"They lie to you about reviews"

Ive had this channel for a while, so today Im going to lift a bit of the veil and show you whats in the process of doing a review. This is a video that will likely have people unsubscribe as some of the things that will say may be unpopular. This will be, though, a more candid way to look at things. Ill ask if you found this video interesting, liking and subbing helps the channel a lot. Im trying to get to 100K.

Believe it or not, there’s a lot more to a review than just the review itself. I think 'just' is one of the most insidious words in any language — it overlooks all the essential steps behind the scenes. That 8 to 20-minute video you end up watching has an entire process behind it.

My process isn’t perfect — it can't be — but it’s always the best I can deliver within the limited time I have. In reality, the review process starts even before the review itself, with something that’s almost like a negotiation.

Most of the time, brands reach out to me via email to propose sending equipment for the channel. Very rarely, I’m the one reaching out — only when I find something genuinely interesting.

Here’s how I approach things: I always maintain 100% editorial independence, this is non negotiable. Since I handle almost everything myself — recording, scripting, editing, and usually even thumbnail creation — my time is limited. For thumbnails, I occasionally collaborate with Jarno Opmeer’s and James Baldwin’s editor — great guy, by the way.

Because of this, I have to be selective about what I cover, focusing on what’s genuinely useful for the community or topics I find personally interesting.

Before I even consider doing a review, they have to agree to my terms: my channel, my rules. That’s non-negotiable. Everyone needs to respect this ruleset. Period.

- I say what I think about the product.

The product’s qualities or shortcomings will speak for themselves.

-From the moment the equipment is recieved, it can take up to 60 days to produce a review. 

This is required to test multiple circunstances and titles. When possible, the review will be delivered sooner. Multiple videos of the same equipment can be made if I find value on them

- You’ll have no input in the review or you will be able to see the result beforehand

This is to minimise interference and maintain the channel’s integrity 

- I might request the equipment to be returned

I have very little storage space. The return’s fees shall be made at your expense.

- I will not deal with customs

All equipment should have the customs and freight pre paid, coming into or from my address. You shall deal with any issues with customs. Any bill coming after recieving the equipment, the review will be cancelled and the equipment sent back at your expense.

The thinking behind all of this is simple: I set the terms. It’s my time, my channel, my rules.

I’ve rejected reviews based on the principle set by the last paragraph — after all, this is a YouTube channel, not an import/export business.
If a company takes too long to deliver equipment, I also reject the review. I don’t have time  to chase people for updates; every moment spent chasing is time taken away from work that matters. Or doesnt, its my time, I do what I want with it.

I’ve also declined to work with companies that try to exert even the slightest control. In one case — politely, of course — I made it clear they could f*ck off.

A few companies, including one very prominent and well-respected brand (which I won’t name), have refused my conditions as well.  And that’s exactly how it should be. Rejections mean the filter is working. It’s also likely that my approach to reviews — direct and blunt when necessary — has naturally deterred certain companies.
We’ll talk more about monetization later in the video, but to be clear: companies do not pay to get featured. If they did, it wouldn’t be a review; it would be a paid promotion. And that’s not what I’m here to do.

"Once the equipment arrives, testing, recording, and scripting all happen more or less at the same time. I start by unboxing, inspecting, assembling, and mounting the equipment — all while recording. For filming, I usually use the Sony A6700 with a mix of lenses, or the camera that's currently recording me: the Sony ZV-E10.
I’ve been using Sony’s Alpha series for years, so I already have the gear and familiarity — upgrading has always been easy.
Sometimes, I’ll also use an old slider to grab a few more cinematic shots.Lighting is crucial too — but I’ll be honest, I’m not really a videographer, and to be fair, I’m pretty lazy when it comes to the recording part.Testing is usually straightforward at this point. After almost a decade of reviewing equipment, the thought process for similar types of gear tends to stay consistent.
Part of the review process is objective, and part of it is subjective.
The objective part is about the hard numbers and facts; the subjective part is more about the feeling of using the product and talking its potential use cases all the while understanding whos the buyer for it and reason why they may want or not want the product.

With wheelbases, I can usually form a general impression within the first day of use — sometimes even sooner.  You can quickly feel the overall fidelity, smoothness, torque delivery, and certain nuances that are specific to a brand or model.  However, understanding the software and any quirks takes a bit longer.

When it comes to pedals, that’s where the real work begins — and it’s why I aim for a 60-day testing window. If a wheelbase can be thoroughly assessed in about a week, pedals easily take two to three times more effort.  They’re far more mechanical in nature, with variables like spring strength, elastomer types, pressure settings, pedal position, material differences, slack, and so on. And often times changing the setup will take more time.
In my opinion, pedals are where time is either gained or lost the most dramatically during a race, so they demand a much deeper level of attention.

