SXSW: Some Options for Making Money From Your Online Videos

At SXSW, Rob Millis and Will Coghlan of the newly launched Dynamo Player talked about different routes online video producers can take to try and make a buck. While the discussion ultimately led up to the duo's demo of its new product, it was not above representing some different options fairly. The two talked about some of the pros and cons of advertising, such as:

Pros

- Fosters dramatic growth (financed first forty years of TV and last 15 years of Internet content)

- Blip.tv and YouTube define a stable market

- Reliable high quality programs...

Cons

- High value advertising demands high value programming (production). Costs a lot up front - higher costs to return

- Content can be unreliable, too hot to handle, or simply unappealing to advertisers. Short films, docs, r-rated or controversial content can't get high value CPM.

- Advertisers can't depend on a certain number of viewers

- Random advertising can damage brand while paying little to nothing

- Must have very, very large audience

- Can put a plane crash next to an ad for Delta or something to this effect

So the question is, will people pay for video online? They talked about how a lot of people are already doing just that through services like iTunes, which the pair say "changed the marketplace."

When deciding whether you want to ask people to pay for your content, you should ask yourself the following questions, according to Millis and Cohlan:

- What content do you pay for now?

- Have you ever quit halfway through a payment or subscription process arrangement?

- How often do you click away because of pre-roll ads?

- Are you willing to download software?

"Asking your audience to pay for your content is about eliminating these 'why bother' factors," they say.

Then ask yourself:

- How do you want to sell your content?

- Does it need to happen now or are you willing to wait for  approval?

- How much do you need to charge, and how soon do you need to get paid?

- How much info do you want to ask your viewers for?

- How technically savvy are you?

- How important is image quality?

- Do you want your viewers to go to your site to watch or somewhere else?

- Do you want to be able to embed your video?

- Do you want to allow your viewers to share?

- What kind of content do you have - serial, one off, short format, feature length?

- How much publicity do you want/need?

"Ask these questions before you commit to a solution," they say.

One option is what they refer to as the Ze Frank model. This is a show that used drop.io to package shows that are otherwise free, and sell them together, so viewers can take them and easily watch them on their iPods.

Another option is to work with a partner like re:frame or NewVideo, which will work with you on getting stuff into iTunes or Hulu.

Then there are sites like MyContent.com and IndieFlix. With MyContent.com, you get choices like free streaming, rental streaming, and selling through the site as a paid download. They are your partner, and they only pay you after costs are covered. They have a revenue share deal. MyContent.com will take 35% after costs, and they charge a small monthly processing fee, according to the Dynamo guys.

With Indieflix, you can upload content through them, and sell it as a DVD or make it available as a paid stream, but they're fairly selective about their content.

Another option they discussed was Amazon's Create Space. Advantages of this, they say, are that Amazon's a leader in cloud computing - they can store and serve content more efficiently, and at a lower cost, they are a well-recognized brand, and they're connected to a lot of TVs and living rooms. They'll list films on IMDB for you, and stream stuff to the XBox. However, they take 50% of royalties, and you can only suggest a price for your video.

Then there are YouTube rentals, a system Google introduced not too long ago, at Sundance. They let content creators set the price and viewing window, and they have the obvious huge advantage of social media for promotion. It doesn't hurt that YouTube is also the second largest search engine, behind Google itself.

YouTube lets you use Google Checkout, which is easy enough, and content streams quickly. You need to use an AdSense account, and as you may know, Google is not up front about how much revenue sharing they do, although it's supposed to be "the majority".

You can read about Dynamo's own option here.

Dynamo Player – Instant Monetization Tool for Videos Unveiled at SXSW

Rob Millis and Will Cohlan, the pair beyond the web show Political Lunch, gave a presentation at SXSW called "Beyond Advertising: Can Online Video Finally Pay?" The discussion led to the unveiling of a tool for online video monetization called Dynamo Player.

The goal (short-term at least) of the tool is to simplify the process of uploading a video to the web, making it portable, and quickly getting viewers to pay for it.

WebProNews pulled Millis and Cohlan aside after the presentation to discuss Dynamo Player a little bit more:

Dynamo's slogan is "Powering independence." This concept comes from the idea that the product lets content producers have more control than with other options. Users can set their price, upload the video, and publish it anywhere on the web, and start making money immediately. Each time a viewer pays to watch your video, the money is deposited directly into your account.

For payments, the Dynamo player uses PayPal. Viewers are asked to pay, when they press play, right from the player. Of course, you'll have to provide content that people actually want to pay for, and Millis and Cohlan made a fair case as to why paid online video content will likely become more accepted by users (with sites like iTunes already paving the way).

Dynamo is not about competing with a site like YouTube, as far as offering a destination for users to go and watch online video (at least at this point), although they did say a future option could be to present featured videos on their site. Dynamo is geared more at the producers themselves, to put their videos wherever they choose.

Content producers who want to give it a spin can send an email to the guys at beta@dynamoplayer.com, and let them know.

 

Google Rumored to Be Eyeing Possible iTunes Competitor

Rumor has it that Google is eyeing Beverly Hills-based CatchMedia as another possibility in a string of acquisitions. CatchMedia is a company that is focused on creating a "Play Anywhere" system, which lets consumers use their music/media content collection and services wherever they want, regardless of the device they're using.

The rumor comes at a time when there is also much discussion about Apple possibly offering a cloud-based version of iTunes. Google could be looking at CatchMedia for efforts that would compete with this. Neither Google nor CatchMedia are offering comment on the situation, other than Google simply saying they don't comment on rumors or speculation.

But there is plenty of speculation, and it mostly deals with Google finding yet another way to compete with Apple, another topic that is being heavily discussed lately. Most recently, Google's acquisition of the reMail app has thrown some more wood on the fire, as it has taken away the app from Apple's App Store.

An iTunes competitor would be a much bigger deal, but again we're only in the rumors/speculation phase at this point. Still, CNET points out that in December Google reportedly tried to buy Lala, but was beaten by Apple. Suffice it to say, multiple signs point to Google looking to get deeper into music/media, and the company already has its own payment platform in Google Checkout. Google also has some tremendous opportunities to promote music and media purchases too with sites like YouTube and Google Product Search.

CatchMedia Founder Yaacov Ben-Yaacov has experience with selling start-ups to large corporations, having co-founded PictureVision, which was eventually bought by Kodak.

Apple Holds iTunes Contest Marking 10 Billionth Download

Apple is holding a contest on iTunes called "Countdown to 10 Billion Song Downloads."

The user who downloads the 10 billionth song from iTunes will receive a $10,000 gift card from Apple.

"iTunes changed the way you buy music, making songs and albums available for download, day or night," Apple said.

"Seven years later, we're about to celebrate our biggest milestone for music, yet - 10 billion songs downloaded. Buy a song, and if it's the 10 billionth download, you could win a $10,000 iTunes Gift Card. It's our way of saying thanks."

Users will be automatically entered in the contest by downloading a song from iTunes Store or they have an option to enter the contest for free by filling out an online form.  Apple says the promotion is limited to 25 entries per day, per user.
 

 

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