So you uploaded a video and it went viral! That can be very exciting, but also quite confusing. You’ll be presented with options for monetizing the video and selling the video. Not sure which route to take? No worries, we’re here to share some helpful insights into the pros and cons of selling it vs trying to monetize it yourself so that you can make an informed decision.
What to expect when your video goes viral on YouTube…
Let’s start with what it means to go ‘viral’. Some ‘professionals’ will tell you it’s when your video surpasses 1 to 5 million views. We disagree. We think of it as a video that hits exponential growth for several days to weeks in a row with at least 10k views a day. The consecutive exponential rise for a certain period is what will gain the attraction from companies like Jukin Media, Video Elephant, Viral Hog, UNILAD, etc.
Be prepared to start getting bombarded with inquiries from the aforementioned viral video companies about licensing your video to them for monetization purposes. They’ll message you through multiple different social media platforms.
Should you try to monetize it yourself?
The decision-making process here is a fairly simple one. For Ad Revenue privileges (the ability to place advertisements on your videos and make money off of them), YouTube has some strict guidelines. You need to have accumulated over 4,000 hours of watch time and attained 1,000 subscribers in the past 12 months in order to be eligible to earn advertising revenue from your channel. If you are not near that threshold, then you should definitely aim to sell your video.
If you are eligible, then you can file for eligibility here. Keep in mind though, that the process takes up to two weeks and you will be losing valuable ‘momentum’ time on your videos.
Should you sell your video to comapnies like ViralHog, UNILAD, and Video Elephant?
It is hard to match the ‘marketing machine’ and connections that these platforms already have in place since this is the sole purpose of their business existence. This is important to understand because if you strike a royalty deal with a 50/50 split of revenue, the 50% of revenue that they can achieve for you might very likely greatly outweigh the 100% of revenue you would earn if attempting to do it yourself.
That being said, make sure you are happy with the deal you make. Our experience in selling videos for our clients has helped us gain some key insights. We always aim to negotiate the terms in our favor. If the video is growing exponentially, try to secure an up-front payment and then a royalty deal that is over 50%.
Also, make sure to ask if the video will remain on your channel or be transferred to another channel. This is especially important if you are trying to grow your brand. We’ve successfully sold videos which remained on the original channel they were uploaded to so that new subscribers can be funneled to that original channel.
From experience, we’d say these companies are fair and transparent in their process and they do payout as promised.
Potential Risks…
One risk you should be aware of is privacy. If you are selling a video and hoping to remain anonymous, that may not be something that can be guaranteed. Watch the below video which details a crazy experience with privacy issues associated with selling a video and also further elaborates on all the points made in this article…
