a specific niche often end up having a segmented audience, which is not ideal.

While different niches present more potential for growth than others, you must have an interest in the niche you select. Growing a YouTube channel is tough, and it's even tougher when you don't enjoy creating videos because you don't like your niche.

2. Research Experts in Your Niche

One of the best ways to position your channel for success is to see how successful channels in your niche are operated. How do the experts in your niche create content? Do they have an upload schedule? These are things that can help you create a strategy for your channel.

Regardless of how much you think you know about your niche, it's always a good idea to see what other people are doing. You never know what you can learn from other people that can help you grow an audience and create better content.

3. Determine Your Video Style

No two YouTube videos are alike. However, many videos follow a similar style and format. This isn't because content creators enjoy copying each other- it's because viewers tend to enjoy certain video styles and formats than others.

It's okay to experiment with different styles and formats, but if your main goal is to grow an audience, it would be in your best interest to do what tends to lead to success. Meaning, you should film and edit your videos in a similar way to the experts in your niche.

4. Create Your YouTube Channel

The process of creating a YouTube channel is quite simple. Where things get more complicated, however, is when it comes to creating a brand name, designing a channel banner, and creating a display picture.

If you struggle to create any of these items for your channel, try taking a look at how successful channels in your niche have done so. Take note of the styles and elements their names, banners, and display pictures contain, and make sure yours are similarly created.

5. Prioritize Video SEO

Having video titles that attract attention and clicks is important, but having titles that are properly optimized is equally, if not, more important. The same thing goes for your video descriptions and tags.

As a new channel, you need to build a foundation of content that is properly optimized for the YouTube search engine. This is the best way to ensure that your videos are discovered consistently by targeted viewers.

Optimizing your videos following YouTube SEO best practices might not cause your videos to go viral overnight, but the fact of the matter is, you probably won't go viral overnight anyway. So, it's best to position your channel for long-term success by building a solid foundation.

6. Design Good Thumbnails

You can't get views if you don't get clicks. What will help you get clicks? Good video thumbnails. Knowing this, one of your main focuses aside from creating videos should be on packaging your videos in a way that attracts attention.

There is no "perfect" video thumbnail. However, thumbnails that are designed in a certain way do tend to attract more attention and clicks than others. How do you find these thumbnails? Look at the large channels in your niche!

Also, it's important to recognize that YouTube does give you access to click-through rate data in the YouTube Studio. So, as you upload videos and design thumbnails, you can test different styles and colors to see which elements lead to the highest CTR for your channel.

7. Focus On Consistency

Practice makes perfect. Chances are, you've heard this saying before. What you might not realize, however, is that for you to practice, you need to show up. Meaning, you need to consistently be filming, editing, and optimizing videos.

Focusing on consistency is one of the best ways to ensure you show up and practice the process of creating content. Just remember, you can only create better videos and improve your YouTube-related skills if you show up and put in the effort.

How to Get Free Toys to Review on YouTube

For many toy reviewers on YouTube, it's their dream to receive free products to create videos about. However, for the vast majority of reviewers, this dream is never realized. Not because it's impossible to get free toys to review, but because they don't follow the right process.

Here's how to get free toys to review on YouTube:

1. Create content
2. Build an audience
3. Use what you already have
4. Utilize affiliate programs
5. Reach out to brands

Let's discuss this process further.

1. Create Content

The first step to getting free toys to review in YouTube videos is to create content. You see, you'll never attract the attention of brands and get toys for free if you cannot prove that you can create high-quality content.

Think about things from the perspective of a brand- why would they send free toys to an individual who hasn't proven they can create good content? Just because you want some toys to review, it doesn't mean the brand will want to send them to you.

2. Build an Audience

As you can probably imagine, having a large audience goes a long way in the process of convincing brands to send you toys to feature in your videos for free. These brands do have a business to run after all! So, if you can benefit brands on the business level, this helps a lot.

Of course, building an audience is easier said than done. But, if you ever want to have the opportunity to get free toys to feature and review in your videos, you must prove to brands that working with you will benefit them.

