mobius If there’s nothing in it for you, and you don’t intend to keep/buy the item and use it daily, and your job is not reviewing things, why write a review ?
It’s a hobby, one I’ve indulged since retiring almost 20 years ago. I also don’t do reviews much anymore, I just cover what “I” want to cover about a machine “If” I want to cover it. I have many products I never make videos about. The only thing “in it for me” is indulging a hobby, an interest. I don’t need any more coffee kit.
mobius I know the answer can be “to help others”, but when “helping others via reviews” becomes the main thing that you do, you’ve become a critic/reviewer who looks at things relative to everything else you’ve reviewed rather than what you actually need, and rarely want to sound negative because that affects future items to review.
I turn things down quite often and nowadays, If I never get another thing to “review”, I don’t really care. My hobby interests have moved a lot further into design work. Plus the way the whole influencer thing is going and peoples response to them, makes me me reluctant to spend too much of my time trying to help people. I’d rather spend a larger proportion of it indulging my own interests.
Like that video of the steam museum, I spent time on that purely because I enjoyed it and wanted to share…
Things are not always what they seem; the first appearance deceives many; the intelligence of few perceives what has been carefully hidden in the recesses of the mind. (Phaedrus)