Advertising, Banners, Product Placement & Reviews

On this page you can find all the information required in regards to Advertising on our platform(s), product placement, reviews and sending in gear to either show, demonstrate or even give-away to our viewers.

Short-overview/bullet-points

I’ve decided to add a short list of bullet points for sponsors (and my audience) to have a ‘quick rundown’ on my rules for sponsorships, send-in products and more of the alike. You can (should in my opinion though!) also read the entire page of course, but this list should give you a quick overview to determine if you really want to continue offering a sponsorship.

  • My content, work, projects etc are mine. I make the projects and/or products because I’m excited to make them and because I myself want to make them, not because I needed something just to have content. I make content due to the fact that I’m working on my projects, I don’t make projects because I make content. There’s a big difference between those two 😉
  • IF I review (or showcase) something, then it is 100% from my perspective, my opinion and my view. And (obviously) also in my ‘use-case-scenario’s’. I for example won’t allow demand like for example: “You’ll get it for free, but you also HAVE to show this, this and this”. NO! If those situations would usually not be how I use it, or It would even be something I would never use at all (or in my content for my audience), then NO I won’t do it. Period. Also do realize that if I don’t like a product (or certain aspects/features of it), that I will also openly discuss this matter in my content. In other words: I can’t be ‘bought’ for positive reviews/promotion.
  • I do not submit previews of video’s, content or otherwise to anyone for approval or revision(s). No exceptions here. NOTE: So this also means that I will not upload a video as ‘unlisted’ so a sponsor could approve it beforehand.
  • I control what, when and how I release my content, and no-one else. I will not promise a certain release schedule, I will not promise a certain amount of videos on a certain topic, product or what ever and neither will I prioritize certain topics, content or even products while ‘ditching everything else’. Obviously I want to upload as much and as often as possible, but like mentioned earlier: I make projects and then make content out of it, and I much rather have quality over quantity.
  • IF you are a sponsor planning to work with me/us for the long-run (then first of all thank you very much!), and thus you are planning to sponsor multiple video’s, and entire series, a large multi-part project etc. Then you can of course provide me with a list of topics of which you would not want me to use/show your sponsorship in. HOWEVER, this mainly applies to direct platform sponsors which for example sponsor through my Patreon.
  • I will not ‘get trapped’ by all kinds of sponsor contracts, deals, NDA’s and what not just to feature a product or brand in my content. The rules are laid out on this page very clearly and that’s it. Period. You either like my content, projects and/or platform as it is, and from what you have seen so far, or you don’t.
  • Just because a product (or service) is provided to me (at no cost) it does not mean that I will review it, or actually feature it in a video. I refuse to make content just because you’ve send me a product (for free). That’s not how my content works.
  • I will only work with (reputable) brands which are related to my content and/or projects in one way or another. If you contact me for a sponsorship or partnership (via my contact form), you should always use a domain which belongs to your brand! I will not accept requests or offers from domains like gmail, outlook, yahoo or what ever.
  • When (and if) I feature/show products and/or services in my content, then I will show what is relevant to me, the content/project and my audience. I will not subject to a while list of demands of what I need to show.
  • I do not allow anyone else to ‘control’ (or demand) what it posted on my (or my associated) social media platforms, this not only includes YouTube, but also my own website and other platforms like X, Instagram, Patreon or whatever.
  • Sponsors, partners etc are of course more than welcome to share/re-post my videos, however this should only be done via the official ’embedding options’ or re-post options of the platform(s) they are on. I do NOT allow sponsors etc to download the video and then repost (portions of) it on their own channels/media.
  • I won’t (and can’t) do any guarantees in regards to ‘minimum views’ on a video. If I knew how to do that, I would obviously go for “viral video’s” every single release I put out there. Sure, you (as sponsor) might feel ‘bummed’ if you offered a sponsorship due to seeing a recently released video which miraculously hit 1 million views, and then the next ones only hits 100 views🤷🏽‍♀️. But think about this: I spend weeks, sometimes even months on a project before it gets to be a 30 minute video. At the moment of writing this, I for example have been working on a project for over 800+ hours already which will be a ‘project vlog’ of just around 30 to 40? minutes. Imagine how I feel if that would only get 100 views? In such situations it affects me MUCH more than it will affect you (the sponsor). So no, I don’t need (and won’t allow) the extra stress in regards to the sponsor ‘wanting a minimal amount of views’. Obviously I want all videos to perform excellent, but in reality that just doesn’t always happen.
  • I do want to comeback to the scheduling part for a brief moment though, because it’s also important to understand that if you sponsor a project or video, that I will not be able to give you a ETA/Release time-line! Some projects can take up weeks to even months until they are finished, and I’m not going to rush work/projects because a sponsor wants to see the sponsored content/item/product/service within a certain time frame. I want to deliver quality projects and content, and if your product/service wants to be part of that, then great, truly appreciated😊, but do keep in mind that good work takes time and effort! This also basically put means: That I won’t accept pressure (and thus extra stress) on projects and/or content etc from sponsors.
  • In general I don’t allow sponsors to tell me to put a ‘time limited offer/promo’ in my content as sponsored section. This is for several reasons, for example like mentioned earlier: It can take weeks to even months before a certain project is finished. Which could mean that the project isn’t even done/released before the promo ends, or that I otherwise would have to rush the project or content to be ‘on time’ for the promo (which isn’t going to happen, see the bullet point about scheduling). Secondly: I can’t guarantee when a video starts to perform well (which could also be long after the promo runs out). And lastly: My content is there to stay ‘forever’, the promo is only a limited time. Putting time/date limited promo’s in a video would basically feel like putting an expiration date on the content I’ve worked so hard on. And then there is also the fact that it will also make viewers more aware that it’s an old(er) video when they for example watch it 3 years after release. While the content/project might then still be relevant for them at that point, they might actually ‘steer way’ from the video because the ‘expired date’ on the sponsored section just made them aware of ‘how old’ the content is.
  • If you want to send-in a product for me to review, use or ‘just to have’, then make sure to contact me in advance. If you send-in stuff without agreeing with me beforehand, and I would for example suddenly receive a bill from customs (to pay import taxes etc), I will bill it to you. Also make sure to agree upfront if want your product back after I’ve used or seen it! Because most of the time I don’t even want to bother with ‘return products’ because it is just too much hassle to keep track of all the return addresses, the packaging and re-shipping etc. Another important thing to understand: If you send-in something without discussing it first, it’s automatically mine to keep (or throw away)! A note inside the box with “we do want it back” will not be accepted with such shipments. There could be exceptions to this rule, but those have to be of a very significant value to my audience and they would have to be discussed and agreed upon upfront! In general
  • When you send-in a product (and it’s mine to keep), then there is a probability that I will take it apart on video, that I will perform experiments/tests with it or whatever. Aka: I will treat it as it’s mine like I bought it.
  • No matter what reason or story a sponsor will come up with, I will always disclose it if something is sponsored, even if it was ‘just’ a free product without any expected ‘return favors’. So this also includes product where you would for example say: “Here, have our product for free, we don’t care if you use it in content or not”. I will then still honestly tell that I have received it as sponsored/free product.
  • In general all sponsored donations go-through/via my Patreon, because they are (obviously) to sponsor my platform. This also makes it much easier for me to deal with properly paying taxes and keep track of other administrative aspects. IF another option would be preferred/needed than that could be discussed, but in general I would prefer not to use other methods at all (for financial donations that is).
  • I will not accept sponsors to ‘direct/demand’ in which portion of the video/content I will mention them and/or their sponsorship! I will always tick the ‘this video contains sponsored/paid product placement’ checkbox on videos when needed. I will always at the start do a brief announcement about which sponsor(s) sponsor the current video/project, and then at the location in the video where the ‘sponsored stuff’ is actually relevant to the video I will mention the sponsored segment/section. So this could mean that I would indeed mention the sponsor in the first few to 30 seconds briefly, but that the more ‘elaborate part’ about the sponsor is halfway the second half of the video. If you would for example would sponsor a multimeter, and I would start to use it in the second half of the video, then THAT is the moment when I would discuss the sponsorship and thus the product. There are no exceptions to this, period. I don’t want to ‘break my viewers out of the flow’ of the content. And in my opinion a sponsored section which is neatly integrated into the video is much more likely to be watched by my viewers than a ‘disruptive section’ of sponsored content which goes way to far off-track from the original content. There is a reason there are even ‘sponsor segment skipping plugins’ for browsers these days. Simply because those sponsorships either have nothing to do with the content itself, or they are “integrated” in such a disruptive way that viewers instantly start bashing “the right arrow key” (me included for quite a few videos to be honest). And incorporating a sponsored section/product nicely into the content will give it much more reach than being ‘just another skipped sponsor segment’😊.
  • All sponsor requests, suggestions etc should (initially) go via my contact page here. make sure to select Partners, Advertising and Sponsoring! And like mentioned earlier, the email should also be from a valid (brand) domain. Sponsor requests send to the contact email af for example a platform like YouTube will in general be ignored, or even (automatically!) be deleted a SPAM. So if you are using my YouTube contact email with a sponsor offer/idea, then chances are that I will not even receive it in my inbox.
  • All sponsored products, services etc have to be related to the content, project, platform etc. And they have to be relevant to either the project/content and/or to my viewers directly. So I for example am not going to accept your sponsor offers about: Wallets, toothbrushes, vacuum cleaners, dog-bowls, sunglasses etc etc. (SO PLEASE STOP MAILING OR DMing ABOUT THEM ALREADY!). My main content topics are Electronics (PCB’s, repairs, recycling, soldering, design etc), 3D printing, 3D Modeling, programming and sometimes more generic DIY. So sponsored products/services/offers should be within those categories. [PS. Even though the channel is still very small at the moment, the sponsor offers about the wallets, toothbrushes etc is annoyingly often, can’t even imagine how much 100K or 1M+ channels have to deal with those🤷🏽‍♀️]

