Slashdot Mirror
YouTube To Share Revenue With 20-year-old Filmmaker
destinyland writes "YouTube just has signed a deal to share ad revenue with 20-year-old Brandon Fletcher. YouTube had already said they'd implement revenue sharing this summer, but this indicates they're willing to put their money where their mouth was. 10 Zen Monkeys has a funny chronicle of Brandon's enviable march to YouTube money. 9 weeks ago he flew to California to demand YouTube feature his video on their front page. A security guard refused to let him off the elevator — but he made crucial contacts which helped seal the deal 9 weeks later. Taking this business to the next level makes sense in the here and now, when some 70 percent of internet users are streaming video."
Actually youtube does have ads on their pages just not on the videos themselves: example of a video page that has ad revenue sharing enabled.
While I can't go into the details of a deal that I am aware of, one might want to note that the headline says "Share Revenue" and not "pay for ad-clicks".
I agree that they are being very selective with who they decide to pay, but there may be more to it than meets the eye. Promoting content creators who submit regular high quality videos to youtube certainly couldn't hurt them, and considering the importance of youtube to Apple's recent ventures may add some additional perspective as well.
I am surprised that slashdot found this story newsworthy... I thought that youtube has been pretty receptive to most vloggers who go to the trouble to contact them about revenue sharing.
Get a web developer
This story has YouTube's reponse to that. YouTube originally said they'd wanted their users to be motivated by passion for sharing their videos -- and not for money. Now they're selectively offering the money as a way to "incubate" those projects that they think have potential.