I just wanted to give you a couple of things to think about … consider it food for thought.
Publishing was the first form of mass communication, but required a lot of time to “spread the word”.
Radio, while it didn’t replace books, provided a way to communicate with a wider audience instantly over the airwaves.
Television became one of the fastest growing mediums next, followed by the Internet.
However, the Internet has developed a few trends in and of itself.
At first, everything online was free, and people were happy just to find something interesting.
Then, people started to look for specific things, and other people started to sell them.
E-books came on the scene, and instant downloads beat waiting on something in the mail.
Web 2.0 arrived, and everyone wanted to know what everyone else was doing online … and social networking Internet-style was born. This phenomenon, of course, has happened in real life. But, as with anything else, the Internet seems to have a way of taking it to the next level … reaching a potential audience larger than any other.
Take YouTube for example.It’s the #4 visited website in all of cyberspace. What’s it about? Videos … that’s it. User submitted, user rated. It’s all about you, and what you are watching.
Now, as with any other Internet trend (banners, ebooks, mp3s, etc.) people have decided that maybe it would be nice to get paid for their videos. Not surprisingly, a number of sites have sprung up that are willing to do just that.
Revver.com shares a 50/50 split with their video producers, minimum $20 payout. Seems okay, but they don’t get as much traffic as the next program … so it “pays” to promote your video. Oh yeah, it also “pays” to promote other people’s videos too … 20% revenue share to people who simply share the video on their blog or site. Revenue is based on view and click-throughs, depending on the ad type. So, there’s no real “average” or way to be certain what you will get. Top producer stats aren’t revealed, but the top video took in around $50,000 (it was the infamous mentos in a coke bottle video) … and the site paid out $1 million in total revenue sharing in the last 12 months. They did say around 25,000 users had earned $1000 or so.
Metacafe.com on the other hand, has a much more interesting service. You only get paid for views on their site, but they get over 1 million hits a day. It’s set up much like YouTube, with users rating videos. You qualify for payout once you hit 20,000 views. It’s not based on click-throughs, just views of the video. The payout is $5 for every 1,000 page views, so once you hit 20,000, you’ve earned $100. At 40,000 you’ve earned $200. You don’t get paid for sharing, but the potential is there to earn big bucks because of the traffic. Top producer has earned over $60,000 in the last year with around 80 videos. Read that again … that’s impressive, isn’t it? And no, their not sex videos either. This guy is actually a tech geek. He has quite a few “how to” videos in the collection. One of the others in the top ten had a video earn him $6,000 in the last month. I saw it … unbelievably simple.
Anyway, I’m sharing this because I really believe that video is the next BIG thing online. I mean, I know it’s big now … but I don’t think we’ve seen anything yet. Nada, zero, zilch. I have started noticing that Pay Per Post offers a substantial payment for videos. The blog doesn’t have to have a high PR, just be willing to post the video to YouTube and on the blog. Payment for videos on PayPerPost ranges from $35 to as high as $100. It’s unbelievable what they will pay for a 1 minute video clip. Stay tuned, because the next year or so is going to be something else …