Earning Money on YouTube - at last!
More people can earn money on YouTube from Dec 10 2007. Chad, it took almost a year to come up with a partial solution to actually reward video makers on YouTube. Back in January you decided to ‘foster creativity’ - and now it is December - a long period for a pilot program these online impatience days. But at last, you have it, some have it. Some in the US and Canada, at least (international programs are coming later). One of the users called SurvivorsIndiana is obviously dissatisfied: “Anyone can get an account on Brightcove and make money through ads appearing on their videos RIGHT NOW if they like. Why not open the doors to let ANYONE who wants to have ads on their videos do so?” While the user sukatra is interested in who can get into the program: “So really, what’s your bottom line on the number of subscribers and number of views per video? I’m sure I don’t even come close to either but it would be nice to have something to work toward.” But many comments are simply about the new design, the problem with more clicks, Firefox, etc. (Nobody handles the YouTube blog, guys?) The question is absolutely legitimate since the pilot program started with “the most popular and prolific original content creators within the YouTube community.” Now the only info on who can apply - regarding numbers - is “You regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users.” So much for very niche original contents.
Let the good times roll on. And let’s see how Metacafé is going to react.
In January 2007, I have participated in the DLD 2007 conference in Munich, where Metcafé, the rival video social networking site (already paying users for three months at that time) introduced their user revenue model to about 2,000 highly influential people in the web 2.0 and online industry. 5 days later at Davos, Chad Hurley … now, let me check my previous blog and quote what I wrote back in Jan:
Chad Hurley announced at World Economic Forum, Davos on 27 Jan that they would reward users for self-generated content, saying “We are getting an audience large enough where we have an opportunity to support creativity, to foster creativity through sharing revenue with our users.”
The idea is great, and I think it is a strong response to video sharing site Metacafé’s challenge, where revenue sharing already started 3 months ago. Eyal Herzog, co-founder talked about it Digital Life Design conference (DLD07) on Jan 22, so it was only 5 days ago that I aired my criticism “How come YouTube seems to be unresponsive? Can they really be that comfortable in the stregthening competition? Lots of national video sites are mushrooming suddenly. Not only is GooTube lagging behind in building communities, and financially rewarding producers, it is also painfully low-performer regarding technology.”
Of course, it may have been originally timed to be announced at Davos forum, but it may also have been that many of the people at DLD07 in Munich also participated in Davos, and realized that Metacafé is very competitive, and is threatening to take away those precious eyeballs (already boasting 500.000.000 video downloads a month!)
I have also tried to guess what they are going to base their revenue-sharing model on.
Will they copy Metacafé in the CPM based earnings? (5 USD/ thousand views) or will it be a more complex calculation including (on top of CPM or CPC)
* viral effect: loads of inbound links from other blogs, and web pages
* number of comments
* number of video responses
* number of shares (CPA)
* number of times favorited
* number of subscriptions, or the monthly growth on it
The answer is CPM. What is more, as Andy Plesser writes:
“Ad revenue will split on a CPM basis with “a majority” of the revenue going to the content creators, a Google spokesperson told Beet.TV … A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the range of CPM’s. However .. videos that appear on blogs and social networks outside of YouTube won’t have the ads.”
Unless, you are using the AdSense program. “Once enrolled in the AdSense program from a YouTube account page, YouTube videos are syndicated with an ad banner added to the player’s skin.” So this will bring some money from outside videos too. Cheer up, vloggers.
Now one of the market rivalry questions is: will it be more or less than Brightcove’s split, or Metacafé’s $5 per a thousand views. How will competitors change their tactics to fight back YouTube, the video UGC mogul?