"One year after YouTube, the online video powerhouse, invited members to become “partners” and added advertising to their videos, the most successful users are earning six-figure incomes from the Web site. For some, like Michael Buckley, the self-taught host of a celebrity chatter show, filming funny videos is now a full-time job.
Mr. Buckley quit his day job in September after his online profits had greatly surpassed his salary as an administrative assistant for a music promotion company. His thrice-a-week online show “is silly,” he said, but it has helped him escape his credit-card debt."And the frosting on the cake:
"In a time of media industry layoffs, the revenue source — and the prospect of a one-person media company — may be especially appealing to users. But video producers like Lisa Donovan, who posts sketch comedy onto YouTube and attracted attention in the fall for parodies of Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, do not make it sound easy. “For new users, it’s a lot of work,” Ms. Donovan said. “Everybody’s fighting to be seen online; you have to strategize and market yourself.”
It's not just Joss Whedon or Kent Nichols making money on the web with video. It's hard, but it can be done. It's not "back that Brinks truck up / private army in Iraq money", but as Rogers said awhile back - "Nobody gets rich, but everybody gets paid."
What's also interesting is that the article glosses over the alternate revenue streams available. You could make a great web video that gets seen, but doesn't make you money. If I made a web video and it generated pennies to me, but I had a cool t-shirt tied to it that everyone wanted, and I sold thousands of them...? Well, friends I would take the win and go home to think of more ways to create fun video stuff so I could sell more shirts, books, action figures or other stuff.
