Earning an income from videos on YouTube gets closer

Howard Lake | 8 February 2007 | Blogs

Now that video-sharing website YouTube.com has confirmed that it will introduce a revenue-sharing system for people and organisations that upload their videos to the site (BBC News – YouTubers to get ad money share), it is surely time to explore the opportunities that YouTube.com offers to charities and campaigning organisations.
Some of these organisations have been publishing and distributing their videos via YouTube for the past year or more, but the possibility of earning income from simply publishing means this is a channel that could benefit charities in many ways.

Imagine publishing your DRTV adverts, electronic news releases, campaign messages, celebrity endorsement videos, or even office-produced video interviews with field staff or key individuals – and then earning an income from them.

Oxfam, for example, is currently showing on its own website its Oxfam Unwrapped Alpaca TV advert, part of the current MasterCard series. Imagine generating income from the original TV advert and then placing the advert on YouTube and earning income again because it is such an amusing and popular video.

As with other revenue-sharing systems like Google AdSense, you might not generate large sums, but every now and again one of your videos might get picked up as the video du jour for its newsworthiness, relevance or indeed humour – and the income will start to rise. Boost the number of viewers of your online videos by promoting them to supporters and you could help increase that revenue further.

Then of course there are your supporters. Have you ever asked them to produce their own videos to promote your cause? Probably not. Will they do it? Some will. And if they’re genuine supporters perhaps they’ll ensure that the revenue share they earn from these videos will be passed to your charity.
YouTube’s revenue sharing system, due to launch later this year, offers yet another opportunity for creative fundraisers to generate additional income from existing or low-cost new material.

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.