Obviously this bullet list doesn’t cover every possible scenario, but it does give a clear and quick overview. The rest of the page goes (much) more in-depth on certain aspects and how I feel about them. I DO realize that this might be way to much for possible sponsors to read, but honestly? I don’t care. Because lots of sponsors also throw a massive legal contract in your face even during their initial sponsor suggestion, and because I don’t want to deal with all that, I have put everything at once on here. If a sponsor is serious about sponsoring and does truly want to work with me/us, then I bet they don’t mind to read a bit of text for a couple of minutes either. This page will clearly show my ethics and thoughts about sponsorships and what we can offer each other. If this is too much “work” for a “potential sponsor” to read? Then you’re not a true sponsor which is truly interested in the platform and content and for it to succeed. Then you are just looking for a quick and ‘easy grab’ to use me or my platform(s) as an extension of your marketing department. And that’s something I don’t care about, no thanks. I would much rather have a reliable content partner/sponsor which does care about the content/platform, so I can with pride show their products and/or services.

If you’ve made it until here, then thank you very much, and hopefully we can help each other one way or another😊.

Advertising

The XNL Future Technologies Platform mainly targets beginner to novice/intermediate electronics enthusiasts/hobbyists, students, and (mid-range!) professionals. We are not not an platform aimed at (university) level professionals and we are not an platform aimed at professional engineers!
We aim to help our audience get more experienced and to rise to more advanced levels (grow their experience and understanding of electronics design, designing your own PCB’s, designing your own enclosures, software/game development, 3D Modeling and 3D printing). In regards to the electronics part, we will be doing this by showing and educating about the practical uses and importance of equipment like oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzers and such and by using such equipment for our projects for example. Of course you are welcome to request an banner placement (or even a product placement) for your “$15.000 oscilloscope“, but we want to be completely honest to you here and tell you that this then probably isn’t the right website/platform for you.