3. Use What You Already Have

A lot of content creators are reluctant to create videos about toys they already own. Most of the time, this is because they think that nobody will be interested in the toys they own- that people are only interested in new toys.

In reality, there are plenty of people around the globe who have an interest in toys of all types and ages. So, it's never a bad idea to create videos about the toys you already have at your disposal.

Again, going back to what was said previously, you must show brands that you can create high-quality content. How are you going to be able to do this if you do not practice creating videos? Don't overanalyze things- use what you already have to get started.

4. Utilize Affiliate Programs

Affiliate marketing is one of the most popular monetization methods among YouTube content creators. What a lot of people don't realize, however, is that affiliate programs can allow them to receive free things to review in their videos.

You see, affiliate programs allow you to earn a commission on every sale made through your affiliate link. So, if you were to create a video about a product, and were to feature an affiliate link for the product in your description, you could make money if people purchase the product through your link.

This means that you could technically purchase a toy, make a review video about it, direct people to the toy through your affiliate link, and make enough money to cover the cost of purchasing the toy if people purchase it after watching your video!

5. Reach Out to Brands

Once you have proven you can create high-quality videos and you have built an audience, it's time to start reaching out to brands. Of course, you can try reaching out to brands before building an audience, but your success rate will be very low.

Ideally, you should reach out to brands that have worked with content creators previously. These brands are more prepared to work with creators and understand the process. Look for sponsored videos from other creators and reach out to those sponsors.

To reach out, send an email to the applicable contact. Often, brands will feature an email address on their website for their marketing department. Also, consider connecting with an employee on LinkedIn and asking them to direct you to the person(s) in charge of marketing.

How to Make Toy Videos

Making toy videos on YouTube is easier said than done. Sure, it's not the most complicated task in the world, but there are some skills you will need to learn to be able to operate recording equipment and edit videos.

Here's how to make toy videos:

1. Select a topic
2. Outline the video
3. Setup a recording environment
4. Record the video
5. Edit the video

Let's break down this process in more detail.

1. Select a Topic

Before you can film a video, you must know what you would like to film a video about. Knowing this, you must select a topic before you can begin the filming process. Failing to do this will lead to the creation of low-quality content.

Ideally, you should have a list of topics prepared so you can select video topics at will. If you do not have a list of topics currently, take the time to create one by performing the YouTube keyword research process.

2. Outline the Video

After you've selected a topic to create a video about, your next objective should be to create a video outline. This isn't a must-do but it is recommended. Creating an outline can help you improve the quality and pacing of your videos dramatically.

Along the same lines as creating a topic list, it can be worth taking the time to create outlines for multiple topics as well. This will reduce the chances of procrastination and will make it easier for you to press the record button.

3. Setup a Recording Environment

Some recording environments are very high-budget. They contain lighting setups, multiple cameras, microphones, etc. While these setups are great for producing professional videos, they aren't necessary- especially for beginners.

Using a window as a light source and a mobile phone to capture video footage is more than enough to get started. It is not recommended that you spend a large sum of money on recording equipment if you're a beginner, as you might end up not enjoying creating videos.

4. Record the Video

Once you've selected a topic, outlined your video, and set up a recording environment, it's time to record your video. For most people, this is the most difficult part of the process. Just remember, videos can be edited and nobody starts as a pro on camera.

Try recording your video at a time of day that presents the best environment for you. If your house is quiet at 4:00 PM, consider making this your recording time. The last thing you want to do is try to record a video when there are a lot of distractions around you.

5. Edit the Video

The editing process is one of the most important steps in the video creation process. Editing allows you to create a video that flows together naturally and encourages viewers to watch your video all the way through (which is difficult to do).

Like with everything else, improving your editing skills will take time and practice. Watch tutorial videos and see how experts in your niche edit their videos. Also, remember that no YouTube viewer expects a Hollywood production- don't try to create "perfect" videos.

Conclusion

You now know how to become a toy reviewer on YouTube. While it is possible to grow a large audience and make a significant amount of money reviewing toys on YouTube, it's important to remember that the road to success is long and difficult. You must be willing to put in the work to become a better content creator if you wish to build a successful channel.