Monetizing YouTube and Buying Links
Before going into how Google is going to monetize YouTube, this article was originally titled, "To Buy or Not to Buy Links" as it started out as a recap of the Search Engine Strategies conference session regarding buying paid links and whether they are bad or not.
For the first time since it's inception, I did not attend the Search Engine Strategies Conference in California. I thought I'd miss this show this year and catch up at the Chicago SES instead. In reading several blog posts and articles about the show, the session on buying links caught my attention. However, since I wasn't there, I didn't really think I should comment in detail. However, I will state a few paragraphs:
Search Engine Strategies had a session on Paid Links and Dave from rentvine.com made a video about the session. Apparently Google is still saying that buying links is bad. I can understand Google's point of view, but I can also see the flip side. An example is the rebuttal regarding commercial web sites. Most people don't link to commercial web sites and therefore they need to buy links. Fully understandable! But back to this video....
I received word on this video and when I first saw it, it was uploaded to YouTube 22 hours previously, has 852 views and was already awarded with a most linked award with 112 links. Today, about 15 hours later, it shows 1624 views with 423 links. A 90% increase.
Watch the video and you'll see that while the video is completely relevant for search engine topics, it has absolutely nothing to do with home rentals. What does Google say about this? Apparently creating a video such as the one below is creative and allowable. Even though the video has nothing to do with the company itself.
According to Matt Cutts from Google; If I understand correctly, his first sentence goes something like, Are paid links evil? He says that this is the wrong question. But the right question is - Do paid links that pass PR violate search engine quality guidelines? The answer is yes.
If buying paid links pollute the web, what does this video do? buying a link creates trash yet the video was created specifically for what? The web site rents homes? You think maybe link love? Apparently paid links create trash and clutter the Internet whereas non-related video's don't?
I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Or adopt one person's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy!
Ok, now about Google's monetization of YouTube. I've read several articles on Google's $1.65 Billion purchase of YouTube and how are they going to make money on the deal. Similar to eBay buying Skype, some people didn't see the connection.
Today I read a few articles on how Google is adding semi-transparent ads that appear as strips across the bottom of videos. The ads will show for 10 seconds and the watcher can either click on the ad to watch it or ignore it altogether. Watching the commercial will pause the video while the commercial is played. Interesting!
I guess these commercials work as Google is claiming as many as 5-10 times more people click on the video ads as click on regular display ads or other web site ads.
Great YouTube video showing how the ads look from Shawn Collins:
Great article by Elise Ackerman - San Jose Mercury News:
Now playing on YouTube: in-video ads
What do you think? Are the ads going to a positive side to YouTube or a negative?
posted by Michael Roebuck @ 12:22 PM
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Thanks for mentioning my video. Where can you see the incoming links to the video? Below the video on YouTube it shows "Links 5" but your link count is much higher.
To view the number of links, I clicked on the "Honors" link in your YouTube video page. Then click on the "Most Linked" award link. Scroll down and you will see your video posted with 1,752 views and 423 links. Excellent video!
Wow, that is a lot of links!
Thanks for your nice comments.
Great question and great post.
As a YouTube user I'm not bothered by the overlaying of advertisements as I don't have to view them if I don't want... it's not like Google is making users view ads before they can view their desired videos - something news sites have been doing for a long time. As long as the option is there, I'm not bothered by it and imagine other users aren't either.
However as a marketer, I'd be weary of how profitable these ads are. Users surfing YouTube aren't exactly shopping or in the buying phase. I have to wonder how likely conversions are to happen. The ad that Shawn Collins displayed shows an ad for the "Hair Spray" movie. However, how successful would an advertisement for an actual "Hair Spray" product be? My guess is that it wouldn't be that successful. These viewers were most likely not looking to purchase hair spray when they first arrived on YouTube.
Also, maybe you've already addressed this question (or maybe it was answered in one of the resources you've provided) and I just didn't catch it, but is Google paying these select YouTube users to use their content like they are. I just find it hard to believe that the general YouTube audience would be "ok" with Google making money off of their original content.
And if so, that opens the door for self-sustaining business models based upon submitting viral videos on topics that are likely to have ads placed on them. In most cases, this would be very similar to how affiliate marketers utilize their websites or blogs and the Google Adsense program to generate large amounts of revenue. I can see it now... people quitting their day job, buying a digital camcorder, and filming viral videos... oh, and getting rich off of it.
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