Make Money with Online Video Sharing Sites

Turning a profit online is a relatively new concept that video creators are just now beginning to understand the process of. While the economy dwindles around us, business opportunities online seem to be growing.

It's now possible to create professional looking projects due to the advent of HD and the lowering costs of camcorders and equipment, and being able to get technical advice and education in videography and reach an audience through the internet. The latter of which can result in a possible turnaround of a rather high profit margin if we play our cards right. Online video sharing sites have been slowly developing means of revenue sharing over the past three years. Some of the most well known would be: blimp.tv, which shares its ad revenue 50/50 with the user; Veo, which allows for video sales and rentals by way of their site; Metacafe has what is called a producers rewards program; and YouTube allows users to become a YouTube partner. Both of which gives video creators the opportunity to make money based upon how many hits their videos get and their audience size. This is used as a base to sell advertising around the video.

I got started producing videos on the Web first off because I have a video production background and then someone had told me about a couple of different Web sites that were starting to pay people for videos. Probably the most important thing for anyone who's starting out making videos is to look and see what is your market? Where are you going to market this video? What Web site? What's the audience for the Web site? Because a lot of video Web sites have completely different demographic as far as an audience and you need to target that audience in order for the video to be successful. Also, look at things that are on that video site. If it's Metacafe for instance, look at the top videos. See what it is the people like and don't copy that but try to follow that current trend that's going on with video. Believe me, that trend is always changing. I've seen a lot of changes in the past year of videos and what people like and what people don't like. That would be the best piece of advice I could give someone. Look at the trends and know your audience.

Video producer Kip K. was able to grow his audience size and tap into a very niche market on Metacafe by understanding their current trends of what's popular in video.

There are four general steps that you're going to want to follow when creating an online video that has a better chance at ending up entering the video world which can result in more profit making opportunities.

Number one: Call to action. One of the more important aspects when people watch your video is to direct them somewhere. Give your audience a purpose. What's their goal? Give them some form of direction as to where they should go to receive more of your products and services.

Number two: Provide answers. When you make your videos, a key idea to keep in mind is that they should answer questions that viewers might have. For example, a how-to video provides viewers an answer to the question, "How do I do that?" And your video should provide the same service.

Number three: Be linkable. You are giving viewers a product for free on an online video sharing site. Chances are that if they have come this far, there is a chance they just might be interested in a little bit more. So it's now up to you to provide them with a direction that they need to go somewhere.

Number four: Be consistent. Providing new, original content on a consistent basis is the only way to keep people coming back to view your channel or videos and be exposed to the ads or links you want them to see. Just like with a network TV show, you watch it every week at the same time and because they provide you the new content, you come back and sit through the commercials.

These simple tips can be applied to any one of the online sharing sites out there today, just keep the four steps in mind and maybe you can be the next king of online video.

[End of Audio]