This doesn’t mean your product would not fit our target demographic. If you have an electronics (design), software development or 3D printing related product, there is still a large chance that it would actually suit our audience. Especially like mentioned above already, we are actually trying to get our audience out of the ‘Arduino Lunch-box Beginner Spectrum’ (just to make an clear example), and into the more (semi-)professional side of electronics and such. So there will be lots of motivation to use oscilloscopes, multimeters, logic analyzer etc just to name a few. But also products like development boards, breakout boards, enclosures, development kits, basic (electronics) tools, soldering equipment etc would fit perfectly on our website and in our content. Or maybe even an banner for your own local (electronics) store.

NOTE: We REFUSE to place tracking cookies or tracking pixels on your behalf, and neither will we accept requests to share data about our platform users. We value the privacy of our visitors! (Obviously this is different when there for example is an giveaway and the user has agreed to share his/her information!).

If you would like to place a banner on our platform (or to offer a different sponsorship), then you will have to contact us through the contact form (using an official corporate email address!).

Banner Placement On our Platform (websites)


How to ‘request’ a banner placement
I don’t work with ‘fancy advertiser contracts’ or anything of the alike. If you want to support my/our platform (which is what direct advertisements/banner placements are for obviously), you’ll have to actually become a patron to my platform. In return I will then ‘reward you’ with a banner placement on my website in several locations. People (and company’s are also welcome to support my/our platform of course) whom are interested in supporting my/our platform in such a way can use the XNL Direct Sponsor tier to do so. Do note that you will need to contact me before applying to this tier, to be eligible for a banner placement at all! This for example is because I first need to make sure that your banner would meet my/our audience and that you understand the ‘rules of the game’ in regards to these banners.

The banner images (either JPG, JPEG, PNG or GIF) will generally be hosted on our server so the risk of being blocked by an ad-blocker due to an ‘adsense’ url is also minimized (no guarantees though, because we have no control on how people configure their own filters and keywords!).

And you also need to keep in mind that (other) Patreon members of the Hologram Drone tier and up will also be able to disable Direct Sponsor Banners if they want to (for their account).

IMPORTANT NOTE:
The XNL Direct Sponsor is NOT ‘just an advertiser’ portal/tier! It still is a ‘normal tier’ which also rewards you (as a ‘large supporter/sponsor’) with an Banner on my website (on-top of all the other regular Tier perks). But to prevent ‘abuse’ of this tier and banner placements on my/our platform, this is a ‘restricted/limited type of tier’/


Advantages when hosting your banner on our platform(s) directly:

  • You know that your ‘soldering iron banner’ will actually be seen by people whom are interested in electronics, and not shown to random people whom have been picked by an ‘smart AI system’ depending on an single coincidental search on some ‘famous search engine’.
  • You do NOT pay per view/ad load, and neither do you pay per click (no ‘discounts’ either if people are not interested or click less on your banner!).
  • Due to your banner(s) being hosted on our server the ‘risks’ of being blocked by an ad-blocker is minimized to near zero (due to the fact that your banner (image) is actually ‘part of our content’ due to it’s site-integration).
  • There is no unexpected billing and there are no hidden fees.
  • You have no minimal views, runtime or ‘contract time’. As in you can terminate your banner(s) at any time and you just keep your banner(s) as long as you are a patreon member of the required tier. More about this can be read a little further though.

We do have some basic guidelines for banners which should be clear before contacting us regarding advertising:

  • The banners have to be ‘of value’ for our audience/platform (So no banners for ‘toothbrushes’ or games for example!)
  • The products which are being advertised have to be decent and genuine products (NO cheap knock offs or counterfeits!)
  • The banner is NOT allowed to be interactive, flash, Java, Scripted, silverlight etc.
  • The banner is not allowed to be a video’s or to make sounds/music (Animated GIF’s are allowed though!).
  • We only host image banners and do not offer ‘popup windows’ etc.
  • The banner is not allowed to be of any political nature, religion based/orientated, or to be provocative (the Right to Repair bill is exempt from this rule!) Our platform is intended to be a neutral welcome place for everyone and anyone, and we tend to keep it that way.
  • The banner is not allowed to contain ANY kind of discrimination including (but not limited): Racism, Religion, Gender, Sexual Preference, Income, Education etc, and neither should your (linked) offer/website have such ‘terms and/or conditions’ tied to it!
  • The banner is not allowed to be in regards to any of the following topics: Gambling, finance (loans, debts etc), adult/porn related, weapons and/or violence etc.
  • The banner is not allowed to be misleading.
  • The banner is not allowed to be a ‘hidden trap’ for our visitors (as in ‘falsely advertising’ a product for just $1.99, while very very very small fine-print then states something like “This discount is for the first two months, after which your subscription automatically will be extended for $199,99 per month). It’s all fine and well if you have such offers, but be OPEN, HONEST and CLEAR about it!
  • The banner is not allowed to be used to slander/vilify competitors or other brands/products!
  • We do NOT provide or keep records of which users have seen/viewed or clicked on your banner(s)! We don’t keep records of this and thus we won’t be able to provide you such details.
  • You CAN use a custom referral link (to your OWN domain) to keep track of how many visitors came to your product/page via our pages. you should however respect the privacy of all users and be compliant with the GDPR when doing so!
  • We do not (and will not) collect, nor provide you any information about our members in regards to (but not limited to): Their age, education, gender, location, interests, activities etc etc. In short: We will NOT share ANY details about our members with sponsors just to ‘tailor their banners’. We respect the privacy of our visitors and members, and expect the same level of respect from our direct sponsors by only processing the data of our visitors and members which are absolutely necessary, for example to complete orders and such.
  • Using banners on our website to just ‘pointless harvest data’ of our visitors will not be tolerated and we will where possible notify official privacy authorities, organizations and/or agency’s where we deem necessary if we notice an situation as such.
  • Being an sponsor on one or more of our pages and/or platform(s) does not exempt your or your products from receiving a bad review for example! What this exactly means is: Let’s say you have been running an banner for “Product A” for “years” on our platform, and we then either buy or receive your “Product D” for review. If it then turns out that is ‘doesn’t do well‘ in our reviews, we will NOT refrain from publishing it and neither will we ‘redact it more politely’ just because you’re an sponsor! If this would mean that you suddenly want to end your sponsorship after years of ‘loyalty’ just because of one or two bad reviews? Fine by us, we like be honest to our audience instead of ‘taking a dive’ just for a sponsor. We however suspect that most (decent) sponsors could actually appreciate this kind of honesty and feedback though.
  • With our own (custom) XNL Direct Sponsor Banner program, it is possible to let your banner run from and until a certain date. This can for example come in handy for ‘holiday discounts’ or such. Do note though that if you want to run two ‘date ranges’ using our sponsor banner program (lets say Halloween and again with Christmas), that you will have to be a sponsors during both periods (October and December). If you for example only want to show an banner in the first week of November and only in the last week of November, you would however still need to be a member of the XNL Direct Sponsor tier for the entire month November (a ‘full one month slot’).

