Making money on YouTube isn’t an easy venture, even for Google itself. But it’s getting easier for individual users. Now, as well as established video partners being able to monetize their efforts, producers of one-off viral videos will be able to make some money.
The Revenue Issue
The problems Google has had turning the massive popularity of YouTube into a massive and repeating payday are well-known. OK, so it’s not as though YouTube is a failure or anything but its revenue is certainly struggling to justify that huge $1.65 billion Google paid for the site.
Part of the problem is the sheer number of videos on the site that either can’t or aren’t monetized. The “can’t” is due to concerns over making money from copyrighted clips while the “aren’t” stems from YouTube’s unwillingness to monetize videos which have no chance of making any money – most of the videos uploaded to the site every day.
Preferred Partner Program
In May 2007, YouTube started sharing advertising revenue with selected video producers. These Preferred Partners were content creators such as Fred and LonelyGirl15 who had a known brand and a selection of very popular videos already on the site.
Since then, these lucky few have been making money from every video they upload to YouTube, and although we’re talking just a few cents per video view, this can soon add up to thousands of dollars. But what of those content creators who only ever manage to produce one viral video hit?
Viral Video Payday
Today saw YouTube announce that those people are, finally, going to get the payday they’ve been craving since they saw their videos go viral. A post on the Official YouTube Biz Blog spells out how the YouTube Partnership Program is being extended to include those one-off viral video hits we all know and love.
Over a thousand established viral videos will be invited to the program immediately. These include the two-year-old ‘Battle At Kruger‘, which has racked up 45 million views and is still gaining thousands every day.
From here on in, new viral videos will be invited to participate in the program based on a rapid accumulation of views, how viral YouTube considers the video to be, and a compliance with the YouTube Terms of Service.
Conclusions
This is something YouTube should have done years ago. Just imagine all those millions of video views that could have been paying out, not only to the individual producer of the video but to YouTube as well.
Interestingly, despite having the biggest viral video of the year so far, the ‘JK Wedding Dance‘ video is not eligible for inclusion in this program because Sony has already monetized it due to the use of Chris Brown’s Forever. I’m guessing JK wish they had used an original composition now.
