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Earning money from Videos on Youtube – not so easy

ashish — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 21:27:16 +0000

You must have seen those videos on Youtube, where either the bottom section of the video shows an ad from the Adsense program and you also have Adsense advertisements appearing to the right of the video in a block, similar to the 250X250 ad block. Now consider that you have some cool videos that are getting circulated on Youtube, and would like to have your own videos making some money for you from these Ads. How can you do this ?
Well, I was also interested in trying to make a percentage of earnings from these videos (I have started getting some videos on Youtube and the views are increasing, although they have a long way to go). And the short answer on this was, Not right now. Google Adsense used to have a program about Video Units (link1, link2), but they appear to have discontinued this program now. Now, if you need to try and make some advertising money now, you need to apply to become a partner (link to page).
However, becoming a partner is not so easy. As opposed to the nature of Adsense which allows people to get in irrespective of the number of their blog visits or subscribers, Youtube has put some controls. They actually have a page that lists their requirements for becoming a partner (link to FAQ listing requirements to be a youtube Partner).

To become a YouTube Partner, you must meet these minimum requirements:
- You create original videos suitable for online streaming.
- You own or have express permission to use and monetize all audio and video content that you upload — no exceptions.
- You regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users.

In addition, the FAQ page that provides more details for the Youtube partner is at this link.
If your partnership account was not approved, then some of the reasons could be derived from the reasons listed on this page (link to article).

Making money from photo-blogs – second part

ashish — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:28:14 +0000

In my previous post, I had talked about some of the concepts around creating a photo-blog, and making money from that (through Ads primarily). This post will talk more on the same subject, and should hopefully help you move further on that line.
1. As part of a post on WordPress optimization, I had mentioned that it puts less load on your server if content / scripts, etc, are loaded from a different server. So, wherever possible, put your photos on a different server, or on some reliable web hosting solution elsewhere. For example, you can put your photos on Amazon AWS, Photobucket, Flickr, or any other photo sharing site, and have the thumbnail on your own site. Thus, when somebody clicks on the thumbnail, you will get the actual photo on your own site.
2. Make sure that you have a system of analytics setup on your site. This will help you determine which photos are being viewed the most and are in demand. You could focus more on photos that seem more in demand, and get more visitors to your site.
3. Once you start getting people to your photo blog, explore whether you want to join the world of photo stock (where you can sell your photos, either as part of Micro-stock, or as Rights Released photos). Some of the more popular sites are: CanStockPhoto, BigStockPhoto, The3dStudio, Fotolia, Shutterstock. Learn more about stock photography at these locations.
4. There are a large number of photo directories on the net (you can find many of them on Google), so make sure that you enter your site on these site; these increase the chance of more people visiting your photo sites
5. Post your better photos on places such as your Twitter account, Facebook account, etc, and refer your photo blog location. This also attracts more people to your photo blog
6. There are many sites on the web that offer free photos. Don’t feel in the least bit hesitant about copying the photos from these locations, and putting them on your blog (as long as you don’t claim that they are your own – follow the terms of their copyright).

Making money from photo-blogs – a start

ashish — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:17:28 +0000

Many of us have some good collections of photos, and they live in obscurity in our computers or in the form of printed albums / collections, just idling there. Photographs are very precious in terms of attracting user attention, as long as you are able to present a good story that keeps the user interest alive. The chance is that if you have a good collection of photos, people will not stop at one, but look at more. So if you have a collection of railway engines, tracks, etc, and enthusiasts find your collection, you will start to get a good reputation with people looking to get more than one.
It is impossible to define everything related to a photo-blog in one post, so this one is a starter, with the essentials. How do you start ?
1. Well, you need to find a template where you can put your photos. So, you can either get a good photo-blog template that can be put on top of WordPress or Blogger, or if your host (for example, Hostmonster (click to know more)) allows you to insert a photo software such as Gallery 2, you can use that. The advantage of a photo software is that it allows you more photo-centric option, but it requires some additional learning.
I have 2 different photo based sites Gallery (a specialized software), and Photo Blog, a photo blogging template put on WordPress.
2. Recognize that photos can get stolen, so don’t put very high quality, full size photos. They take the user more time to download, and there is no concept of copyright on the net, so use some standard resoulutions such as (1280 X 960) with a watermark.
3. Always make sure that you are attaching the ‘Alt’ tag to your photos. This helps in ensuring that Google and other search engines can find your photos.
4. Place ads such that they appear to blend in with the photos. If you can find image ads, they look more tasteful and fit better in with existing ads.
5. Mine your data to see which photos attract a bigger audience, and highlight it by a side panel that shows which photo is viewed the most.
6. Look for affiliate opportunity, so if you have travel related photos, put ads from tourist operators of that location.
Take the plunge, it is not very difficult.

