Paid Video Sharing Sites - The Dirty Dozen

With the proliferation of video sharing as a means to make money online, I’ve compiled a list of sites which pay in one way or another for uploading videos to share with viewers. Most of these sites earn by either by Google AdSense or direct advertisers and split the advertising revenue with video contributors. Although known mainly for video sharing, many sites also share images for additional advertising revenue.

1. MetaCafe
One of the largest and most popular paid video sharing sites with over 1 million unique visitors a day. Its size may also be a disadvantage as your video has a high chance of getting lost. Videos with over 20,000 views a month and a rank of 3.00 or higher start earning USD5.00 for every 1,000 views. It doesn’t sound like much, but if you look at the chart, top earners make serious money.

2. Revver
Ads are attached to your videos and you are paid 50% of the ad revenue generated. You can also earn 20% ad revenue by distributing someone else’s video. Earnings are by clicks on ads, not the number of times the video is shown.

3. UpBlogger
Another video sharing site that earns by placing ads alongside the video. Pay rates are actually quite good compared to other sites with a similar business model. USD5 for every 1,000 unique video views, although there is a maximum 3 month limit.

4. TheVideoSense
Uses Google AdSense program for ad revenue where 50% of time, your ads are shown on your video homepage and the other half of the time, TheVideoSense ads. You also earn 10% of the time your AdSense ID is displayed on sites of people who join using your referral.

5. BlipTV
You can either link your video to your own blog or create a blog within BlipTV to post it. Either way, ad revenue from various ad formats are shared 50/50. It supports cross posting to various other sites such as MySpace.

6. Flixya
Another Google AdSense sharing site which places ads around your submitted video. You can link in from other video sites and share the ad revenue 50/50. If you refer a friend, you get an additional 20% from their video ads.

7. Share-A-Flick
Google AdSense ads are placed next to your videos which can be linked from YouTube or MySpace. So unlike many other video-sharing sites, videos need not be original creations.

8. VuMe
Formerly known as Eefoof, VuMe places banners around videos for ad revenue. It pays USD3.00 for every 1,000 views. It seems very strict on the original content rule as there are hardly any of the videos you see on YouTube and the like. Traffic here seems quite low as the most viewed videos have only a couple of thousand hits compared to tens of thousands on other sites.

9. TheNewsRoom
A relative newcomer to the video sharing scene, TheNewsRoom is the news site of Voxant, the viral syndicate network. Users are paid by cost per thousand impressions for images, videos and even text stories that they embed on their own site. Rates are USD4.00 per 1,000 views for video feeds on your own site, and USD1.00 on a referred site. A wide range of topics are covered - politics, science, health - just to name a few.

10. Videoegg
Your video is uploaded onto Videoegg and embeded on your site. In-video ad units targeting user profiles are placed in the videos either as pre-run or post-roll ads. No details are available but “VideoEgg’s revenue sharing program is tailored for our partners who exceed 50,000 unique visitors a month.”

11. Lulu
80% of the site’s ad revenue is pooled every month and members are paid according to the amount of traffic they get from their videos. You will only get paid for original content.

12. Babelgum
Contributors get a 50% share of the revenue generated by the advertising placed in the context of your content. Until end 2007, Babelgum is guaranteeing a minimum USD5.00 for each 1000 unique views of a video. The beta service is slated to start soon.

There are of course other sites which pay in some other less obvious ways under different sets of terms and conditions. Also, alpha video sharing site YouTube had earlier announced that it plans to roll out some kind of shared revenue program for its contributors, probably once they have their fingerprinting technology developed which will automatically detect and reject copyright material.

Sharing videos is a great addition to paid blogging and other ways to make money online. It can be considered as recursive income, meaning once completed, it earns you money over and over again without any further involvement from you although videos have a relatively short circulating lifespan.