Top Ten (10) Websites To Make Money From Your Videos

Google buys YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars. It is estimated that Americans now watch an average of 100 minutes of Internet video each month and that number continues to grow. "The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments” videos earns its creators more than $35,000. A prominent video ad from Dove lures more viewers to its Web site than a Super
Bowl spot. The proliferation of video has presented everyone with the opportunity to make money from their video content. Following are the top ten websites where you can make money from your videos. (Websites are not listed in any particular order.)

10. Si-Mi.com

Content
Organized into different categories including, "short film", "music video" and "vblogs". Site states that there is a 700 megabyte content limit.

Breakdown
Paid downloads with no preview. The content provider sets the price, there is no minimum. Content providers then earn about 90% of the "net proceeds" via PayPal. Net proceeds remains a bit of an ambiguous term on this website.

Remarks
Sparse content includes such short films as "Reverse Evolution" (30 cents) and "Dead Shift" (50 cents). There is also some cell phone footage of a concert shot from a crowd. It is stated that there biggest earning producer over the course of a month has earned $10.39.

9. Jaman.com

Content
Includes many full length features and content exceeding an hour in length of world cinema.

Breakdown
The company offered free rentals of selected titles to increase its user base. Many downloads on this website are priced at about $4.99; seven day rentals are roughly about $1.99. Content providers are required to sign a 7 to 9 year non-exclusive agreement with Jaman. This agreement provides Jaman with a worldwide internet distribution right. Jaman then pays content providers a 30 percent share of the gross revenues. This is paid quarterly.

Remarks
The technology is good and very straight forward to use. A unique feature of this site is that it does require users to download a proprietary player. Jaman claims to have the rights to over 1500 features. Many of these features have played at festivals. Jaman has received some good press and inked a deal to distribute some of the Tribeca Film Festivals content.

8. Blip.tv

Content
Any type of content, however recommends limiting file size to 100 megs.

Breakdown
Content producers can opt in and allow different types of ads to be shown at the end of their videos. Advertisers pay on cost per click or per action basis. Blip splits revenue 50-50 with content producers when the producer makes over $10.

Remarks
This site is very popular for bloggers and some social activists.

7. Grapeflix.com

Content
Any type of content, in most types of formats.

Breakdown
Content providers can post their videos as a paid download and earn 80 percent of the revenue generated by sales. The site however has fees of $1.49 per month when storage exceeds a gigabyte. Also, when videos are purchased, there is a one cent DRM fee as well as a transmission fee of 0.39 cents. A 1.5 hour movie sold at $4.99 on the site nets the producer roughly $4.00.

Remarks
Like most of these websites, their isn't much content. However the Ocean Front Property comedy that did well at festivals can be found for online streaming ($0.29), rental ($5), or purchase ($10).

6. EZTakes.com

Content
Mainly features full length movies, documentaries, animation and instructional videos.

Breakdown
Content providers arrange the price for the videos ont his service and EZTakes retains 35% of the sales price. The company has a non-exclusive distribution agreement, however EZTakes specialty is to make it easier to transfer the content to a DVD, iPod or other portable media player. We did not confirm that the service is actually easier.

Remarks
Troma Entertainment signed a deal with EZTakes.com and offers many of its B studio entertainment to the world wide web.

5. Brightcove.com

Content
Any time content of any length.

Breakdown
Content providers set the per download price, which cannot be below 99 cents. Providers can also allow Brightcove to insert ads into the content. Revenue share splits content 70-30 for pay per view spots and 50-50 for advertising spots. Affiliate sites can earn 20% for the ad revenue. The producer can set own commission rates for affiliates. Brightcove has inked deals with National Geographic, Newseek, and WE as well as music videos form Sony BMG. This site is better for those with larger libraries as opposed to the user with a few videos.

Remarks
Brightcove's site does not generate traffic for the user, however the user must generate the traffic to their own sites. Also, not too clear how much advertising is done through the videos by Brightcove.

4. Break.com

Content
Short "produced" films greater than three minutes must have storylines, short videos under thrree minutes and short flash animations.

Breakdown
Videos are hand selected by the Break.com staff and published on the homepage. Short videos for example animals, stunts, pranks, etc. are paid $400. Short produced films and flash animations can earn $2,000.

Remarks
"Chaos in Suburbia" on Showtime featured some videos from Break. The more popular videos feature hot girls, sports bloopers and other content geared towards high school and college guys.

3. ExpertVillage.com

Content
How to and instructional type videos.

Breakdown
Content providers are paid between $100 and $1,000 for every how to video selected. Topics for the videos must be assigned first and are done by experts in the field. The content is then exclusive to ExpertVillage. It has been stated that some videographers have made $10,000 to $20,000 from their work and a total of $350,000 has been paid out so far.

Remarks
Based on their statistics, the average video pays $300 and topics are anything and everything someone could be interested in.

2. Metacafe.com

Content
Funny videos that are entertaining. Over six minutes generally too long.

Breakdown
You must get into the Producer rewards program by having your uploaded video viewed 20,000 times then you will start getting paid. At 20,000 views content providers will earn $100. Each additional 1,000 views adds $5. Two million views equals $10,000.

Remarks
Stated as having 16 million viewers per month. Definitely the highest traffic website on this list.

1. Revver.com

Content
Short films with a 100 megabyte file size limit.

Live action shorts and "slice-of-life" videos. 100-megabyte file size limit.

Breakdown
Revver is highly like Youtube, however has an ad that plays at the end of videos and a popup ad that may appear during the video. The company splits advertising with the producer after taking some costs. Revver was the 16th most popular video site on the Web. Affiliates can earn 20 percent of the advertising revenue when in the program.

Remarks
Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz earned about $30,000 from their video "The Extreme Diet Coke and Mentos Experiments" through Revver. The video was viewed more than 8 million times.

• Login or register to post comments