RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
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- Jun 15, 2007
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Geek on the Hill
As a percentage of Google's revenue, two-thirds of revenue from Adsense ads on publishers' own sites goes to the publishers. That's a pretty generous percentage. The problem is getting Google to serve relevant ads that people will click, not an unfair percentage.
The formula has always been different on YouTube and has changed a bunch of times over the years. It's also less generous. Last time I checked, roughly 99 percent of YouTube content creators earned less than $100.00 / year. Others, however, made their entire livings from YouTube revenue, and more than a few became millionaires. It all depends on popularity.
Individuals who make videos of niche interest and who either don't qualify for YouTube monetization or who want to make better money would be better off building a Web site about their hobby and embedding one video on every page. Add enough explanatory text on each page for the robots to know what the video is about, and monetize the pages with something contextual that actually works, such as Amazon Native Shopping ads.
Native Shopping ads and many other contextual ads (but not Adsense, last time I checked) allow the publisher to assign default keywords for every ad they create. They're used to select ads for brand-new pages or when the robot can't figure out what the page is about. So if it's an aviation-related site, set the default keywords to pull ads for pilot swag. If it's a home improvement site, set them for power tools and building materials. For a cooking site, pots and pans. For a pet-related site, supplies appropriate to that specie of pet. Etcetera.
If the site's content and design are good, a hobbyist's hobby site can earn hundreds or thousands of dollars a month that way once the site gets popular, with very little work. In most cases, the same contextual ad code can be pasted on every page (or even included using PHP, ASP, etc.). All the creator really has to do is create good content -- which is what they're doing anyway. It's a great way to make decent money from one's hobby.
Old-fashioned banner ads from companies like LinkShare and Commission Junction can also work, but only if the publisher can find relevant ads. Unlike Google and Amazon, traditional banner ad agencies don't do contextual analysis. The publisher has to choose the ads from among the programs for which he or she has been approved. For niche sites, that sometimes works better because the creator knows the content and usually can make a good guess as to which ads will convert. It's a lot more work, though.
For a hobbyist who uploads YouTube videos for their own enjoyment, however, Adsense is a very easy and perfectly viable way to earn a few bucks for essentially doing nothing beyond what they would be doing anyway. Just don't expect to get rich. A few have, but the vast majority won't.
Rich