We have just revamped a video section on our blog using Revver as the source of videos. Scenes of scientists setting off
100 bottles of coke filled with mentos may not be relevant to many bloggers whose aim is to inform rather than entertain, but if you are looking for ways to monetize your site there is an interesting trend coming up - video advertising.
Big bucks in the future of video
Text ads are all well and good, but audiences need ever more engaging material to persuade them to part with their money. That isn't just my wishful thinking for a move on from Adsense. The current figures spent on video advertising, around $400m per annum, have been predicted to rise to over $2bn within a couple of years. (I am a Pisstaker trying to be serious, so please, trust me, I read it on the internet, but can't remember where.)
Essentially, advertisers will be moving their money out of TV and onto the internet. And that makes sense, because last year internet time overtook TV time for the first time, so the masses are attuning to on-line life. Equally important for advertisers is the fact that internet sites specialise often to ridiculous degrees.
Cables to go and
British Virgin Island stamps to name but two! That has to appeal to marketeers whose aim in life is to find specific audiences for as little outlay/waste as possible.
Traditional or stodgy video ads
On the front page of Yahoo finance and other heavyweights you should see good examples of where the future lies for advertisers using video on-line in a "traditional" way. That style of advert could apply equally to blogs where Adsense has got old already and there is a decent width sidebar available.
Viral video ads
On Revver, like Youtube, you will see more companies displaying products in entertaining adverts that go "viral" ie popularity of a product explodes through the word-and-mouth process that seems to flourish on social websites. Music and movies are a good example of that phenomenon.
Scion, one of our pet topics on the Pisstakers, and a horrible butt ugly box of a car, was launched on-line without much humor, and sadly is quite successful.
How to make money from video ads
So how do video adverts, Revver and bloggers combine to make money? Like millions of bloggers on a budget, along with millions of companies on a budget, we aren't going to prepare video adverts. Far from it, we want to entertain our visitor with mindless fun clips made with someone else's money. Revver provides that opportunity for nothing! The even better thing about Revver is that they enable cheapskate advertisers to get on popular videoclips by association ie a simple display ad at the end of a videoclip. The even more phenomenal thing for cheapskate publishers like us bloggers is that we can earn some revenue by hosting those videos - the ones made by other people, with other people's ads stuck on the end.
In proper English, the Revver busness model is based on sharing the income from a click-through ad placed at the end of every videoclip. The advertiser pays Revver an unknown sum per click and then 20% goes to the site hosting the video, 50% goes to the maker of the video and 30% for Revver. We have made 65 cents so far and rising. It is a start and the future is looking promising - we think - so we are happy to be in on the act at this early stage.
Merry Christmas and join the millions watching
fun videoclips on-line, and if you see any good 'uns, add the faves to the Pisstakers collection too. It beats TV.
