I think reviews, especially something honest like the site in this article is aspiring towards, might be an ok market because the quality of those sites has declined so much in the last decade that I think there's room for a much better product.
However, it's the affiliate based monetization that I was calling tough. At least for me, an affiliate link is an untrustworthy link because that link is working for the manufacturers and retailers, not me.
I can't think of a decent way to monetize a review site without relying on a revenue stream that's susceptible to corruption (product access, affiliate links, advertising, etc.). Just look at the whole Hardware Unboxed / Nvidia thing that happened recently. The whole review industry must be completely FUBAR for Nvidia to think they could get away with that.
> Just look at the whole Hardware Unboxed / Nvidia thing that happened recently.
Can you expand on this? I hadn't heard of this.
I recently watched a new video on "playthrough” of Cyberpunk and it was a heavily advertising the power of a NVIDIA graphics card as he jacked up the raytracing settings and mentioning the card (which the comments section said was mean because it was impossible to find in the marketplace and/or costs thousands).
Nvidia cut Hardware Unboxed off from review samples because they weren't happy with the editorial. Nvidia specifically said that "should your editorial direction change, we will reconsider..."
However, it's the affiliate based monetization that I was calling tough. At least for me, an affiliate link is an untrustworthy link because that link is working for the manufacturers and retailers, not me.
I can't think of a decent way to monetize a review site without relying on a revenue stream that's susceptible to corruption (product access, affiliate links, advertising, etc.). Just look at the whole Hardware Unboxed / Nvidia thing that happened recently. The whole review industry must be completely FUBAR for Nvidia to think they could get away with that.