Adding Amazon as an affiliate: Beneficial

ashish — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:20:19 +0000

If you have a blog that focuses on stuff such as gadgets, books, electronics, movies, music, in fact any stuff that is also sold on Amazon, then you should explore the option of signing onto the Amazon affiliate program. Amazon sells literally anything, and is a trusted site that sells a huge amount of stuff.
Now, this is good for someone who is patient, and is able to wait for the time that it takes to start earning good revenue from such a program. Further, there is a lot of criticism about the program that it only pays out 4% commission (initially, since if you take the performance plan, then a lot of people jump to earning 6% or more). In real terms, this means that if you sell stuff such as cameras or movies worth $1000 from your site, you will earn $40. Now this may not seem like a lot (and in fact the commission rate is pretty small), but it all adds up if your visitors are high.
What are some of the compelling points of being a member of the Amazon affiliate program ?
- Amazon sells almost anything, so if a visitor from your site comes to Amazon and buys anything in the next 24 hours, then you earn the commission from there
- Amazon is a huge brand, and is fairly trusted, so people would be willing to buy stuff from there
- Amazon provides a number of different options to add to affiliate programs, such as direct product clicks, your own custom store, context specific items targetted to your visitors, banners, favorites, and so on
- Amazon affiliate program is useful where you are not able to find a relevant ad to show for your book / movie / gadget / other item post, and are still hoping to make money
And there are other reasons, but these are the most useful ones for me. Go ahead, try the program (link).

Who Sees Ads Plugin – selective display of Ads on WordPress

ashish — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:31:32 +0000

Ever wondered about who comes to your blog, and how do you earn money from them ? If you have not thought of this, then it is time you did so. There is a lot of research which claims that ads work on one type of viewer, while there is another set of viewers who get offended when they see ads on a blog (with many of them avoiding particular blogs if they see too many ads). On the other hand, there is a balance in the sense that most viewers understand that blog authors also need to make some money on the side, that nothing is free nowadays (you should not however overdo it with too many ads).
So, who should you target ? You should target users who are first time viewers to your blog, those who come to your blog from search engines, and others of a similar nature. However, if your viewer is a person who is more of a social viewer, or one who visits your blog on a regular basis, then they are likely to totally ignore ads (in fact, if an ad is located in a particularly prominent position, then they are likely to cluck in annoyance). However, you do not want to piss off these users; after all, for your blog to become popular, you would want many of these regular readers to continue to visit your blog on a regular basis; in addition, if they like something on your blog, they will spread the word.
What you need is a way to target ads depending on your users; this may seem difficult, but there is actually a WordPress plugin that actually does that, available on this site (planetozh.com)
From the site, here is a list of rules:

By default, you can pick or mix any of the following rules :

If Visitor comes from a search engine, display / don’t display
If Visitor is a regular reader, display / don’t display
If Post is older than XX days, display / don’t display
If Visitor is logged in, display / don’t display
If Date is between specified date interval, display / don’t display
If Ad has been showed less than XX times, display / don’t display
If This visitor has viewed this ad less than XX times, display / don’t display
If All previous conditions fail, try another context
If Any condition, display / don’t display

The ad behavior will be eventually decided by the first rule which is matched. For instance, if you want to display an ad only for search engine visitors, you’ll pick the following :

If Visitor comes from a search engine, display
If Any condition, don’t display
If no rule is matched, nothing displays, so the second rule in the above example is actually optional.