We do realize that these ‘rules’ can sound/be very blunt and direct, but just to say it in very straight-forward language: As long as you respect the privacy of our visitors, don’t try to scam them with false advertising and comply with national and international privacy laws and regulations, there should be no problem for you to place banners on our platform through our XNL Direct Sponsor Banner Program.

NOTE: Please do understand that we do not (and will not) work (or comply with) all kinds of ‘sketchy’ advertisement contracts, conditions and more of the alike! We will show the banners according to the terms and rules set on this page, and this page will always be openly available to anyone. ‘Sneaky ‘side contracts’ which ‘special deals’ and such which we aren’t allowed to tell our audience bla bla bla isn’t going to happen at all.

WARNING: Contacting us about wanting to advertise but making an attempt in ‘pushing through’ additional (either ‘secret or not’) terms, or trying to invalidate the rules we’ve set here (to protect our visitors and their privacy!) will most-likely result in a full open and public blog post of this matter!

You should realize (and accept) that it’s (obviously) possible that an competitor has an banner placement on the same page as where your banner is placed, we all know that this market (of quality equipment, tools and quality software) isn’t ‘insanely large’ and that are only a ‘few’ ‘well established names’ in this industry. This of-course makes it impossible for Brand A to ‘demand’ that we don’t show banners for ‘Brand B’. If this isn’t ‘up your ally’, then please don’t bother to apply for an banner. Do note that it could also happen from time to time that on pages where we (also) display Google AdSense ad’s that your ad’s/banners might show-up twice (once via our program and once via the Google AdSense program if you’re running the same ad/Banner-campaign on both platforms).

Where will (your) banners be visible? We will ‘Wide Banners’ at the bottom or top of the pages, or ‘Between/inline with Content’ on practically every page with exclusion of the following pages:

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Copyright
  • Disclaimer
  • Advertising (This Page)
  • Become A partner
  • Partner & Links [*4]
  • The XNL Ft. LiveChat App(let)
  • And any other page which isn’t considered actual ‘site/blog’ content

NOTE: The forum is currently offline because I’m considering a better, more suitable and more integrated solution for the current platform!

Next to this your banner will also be shown on our forum for all visitors which are not logged-in and for members whom are logged-in but aren’t member of ANY Patreon tier. If a user which is member of any Patreon tier visits or uses our forum, he or she will not see any advertisements or banners on the forum. Due to limitations on the advertisement system for our forum software it is not possible (without introducing update issues in the future) to integrate the user settings from our main platform with the forum software consistently without introducing possible security risks between the databases. Therefor we’ve decided to not ‘create security holes’ just to display sponsor banners on the forum for Patreon members.

Extra Clarification: The sponsor banners on the forum will only be disabled (fully) for members which are also a Patreon member.

In general we will place banners (NON INTRUSIVE) where possible as long as this doesn’t ‘destroy the user experience and comfort’

Most banners locations on our website(s) will automatically (and randomly) alternate between Direct Sponsor Banners and also automatically alternate between AdSense and direct sponsor banners.

[*4] To be eligible to be placed on the partners & links page you’ll have to meet certain requirements which can be one or more of the following:

  • Your company, brand or one or more of it’s products have to have an significant role for our platform, projects or events (for example components or equipment that is being used often). Or it is a brand we often use due to own preference for example.
  • We must really like your product, brand or service to an (for us) significant extend. Or we consider it to be of significant importance to our audience/platform.
  • You (on a regular or semi-regular basis) supply/sponsor materials for us or our platform, or you (actively) support our ‘educational goals’ for our audience.

Please do note that you can not ‘buy’ an place on the Partners & Links page! And if we did placed you on that page already without you doing ‘something special’ for it, then please consider this as an ‘thank you’ for the important role your company, brand or product(s) plays in our platform.

Same goes for our useful links page(s), it is not possible to ‘buy your way in’ for that page(s) either, a request to be mentioned on this page is however possible (IF your website is significant for our audience).

Banner Availability It might be that all banner spots are already been filled and that we (currently) can’t place your banner, however you are always free to plan-ahead (reserve) an banner location. Contact us about possible banner reservations ahead in time.

Right to termination of “contract”, banner placement or the banner program completely
We reserve the right to change our banner and advertising terms and conditions at any time without prior notice. In the event that changes are made, the revised/updated terms will be posted on this website immediately. If such changes will have significant affect or impact on your or your company’s banners, we will inform you of such changes or alert you by pointing you to our updates page via email or a public publication whenever possible.

We also reserve the right to suspend, cancel, remove or otherwise modify our banner services offered on our website(s) completely at any time without prior notice.

Cancellation of individual banners (opposed to canceling the entire XNL Direct Sponsor Banner program)
We reserve the right to cancel and/or terminate any sponsor banner and/or it’s affiliation at any time. Usually this will only be due to for example violation of our terms, conflicts and/or complaints with/from our users in regards to your banner(s) or other conflicting situations.

If we decide to terminate your banner placement on our behalf and it is not due to any conflict or so, we will notify you or your company about this in advance. Your banner will in such situation just ‘complete it’s final term’ and after that it will be removed from our website(s). This basically means that if you or your company has “paid” upfront for the banner period of the month January, that we will leave the banner running until the beginning of the next month (February). We reserve the right to terminate any banner/advertisement agreement or sponsorship without giving any reason, however in most cases we will try to provide reasonable feedback to why we decided to terminate the banner or affiliation.

