From: ReelSEO.com | Jeremy Scott | Friday, 16 March 2012
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| Professional video production @ CES 2012 |
So you’ve
gotten pretty good at this online video thing, and now you want to start
thinking about monetizing your content. But that can act as a roadblock for
many video creators and businesses who aren’t sure what all their options are
for making money from video content. It’s not a decision to take lightly, so we
thought we’d lay out some of the options you have.
There are
an awful lot of ways to go about the practice of online video monetization. We
may not have room to cover them all, but we’ll try to hit the most common
methods. If you’re looking for a way to make your videos work even harder for
you, consider one of these options…
Monetize Video By Selling Ads
One of
the most popular ways brands and other businesses monetize their videos is
through advertising—the video content itself is free, but the creators make
money by selling ads before, during, or around the video experience.
This
might be pre-roll ads running prior to the destination content, or any of a
number of more experimental ad-choice models like what Hulu uses or YouTube’s
TrueView.
YouTube
Partner channels can make money just by having their videos viewed. So a popular
video creator like Freddie Wong can monetize videos like this by both running
ads and simply getting views:
Sometimes
the ad itself isn’t even a video—a lot of the top publishing sites sell display
ads on pages hosting video content as well. Vidmeup allows you to embed Google
Adsense code on all your video pages which well within the technical reach of
most people.
Monetize Video Through Pay-Per-View Or
Physical Sales
Videos
can also bring in revenue by simply being a product itself—viewers have to pay
in order to view the content. The obvious examples of this sort of thing would
be something like Netflix—or Hollywood’s Ultraviolet
for digital movie sales. Webinars are an everyday example of pay-per-view,
whether they’re live or taped.
Vidmeup,
who made this article possible, has pay-per-view capabilities built into one of
their video hosting packages, allowing Enterprise-level customers to really
start putting their videos to work for them. They’ve integrated the feature
with PayPal so you just enter your PayPal merchant number to start charging for
video views or subscriptions. Here’s an unusual site monetizing very niche
videos (grunge music videos) via Pay Per View using the vidmeup Enterprise
platform.
Other
platforms like Brightcove offer monetization options like a built-in ad server
and an ad manager.
Of
course, plenty of video content is sold online in physical form, mostly DVD,
and while that format is likely to grow less and less lucrative, it’s still
viable today for plenty of sectors.
Monetize Video Through Sponsorships
Some
video shows, like Daisy Whitney’s New Media Minute, monetize through sponsorships,
where an advertising brand receives special mention (usually toward the
beginning of a clip) as being responsible for making the video happen.
When a
show has a particularly large or loyal audience, or one that is very focused on
a particular niche, there can be big payoff for companies sponsoring video
content. That means there can be big payoff for the content creator as well.
Monetize Video Through Merchandise
Entertainment
video can often be monetized through the sale of related merchandise. This
might mean anything from t-shirts to mousepads, and creators are getting more
creative all the time. There’s not much difference between traditional
advertising and using merchandise to monetize—in both cases you’re giving away
free content and allowing the income to come from related sources due to the
show’s popularity.
But they
also have a merchandise store on their official website where fans can help
support their videos by buying t-shirts:
Monetize Video Through Freemium Or Other
Hybrid Method
Some have
found a monetization sweet spot using the freemium model—some video content is
given away for free, but the very best and most in-depth stuff is reserved for
paying members. It can be a tricky balance act, to find the right ratio between
free and paid content under this model, but some content just lends itself to
this format.
Take
Hollywood, for example. In a way, they’ve been using the freemium model for
decades: they give you a free taste, in the form of a trailer, but you’ll have
to pay full price to see the full movie when it comes out.
In the
video world, Hulu is a little bit like a freemium model. Some of their content
is free to everyone, member or not, while the rest of it is hidden behind the
Hulu Plus paywall.
Monetize Video Through Licensing
If you
make the right kind of video, and it’s of high quality, you can monetize it
through licensing. Again we can use Netflix as an example: every copyright
holder who has their video content on Netflix is getting paid for the rights to
use the license.
Similarly,
if your training videos are good enough, other companies might be willing to
pay to use them as opposed to creating their own from scratch.
Making Your Decision
There’s
no one right answer with video monetization. Each of the methods discussed
above has merit. Some work better for certain kinds of video than others, but
they all work in certain situations.
It’s
important not to rush the move to monetization: if your content isn’t quite up
to the quality standards the audience demands, you could be shooting yourself
in the foot.
But if
you’ve honed your craft and are confident of your quality, well, maybe it’s
time you start earning something for your trouble. Online video definitely
doesn’t need to be monetized in order for it to be productive for you or your
business…
Read original article about video monetization.
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