by Edgar Frost

Created on: September 11, 2008   Last Updated: October 28, 2008

The main goal of commercial web sites is to earn money. Some sites earn money by offering products for sale, while others provide free services or content. You Tube is a prime example of the latter. You Tube has several options for monetization, and many can be implemented with few, if any disruptions to its users.

One possibility to increase revenue is by placing short ads at the beginning or end of videos. Advertisers could choose which categories to target based on the content of the video which is being viewed. This would undoubtedly bring in additional revenue, but might also annoy users, since they need to view ads before watching a video. This could have the effect of driving users to other sites or causing users to view fewer videos, which could result in fewer page impressions.

Additional revenue could also be earned by selling slots to paying customers. For example, if a movie company is releasing a film, they could pay to have their trailer or cast interviews placed at the top of relevant search results. This would bring in additional money by guaranteeing preferred placement to paying users, and would have a minimal impact on the typical user.

One other possibility would allow You Tube users to monetize their own videos and channels by encouraging them to produce high quality videos and drive traffic to their videos by placing links on relevant web sites. Both You Tube and the individual users would benefit from this plan due to users driving traffic to their video pages in order to earn a share of ad revenue, while You Tube would benefit by growing their own ad revenue.

These are just a few example of potential monetization plans. When such plans are implemented, it is important that web sites balance their potential increases in revenue with the effect it will have on users. In an ideal situation, revenue would be increased with little or no negative impact on its users.

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