10 Smart Ways to Earn a Living from Online Videos
Videos are the most-shared and most-viewed category of content on the Internet. After blogging, vlogging is the new big thing and it has taken the web by a storm. In addition, short films and documentaries are constantly rising in popularity. If you have a knack for capturing impeccable videos and have an awesome idea to center them around, the entire world is your audience. Fabulous videographers like you earn more than just a basic living through their creations, and so can you!
The following 10 tips discuss how you can make money with videos online.
- Make Money Online with YouTube Videos
Undoubtedly the most popular program for monetizing video content, the YouTube Partner Program helps several creators around the world earn a living through their videos. Once you sign up for the program, some ads will be shown before, in the middle of or on the side of your videos. The number of views your video gets will determine the amount of money you make through that video.
In addition to displaying ads, the YouTube Partner Program also enables you to convert your channel into a paid one: that is, people can subscribe only after making a payment. Once you have a strong enough following, going this route may prove delightfully profitable for you. Now, that you know how to earn money by uploading videos on YouTube, get going as soon as possible. You can even post cooking videos, webinar or music videos depending on your interest.
- Do Product Promotions during Videos
Sign up with an affiliate program and promote products relevant to your video somewhere in the middle of it. This would involve explicitly talking about the product and its selling points as asked for by the advertiser.
Do make sure though that every time you choose to promote something it is a product that you genuinely have a liking for. Most brands will be happy to send you free samples of their stuff if you have a decent following on the Internet – so try the samples out and promote them if and only if you found them great. If you are selling something that doesn’t appeal to you, it will show on the videos; and even if it doesn’t, instantly, it will affect your reputation over time if you are consistently promoting worthless products on your channel.
- Let a Brand or Two Sponsor Your Videos
Sponsored videos incorporate a more subtle form of selling wherein you are not directly talking about a product; what you do, instead, show a character or anybody in the video using that product casually. For example, if you are shooting an exercise tutorial, you could be wearing Nike shoes and a couple of times the camera focuses on them with the brand label visible.
- Build a Repertoire of Stock Footage Videos
Stock footage of videos is the same thing as stock pictures; you create short video clippings and put them up for sale. Companies requiring to use relevant clippings in their presentations or parts of their own videos can buy from you.
With stock videos, you can choose to go through a website that hosts, markets and sells the videos on your behalf. Else you can sell videos directly through your own portal. The latter certainly would require you to put in the hard work of reaching out to potential customers, marketing etc but you will be able to keep all the profits to yourself unlike while using third party websites that charge a commission per sale.
- Sell Your Videos
Numerous platforms host videos that companies and individuals can buy. Be on one of these platforms and put your videos or short films up for sale. For a new independent filmmaker, this is a good place to get started and earn money with video uploading.
Vimeo, EZTakes, Jaman and GreenCine are popular seller sites where you can sign up, build a catalog and start selling. You will have to pay a percentage of the sale price or a fixed amount of money per sale you make through these sites.
- Earn Money by the Download
Some platforms out there pay you for video downloads. For each video that gets downloaded, you get paid a certain pre-determined amount. For instance, Apple’s iTunes Music Store is one of these places; here, you can earn money from video views after registering as a Content Provider and getting approved as one.
- Freelance for Other Companies Wanting to Produce Videos
Companies and individuals often choose videos as their preferred means of advertising or spreading awareness. Gaining the expertise to create these videos may not always make financial sense to them. Therefore, they choose to outsource their projects to freelancers with the necessary acumen.
Working to produce videos for others is a relatively low-stress way of making money through your craft. Your income isn’t completely dependent on your own marketing efforts in this case; you get a fixed amount for the effort you put in, thereby ensuring a sustained income.
- Create Videos On-Demand by Popular Commissioning Companies
Some companies post their video requirements and you can pitch in your video on the required topic to earn a fee straight away. The greatest advantage of this method is that you don’t need to wait for the video to get popular or sell; you get paid for the video the moment you submit it. New York Times has a program in place that lets you go about this process of instantly making money from your videos.
- Be Consistent, Be Patient, and Market Aggressively
A big determinant of how you earn by making videos online is how consistently you create and post your content. Building a reasonably large collection of good quality videos is very important. Do not expect success overnight after shooting a handful of videos – this process will take time (unless you get awfully lucky) – but will surely reap the rewards. Keep working and keep getting better with every project – remember to market through the right set of channels to the right set of audiences while you are at it.
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