Youtube car reviewing
Discussion
I don't know what options exist for insurance to drive the cars that you'll be reviewing but - assuming you're pursuing this as a serious professional endeavour - you'll need more than car insurance.
As a minimum, you'd need Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance. Most brokers would sell these as a package that also includes Employers Liability. Simply Business is a good enough place to start: https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can skip these. Buckle up though, because this isn't cheap!
You also need to read carefully the caveats for professional indemnity and the extent to which you are covered. You may be required (and if not, it may be prudent) to publish a disclaimer on your videos and channels. Pay attention to how professional reviewers present their findings. You'll see them using phrases such as 'In my opinion....' or 'Compared to..., etc. This means that they are expressing a personal opinion rather than stating something as fact (i.e, this car is a piece of s
t) which may attract legal enquiry from the manufacturer. Unlikely, I know, but not by a margin sufficient to ignore the threat.
Assume you know your way around a camera and NLE platform. If not, drop in on the Photo and Video section. Several good chaps there that do this.
HTH. Good luck.
As a minimum, you'd need Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance. Most brokers would sell these as a package that also includes Employers Liability. Simply Business is a good enough place to start: https://www.simplybusiness.co.uk. Don't make the mistake of thinking you can skip these. Buckle up though, because this isn't cheap!
You also need to read carefully the caveats for professional indemnity and the extent to which you are covered. You may be required (and if not, it may be prudent) to publish a disclaimer on your videos and channels. Pay attention to how professional reviewers present their findings. You'll see them using phrases such as 'In my opinion....' or 'Compared to..., etc. This means that they are expressing a personal opinion rather than stating something as fact (i.e, this car is a piece of s
t) which may attract legal enquiry from the manufacturer. Unlikely, I know, but not by a margin sufficient to ignore the threat.Assume you know your way around a camera and NLE platform. If not, drop in on the Photo and Video section. Several good chaps there that do this.
HTH. Good luck.
Edited by StevieBee on Friday 29th September 15:18
You’d be entering a very saturated marketplace. I have a large-ish following and thinking I’d be making money out of it has turned out to be disappointing to say the least. It also takes a huge investment in time to get any traction at all and many give up. Not saying you can’t do it but to me it’s not provided a worthwhile ROI. Also start Insta and TikTok from day one. Trust me on that. You need them all to improve your chances as they all have different audiences
lancslad58 said:
I still watch Jack's channel, he does YouTube full time now apparantly so he must be doing OK out of it. I do agree with others though the market.is saturated and I imagine a lot if viewers are quite fickle, I include myself in that. Thanks for the reply guys,
It would only be as a part time hustle, not full for the reasons above.
I already have a small channel following my projects, and was considering expanding the scope of it.
So im ok with filming/editing etc and defo understand the time implications.
But is something i kinda enjoy oddly 🤣
It would only be as a part time hustle, not full for the reasons above.
I already have a small channel following my projects, and was considering expanding the scope of it.
So im ok with filming/editing etc and defo understand the time implications.
But is something i kinda enjoy oddly 🤣
chris-p said:
But is something i kinda enjoy oddly ??
At this stage, I think this is the only real reason to continue with this endeavor. Long gone is the ability to quickly setup a channel and make money. If you enjoy it then do it.. but I'd be very low on your expectations of revenue for probably years and even then it would be very low.
As someone else said, I think it is 'easier' these days to go down the tiktok / instagram route that straight Youtube. The algorithms are much more aggressive and favorable than Youtube and the content needs to be 20-30 seconds max.
Look up 'Forrest Auto Reviews' on Instagram or TikTok for an idea of the style needed.
I follow 2-4 car reviewing channels - I include JayEmm on that. But I'm incredibly fickle. I won't watch reviews on cars I have no interest in, even if they're reviewed by the reviewers I follow. I won't watch anything supercar related, I won't watch anything that reviews brand new cars as I think they're all overpriced. Irony being there are probably people following the same reviewers who probably have the exact opposite mindset.
I wouldn't want to base my income on that customer disloyalty and mixture, personally.
