TMCnet News
Ad program helps Dallas student profit from YouTube videosApr 02, 2009 (The Dallas Morning News - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Carrrlita27 defies all your preconceptions about successful entrepreneurs. She has no work experience. She has no access to capital. She doesn't even slave over her business -- because she's too busy with ninth grade at her school in Dallas. She already makes a lot more than friends who baby-sit, though, and with a little luck, she'll soon outearn many adults. Carlita -- as this story shall call her to protect her from overenthusiastic fans -- illustrates how the Web in general, and YouTube in particular, destroy many barriers to entrepreneurship and cultural variety. It all began about a year ago, when a teacher offered Carlita a choice: Write a report about a book called Shug or make a video. Carlita spent the weekend making the video, aced the assignment and posted it online. Jenny Han, the book's author, eventually found the video, praised it on her Web site and posted a link so her fans could take a look. This early success made Carlita hungry for more. She created a YouTube channel under the handle Carrrlita27 and filmed a second video. The second video led to a third. The audience grew. Eventually, when her fan base was large enough, YouTube invited her to join its Partner Program. Most YouTube videos appear ad-free because companies cannot profit from entertainment without consent from creators. Videos by certified YouTube partners are different. YouTube partners allow ads alongside their videos, which must be entirely original productions. (A funny video of you lip-syncing a popular song would not be allowed unless you owned rights to the song.) In exchange, YouTube gives partners an undisclosed percentage of the revenue. Carlita and her parents expected a series of checks for sums such as $1.71. Instead, when the first monthly check arrived in September, it was for $365.56. Carlita wept with joy. Her parents assumed that Google had made a mistake, and they began preparing her to return the cash. But Google never asked for its money back. Instead, the company kept sending monthly checks, each bigger than the last. Carlita's viewership also continued to grow. The 11 videos on her YouTube channel have racked up more than 3.5 million views, collectively. Carlita's success is unusual but not unique. To the contrary, YouTube's top partners put her viewership numbers to shame. One top YouTube star, 15-year-old Lucas Cruikshank, averages more than 5 million views on each of the 34 videos that depict him as Fred Figglehorn. His most-watched short, "Fred Goes Swimming," has attracted more than 22 million views. Convenience and cash YouTube says that thousands of partners have joined the program since it launched two years ago. The company, which is owned by Google, never releases specific numbers or says how it splits revenues. Carlita reckons she gets about a nickel every time a viewer clicks on an ad that accompanies one of her videos, but it's just a guess. Whatever the numbers, the real breakthrough lies less in math than ease. The YouTube Partner Program allows anyone who can attract viewers to operate a successful business. Carlita makes her videos with a hand-me-down camcorder, a surplus lamp and an aging desktop computer. "All partners have to do is make great content," said Victoria Kasaro, a company spokeswoman. "YouTube takes care of the distribution and monetization." And YouTube isn't the only Web site that makes life so easy for would-be entrepreneurs. Automatic ad placement from Google and other companies allows thousands of people to make a living from blogs and other tiny Web sites. Tens of thousands more make a nice secondary income. Sites such as eBay, Amazon and Craigslist allow anyone with a sharp eye to pay the rent with profits from buying and selling all manner of products. Inventors and artists with just a little capital can hire Chinese factories to mass-produce the products they design in their basements and market online. As it becomes cheaper and easier to create and distribute news, products and entertainment, variety increases. Audiences This trend began when specialized cable channels started competing with the three broadcast networks, which program for the broadest possible audiences. The networks don't air many shows for children because they're a small part of the population. Nickelodeon only airs shows for kids. YouTube allows this trend to go much further. Even at Nickelodeon, the sheer cost of making shows ensures that adults -- rather than kids -- call the shots, so the shows have a sensibility that adult viewers can understand. Online, kids such as Carlita and Lucas are free to make shows as they please. The results will puzzle anyone over the age of 20, but they delight kids. Most 10-year-olds know Fred Figglehorn and a surprising number know Carrrlita27. "I would guess that most of my audience is younger than I am," Carlita said. "I once got recognized by someone who worked at a store in the mall, and my first reaction was to wonder why someone his age was watching my videos." To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Dallas Morning News Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |