Could you make a living out of creating how-to videos? According to New York Times, people are:
Many of the clips have been played hundreds of thousands of times, turning Mr. Kedersha into the top earner on Metacafe, a video-sharing Web site that pays the makers of popular videos. In little more than a year, the site has written him checks totaling $102,000.
It makes sense, in-demand content is the fuel of the web. More and more people are turning to the web for answers. Advertisers want to be where the eyeballs are.
What surprises me is all the coverage seems to be around people selling their videos to sites for $20 a pop, or sharing revenues with YouTube. Nobody is talking about the sites that are PAYING for these videos and how much THEY are making.
To me that is where the real action is.
Yes, $20 for a 5 minute video might sound like a fun way to make money, but think about this for a second. Buying a $20 video that could bring in tens of thousands of views consistently, an asset that lives on, seems like the wiser side of the deal.
How-to videos are not ephemeral like other topics. Fixing your plumbing air lock or building a scale model of a tank are pretty ever-green subjects.
Then there is the higher potential profits to be found in premium paid memberships.
It seems like video is well worth looking at if you have the skills or the willingness to learn them.
5 thoughts on “Who Else Wants to be a Six Figure Video Creator?”
Chris, I think you are dead on in that the benefit comes from owning the site and/or the content more so than getting paid $20 for several hours of work. That is the exact concept on which we founded MindBites — that there should be a place on the web where anyone can publish and sell what they know and directly benefit, without having to sign away the rights to their content or having to build their own entire library and website. Our platform allows you to create and sell your own video instructional lesson for $1.99, earning $1 directly for each and every purchase, either for yourself or charity. We just had our public launch (see Mashable, VentureBeat , …) last month so our community is still growing, but we already have authors who are on pace to earn over $500 every year off of what they already published. So there is a market of people who want to learn what you know, and you’d be surprised how easy it can be once you get going. Our Author Enablament Team puts out a bi-weekly (or so) Video Podcast called the MindBites Insight with lots of good advice and tips. Check it out and let us know how our team can help you create and own your own video instructional content.
Jason
I guess the question is, do you want to be paid now ($20) or are you willing to wait potentially months for the payoff? $5 CPM isn’t all that much, especially when the traffic is measured only on their site, not with embedded videos.
Still, this is proof of the opportunity of web video and very exciting news.
Most money is in being the owner. I think the $20 works if you can prepare well, get the expert to do many 5minute takes and most of them be usable? If they are paying $20 then the site obviously makes a fair bit more per video on average, right?
I never realized you could potentially earn so much. Time to break out that video camera and brainstorm some ideas.
I did check out the conditions at ExpertVillage and HowCast, and while the opps are there, you might have to do a fair bit of work to get to the level of Mr. Kedersha. But as for the people making $20 per… I just don’t understand how you can make a profit on $20 while paying an expert. These videos will not only have to be short, but there’d have to be a single take and very little production work. If you can fire off 4-5 per hour, you’d make $80-100/hr, split with the expert. On the flip side, if you posted that same video at one of the other sites mentioned, you’d earn $5 CPM, but not until your entire collection of videos collectively achieved 20,000 views AT that site (not as embedded videos).
Yeah, I am more of the guy who chops and edits video while adding insane stuff with Adobe After Effects. That would be a fun job to be paid for
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