How to Make Money from YouTube?
Google owned YouTube is rolling out a partner program that will allow you to make money off the videos you upload to YouTube. Partners are independent video creators and media companies who are looking for online distribution and who meet YouTube's qualifications. Becoming a partner gives you the ability to share in ad revenue from your YouTube videos.
Why Is YouTube Doing This?
The question many webmasters will have is why is YouTube doing this? Why not just place ads on all the videos that users have uploaded and keep all the advertising money? The answer is, they can't. YouTube is hiding behind the DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to protect themselves from claims of copyright violations. In order to hide behind the act, YouTube cannot make money off the videos uploaded by its user base. If they do, copyright holders can go after YouTube for the income (plus damages) those videos made instead of just telling YouTube to remove the videos.
To get around the DMCA requirements that no money be made off user videos, YouTube set up a partner program with some of the major labels and networks. They provide their videos to YouTube and share the ad revenue. Since the labels and networks are the copyright holders, there are no violation issues to deal with. This is why you won't see any advertising (except for YouTube house ads) on my YouTube videos but you'll see ads on videos by Ask the Builder.
Now YouTube is offering this partner program to everyone who qualifies.
What Are The Requirements?
Before you can apply for the YouTube Partner Program, your must meet all the following requirements.
- You create original videos suitable for online streaming.
- You own the copyrights and distribution rights for all audio and video content that you upload - no exceptions.
- You regularly upload videos that are viewed by thousands of YouTube users.
- You live in the United States or Canada.
The "You own the copyrights" is, of course, the most important part of the requirements. If your YouTube account is filled with copyrighted materials, don't expect YouTube to approve you. That new Sony digital camcorder I got is going to really come in handy now!
