Anyone know the Media Person or a Contact at Crosman/Benjamin?

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kaylaindy

kaylaindy

Member
Jun 3, 2017
2,915
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Washington, United States
Hey guys, I have been making airgun videos for 3 years and my channel has 41,000 subscribers. Even after all this time, and 150+ videos, I have not been able to "break into" the business. I have demonstrated I can make a top notch airgun video that gets ALOT of views.

Example: After making an Air Venturi Avenger Wood video where I put 5 shots through a dime size hole at 75 yards...for Air Venturi. They went ahead and sent Avenger Bullpups to 12+ people,but not me. I had been asking for one too. The Avenger wood video had got 60k+ views in the first month.

...so I really like Crosman. I have tried MANY times to email them and I get ignored...not even an answer. I think it's really stupid that I'm willing to put in a 40 hour work week to make a quality airgun video..and I have the established audience to get as many views on anyone on Youtube, but I still have to pay for guns with my own money... .and worse! I have to wait till they are in the store. So I have to buy an Avenger bullpup, then put in a 40 hour work week, an by then about 10 other people reviewed the gun..so forget about a ton of views.

Do I need an agent or something? I don't understand how to reach these manufacturers. 

....anyway. If someone knows a decision maker at Velocity Outdoors (Crosman/Benjamin), can you privately PM me? or hook us up somehow? If I can work with Crosman, I will keep doing this. ...but I really don't want to pay $999 for a Benjamin Gunnar (already on the way to Youtubers).

Some of you may know my current situation: Summary, I know how to make video's now, so I'm looking at making videos about other stuff at this point...so I can get millions of views, hence make a living at YT. I'm on the fence about walking away from Airgun Channel. My brain and logic tells me it's time to walk away...but I don't want to leave....it's like I almost made it. I'm right on the edge of airgun channel success...but I don't think I can keep it up. 

I need Crosman! 


Fake it till you make it...3 years later...still faking it...never did make it. 

https://www.youtube.com/c/AirgunChannel/videos
 
It took 7 calls/weeks before I got an interview. Just keep trying Dude. You will wear them down.
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I hear that. It would be cool to know who to talk to. I will go ahead and try to reach out to them again today. Maybe I can send them a card and some chocolates via snail mail. 


...10 minutes later: 

fff.1641468855.JPG


maybe I should pull my head out of the sand. Here is Velocity Outdoor's contact info. I should call them. Email only gets you so far. Wish me luck.
 
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I may be alone in this thought process, but I tend to put more trust in a video done by someone who has paid for the air gun they are reviewing with their own hard earned money, over those who receive the free hand-outs. I understand your point and the expense you bear keeping your channel going, but I feel those who get the freebies are less likely to tell a manufacturer they have an ugly baby and risk losing future freebies. Those who pay for the air guns they review are more apt to tell it like it really is because there really is no incentive not to. I find your videos both entertaining and informative and I hope you stay with it even if the manufacturers don't provide you with a lot of freebies!
 
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@kaylaindy I don’t know much about the social media industry as far as being paid for content outside of what I see and hear about some of my associates doing, but I was wondering - have you started a Patreon (or similar type of paywall) for access to exclusive content? That way you can generate some money to purchase guns so that the bulk of funding isn’t coming out of your pockets, nor would the guns be coming from manufacturers. This way the question of bias toward a particular company shouldn’t be too questionable, to @FLGunner’s point. Also if viewers value your content enough, I’d think that a few bucks from your core audience should enable you to produce content that the people willing to pay you can enjoy. Hopefully out of 40k subscribers you have 2000-4000 viewers willing to pay $3 - $10 periodically for access to exclusive content. Hopefully the content that they enjoy is what you’re already producing. Just a thought. Seems you’ve been trying to breakthrough for a while.
 
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If I had a good product I would not mind lending it to a "tester"to review it,it is done quite often....and in some testing a problem may arise that can be fixed before the public gets it.

For sure it may be easier for the public to trust someone that actually bought the product to give it a review.

I have been reading , doing and absorbing all this for over 50 years....and the most important part of the equation is Not the product!!

It is the trust people have in the tester.....and trust me ,there are only a few well known "testers in each field....and utube has more BS than important information,why is because it not only has to show what is being done,but also entertaining.....and that is a problem.....to get enough attention and hits to become successful.

I would think that if you want to contact and get Crosman to help you....you better have a really good packet and support why they should.

Enough of that...I have been watching some of Kaylaindy stuff for years,like I think he started in Santa Rosa say 5years ago??

He has taken quite a bit of abuse and been given some good advise,he has improved his videos...and I do not mind his personality,he is not Stuffy.

The very best to you on your journey.....btw the saying goes," tell the people what they want to hear"...oh no polidicks....truth be told then.


 
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have you started a Patreon (or similar type of paywall) for access to exclusive content?
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I should have done that a long time ago. I do plan to do a Patreon with only a $1 tier...so you can't pay more than $12 a year. That would take care of my expences...and if it got to 1000 members, we could buy a nice gun once a month. ...maybe even give some stuff away, or some of the extra proceeds. I have to get on that. I was discouraged because Patreon hid my account, so you can't find it even if you type in "Airgun Channel" to the search bar. The only way to reach the page is with a direct link to it....of course AirGunGear Show and Forgotten Weapons comes up...but "Airgun Channel" is the same as pic (real ***********)...and is treated as such by Patreon. 


I feel those who get the freebies are less likely to tell a manufacturer they have an ugly baby and risk losing future freebies
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That is totally true. With me though, I got to the point where I'm supposed to be a leading channel...and I can't buy all the guns that come out. So I can't even show the main new guns because I just don't have a ton of money available to flip guns. It also comes down to the fact that "other channels" of similar size are getting all the guns for free that I am paying for. It gets to a point where I become a looser for selling guns for companies that don't give a crap about me...over and over and over...I sell these peoples guns and I literally get nothing out of it. over and over and over, I just keep doing it.

I started out to make good videos and grow a channel. But with Youtube Shadow Bans, my videos will get 10k-20k views a day and then get banned to 0 views overnight. So try getting 9k views a day for 3 days then only 10 views on day 4. Building an audience and being rewarded for good work is not a thing anymore. The better I make a video, the faster it will be shut down to 0 views a day. 

...all this crap brings us back to Patreon...which is what people in my situation turn to. I will get that done this week. Patreon is why we have a Forgotten Weapons channel on YT. They were banned years ago and basicly said, "You want this content? Then pay for it." The rest is History!
 
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I ended up getting the Bullpup and the Gunnar (with my own money). Now I will try and find whatever I can wrong with both guns and talk about it in the video. Basicly the opposite of my normal M.O., when I kiss the gun's butt the whole time. 

Sample 1: 

https://youtu.be/NH4zC3xax0g

...but I will be fair. so if the gun shoots good, I'm not going to hide it. Thanks for watching! (and for the good advice). -Nate 
 
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Hey. I have to give credit where credit is due. Air Venturi ended up coming thru after all. I got impatient. When I saw a bunch of AV Bullpup reviews one morning I freaked out and made this thread. Not 2-3 days later I was notified that my AV Bullpup had shipped from AV: as promised by them 3 months ago. 

When I offered to send it back they said they would exchange it for something else...in a seperate email the same day, they said they would try and get me a Gunnar. So I really should have kept my mouth shut (not the first time!).

I still ordered my own Gunnar but we may end up with a .22 and .25! 

I apologize for accusing the big wigs of not caring. Sorry guys! -Nate
 
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