For both wheelbases and pedals, I always aim to use the equipment as widely and deeply as time allows.  That means testing across a huge variety of driving styles — GT3, road cars, vintage racing, rally, and drifting with or without the clutch.
This variety ensures I’m seeing the equipment’s behavior from different angles, and it highlights how it performs under real stress.
More active driving styles like touge, rallying, or drifting tend to expose issues such as play, unwanted vibrations, or lack of responsiveness. By contrast, sticking only to GT3, formula, or hypercar driving — which is comparatively static — reveals much less outside of that narrow use case, in my opinion

Then comes the part I hate the most: editing.  Even for this video.  Editing is where the story is shaped — parts get cut, scenes get restructured, and sometimes I realize I didn’t record enough footage in the first place.  Fun fact: Star Wars was saved in the edit room. It’s true.
Unfortunately, no editor is going to save my videos. 

The final part of the creation process is thumbnails and titles.
This stage is absolutely critical, but also open to the most criticism, because there’s a weird game being played on YouTube.
The way the platform works is this, my videos are effectively fighting against everything else for attention — so titles and thumbnails have to be grabby.
They need to say what the video is about clearly, but they also need to be clickable.
Veritasium has a great video on this topic.

The short version?  Titles like 'Equipment Name - Review' simply don’t work.
And if a video doesn’t get seen, it might as well not exist.  You might think, 'I prefer the old-school titles,' and honestly, I do too.  But YouTube is a numbers game — and if I use those titles, chances are you’ll never even see the video in your feed.  To be fair, reviews as a whole are a headache: the complication of the production itself, plus thinking about equipment storage or organizing the return process.
It all demands long-term planning that often stretches well beyond the 60 days I allocate for the actual review.

Now, let’s move on to the last part of the video — and this is going to be the most contentious. It’s likely that some subscribers may decide to leave after this, but before we dive into the topic of money, let me first address it from a broader perspective.

In the review space, I’ve noticed a troubling trend: some members of the community raise an impossible standard. They expect access to every piece of equipment, all at personal expense, and at a level of professionalism that would rival product development itself. This, of course, is review unobtainium — it doesn’t exist. Not even the largest review channels outside of the sim racing niche operate like that.

I have done this comment a couple of years ago in regards to this criticism.

https://www.reddit.com/r/simracing/comments/17hv1tz/comment/k6xl8ea/?context=3

Lo and behold, there’s the accelerated shift in content, particularly on platforms like Instagram. It's much easier to gain views from a 30-second short where the product is used but never even discussed. This creates a situation where context is stripped away, and the impact of the content is reduced to zero. Meanwhile, those of us who attempt to talk about the product in depth often find ourselves as targets of accusations, some of which border on libel. But that’s life on the internet.

When it comes to monetization, there are two main ways this plays out: either the viewer pays with their time, or the viewer pays with their money.

• Paying with their time means ad revenue. You watch the video, potentially see an ad — though I know many people use ad blockers these days.
  
  
  

• Paying with their money refers to things like memberships, tips, and patronage. Ideally, I’d like to see more of this, especially in conjunction with ad revenue.
  Then there are affiliate links and similar options which are sources of criticism and often times strong accusations of wrongdoing.
  
  
  

First and foremost, I disclose all of my ties. The sim racing review community is probably the only niche where the main channels — including , this one I hope it can be considered one of the main channels— discloses the source of the equipment and any affiliate relationships upfront. I make sure the disclosure happens early, within the first minute, with no humblebragging or attempts to position myself as some moral paragon. Its my job when doing a review to say to you whats going on, its not an extra service provided or a favour that Im doing to you as viewers where I say im so clean and angelical and everyone else is a shill and using affiliates to get rich. Its my job. My obligation to you and the law.

The affiliate link is mentioned with the correct priority: acknowledging the potential for bias and conflict of interest. But it needs to be done in passing, mentioned once and clearly so it doesn’t dominate the review. By the end of the video, you may as well forget that it was there, because the focus should remain on the content, not the affiliate link. I want my disclosure to be blunt, to the point, and clear before any information is even presented, so you, the viewer, can decide if the video is worth your time. Your time is valuable, and honestly, nobody likes a self-congratulatory "reach-around" person.

I do not take money from companies for reviews no matter what I do in it, nor do I hide financial arrangements behind layers of obfuscation. Everything needs to be clear from the start, not because it’s required by law, but because it’s the right thing to do. If the result is that people call me out as a "shill," then, counterintuitive as it may sound, that means the disclosure worked.

I have done ad spots and even sponsored videos in the past, but those are always disclosed as well as such. And in the case of sponsored videos, they are not reviews. I try to avoid sponsorships or sponsored videos from simracing equipment brands for the main type of equipment, as they represent a clear conflict of interest.

I dont pretend to be perfect, I am not. What I try to do is the best I can. 

I hope this video was useful and interesting. Thanks for watching my Ted talk.