The easiest way to start monetizing videos today is to opt-in to existing revenue sharing programs on the various video sharing sites. This is probably the least profitable of the myriad of monetization options out there, but best for the vast majority of people who don’t have a large enough audience to support their own advertising. Casual users just posting videos for fun have nothing to lose by checking the opt-in boxes on these sites.
Video sharing sites with revenue-sharing include:
MetaCafe Producer Rewards Program
$5 per 1,000 views; payments start when a video hits 20,000 views within a six month period, with the caveat that its rating cannot average below 3.0.
Tag-Based. Users pick which of their meta-tags to sponsor, and ads are peppered in the player along with comments.
Tags are sponsored in two ways: advertisers can buy keywords at auction, or relevant Amazon product links will appear.
Viddler will split the affiliate revenue if someone clicks through to buy a product on Amazon; in the case of ads, they will split the cost-per-click fee they collect (they are planning to switch to cost-per-thousand, or CPM, later).
The original site to offer revenue sharing (hence their namesake)
50/50 Split of advertising revenue to those who add “revtag” to their videos. Works whether video is downloaded, embedded or viewed on Revver.com
YouTube
By application/invite only; terms vary. YouTube does not disclose specifics, but we hear it’s in the 75% range. YouTube paid out $1 million in 2007, although it’s fair to infer that Universal Music Group is getting a much larger piece of that than Mondo Media cartoons. More here.
Today, we released a study clarifying what counts as a “view” across video sharing sites. This study was initially published last June to great fanfare, so we re-executed it under current conditions, this time testing 14 sites to see if views are counted for refreshes, watching more than half a video, watching a video to completion and watching embedded videos. To our surprise, what was once a disparate dissonance across sites is now close to standardizing. All but three video sites we tested log “views” once the player starts, no matter how much of a video is viewed. YouTube and Yahoo!, which formerly had stricter, IP address-based constraints, lessened their standards, now counting everything once a video starts playing. Blip and MetaCafe are lone holdouts to an IP address-based standard.
Our savvy friends at PodcastSecrets.com are offering a live training session on methods for monetizing podcasts, aimed at everyone from creative types to information marketers. Among their recommendations? Using TubeMogul (of course!); distribution across platforms is key. Also check out this video outlining why (and how) TubeMogul should be a part of every podcaster’s arsenal.
