Different Online Video Monetization Solutions

Last night Liz Gannes and Chris Albrecht from
New Tee Vee (the video blog about online video) threw a party in Hollywood at the Cat and the Fiddle. The bar was filled with online video creators including Kent Nichols from Ask A Ninja, Greg Goodfried and Miles Beckett from Lonely Girl 15 and KateModern, Hayden Black from Goodnight Burbank and Abigail’s Teen Diary, Felicia Day from The Guild, Douglas Cheney and Ryan Wise from Big Fantastic, Alec McNayr from Space Shank and David Nadelberg from Mortified, were there as well as people from companies playing in this space like Jane Hu from Vuguru, Sarah Szalavitz from Veoh, Angela Gyetvan from Revver, Jamie Flam from Independent Comedy Network, Zach Posner from National Lampoon, Philip Hodgetts from Open Television Network and Jeremy McMillan from Soda Entertainment.

What really hit me was that as diverse as the content was from these different creators so were the business models of the different online videos represented by these people.

Ask A Ninja has an online advertising agency selling their ad inventory. The Lonely Girl 15 guys are selling their own product placement deals. Hayden Black is using Revver. The Big fantastic guys are creating content for Michael Eisner and Jane Hu at Vuguru and also doing content in a partnership deal with Brent Weinstein's 60 Frames. Everyone is trying different ways of getting to the advertising dollars. Phil Hodgetts seemed to be the only one at the party who was doing a pay-per-view model although the guy from CBS Interactive who bought Wall Strip for $5 Million was there but I'm not sure you can say that's a pay-per-view model ;)

As I keep reading terms of service agreements from online advertising companies I keep seeing how different media companies are better for different types of content creators. Just because someone has online video ads doesn't mean those ads are right for your content and even if the ads are right for your content doesn't mean the video player or delivery device they have is right for your website and don't get me started on getting ads in your video podcast.

Right now it is truly the Wild West in online video and just because someone is building a fancy train doesn't mean that it will fit on your tracks.

It will all work itself out in time just like the banner ads industry has worked itself out with IAB standards but it takes time.

My advise right now is don't lock yourself into anyone monetization opportunity just yet. Keep your options open and look at what might work best for your content.

ZapRoot Launched Today

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Sarah Szalavitz and Damien Somerset have posted the first episode of ZapRoot “an unconventional bite-sized news show that covers the fast
changing world of the modern Green Revolution. With sarcasm, silliness, &
sanity, ZapRoot encourages you to have a better time while making a better
world.”

They are doing this through their production company Viropop and with NextNewNetworks. The show is very well produced, wonderfully edited, with beautiful motion graphics, great music/sound design and the host, Jessica Williamson is smart, funny and very sexy.


In a posting to the Yahoo Video Bloggers Group Sarah said, “For the past few months, I have been working on Zaproot with my partner
Damien Somerset, Zaproot's star Jessica Williamson, and Next New Networks.
We were priviliged to work with Jacques Brautbar (www.jacquesmusic.com) &
Julianna Raye, who created our theme song, and Michael Dahan
(www.studiodahan.com) who took beautiful photos for us. For now, you can
check 'em out here http://www.box.net/shared/xxforrv1gk

The old green world told you that the world sucks and its your fault; while
our new green show, Zaproot, will show you that the world is ridiculous and
we can make it a little better."

In the first episode they focuses on FoldSchool, cardboard furniture for kids, what to do with your old sex toys, and the "Mac Guy" Justin Long talks about how many Toyota Prius Hybrid Cars he owns. It will be interesting to see if they can afford to keep these high production values up with the small amount of money NextNewNetworks pays.


In other news of note to online video producers, online ad network BlueLithium got scooped up by Yahoo for $300 million in cash. BlueLithium does targeting based on users' interests. It will be interesting to see how this affects Video Podcasters and Vloggers.

And, according to TechCrunch, VideoEgg raised an additional $15 million in funding and they also did a deal to sell advertising on Facebook.