Six Ways To Make Video Pay

How to generate revenue from online videos is one of the challenges facing news publishers in the digital age.

A recent blog post addresses this issue by listing some of the ways that news websites in Minnesota have been trying their hand at making money from their videos.

Here are the six suggestions from Vadim Lavrusik, writing on the Online Journalism Blog:

1 - Internal hosting:

“News sites with a significant interest in monetising video content should move away from hosting content on sites like YouTube, which provide little opportunity for profit from revenue sharing.”

2 - Pre-roll advertising:

Lavrusik points out that this has been the most effective strategy so far and is becoming increasingly popular too.

3 - Complementing ad forms:

“Incorporating a banner ad that complements the video ad provides more exposure on the page and is usually more attractive to advertisers.”

4 - A 15-second rule:

Lavrusik notes that displayed ads on the sites he studied all lasted less than 15 seconds as research shows that longer ads can lose people.

5 - Search:

“If local news sites incorporate specific video searches, they could sell sponsored links to appear at the top.”

6 - Producing advertisements:

Lavrusik spoke to the chief executive of Borrell Associates, who said that news publishers need to be more creative with their online advertising in order to tap into the video market.

See the full post on the OJB.