An odd phenomenon that has picked up in popularity is the act of recording and sharing the unboxing experience.
People create videos showing the exact moment when they begin to open the product packaging and then take the viewer through the individual components along with commentary.
As silly as it sounds – it’s quite a smart way to get views and generate sales through video.
Unboxing videos are one part entertainment and one part consumer research.
It’s a fun experience to see others open a product because you feel as if you’re taking part. It’s also very helpful when researching a product because you can see the physical interaction which gives you a better perspective of how it works in the real-world (not just Web copy).
The creators of the unboxing videos gain a few opportunities to generate affiliate sales:
- Early previews will ride the buzz from the product launch
- Distributing the video (or having it picked up by bloggers) will send leads to your site
- Proper optimization can place the video high in search rankings for the product
If you’d like to look at examples of unboxing take a look at the millions of results on YouTube:
How to Make Money with Unboxing Videos
There are a couple ways to earn commissions from unboxing videos.
The easiest way is to use affiliate links to the product page. The use of a URL shortener will suffice if you’d like to track basic stats otherwise you could set up short URL’s from your domain which would add a small boost to building your credibility.
Alternatively, you could create a full review of the product for your website. Links within the video and description, on YouTube, could send individuals over to discover additional details that weren’t covered in the unboxing video.
If you do take the time to create a full review (which I would recommend) then make sure that you’re doing so as a video review which can be placed on YouTube and interlinked with the unboxing video. You can then easily transcribe the audio and use pictures from the video in your review article.
There are opportunities to earn additional income with the unboxing video such as mentioning similar or complementary products. You could compare what you’re unboxing with another product and use affiliate links to create tiered-pricing promotions. Likewise, you could talk about products you feel would complement the purchase which could have an affiliate link, too.
How to Create Engaging Unboxing Videos
The best part of creating unboxing videos is that it can be amateur in nature.
In fact, the video may benefit greatly from having a natural look rather than seeming too professional which would come across as an ad rather than a sneak peak.
There are plenty of free tools and programs to create video content.
Your camera is most likely going to be the main candidate for creating these videos. The two most important things to consider in producing these videos are a decent microphone and a tripod to keep the image stable.
Audio is just as important for the unboxing videos because people want to hear your reactions and comments to the specific components. It needs to be crisp and clear so you can get your message across which also includes mentioning of affiliate products.
There are generally three angles you’ll find in unboxing videos:
- Straightforward shot of the product
- Top-down shot of the product
- Panned-out shot with you in the frame
Those that do not want to be on video can still greatly benefit from unboxing by using the first two angles in the list. It may actually be better to do this anyway since you can keep the product in full focus.
Being on camera has its perks if you plan to do multiple videos. You can build a brand around your videos which you could leverage to bring leads to your website.
There’s not much to tell you about actually creating the video.
- Setup your camera, point it at the box and begin opening it.
- Keep talking while you’re doing this so you can share comments and mention your affiliate links.
- Ask the viewers to subscribe, click the link, and leave comments.
Don’t worry about getting it right the first time. You’ll get better the more you do these videos.
Eventually you may want to invest in learning better editing techniques to give it a better look but, for now, just focus on getting something out there and testing the waters.
Will You Tap into the Unboxing Phenomenon?
Who would have thought that we’d be sitting at your computers or on our phones watching others open boxes on the Web?
Whatever the reason why we watch these videos it’s still providing affiliates a method to earn commissions. These videos are extremely easy to create. If you go the extra mile to make additional videos on the product then you can expect more.
Give it a shot. See if it’s something that could work its way into your business. Even if it doesn’t pan out it’s not like you wasted a great deal of time. Who knows? Maybe it’ll create a great revenue stream?
