People in the Asian American blogosphere always talk about blogging and Youtube because both have enabled us to get the word out. Some of the top YouTube acts, including NigaHiga and David Choi, are Asian American, and the web has cut the cost of both production and distribution. Back in the day, it was simply too expensive to create videos or publish writing. Now both are either free or almost free.
Still, the question remains: how can one make money on the web? Though some of us jump to the professional level, most of us are just hobbyists. How does one enter the professional ranks?
I still don’t know the answer, and I’m not sure if I ever will, but today the NY Times published an article on people who are making money off of YouTube. And they aren’t just making a living either; they’re pulling in some serious coin. Videographers with strong numbers are leveraging both Google Ads and their own product placement deals to make it work.
Mr. Williams, who counts about 180,000 subscribers to his videos, said he was earning $17,000 to $20,000 a month via YouTube. Half of the profits come from YouTube’s advertisements, and the other half come from sponsorships and product placements within his videos, a model that he has borrowed from traditional media.
These are interesting times. I think Google is making the right move too by sharing some of that revenue. That was actually a main part of the conclusion to the book Wikinomics: eventually the money should trickle down. It’s good that it’s finally beginning to do so.
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