As for monetizing the video sharing sites, it is all hands on deck…everyone’s trying everything. Revver.com has done that from the start, inserting ads in the clips and paying the creators through a rev split.
NYT plugged Lulu.tv, a new site launched by Bob Young, founder/CEO of Lulu Enterprises who also started the open source software company Red Hat…the new site will begin charging a $14.95 monthly fee for a “pro” account and putting 80 percent of that money into a special fund. Each month the money will be distributed among the video creators, with the biggest share going to the person who attracted the most viewers. To get the process moving, the company is priming the pot with $5,000.
Then another site eefoof.com launched this weekend that promises to share a percentage of the site’s revenue depending on how many viewers a video clip attracts. Simple but difficult to break through the clutter of other sites.
Rafe mentions another new site called Panjea, which pays its users for content in two ways: an online store where content creators can sell downloads of the audio and video files. Second, Panjea gives users a cut of ad revenues, not just from ads in the videos but also from their static Web content (like their profile pages).
Of course this its not counting the marketing deals like the NBC-YouTube, or Guba-Warner ones. Or of the kind of branded entertainment (Americasdreamdate.com , launched and run by GoFish) mentioned by Michael below in comments.