Get ready for YouTube ad revenue…

YouTube appears to have turned a new leaf with the announcement that they will be offering ad revenue to videos with large numbers of hits that conform to YouTube’s terms of service. If you have a video that meets those qualifications, you’ll get an email from YouTube allowing you to enable revenue sharing. Once you say yes, YouTube will begin to sell ad impressions against your video.

YouTube is coming to the revenue-sharing party kind of late, but they have the brand equity and the mindshare to be the biggest player in revenue sharing. (The biggest competitive video sharing sites currently offering revenue sharing are blip.tv and Revver. Metacafe used to, but no more.)

We look forward to seeing how the program succeeds. If you find yourself with a viral video on your hands and you find yourself with a big check from YouTube, we’d love to hear about it. (And we’d be curious to see the video, too!)