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YouTube Spreads the Wealth . . . Kind of

by Terrence O'Brien on May 4, 2007 at 11:51 AM


Now that the Google deal has made them filthy stinking rich to the tune of $1.65 billion, YouTube's founders have finally come around to sharing a bit of the action with the site's users. Back in January at the World Economic Forum, 'Tube co-founder Chad Hurley announced plans to share ad revenues with average Joes -- not just with corporate partners like NBC, CBS, NBA, NHL, and the like.

The good news is, the program has now officially launched. Participants can choose which of their videos to slap a banner ad on, then sit back and count the green. The bad news? You're going to need to keep that day job of yours, because YouTube isn't sharing with just anybody. From the official YouTube blog:

"Some of your favorite YouTube members, including LisaNova, renetto, HappySlip, smosh, and valsartdiary, will begin to participate in the same revenue sharing and promotional opportunities that are available to YouTube's other partners...This is only available to the initial participants. But if you create original content, have built and maintained an audience on YouTube, and think you might qualify for this program based on what's above, you can express interest on our partnership lead form."

Unfortunately, a link to this mysterious 'partnership lead form' is nowhere to be found, and several YouTubers are fuming. DandCVideos comments, "This cash cow will only bring sour milk in the end. Bring in automatic participation for all, because it is the whole which makes up YouTube."

For the majority of you YouTubers left out in the cold by this deal, there are alternatives. Both Revver and MetaCafe already share ad revenue with users through programs available to anyone -- not just a select few. In fact, the creators of the popular Web show Lonleygirl15, now members of YouTube's inner circle, have always had their videos available on Revver as well, where they could actually get a little payback for all of their hard work.

Still, YouTube's program has only just launched. We hope, in the future, the site lives up to its name and extends revenue sharing to the people who have made the site what it is: you. In the meantime, good luck finding that signup form.

From I4U and YouTube.

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Tags: breaking+news, metacafe, money, revver, top, you tube, YouTube

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