Video content is booming. It has become the hottest form of content at the moment with an upsurge of vlogs, short form 15-30 second videos, entertainment videos, live streaming and more. In fact, videos are the top entertainment option for the younger population (between 18 and 34 years old) in the U.S. Research has shown that about 80% of people would rather watch a video than read a blog post. With such a crazy demand for this type of content, creating videos yourself and looking at the monetary opportunities it may yield is an opportunity everyone should explore.
Creating videos a decade ago was feasible for those with technology. But today, even basic smartphone footage can go viral. The access to technology has eased out and with the incredible internet speed, user-friendliness of video monetization platforms, and editing software, video creation and distribution have become possible for almost anyone.
So if you’re determined to start out your content creation with videos, here’s how you can actually make money by creating videos.
5 WAYS TO MONETIZE VIDEOS IN 2021
If you think earning income as a content creator is difficult, think again. It’s 2021 and pretty much everyone is on the internet, consuming content. And videos are no exception. It’s a good time to start making videos if you haven’t yet. And it’s a good time to monetize videos if you haven’t yet.
From sponsorship deals to video monetization platforms, read on for five ways you can monetize videos.
1. SPONSORSHIP DEALS
Sponsorships are when a brand pays for you to mention their brand or product in the content. The sponsored video can either be ‘dedicated’ or ‘integrated.’ A dedicated video is when you dedicate a complete video to the brand to talk about their product/service. Examples could be a review video, a makeup tutorial, a hotel stay experience, and so on. Whereas, an integrated video is when you mention the brand in between a regular video. An example could be a travel vlog where you cover other destinations, plus mention the hotel that is sponsoring your video in a seamless manner.
Whether the brand is okay with dedicated or integrated video depends on the campaign goal and budget. However, you, as a video creator, can approach a brand for a sponsorship deal to monetize your content.
2. SELLING PRODUCTS
A lot of creators sell their merchandise, artwork, eBooks, online courses and other paid resources via their video channels. Using videos to sell your products and services is one of the most common ways to monetize content. You can provide certain discounts to your audience to persuade them to make a purchase.
For selling merchandise especially, you must first create a powerful presence of your brand because only then will people want to buy your goods. So if you’re just starting out as a video creator, you might have to wait for a while. However, you can still sell your artwork, eBooks, online courses and paid resources to your audience.
3. AFFILIATE MARKETING
Affiliate marketing is said to be one of the simplest ways to monetize videos. Affiliate programs offer referral fees or commission to creators that are based on the percentage of each sale. The range can differ from 5% to 75%, depending on the brand, your reach, engagement and other factors.
In affiliate marketing, you direct your viewers to a landing page via a unique link. You get paid when a consumer clicks on the referral link or makes a purchase. The commission you make with affiliate marketing is usually tiny, but video creators still add links to their video descriptions to open an additional revenue stream.
4. VIDEO MONETIZATION PLATFORMS
Video monetization platforms like Retrieve, Skillshare, Patreon and Kajabi let you monetize your fan subscriptions. They enable you to add a paywall to your videos so when your fans want to get access to it, they have to pay.
Retrieve is an excellent content monetization platform to have in your toolkit if you wish to advance further in your monetization journey. For creators looking out to go beyond mainstream media, Retrieve lets you earn money via its platform. It allows you to create multimedia guides with videos, PDFs, and links. Other features include communities, live sessions, group sessions, video/text/audio chats.
5. ADVERTISEMENTS
Video sharing platforms usually have the feature to enable ads before, during, in-between, or after your video. It’s an effortless way to earn money as a video creator, as you simply have to enable the ads option. There are four types of video ads:
a) Pre-roll ad: These ads appear at the beginning of the video, and may or may not allow users to skip them. Pre-roll ad units occupy about 74% of the ad types creators opt for.
b) Post-roll ad: These ads show at the end of the video. Although this can be a good choice for you, please note that advertisers don’t invest as much money on this type of ads. Post-roll ads make up for 45% of the ads.
c) Mid-roll ad: These ads appear in the middle of your video. As much as this means more income can be generated, please note that mid-roll ads can divert your viewers away.
d) Display ad: These ads appear when the video is playing. They are mostly textual or image-based that appear at the bottom of the video or on the top in a card format.
TIME TO GET STARTED
Video content is an excellent opportunity to engage your audience and earn money. With the five monetization methods mentioned above, we hope your journey as a video creator is smooth.
Making a six-figure income via video content creation might seem a far-fetched dream, but success is possible especially if you diversify and have more than one revenue stream. A combination of ads, affiliate links, sponsorship deals would ensure the income flow is steady. Video monetization platforms can make up for another medium, especially if you have exclusive video content to offer that you wish to monetize or add a paywall.
Check out Retrieve.com to boost your income generation and get started with video monetization today!