You as sponsor also have the same right to terminate your banner at any time without giving any reason. Of course we would like to request you to provide us some feedback on why you are terminating the banner, sponsorship or affiliation so we might be able to use possible criticism to improve things in the future.

Changing Banners with recurring payments/memberships
If you have a recurring membership/sponsorship as sponsor and you would like to change your banner/image or link, you can request that once a month (or once between each payment (pledge), whatever comes first). You can even request us to setup 4 seasonal banners up-front so they will run for an entire year but automatically switch ‘per season’. However do keep in mind that such banner opportunity’s need to be discussed up front, and also realize that these ‘full year programs’ are NOT exempt to from the ‘no refunds’ terms and other ‘cancellation terms’ set on this page. If you do however request such an ‘extensive banner program’ up-front, we will discuss how this pledge or subscription will be handled or dealt with. These situations will most likely require a different payment plan than our usual platform, or require a one-time larger custom pledge.


Banners and refunds
We do not (in any way) offer refunds for banners. If you decide to terminate the banner yourself then you should do so before the next (periodic) payment/pledge has been made. We will then make sure that at the end of the current active period that your banner will be removed from our website. If you however insist that we take down your banner(s) effective immediately we will do this upon receiving your request. However if you have just processed/completed a new/renewal payment and then with intimidate effect request us to take down the banner(s), this payment will not be eligible for refund! Same goes if we decide to take down your banner(s) due to violation(s) with our terms for example. If we however decide to terminate your banners(s) on our platform without any ‘conflict reasons’, we will make sure it will be online until the end of the period you’ve pledged/paid for. If we (for any reason) have to suspend or terminate our entire banner program (or our platform), we will not provide any refunds for the upfront paid periods. We will however (if possible) try to notify you upfront if we need to terminate the (banner) program(s).

What if we ‘forget’ to take-down your banner after you’ve stopped your payment?
If on our behalf we somehow ‘forget’ to take down your banner, or there was any other situation where we were not able to take it down sooner, you will not be billed for this in any way. If you however have requested an ‘immediate take-down’ of your banner(s) for any reason, we will try to take it down as soon as possible after you’ve received the email confirmation from us. Such take-downs can be expected to be executed within 72-hours after receiving our confirmation email, as long as there are no unforeseen circumstances which prevent us from doing so.

Product Placement (or sponsoring products or services)

NOTE: From here on the information is written from (an even more) personal point of view from Rico (the XNL Future Technologies Platform founder and owner), so please beware and keep this in mind.

Product placements, product reviews etc

If you want to send us stuff so it’s being ‘showcased’ and/or used in content like video’s or blog posts, then we would appreciate that. HOWEVER, there is a certain (and strict) set or rules for doing so, please do take those into account. Products have to be of significance to the platform, they should have an ‘added value’ to the content or it must be ‘of value’ to our viewers that we introduce them to the product/item. We (well I (Rico) myself mainly) do have to like to product itself enough to use it and ‘showcase’ it in my content. I for example proudly use an Hakko FX-888D (and I did not received it for free, nor am I being paid to say this!), and if you would then send me an cheap ‘china/no name/brand’ non-temperature-controlled ‘plug-into-the-wall piece of cr*p’, chances are likely that I will either “recycle” it instantly (maybe even on video), or I might ‘mock it’s quality’ in content. I will however definitely not start using your ‘wonderful free soldering iron’ instead of my trustworthy Hakko FX-888D.

Same goes if you for example send me some (cheap) multimeter so that I can (read: “have to“) use it instead of my Keysight A1233A (also non sponsored). Do you notice a ‘pattern’ here? I will use products that are worthy of being used, and of quality. This of course does not mean that I won’t give your product a fair chance to try it (and maybe even ‘replace’ one of my regular brands in my content with your product). This of-course does not apply to ‘rubbish’ products (and we assume you know yourself if your equipment would/should be considered rubbish or not). We DO also review ‘cheap’/’low budget’ tools so we can provide viewers with a very low budget a TEMPORARY solution until they can get something more serious. But this also means that we WILL point out possible flaws, limitations and issues with the ‘budget product’ compared to better brands and their entry level equipment. We do also know that there are cheaper products which do perform quite well for their price (or even ‘above expectancy’). We/I for example also often use a Chinese brand multimeter (a Victor). Which I’m quite fond of due to it’s well build quality and accuracy (for it’s price!). I will however also state that I would never use such a product on high voltage installations due to it lacking the proper certifications and safety measure which are in effect in our region. So we will be open and honest about the products as far as our knowledge extends on such products.

Sending gear, items, components etc does not put you in an ‘you owe us now’ position at all. We will try to put (decent) gear, components etc in content as soon as possible but there will be no time-frame guarantees at all, unless specifically and mutually discussed and agreed upfront otherwise! When sending in equipment we by definition assume that you’ve send it to us to keep either for use in future content or in rare instances to do a give-away among (starting) people whom might need it for their study/education for example. However, most of the time such equipment (unless we have ‘doubles’) will be kept for future reviews, comparisons or use in content. If you however do require us to return the product after review, you should state, discuss and mutually agree on this very clearly BEFORE shipping us anything! If you just ‘blindly ship’ stuff to us/me without agreeing beforehand that you do need/want it back, then it’s very simple: We will assume it’s for us to keep (just a note/letter ‘inside the box’ with something like “we want/need it back”! does NOT count!) In case of a (mutually agreed) return-shipment, these return-shipment costs should be covered by you or your company or will be billed (more about this a bit further on).

If you send in products for product placement or as ‘donation’ there is also a significant chance that I will put it through the Review System, so please ensure that you also read the Reviews section of this page and that you accept that!.

