Sponsorships 2025

For content creators

Discount codes did not work as I hoped in 2024. Some get scraped on discount sites and/or rarely get used. I want the people promoting HowNOT2 to get more reliable support than they are currently getting. It also gets sticky with things that are already on sale, big ticket items like Z3s, items that we’re not allowed to discount, and small vendors that can’t offer a 20% margin. 10% off with XYZ code + 10% for creator works for a 1 product wonder like Rocky Talkie but not a store with a lot of variables.

Update this line

3 PART SPONSORSHIP

Get paid per view - plug how and where you want, pay varies on platform and plug,
Offer value to your audience - give away a gift card for something that benefits YOU
Cross collabs - I shout you out to as many people as you shout out How NOT 2

PAID PER VIEW: By offering a menu of options with different values, you have full control over how and where you add in a promotion. DON’T devalue your content with a spammy ad. Keep HowNOT2 plugs natural. Shorts could just end with “you can get all this gear at hownot2.com” and longs could be while you show yourself clipping to a harness “btw you can get harnesses or any of this gear at hownot2.com.” Throw the logo up somewhere and people get the point. Just wear a HN2 hat and nothing else, and get paid for it.

VALUE ADD: Gift cards are a one time cost to us VS 10% off to everyone. $25 gift cards could be done more often than a $50 or $100 gift card, depending on your publishing cadence. If you post one long a month, $100 gift card makes sense. If you blast an Instagram reel every day, then $25 once a week could make sense. Your “ask” would be something that benefits YOU,

“sign up for my email and win a HowNOT2 gift card”
“Follow me on IG and someone will win a HowNOT2 gift card”

This gives you an excuse to say “HowNOT2” that is less annoying for your audience while growing your following.

COLLABS: If someone promotes my store/channel a bunch, I’d cross promote people back to them. It would need to fit naturally into something I’m making and the goal would be to match view for view.

PROGRAM LOGISTICS

Email us at contact@hownot2.com with your channels and if approved, you’ll be given a gsheet link with edit access so you can enter in the content where you promoted HN2.

Revenue Per Mille: The gsheet will autocalculate your earnings depending on the content, platform, and promotion level:

CONTENT: Education vs entertainment - content that teaches others how to do these sports is something we obviously value more. “Look how cool we are, here’s our sponsor’s logo” is the existing model in sports. We still pay but has a lower RPM

NEW information such as break tests are a TON of work vs showing people how to tie a knot and will be valued differently

PLATFORM: A youtube long that someone spent a lot of time working on is worth a LOT more than an Instagram reel made in 15 minutes with a HN2 logo at the end.
PROMOTION: A logo at the very beginning is going to get 99% views. A logo at the end gets 20% of the views. A smooth and short “unskippable ad” is better for your audience. Sharing for 30 seconds that we stock everything and ship it the day you order it or the order is free (1PM PST cut off) technically has more value. An integration has the most value. We have swag credits too.

GIFT CARDS: To get gift cards to give away, you’ll need to reach a certain number of engagement/views. That math will be on the gsheet.

There are online giveaway rules to follow: such as “no purchase necessary,” and adding fine print. “Must be 18 years and older, Instagram accounts must be public, this giveaway is free to enter. No purchase required. Gift card is non-transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash. Winner will be chosen randomly on [specific date] and announced via [method, e.g., a story or DM]. Winner must respond within [timeframe, e.g., 48 hours] to claim the prize, or another winner will be selected. This giveaway is not sponsored, endorsed, or administered by Instagram. By entering, participants release Instagram from any liability. HowNOT2 reserves the right to modify or cancel the giveaway at any time.”

COLLABS: To get cross promoted, your content promoting HN2 needs to match our averages before the first collab. Our average short gets 363k views and average long gets 80k. We’d then find a natural place to bring your channel up and there are lots of ways we can explore doing that.

BIG FINE PRINT:

DEFINITIONS:

Educational content - Can the audience do the thing in the video when they are done watching it? Example: how to tie a macrame knot OR when to use different length dog bones when sport climbing OR how to put a bolt in
Entertainment content - all other climbing related content. Example: rappelling on a macrame knot, OR doing a cool sport climb, OR showing yourself developing a route
Break Test video - must include up to 3 break tests and educational content around it
Smooth/Short ad: “...and you can get this gear at hownot2.com” or
~30 second ad: telling people what you like about the store
Integration: a buying guide video of your favorite gear while brolling HN2
Front Logo - HowNOT2 logo on screen for at least 3 seconds within the first 30 seconds of a long. Front logos don’t work on shorts
End Logo - HowNOT2 Logo on screen for at least 3 seconds anytime after the first 30 seconds of a long. Flashing logo at the end of a short for 2 seconds.
RPM - Revenue Per Mille (thousand). The amount we pay you for every 1000 views.
Views - On youtube longs, youtube shorts and instagram reels, it’s the publicly visible view count on a video. On linktree - free analytics show you 28 days of views. On blogging articles, instagram image posts or other media, a screenshot of analytics must be added to gsheet

TRIPLE DIPPING: You can NOT get short plug, long plug and integration RPM credit. It can only be one of these, not a combination of these. You CAN combine RPM credit for logos on both front and back, wearing swag, description and ONE of the plug types.

THE “F” WORD: In an effort to be FAIR, we may increase RPM for smaller channels but decrease caps. We need to balance offering bigger channels more for obvious reasons but value smaller creators who work hard but don’t please the algorithm just right. This is arbitrary and a moving target but we aim to value everyone the best we can.

LOVE CHANGE: This is a new program and there is a 99% chance we’ll change it 33% over the next year as we fine tune what we can pay each creator. Avant link is simple, but very flawed. This is more complicated but less flawed.

BILLING: Until we can get a script writing demi-god to scrape the internet and automate everything, you can only invoice us ONE time for a piece of content. Pro Tip: don’t invoice that piece of content 1 day after posting. Let it simmer for a little bit, then bill us for it. If something went wildly viral much later (it’s happened to us), we can review that as a one off.

PAYMENT: Payment amount needs to be no less than $100 to process your payment. Invoice maximum can only be at your CAP amount. Don’t delay invoicing us for a year then surprise us with a massive bill please. You’d be paid within 15 days of a submitted invoice which would be no more frequent than 1 calendar month. If paid over $600 a year, you’d be sent a 1099 if you are in the USA.

CAPS: In order to offer sponsorships to multiple creators, we would cap how much we could pay each month to a creator. Your cap would be on your gsheet. If you hit your cap for the month early, feel free to exclude bringing up HowNOT2 for the rest of the month as we aren’t in a place to pay for it yet. RPM’s above the cap for that billing cycle don’t carry over to the next billing cycle. As we grow, our sponsorship budget can grow.

BOTS: 4 million views, 2 likes, 1 comment, 0 shares. We’ve been in this game long enough to know if someone has bots. We will email you with our concerns and if we don’t feel the value to view count is worth it, we’d then remove you from our sponsorship program.

TERMINATION: This program could change with a 30 day notice. It is my intention to grow the program, not end it, but I don’t know what the future holds. If things got tough, making payroll to my team is my first priority and I’d have to end or pause the sponsorship program.