Hello All! I have a great web video entertainment series. I have no doubt regarding its success. Each episode can draw in at least 5,000 unique views (based on screening testings). However, I am wondering what is the best way to monetize. I have two choices: 1) Start uploading the series on Youtube. Gain a bigger audience. Then hope and pray that Youtube accepts me as a Youtube Partner to bring in regular profit. or 2) Use a video host that will restrict the video my website and use adsense/affiliates to drive up page impressions. The difference between the two is that one might provide me with income sooner. Any advice? Is Youtube's audience worth it? Thank you in advance.
you're right, but revver skims alot of the revenue off videos. (and blip.tv is also similarly stingy from experience) I was thinking of vimeo, which lets me restrict the content to my site for about $50 a year. Do you think good affiliates could compete with the income a Youtube Partner could make?
Why not develop your site, get massive traffic, and then just use a flash player that lets you sell ads yourself so you can keep 100% of the profit? If you're popular, finding advertisers won't be a problem. In fact, they will contact you. You can also upsell people to a special members only access area. Like a VIP section with unique content. If people love your series, they will pay to have access to a "VIP" area. Anther idea, how about selling your whole series on DVD? Like a box set. If you have a good following, I don't see why they wouldn't purchase this. Lastly, putting together a "fan shop" using zazzle or cafepress could prove to be profitable.
It's a GREAT idea, thank you. As a fledgling startup, however, I would like to try and monetize asap. I have pretty much invested all my money into the web series and am using blogger + a custom domain name. No one can tell I'm on bl*gger due to the design. I basically pay nothing for alot of unlimited bandwidth. I was thinking of joining vimeo ($69 a year), limiting video access to ONLY my site (no embeds, no outside links to the video) and then trying to use adsense (and the like) to quickly monetize. Eventually, I'd love to put up merchandising links and have advertisers come to me, but I'm thinking in terms of "hind-sight" I guess. I am looking at this with the added insight that there is a huge audience for my web series, and I have gotten production sharpened to the point where I can produce high quality content very quickly for little to no money on my part. I could wait until I've garnered a big audience (which would be two months down the line), but then I'd be asking these questions two months down the line. Know what I'm saying?
The other catch here is it is very difficult to become a youtube partner and simply using youtube without a partner agreement is basically giving it away for free. I would build my content on another monetized platform until youtube was willing to make you an offer to come on over. Developing and monetizing video content is very difficult and expensive, I found this article interesting...http://venturebeat.com/2009/04/29/10-lessons-from-a-failed-startup/
Dreamerr: That article you included is more than incredible. Thank you. I will go to bed thinking quick money as my sleep mantra