I wouldn't want to base my income on that customer disloyalty and mixture, personally.
I know a few people with sports based YT channels, one of them offers very well put together footage/editing & has around 45k subscribers. I gather a year or 2 ago it was a fairly good income stream as a side hustle.
They've now take it full time & i've heard (unsure how true it is), that YT have changed the way they pay revenue & it's a lot harder to make decent money off of it.
This seems to be echoed by a couple of other YT'ers with channels in the same genre, but with larger channels.
One thing i do know is given the quality of what they put out, both in terms of research, the editing itself & doing new things.
It's a full time job for 2-4 people, who are editing pretty much all day every day.
They've now take it full time & i've heard (unsure how true it is), that YT have changed the way they pay revenue & it's a lot harder to make decent money off of it.
This seems to be echoed by a couple of other YT'ers with channels in the same genre, but with larger channels.
One thing i do know is given the quality of what they put out, both in terms of research, the editing itself & doing new things.
It's a full time job for 2-4 people, who are editing pretty much all day every day.
Edited by theguvernor15 on Friday 6th October 16:24
If you're starting out from scratch, unless you get lucky, you're going to be doing this "side hustle" with no income and lots of invested time for maybe 12 months.
To get monetised, you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of public watch hours (ie not you running a spare computer 24/7 to watch a video on loop). I'm aware of the lower requirements but that's not the full monetisation and is a bit st tbh.
If you can start promoting some kind of affiliate product then you can make a bit of money from the get-go if viewers click on the link and buy something. I did this because I already have a lot of experience of online business.
However, most beginners won't see a penny for months (if not years), especially if all they've done is worked a 9-5 and then jumped onto YT with the hopes of making a million a month Mr Beast style. (He may well be earning more than that!)
I've been looking at YT for the last 4 months as a way of promoting my business (so monetisation will be a bonus but not the main reason).
Bottom line, as someone has already said, do it for the enjoyment.
And don't get your mum and all her friends to sub you because it'll ruin the algo for you.
Enjoy your new part-time unpaid job as an editor and marketer.
To get monetised, you need 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of public watch hours (ie not you running a spare computer 24/7 to watch a video on loop). I'm aware of the lower requirements but that's not the full monetisation and is a bit s
t tbh. If you can start promoting some kind of affiliate product then you can make a bit of money from the get-go if viewers click on the link and buy something. I did this because I already have a lot of experience of online business.
However, most beginners won't see a penny for months (if not years), especially if all they've done is worked a 9-5 and then jumped onto YT with the hopes of making a million a month Mr Beast style. (He may well be earning more than that!)
I've been looking at YT for the last 4 months as a way of promoting my business (so monetisation will be a bonus but not the main reason).
Bottom line, as someone has already said, do it for the enjoyment.
And don't get your mum and all her friends to sub you because it'll ruin the algo for you.
Enjoy your new part-time unpaid job as an editor and marketer.
Edited by Hoofy on Friday 6th October 16:45
littlebasher said:
chris-p said:
Has anyone experience of setting up as a car reviewer on youtube?
Looking for feedback on insurance used, would you need any form of indemnity insurance?
Thanks in advance
Should you get an decent subscriber base, please, please don't suck at the teat of Car Vertical.Looking for feedback on insurance used, would you need any form of indemnity insurance?
Thanks in advance
jakesmith said:
littlebasher said:
Should you get an decent subscriber base, please, please don't suck at the teat of Car Vertical.
Why do you say that? They approached me 
) time... You can get away with it being less annoying if it can be part of the video and show the report for the car being reviewed (such as how people like HighPeak and SalvageRebuilds do it).
(We won't mention the poor value the product offers)
Truckosaurus said:
jakesmith said:
littlebasher said:
Should you get an decent subscriber base, please, please don't suck at the teat of Car Vertical.
Why do you say that? They approached me ) time... You can get away with it being less annoying if it can be part of the video and show the report for the car being reviewed (such as how people like HighPeak and SalvageRebuilds do it).
(We won't mention the poor value the product offers)
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