How to Make Money with YouTube
It isn’t often that we get to witness a life-changing innovation. Our
parents spoke of their first television sets with an enthusiasm those
of us who grew up with the device couldn’t quite appreciate. Honestly,
did people gather in one house in the neighborhood just to
watch Milton Berle? In many ways, the following generations have
been extraordinarily fortunate. Not only did we see the arrival of
the Internet and all that came with it—e-mail, instant messaging,
online shopping, online banking, global positioning systems, just to
name a few—but we’ve also seen the arrival of Web 2.0 technologies.
Social networking and social media have changed the Internet
almost as much as the Internet has changed us.
Thanks to YouTube and other social media sites, each one of
us can take center stage and present our views o ife to a worldwide
audience. For the very rst time, individuals have access to
the same broad audience once reserved for major television networks
and their wealthy advertisers. This is not to suggest that
anyone can just pick up a camera and automatically gain the
exposure and gravitas of, say, Walter Cronkite. But each of us can
work in our own little corner of YouTube to create a following and
an audience for our own particular view on life. Whether we go
onto YouTube to spread a political message, promote our businesses,
or share our humor (as everyone else seems to think we’re
funny), we’ve got the power within our own hands to change our
lives through video on demand. Even Queen Elizabeth II has her
own place on YouTube!
But, the question remains, can you make money with
YouTube? The answer to that question is . . . YES. True, it all
depends upon your de nition of “making money.” If you think
that you’ve only actually made money when you’ve added dollars to
WHAT I KNOW NOW
So, what are some of the key “takeaways” from this chapter? (We’ll
provide this sort of wrap-up for each chapter.)
• YouTube isn’t just a site for sharing videos. It’s an entire
online community.
• According to demographics, YouTube users are spread all
across the United States and are evenly divided between
the genders. And 73 percent of YouTube viewers say they
don’t mind the advertising that appears on the site because
those ads keep the site free to its users.
• YouTube is simple to navigate; uploading videos is a snap.
• YouTube partnerships mean revenue-sharing opportunities.
• YouTube is now an international phenomenon with more
than 200 million visitors arriving at the site every month.
• YouTube has achieved this incredible level of success in the
fewer than four years since its founding.