Basic ‘rules’ when offering sponsored gear, products and/or services

There are some ‘basic rules’ when it comes to sending in gear/equipment, components, items, tools etc:

  • Please DO NOT send in stuff which has nothing to do with the platform, for example don’t send in Computer Monitors, Gaming Mice, kitchen appliances, Headsets etc (we don’t need them, and we use our own brands).
  • Don’t expect any special favors in return (as in ‘falsely/faked positive reviews’ for example).
  • Don’t think we are obliged to do as you wish just because you decided to send us some free or ‘on-loan’ tech (for example that we now only use your brand instead of one from the competition).
  • If you send us gear, make sure you declare it correctly at the *Dutch/EU) customs (for example as ‘free sample, not for re-sale’ with the correct documentation). Because if we are getting billed by customs/VAT/Taxes due to your shipment, we will ‘return the favor’ by billing it to you (Plus extra administrative costs!).
  • If your product needs to be returned after review we don’t mind either, but return shipping (and all possible other customs fees) are on your expense.
  • You will need to understand that sending a product does not grant you a ‘permanent spot’ in the ‘video frame’ for example.
  • Sending in products does not give you the ‘power’ to demand from us that we don’t show your brand next to an competitor brand.
  • IF a product of an competitor (in around the same price range) does something better than your ‘equally priced’ product, we will also state this in our content.
  • It should also be clear that by sending us gear/tech, that you will not (ever) be in any position to limit us in use of other brands and/or equipment.

You are not my editor, producer or director

Sending in tech, gear, licenses or any other material will not ever give you nor your company any ‘director or editorial rights’ on our/my content. This also means that I will not go along with requests (or demands) like: “We want to see the video and our ‘sponsor ad/section’ before you actually publish it.” No, means no, also for sponsors.

In general this just isn’t possible, simply because I’m very busy with lots of projects, and I have had it in the past that a sponsor took over two weeks before responding with a simple “Video is okay” while I had to wait publishing it. That is something I just can’t and won’t let happen again.

There could of course be exceptions to the ‘no previewing rule’, but those have to be discussed upfront and agreed on both sides. So for example do not send stuff in or cover the costs of a project, video or order in advance and then after doing so tell me that you now require me to let you preview the video first. THAT is unacceptable, and I would almost even consider it as ‘taking my content hostage’!

I do not make illegal or controversial content, I do not cover ‘drama topics’ or other types of overly hyped or endangering content, so there is no need for a concern like that at all.

I make the content, it’s my platform and I’m super grateful if you (or your company) wants to sponsor our platform, but that’s what it is: A sponsor. Not someone from my “editing or producers team” (Which is mainly all me by myself). You have seen my platform, channel and/or content, and you apparently liked it enough to offer a sponsorship, so you are aware of my style and implementation of things (including “promos”), so just trust me/us that we will do it correctly, or please just don’t offer a sponsorship. What I’m basically trying to say here is that I really will not (ever) allow sponsors to take control over the content that I make and/or put out, period.

I CAN however (obviously) let you know in advance what the main topic and ‘lines/coverage’ of an upcoming video are, and you could then for example of course say: “Nope, we rather not have that you put our sponsor ship in that video“. All perfectly fine, no hard-feelings, I’ll gladly add your promo to the next video/topic then. But I will just not allow sponsors to get editorial rights over my content and work sorry.

So like mentioned in the bullet points/’short overview’: I do not submit previews (not in ‘hidden/unlisted video’ format either!) for approval or revision(s). No exceptions.

I want my gear/parts/product back after review/showcase

Please do note that we don’t ‘care’ if you let us keep the gear or that you want us to return it (send it as a ‘loan device’), and neither will we hold a ‘grudge’ if you want it to be returned. However when sending it as a ‘on-loan-device’ you will be doing so completely at your own risk/responsibility! We do NOT accept any liability for damages either during transport or during use. Of course we will take extra precaution(s) when it’s a ‘on-loan-device’, we won’t do a ‘tear down’ etc (unless allowed or requested to obviously), and we will certainly not ‘destroy it on purpose’. However like I’ve said before: We do not accept any liability for damages to on-loan-devices! And as mentioned above: Return shipping costs are also on your behalf. Do take into consideration though that if you do decide that we can keep ‘the device’ that there will be a likely chance that it will be used in future content or that it at-least will be visible somewhere (on a shelf for example). There are no guarantees on this though! In (mutual) agreement we might also donate some ‘surplus equipment’ to schools, makerspaces, community centers locally or an individual (often a ‘youngster’ or late-teens starter) ‘in need’ via an giveaway. In general we however prefer not to receive “stuff which needs to be send back”, not because we are greedy and want to keep it al 😉😂, but simply because this will put more strain on our already very busy schedule by having to keep track on what needs to be returned to where, bringing stuff to the postal office etc etc.

Product Reviews etc

If you want to send in your product, ‘gadget’, breakout-board, development board, equipment etc for review, that’s great. We are targeting at an audience with several different ‘skill and education levels’, which might give you quite an broad range of viewers. It is however important to realize that the product that is being offered for review is actually suitable for the XNL Future Technologies Platform and it’s audience, on top of that it also has to be interesting to me (Rico) to actually spend time on it.

Things that might for example (but not limited to) be interesting for our audience are: Breakout-Boards[*5], (Arduino) Modules, Microcontroller Development Boards[*6], Testing and Measurement equipment, electronics tools, power supply’s, special 3D Printer Filaments, 3D Printer tools, 3D Printer parts or modules[*7], software (aimed at our target audience) or more of the alike.

[*6] Do understand that we will not promote “breakout boards” which for example only have one freaking LED, button or whatever on it! In my personal opinion those are a total waste of resources when those are sold as individual parts or breakout boards. This could obviously be different for entire educational kits where they are included as a part of a ‘larger set’ to ensure a longer lifespan and easier use of it in such a setting, but in general I personally consider them to be something useless to be honest. And obviously parts which have a difficult footprint to breadboard/prototype are also “exempt from this”.

[*6] Please do realize that we do not endorse Arduino (Based) boards or products which are actually intended to be build into stuff like ‘lunch-boxes’ with jumper-wires as an ‘finished project’! If we receive such boards or ‘products’ we will stand up against them fiercely! We are actually trying to learn people to make more stable, reliable and less resource wasting projects, and thus we refuse to contribute to such practices. Of-course some products are exempt from this ‘policy’, for example the Arduino MEGA2560 which is often used in 3D Printers (with proper use of headers and not using jumper-wires!).

