Video content consumption has skyrocketed in the last three years, thanks to faster Internet speeds and cheaper data plans. Cisco estimates that by 2022, videos will account for nearly 82% of all the Internet traffic in the world. A Statista report claims that the average American spends around 323 minutes per week watching videos – on a mobile device alone. YouTube is riding the video wave, accumulating over 2 billion users (a whopping 33% of all Internet users). More than 5 billion videos are streamed on YouTube every day, with YouTubers uploading nearly 500 hours of video per minute!
Instagram influencer marketing is another byproduct of the video’s growing popularity. Look no further than Instagram or Snapchat stories to see this phenomenon in action. Influencers are online celebs who have built a massive following by posting eye-catching content regularly. Your Instagram story feed will be littered with influencers talking about their skincare routines, favorite recipes, exercise regimes, etc. And since it is so easy to get started with an online Instagram story maker, more and more youth with stars in their eyes are looking to become influencers because well, access to a loyal audience pays. Influencers are the modern-day Pied Piper.
With video content getting so much focus and attention today, even you can make money easily by creating videos. Here are 5 ways how you can go about it:
- Upload Videos to Youtube and Other Video Networks
This is perhaps a no-brainer when it comes to video monetization. As we said before, YouTube is the largest video platform globally and a goldmine for novice video creators. You do not need expensive equipment or a swanky studio to get started. Often, viral videos are created at home or in the garage using nothing but a good smartphone camera. All you need to do is create a channel, keep uploading engaging videos regularly, and build a subscriber base. As soon as you have 1000 subscribers and 4000 hours of view time, you can enroll in YouTube’s Partner Program and earn money from the views generated by your videos.
While YouTube’s profit-share is 68%, you can also get better ROI by uploading your videos to other platforms like Dailymotion and Vimeo. Make sure you own commercial rights to the videos you upload, though.
- Create Tutorial Videos
If you’re good at something, never do it for free. If you’re an expert in any domain, you can sell your expertise via videos. Say, for example, you’re a serial entrepreneur who loves building new products. You can encapsulate all your years of learning and experience into an online, paid Entrepreneurship course where you can teach budding entrepreneurs the dos and don’ts of business. There are many people in the world with fantastic business ideas, but who lack the technical chops to build a product or service. Bram Kanstein identified this and created a ‘No-Code MVP’ course for non-technical people to develop and validate startup ideas without code. He earned $8000 within two weeks of launch.
- Capture and Sell Stock Footage
Similar to stock photo websites like Shutterstock, you can also sell stunning video footage to certain stock video services. These services then sell your footage and ‘b-roll’ clips to commercial producers. You sell your videos on a royalty basis, getting a cut every time your video is downloaded. iStockPhoto.com pays you a handsome 40% of the total royalties paid while Shutterstock has also branched out to videos, accepting submissions that are 5-60 seconds in length.
If your videos are differentiated enough and cater to a particular niche, for example, wildlife footage, you can also sell it directly through your e-commerce website and pocket more of the sales revenue.
- Acquire Viral Videos and Sell Affiliate Adverts
It is not always possible to create interesting videos that attract a million views. You might create a hundred videos, but only one or two might truly take off. Not only is this a cumbersome process, but also a negative ROI. Instead, you can be on the lookout for videos that are trending on social media and are just beginning to break out.
You can then reach out to the creator and offer to share revenue gained from placing branded products or other affiliate links inside the video. You’ll develop a knack of spotting the next hot, viral video and figure out best practices for amplifying its reach in time. It’s like having insider information on a stock that’s about to soar.
- Video-As-A-Service
Many businesses need a lot of professional, high-quality, topical videos. Take the case of an ed-tech startup that offers video lessons for all grades, competitive exams, and upskilling courses. This startup might need basic 2D-animated or heavy-duty motion graphic videos regularly. You can step in and offer an end-to-end video service either on a retainer or a freelance basis.
Not just core product videos, you can also help them with their social media marketing videos. For example, you can use an online Facebook video editor to create promotional video ads for Facebook. There are many online marketplaces for this, connecting brands and videographers on a contractual basis.
Conclusion
You can use your video in multiple ways that it can easily become your primary source of income instead of just being a side gig. Hopefully, these 5 ways can give you more ideas on monetizing your videos without breaking much sweat.
