YouTube Beauty

Monday 18 November 2013
Following on from our Here's How To... about writing sponsored posts, it got me thinking about another aspect of blogging: video reviews. A camera, an internet connection, a love of make-up and a Blogger account: all the necessary ingredients to rack up thousands of pounds a month, if a new breed of online celebrity is anything to go by.

These young stars are often paid generously to promote a company’s goods to their large fan base. Today, advertising with bloggers is more effective than traditional methods because it's very often a subtle means of promoting, rather than a full-on (and massively expensive) TV or editorial campaign.

After all, Zoe Sugg, of Zoella fame, has 2.5 million YouTube subscribers and nearly 900,000 Twitter followers who she communicates with directly on a daily basis, a very powerful tool.

However, the Advertising Standards Agency has warned of the legality of making clear that they are promoting a product, so as to not mislead their millions of, usually, young viewers. Because if you're being paid to promote something but don't disclose it, you could run in to some serious issues.

"If a blogger endorses a product it gives it more weight than if it was just featured on the page of a magazine", says Jessica Walker, a digital marketing specialist, speaking to BBC Newsbeat. And the requirement to inform viewers of which products are “sponsored” can create a dilemma. "[Some] are quite clever about their language," she says. "They don't want their blogs to look like a catalogue."

As for bloggers themselves, spend an hour taking with them and you'll discover it’s not an easy as it might look. With a strict routine of filming, blogging, trying new products, and keeping up with social networks, the online guru business definitely doesn’t operate around a nine to five schedule. The perks, however, are hard to deny. With parcels arriving daily to try and sponsorship deals for more than most of us earn in a few months, if you can make it, it’s a pretty good lifestyle. Now just to dig out that old Canon camera I had somewhere…

By Lauren

Are you a blogger? Have you started including video in your posts? Let us know how much time it takes, and whether you love or loathe it!

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