[*7] It’s all ‘fine and great’ if you want to send in some new 3D Printer components like nozzles, heat beds etc. BUT if it would mean that we would have to take one of our printers apart just to ‘review’ your component, then it’s most likely not going to happen. The 3D Printer(s) we use run a custom XNL Future Technologies Firmware (based on the Marlin firmware), and it supports & uses additional commands to work with our (in-house designed) custom touch-screen interface. So taking that apart just to demonstrate/test your new board will most likely result in us losing lots of functionality from our printer(s). And the other printers in our Micro print farm are CR-10-SE’s, which (with a small modification) run fine as they are.

What not to send in for sponsored reviews

Household, kitchen or consumer products would also not be suitable to send in for review. Some examples would be (but are not limited to): A new “fancy” Coffee Maker, a new blu-ray player, MP3 players, headsets, alarm clocks, thermostats, game consoles/controllers, cell phones, tablets, laptops etc etc. Those things are NOT welcome to be send in! IF you do decide to send them in, I will consider them either as something meant for an tear-down video or you might actually never see it again, because I might even instantly donate it to someone whom can actually use it or I will scrape and recycle it if no-one wants it (without it ever appearing in the content!). So PLEASE do NOT send in ‘consumer crap’, we are trying to keep our platform dedicated to what matters for our audience. There are plenty of other ‘consumer review channels’ on platforms like YouTube which would be much more suitable for your product if it falls in one of these categories.

Kickstarters/Crowdfunding

If you are just looking for an extra ‘media boost’ with your crowd-funding campaign and hoping that we would ‘rush to make content’ especially to feature your content on time. Then sorry but the chances are likely that we will not do it. If you’re running an crowd-funding project you are probably also ‘time limited’, which basically means that we would have to ‘drop everything else’ to ‘quickly’ test your product and then ‘quickly’ make an video about it so that it is live on time before your kickstarter runs out. Nope, not going to happen, sorry.

IF your crow-funding project is really an ‘important innovation’ or changes the ‘makerworld’ significantly, you could try to state this in your email and we might consider helping out with some extra publication with ‘rushed content’. HOWEVER: You should keep in mind that there is also a likely chance that we won’t even be able to read your email on time due to high workload and a massive stream of messages! If we do not respond or so, please do not be offended, it just means that we are currently overflowing with either projects, work assignments, the platform or even emails!

As stated before: You can always ask, but don’t expect an instant yes or approval, you are of course also free to send it in anyway, so that when the product launches you have some ‘extra advertisement’ for promoting/boosting possible sales after the campaign has finished.

Sending in stuff (of any kind) is not an automatic guarantee that it will appear in content! It might also mean that it will appear in content but that it will ‘take ages’ due to other content or activity’s which are going on. If you are planning on sending something in you could always contact us and if possible we might be able to discuss something like a possible time-frame over email. However once again: It might be that we are not able to reply directly or at all, please respect that and show some understanding in regards to this.

Rules for ‘sent in stuff’ (Applies to both product placement and review material!)

This is our platform, but above all MY (Rico’s) website(s), blog, content etc so it’s very simple: I set the rules (no exceptions!)
Bellow are some (basic) guidelines to take into consideration before you are sending in stuff for review:

  • I like to try and point out as much useful aspects as possible about the stuff I/we review, this can and will be both positive as-well as negative aspects we might find. It might also happen that we miss some (crucial?) parts of the product in our review(s). It might be that we spend lots of time on ‘Function A’ and just a few minutes (or none at all) on ‘Function B’ of your product, while you hoped/wanted it to be the other way around: TO BAD, we review the aspects which are interesting to us and/or our platform audience. But also the ‘functions’ that appeal to us the most or which ‘catch our eye’. Like mentioned before, we might/will also point out the ‘bad/cons’ about the item which is held for review, this might also include (but is not limited to) for example the user friendliness/usability, the ‘Intuitive use’ of the product or possible risks/dangers when using the product. This all also means that if your product fails during an review, that it will still make it to the video/content! We are not some ‘cover-up conspiracy platform’😂.
  • We do not accept paid (sneaked in or prop) product placements, and we do not accept ‘review bribes’ to fake an positive review either!
  • We do not accept payments to place positive reviews on (external) websites, nor do we accept payments to remove negative reviews (either in videos or published articles)!
  • When we are reviewing your product it might be that we test it to be ‘idiot proof’, which might mean we will be trying to do stuff to/with it which it is not designed for! This is not to ‘piss on your product’, this is to see what would happen if beginners for example (accidentally) use it incorrectly. So we will obviously not be testing your 300V rated product on a 5KV output. But doing such ‘idiot proof tests’ might mean that your product will be ‘killed’, thrown, smashed etc on video (to show durability for example)! However IF we plan on doing such test, we tend to do them at the end of the review. And of-course will such tests (like drop tests) only be performed on equipment which is at risk for such situations (we are in general not planning to ‘toss around’ oscilloscopes for example! But multimeters for example are ‘at risk’ for such tests!).
  • We/I do NOT need another video director or ‘editor’, which means that you are not allowed to see or review possible content or posts before it’s published! If you want an honest review you also have to take your ‘risks’ in the product getting negative feedback. Excuses like: “We just want to make sure you have covered everything”, “We just want to ensure you haven’t left anything (important) out”, “We just want to make sure all the facts are correct” or “We just want to make sure it’s not too negative” are not going to work. You send in your stuff/items and just wait till the content (either video or post) goes live! We don’t have ‘Editorial Vacancies’ open for people/company’s whom just want their product to be reviewed or promoted!
  • It is very, very, VERY rare that a video will either be removed or removed and re-edited upon request. Due to limitations on the platforms where we upload content it’s impossible to make (any) edits to video’s once they have been published! If we made an mistake, error or explained some information incorrectly we will generally not hide the fact that we’ve made an mistake but instead rectify it with either annotations, comments or an edit in the content description! But in general the original content (and thus also our mistake!) will remain! IF we actually decide to take-down an video and re-upload an edited version there must really be a ‘super-duper-fancy-pancy-life-or-death’ reason to do so!
  • As we all know: People like to know ‘whats inside’ these days! So there is a very high probability that we will take apart (and even destroy your product in the process) for a tear-down (either in the review or during a future video). If you are to emotionally attached to your product to see it being torn open, please don’t send it in! We teardown things so people can see on our platform/content what’s on the inside, so that they don’t have to! You could also see it this way: ‘If we take it apart on video, other users don’t have to! which also saves a lot of warranty issues from other users’. In general we try to keep/restore the product in working order after a tear-down for future use, if your product however is ‘crappy constructed’ or ‘extremely sealed’ we might have no other option than damaging it (severely).
  • There is no regular schedule for reviews, there is no ‘standard script’ or ‘standard procedure’ to our reviews, it happens as we go! And it happens when we are up for it and motivated to make/do the review! ‘Forcing us’ to do the review (quickly) will not work (or happen)!), and would only result in negative results because we are not enthusiastic about it then!
  • ‘But we hoped that you would have showed how ‘super duper stable’ the output signal is’, or ‘we hoped that you would have explained into detail how good our RF-Shielding is and why it’s placed there’, or ‘we hoped you would have explained or shown how insanely noise free our inputs are’ or ‘we didn’t wanted you to show your audience how we are using the SPI or I2C bus in our product or what it’s doing!’: Well to all those (and any other possible variant to that): TO BAD, We show, tell, explain etc what we (at that moment) consider ‘valuable’ or ‘interesting’ to our audience or what we notice which is interesting for us. It MIGHT be that we cover ‘super technical details’ but it might just as-well that we completely leave them out! We would like to state once more: We are aimed at Beginners, Novice, Intermediate and (mid-range) professionals, not at industry engineering professionals! if you are hoping for an expert engineering review which might actually ‘spook/scare’ our beginner-level users, then you are at the wrong platform for your advertisement, sorry.
  • One last attempt: But we are [insert well known industry brand-name here], and we want you to do the review according to ‘our plan’, we will even pay you for it if you do it like we want’, well simple: We don’t care! It’s not going to happen like that.

