Let’s face it.
Billions worldwide will choose to watch a video over swiping through pictures or reading a book (unless you’re a nerd like me).
2nd Fact?
Videos are everywhere.
I’m no philosopher, but I dare say that life itself is an endless loop of video content. Every day, we encounter a constant flow of activity—a live stream that unfolds before our eyes based on our unique choices and the choices of those around us.
In a world that seeks to exploit every opportunity to make money, what better way to enjoy content creation than to discover how to make money from creating videos?
Whether you're new to the world of online video content creation or just want to take your content creation to the next level, this guide will help you. It's filled with lots of valuable tips on how to make money from creating videos: where to find ideas and inspiration, how much money you can expect to make, and more! Let’s begin!
Inside this article:
- What Is Video Content Creation: The Basics
- 4 Unique Websites That Pay Video Content Creators
- 3 Creative Ways To Get Money From Making Videos
- Where To Find Creative Inspiration For Your Videos
- Before You Create Your First Video…
What Is Video Content Creation: The Basics
Video content creation is exactly what it sounds like—the process of creating content through videos.
Content creation is multifaceted in its approach, i.e. you can create content via text, music, pictures, videos, etc. And if you’re familiar with the intricacies of content creation, you’d agree that content is always formulated to achieve a specific purpose. Similarly, video content can serve diverse purposes—entertain, inform, educate, inspire, et cetera.
According to Wyzowl,
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Entertainment videos
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Brand awareness videos
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Documentaries
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Videographics
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Product placement/Video ads
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Testimonial videos, and so on.
Over the past few years, the demand for video content has skyrocketed beyond all predictions by marketing experts. While Cisco’s Annual Internet Report indicates that video content will account for 82% of all internet traffic by 2022, present internet consumer trends hint that this percentage may increase before the year runs out.
Everywhere we turn, there’s an online video ad available to capture your attention, educate you about something, or motivate you to buy a particular product.
4 Unique Websites That Pay Video Content Creators
Looking for how to monetize your videos? Check out this roundup of websites that pay video content creators below.
YouTube
Video content creators can earn a decent income from creating videos through the YouTube Partner Program. However, to become eligible for this offer, you must have created relevant video content that has garnered a significant amount of engagement over 12 months. In the meantime, you can utilize your YouTube channel for brand ambassadorship deals, product placement videos, etc.
Edekee
The Edekee brand is a novel startup that offers innovative video tagging solutions for businesses, consumers, and content creators. This brand seeks to revolutionize video commerce as we know it, and also offers an opportunity for content creators to onboard new brands and earn extra income on their platform.
Vimeo
Vimeo is another platform that pays videographers to monetize their videos on the platform. This platform offers different opportunities for video creators and editors to sell their content—especially through Vimeo OTT. By monetizing subscription and transactional video on demand, pay-per-view, and live streams, videographers on Vimeo OTT are able to scale their businesses and generate steady income. Read more about
Dailymotion
Earning money with videos on Dailymotion is quite simple. All you’ll have to do is become a partner with Dailymotion, and you’ll be able to earn once you’ve reached a particular threshold. The number of views your videos get determines your income, so make sure to share your videos with your community and embed your videos on your websites. You can read more about
3 Creative Ways To Get Money From Making Videos
One of the best ways to make money online is to turn your passion into a lucrative business. In this section, we’ll address 3 of the most creative ways to get money from making videos quickly!
1. Become A Brand Ambassador/Affiliate Marketer
Whether it’s as a side hustle or main gig, there’s quite a significant amount of money to make from brand ambassadorship and affiliate marketing deals as a video content creator.
However, achieving this is no easy task. You must have excellent skills and must have also created an enviable following for yourself on social media platforms. Only content creators with an established and relevant online presence will get approached for ambassadorial deals—ideally after their video(s) go viral.
Obviously, the goal of ambassadorship deals is to promote a brand by influencing your audience to buy their products or services. Most video content creators achieve this through targeted video ads, while some creatively employ product placement techniques to pique user interest and demand. You’ll be linking businesses with their target consumer, so your audience must be able to relate to your brand personality.
2. Sell Stock Video Footage
Creating stock video footage to sell is another way to earn passive income from creating videos. Unlike the heavily saturated market of stock photos, there’s a limited supply of stock video content available to compete with the prevailing demand, so now is the best time to get into the market if you haven’t.
Before you start creating stock videos to sell, it’s important to answer three important questions, viz:
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What kind of content do I want to create?
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What category of persons/businesses can buy this footage(s)?
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Where can I sell my video footage(s)?
NB: The most common platforms where video creators can sell stock videos include
3. Create Videos For Others
Many people/businesses need videos for different purposes, but they lack the technical know-how to create professional videos. As a professional videographer, you can leverage this to earn money. You can work with an agency as a video production consultant, or you can offer your services on freelancing platforms to clients looking for video creators and editors.
Where To Find Creative Inspiration For Your Videos
The demand for video content has become higher than ever before, but this doesn’t mean that people will watch whatever you put out there. People want to see a specific set of content, based solely on their interests.
Determining viewer interests is the first step to discover how to make money with videos online.
Video Streaming Websites
Another creative way to get inspiration for your own videos is to explore relevant content on other video streaming websites. Websites like YouTube and Vimeo are great places to find
Once you find out what the best-performing videos are, you can replicate these trends in your own videos. However, ensure that you’re not copying directly from other content creators—this can hurt your chances of getting good traction on your videos, and you can get sued for copyright infringement too. Steal like an artist!
Social Media
Utilizing social media is unarguably one of the best ways to get creative inspiration for videos. The best content creators study relevant Video on Demand (VoD) content from their target social media platforms, e.g. TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook, etc, before creating their own videos. More often than not, this is how viral video trends begin!
Movies
Fact is, if you want to become a great content creator, you have to digest a lot of content too. It’s not possible to churn out creative ideas out of a mind that hasn’t ingested anything creative. And what better way to explore depths of creativity than through movies?
The greatest filmmakers of our time derive inspiration from the world around them. They’re experts at the art of storytelling—understanding this concept is pivotal to your career as a video content creator. And if you can repurpose content in blockbuster movies to fit your videos, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a viral video content creator.
Explore The World Around You
Perception is one of the most enviable traits any video content creator can possess. By observing and understanding the world around you, you can get video content ideas tailored for your audience and beyond. Take a walk, talk to strangers, and visit festivals. You’ll understand humans better, and essentially what factors will drive them to watch your videos.
Before Creating Your First Video…
Voila! Now you know the first steps to earning through your work as a videographer or video editor. All that’s left is for you to start creating videos and earning money through any of the above platforms. But before you proceed to create your first video, ensure that you’re ticking off all of the following considerations:
- Evaluate your skills
- Determine your audience
- Build a niche
- Don’t steal other people’s videos!!!
- Explore video marketing techniques
- Consistency pays
Wrapping It Up
You may not have a ton of experience working with video content, and maybe you’re not as good as you want to be yet. But don’t let that stop you. When it comes to videos, it’s not just about your expertise or whether you have some inspiring or educational content to share—most viral videos have none of these qualities. The most important factor for video content creators is to understand you audience. Find out what they like and then deliver that content for them.
Happy creating!