When people hear about money in videos, the first thing that comes to mind is YouTube.
Yes, that’s right, but with the popularity of videos, there must be other ways to monetize video content aside from YouTube.
The answer is a resounding YES!
Check out our article on how you can increase your content’s chances of earning more whether it’s on YouTube or another platform. Click the link below.
READ: The 14 Secret Habits of Successful Content Creators
YouTube and monetization
YouTube (and don’t forget Google) are both leading the way in video content hosting and marketing for several years, while the former has been the go-to platform for establishing brand awareness, project launches, and, yes, earning money through monetization of videos.
Let’s admit it, with more than 2.3 billion users worldwide and counting; YouTube takes the spot as the leader in the online video industry.
Despite the fact its reputation for having billions of users all over the world, it is never perfect and does indeed have its flaws and is not the same as it was when it first started.
In 2017, Youtube experienced a major backlash when advertisers on the platform started to pull out their advertisements when content creators revolted against the radical and widespread policy changes that affected content moderation and established demonetization on the platform – it came to be known as the “Adpocalypse”.
Big-name advertisers such as Nestle, Pepsi, Marks & Spencer, Audi, and L’Oreal, among many others, suspended their ads on Youtube following the massive online protest.
But other than the ad pullouts, numerous independent video content creators were affected as they were denied ad payments on their videos, and it reduced their income from the video-hosting platform for failing to adhere to the revised platform policies.
This became the turning point for the online video industry that prompted many brands and content creators to raise doubts about the sustainability, credibility, and reliability of YouTube regarding its revised policies and monetization process.
This paved the way for competition to thrive in the online video industry, and many brands have never turned back since.
Video content platform alternatives
As demand for video-hosting alternatives began to increase, it gave rise to the creation of new platforms that offered to host video content in them and provided another window for brands to advertise and, yes, a way for content creators to monetize their video content aside from YouTube.
Here is a list of several video content hosting platforms that provide advertisers with a channel to advertise and becomes alternative sources of income for video content creators.
Patreon
Many YouTube content creators have shifted to Patreon, especially those who want to continue developing video content and earn at the same time.
Patreon is a monetization platform that provides a safe and convenient manner, especially in a donation-based monetization mechanism in the channel, which can be linked with other video-hosting media, including YouTube.
It is one of the popular platforms with a video monetization system for content creators, especially those who do not want to invest mainly in growing a following or audience but as a way to complement their existing YouTube income.
Advanced features can be unlocked through different paid subscription plans that could further enhance their content creation capabilities.
Brid.TV
Primarily an HTML5 player and a white-label enterprise video channel, especially suited for content creators with a more extensive and dedicated community of followers.
What makes Brid.TV stands out in that it offers an easy-to-use content management system (CMS) and offers customizable white-label video service equipped with easy search capabilities, advanced filtering options, and a very intuitive user interface (UI).
While it is limited to ad-based monetization, unlike YouTube, which provides multiple monetization methods, Brid.TV offers a lot of advanced monetization functionalities and features not found on YouTube.
Perhaps one of the major downsides is that monetization features are unlocked through a number of paid plans.
Dailymotion
Similar to YouTube as a video-sharing site, Dailymotion ranks among those with the largest network of followers boasting 112 million monthly users.
This makes the platform one of the best alternative video sites for video content creators looking to expand their audience base and monetize their videos.
It has almost the same monetization system as YouTube, with most earnings generated from ad content monetization, where creators who are looking to earn need to sign up in the Dailymotion for Publishers program in the platform.
But unlike YouTube, Dailymotion is not as versatile with its content, as those that dominate the platform are political and news content, as well as that a large percentage of its followers are from the European regions.
Vimeo
One of today’s most popular video platforms, especially for on-demand video content, which includes live streaming, monetization, and over-the-top (OTT) videos, among others.
Unknown to many, Vimeo has been instrumental in helping video creators in publishing their content for the past 20 years, especially with HTTP live streaming (HLS) videos.
Vimeo also supports several monetization features and also provides services for intuitive video content management systems (CMS), secure hosting, and video transcoding, just to name a few.
Similar to YouTube, Vimeo offers both subscription-based and ad-based monetization.
These are just some of the alternative platforms that can help video creators make money for their videos, and if there is one element that is crucial in any video content – whether it’s on YouTube or any one of these alternatives- it is quality.
Experienced video creators can attest to the fact that post-production of video content for publishing is a complicated process that takes time and technical expertise coupled with creativity, and one wrong move could make or break the success of the video and lose its capacity to earn.
Here’s a bonus tip, search for a fractional editing service and weigh the benefits that you can get out of it, especially when aiming for the best quality videos to help you optimize your video monetization efforts.
And another one, you can use your content for affiliate marketing since you are putting your content out there, you might as well make a side hustle out of it.
READ: What You Need To Know And How To Earn From Affiliate Marketing