You’ve stated ‘no knock-off’ advertisements but yet you do have an review of a ‘knock-off’ from my product!

Well let me first state this: It’s not always possible to know if a product is a knock-off of something else, secondly it might also just have been an review to compare the fake to the real deal. Or even ‘worse’ maybe we even fell for a scam! We are always cautious and trying to avoid fakes or getting scammed, but as we all know it almost became an ‘art-form’ in China to make ‘realistic looking’ fakes these days. If it turns out we have reviewed an copy, clone, fake/counterfeit product please don’t hesitate to let us know! and we will state this clearly with annotations, a comment or for example a video description update. The original video however might most likely not be taken down to show the possible issues (or not) with the counterfeit. If you would like us to review the counterfeit product vs yours and show why your real product is actually better, we are of-course open to that. HOWEVER, if that would mean we would need to spend (yet another) (several) hundred bucks to “just show your real product” on our expense, then it’s not going to happen. If you are willing to supply an genuine product for this review (either as ‘free gift’ or as ‘on-loan-device’) we will be open to this of course and we would like to recommend you to contact us about the possibility’s and details.

‘But there is one problem, the ‘fake version’ does ‘this feature’ actually better than our real version’ so can you please leave out that part in the review?
Well isn’t that a ‘shame on you/your product’? The answer to this would simply be: No, we won’t! If a ‘cheap knock-off’ actually functions better than the ‘expensive version’ then that also tells something about the quality of the product itself which in our opinion should be made clear to the public. We will however always tell and explain that it’s always better to actually support the real developer of the product(s) and how fakes (badly) affect the market, and that when possible people should always buy the real-deal instead of supporting the counterfeit market. However we also know that students and beginners with low budgets often tend to start with ‘cheap imitation tools’ because they simply can’t afford the real deal (yet). This might also be one of the reasons why some of the clones (not illegal counterfeits to look like the real deal!) might get featured in some of the content, where we once again will also tell them that the ‘real deal’ does a better job (if it actually does!), and also explain that buying originals supports the actual development of those products.

‘Yeah but you are showing/demonstrating/’promoting’ fake products (knowingly or unknowingly) so we are going to hold you responsible for promoting counterfeits!
NO, NO and again NO! That ‘ship won’t sail here’! Firstly we are not the ones whom are actually manufacturing, selling, or distributing them! Secondly, like already stated above: We might have just as well fallen for an scam! and lastly: We DO NOT support or condone counterfeiting products! We will most likely show what is wrong or incorrect with the counterfeit product (or what performs differently compared to the real one), but we will once again also explain that supporting counterfeit products is damaging to the market.

HEY! You said something bad or didn’t had your facts straight about my product in your video!

Whoops! Yeah, that can happen, just like you I’m also just a human you know🤷🏽‍♀️? If it’s just something you didn’t liked, then that’s too bad for you to be honest. It’s my personal view and opinion in my videos and/or content (like I very often clearly disclose). And if I did indeed mentioned something incorrectly about your product for example, just contact me through the contact form (or email if you already have contact details of us) so that we can for example rectify it (IF we deem it necessary!) with an annotation or pinned comment for example on video content, or with a small additional edit in published articles.

How to contact or send-in stuff

If you want to contact us about advertising and/or sending in stuff, and you don’t have an direct email, phone number or Skype contact yet, then we would recommend you to use our Contact Page and select the option ‘Partners, Advertising and Sponsoring’. Do keep in mind that we will only take ‘partner emails’ seriously when they are either being send from an actual company domain or when your email address is actually listed on the company website as an representative! Or that it is at-least from a domain/website you own or are part of. We are obviously not going to accept ‘sponsor deals’ from something like BigCompanyName@outlook/gmail.com etc.

Last Updated: 31-10-2024
Since last update: Contents/rules mainly unchanged, only added bullet points to summarize it more clearly.