Category Archives: Making Money

book, Future of Online Video, Google, Making Money, Making Videos, marketing, Nalts, Online Video, popular videos, Profit, Revver, TechCrunch, Video, Video Advertising, Video Business, Viral Video, YouTube

Sneak Preview: “How to Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent” (Free eBook)

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[NOTE- THIS POST IS OLD. FOR THE MOST RECENT VERSION OF THE BOOK, SEE THIS POST]

On Friday I’m releasing a free eBook titled “How to Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent.” I won’t make any money for each copy downloaded, but I’ll make it up in volume.

Below is a draft that still needs some fine tuning, but I’d appreciate some feedback from some of you core WVFF readers. Here it is as a PDF (version 1.3, which includes some of  your edits on 01/03/08): How to Become Popular on YouTube Without Any Talent

If you’re a blogger, I know I can’t stop you from posting this, but it would be great if you could wait until the Friday (January 4). Unless you’re some big-ass blog like TechCrunch. Then you can do whatever the heck you want. The several days I spent on this would be time well spent if it resulted in an inbound link from a big ass blog (BAB). Up until now, TechCrunch has only given the black-hatted viral marketers a spotlight. 😉

That said, I’m kinda hoping to “soft launch” it to the WillVideoForFood regulars before it’s officially released. I’m somewhat anxious about releasing something via pdf, and knowing I don’t have the ability to fix some horrible mistake that’s bound to be lurking within.

Thanks!

PS Here’s a synopsis of my forthcoming “The Prophet (Profit) of Online Video: Book synopsis,” which is being written to help marketers, agencies and creators capitalize on the growing field of online video.

Killer Video, Making Money, Making Videos, Viral Video

Web Junk Alumnus, Patrice Oneal, Puts Out Edgy DVD

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 Remember VH1’s Web Junk, which sometimes didn’t suck? Comedian Patrice Oneal, whose “I don’t give a shit” attitude was the most endearing part of the show, is now making online-video shorts with NYC Studio “For Your Imagination.” The DVD includes such favorites as “Cockfights,” “Last White Man Alive, “Dyke Punching” and “Child Labor.” For more see www.patriceoneal.com.

patrice oneil dyke fight“The sheer popularity of the web series, and the fact that his fans have been asking for this format, made this DVD release the next logical step in our partnership with Patrice,” said Paul Kontonis, For Your Imagination’s CEO. “Plus there are other ways for a web series to make money without having to wait for a sponsor to write a check.”

“We’ve all been working very hard on this show and I’m happy to have an outlet for all of the things that VH1 wouldn’t let me say,” said Oneal.

We won’t admit to watching, but we will.

Making Money, Nalts, Online Video, popular videos, Video Business, Viral Video, viral videologist

Coming Soon: Best of Nalts DVD

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Best of Nalts DVD sleeve

HappySlip is selling “best of” DVDs, so I had to do it too. I may not be as hot, but at least I’m not as funny.

I’m using CreateSpace because it looks easy, and a couple others have used it. Anyone use ’em? I didn’t realize, until I’d started my account this morning, that it’s an Amazon company. Of course, you give away about 40% of your profits (after the fixed cost per DVD) when it’s sold through Amazon, so I’m kinda hoping people buy it at CreateSpace.com. I get proceeds beyond the fixed cost of production and their cut of the sale.

It’s not live yet because I’m mailing the master to CreateSpace, and then they send me a proof. I’ve listed the videos below. I’m sure I unintentionally missed some good ones, but it took most of yesterday just to locate the best versions of these (and some were destroyed by a dead Seagate external hard drive).

Will I sell a lot? Nope. There’s not a huge market to purchase amateur video content — especially when you can see it free online. Maybe some people will be compelled by the notion of seeing the videos in high resolution and without ads.

I was impressed with how good some of them look on an HDTV (after I’ve been used to seeing them on YouTube all grainy and compressed). You notice little things- like the name of a book on a bookshelf that was otherwise obscure. And you can why my face was made for low-resolution video.

Price point is $19.99, but most of the revenue goes to CreateSpace and Amazon. Well- if I make $100 on total sales, it’s worth being called a sellout.

The videos:
Farting in Public
Airport Crawling
Computer Falls
Cash to Buzz
Drunk Interviews
Garbageman
America’s Bloopers
Fast Food Outsourcing
Candy Swiper
Google Head
Crackberry
Google Earth
GPS with PMS
Mall Pranks
Killer Weed
Gum Tree
Coffee Baby
Banana Man
Garage Sale
Pencils
Kids Steal Van
Lay Me Off
CubeBreak
Mad Turkey
Viral Video Genius
iPhone
Chicken Prank
Stupid Computer
HappySlip’s Pad

advertising, book, Future of Online Video, Making Money, Making Videos, Viral Video, YouTube

YouTube’s First Public Statement About Earning Potential for Creators

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YouTube is expanding the once-selective* “Partners” program so that more video contributors can monetize their work. We’ve already seen the “requirements”* drop so that amateurs with fewer views have been invited to join in recent weeks. YouTube released this in a press release (and its blog), and the most interesting statement concerned the potential revenue possible for creators that have wildly popular videos (see last bullet).

  • These original content creators will now have the chance to reap rewards from their work and receive the same promotional benefits afforded to YouTube’s other professional content partners. Is that to imply that Nalts is not just an original content creator but a “professional content partner”? Because I object to that label.
  • Earlier this year, the YouTube Partner Program began rewarding our most popular and prolific original content creators within the YouTube community by allowing them to earn money from their videos. Users eligible for the partner program have built a significant audience on YouTube (as measured by video views, subscribers, etc.) and consistently complied with the YouTube Terms of Use.
  • Now, anyone living in the US or Canada can apply to become a partner at youtube.com/partners. Partners decide which of their videos they would like to generate revenue on YouTube, and in turn, receive a portion of the revenue generated from ads that run next to those videos.
  • The YouTube Partner Program also benefits marketers. By building out our partner program, we are expanding both the quality and scope of video content available to marketers. As more and more individual content creators enroll in the program, advertisers are now capable of reaching more qualified consumers by targeting their campaigns to user-generated partner videos tailored to the unique interests and tastes of their target audiences.
  • This program will continue to grow in the coming months to several hundred user partners, and will encourage marketers to include YouTube as part of their marketing mix. 
  • Those partners who are regularly producing videos with over 1M views are earning several thousand dollars per month.

Note: I’m confused about this last one, and it’s the first time YouTube has posted any public number on the earnings. Does this mean a total of one million views per month, or several videos a month that EACH total to one million (the latter excludes most of us). I post almost a video per day with an average of about 20-30K views per video. So that’s close to a million views a month. Does that mean I’ll some day get “several thousand dollars per month”?

* Putting asterics around these disputable statements- see first comment from Marquis for some interesting criticism of this program, which appears to many as arbitrary. Certainly I wouldn’t want to be part of a club with such poor judgement as to have ME as a member.