There’s an interesting article on The New York Times‘ site about how people are making a living out of posting their YouTube videos. The article cites an example of one video producer in California who claims to be earning $17,000 to $20,000 per month – just from YouTube.
Then there’s Dan Middleton, a 26-year old from the UK who, according to the BBC, is the highest-earning “YouTuber” of 2017. Dan apparently made £12.3m (that’s around $16.4m) in 2017 from making videos of himself playing video games.
Acquired by Google – the kings of making money from online ads – in October 2006, YouTube offers something called a partner program. Once you’ve qualified for partner status, advertising is placed in and around your videos. The revenue from the advertising, in the form of ‘clickthroughs’, is split with the video creators.
So is the one-person media company now a reality? Clearly it is.
The One-Person Media Organization
Depending on your business, video-streaming sites could play an important role in your small business marketing strategy. It’s certainly not for everyone, and you need to think carefully on how you plan your campaign (corporate-speak promos are a definite no-no, for example). But in the right circumstance and with the right approach, sites such as YouTube can become an innovative and cost-effective messaging vehicle.
You may even be able to make a couple of bucks at the same time.
The use of video as part of a organization’s marketing mix continues to grow in popularity – and for good reason. Whether you’re in a business-to-business or business-to-consumer space, video content can increase audience brand recollection exponentially. It’s inevitable that video is the future of content marketing for the majority of businesses.
YouTube Offers Small Businesses Immense Marketing Reach
YouTube themselves have now recognized the immense potential they have. To help combat the fly-by-night cowboys and scam artists that increasingly lurk within its virtual corridors, YouTube have amended their partner program terms so that creators need to have at least 10,000 lifetime views of videos on their channel before they’re eligible to join.
This is a clear sign YouTube is taking this seriously. As part of Google, their business model is predicated on generating ad revenue. If they can entice and recruit content creators that can generate traffic, this offers a greater audience cohort, pre-qualified for certain advertising content, based upon the details and content of the particular channel. It’s a win-win for everyone.