Videos have been steadily becoming the number-one most-preferred way for audiences to consume content, nearly doubling since 2018 and showing no signs of stopping. Fifty-four percent viewers have revealed they want more video content from their favorite brands and companies.
Owning your video content has become more important than ever for content creators who want to maximize their revenue. Many third party sites like YouTube and Vimeo have fluctuating ad revenue they dispense to their video creators, and make it difficult to maximize your revenue from your content. Owning your content means you’re in control of who sees your content, how much revenue you can earn, and how you integrate it into your site, and how your audience can view it.
Content creators who fail to successfully incorporate video content in the 2020’s are putting themselves at a major disadvantage and are preventing themselves from significant traffic and income streams.
In the past, the answer was simple: create a YouTube channel, and start posting content. Nearly two thirds of businesses use YouTube as a major social media channel, as it is the number-one most-used video platform in the world.
But YouTube brought its own challenges and obstacles, and made it difficult for creators owning their video content. Content creators had to play by YouTube’s strict policies and rules, sharing all ad revenue with the platform. If a content creator made a few mistakes on their channel, YouTube could (and often did) completely shut the channel down, never reinstating it again.
Content creators didn’t own their content — YouTube did. It wasn’t uncommon for these creators to choose between running their business their way, or adhering to the ever-changing policies of these major platforms. Even if they succeeded on YouTube, there was no guarantee it’d stay that way; YouTube’s constantly changing algorithm made consistent success virtually impossible.
This experience isn’t uncommon for publishers in every field. It can be difficult to learn how to master video content marketing, but it doesn’t have to be. Using tools like Ezoic and other video marketing tools make this process far easier and help publishers with owning their video content and incorporate better video content into their site.
Boost Your Content With Video (Even If You’re Still a Beginner)
Although viewers are consuming video content in record numbers, not every content creator is a natural videographer. Creating, editing, and publishing videos can easily feel like it takes an expert to manage and coordinate, and not every content creator will feel confident making their own video content.
Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert to create high-quality, popular video content for your site. Social media channels and website tools have made it easier than ever to create and incorporate video content into your site. One of the easiest ways to do this is probably nestled in your pocket right now: your smartphone!
Every day, thousands of highly popular influencers around the world earn tens of millions of views from their followers through simple live streaming on their smartphone. Plenty of social media apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook allow for basic (and even advanced) video editing, but in general, you can easily create plenty of popular video content simply through your smartphone.
Some creators might balk at the idea of creating more video content; they might think you need long script and rehearsal time to practice recording new videos. What many content creators don’t realize is that they already have their scripts written and rehearsal time done; their older content!
Your old blog posts and articles can serve as excellent video scripts, most of which probably feel very natural and familiar to you (as you’re the one who wrote it!). You can turn your older written content into brand new, relevant video content without needing to spend enormous time rehearsing or even writing new video scripts.
Owning Your Video Content Allows You To Keep Control Of Your Message
When you upload content to third party sites like YouTube or Video, you typically have to follow strict rules, guidelines, and policies. Many of these policies severely limit content creators’ creativity and marketing strategy, and have harsh punishments for breaking rules (YouTube has been known to fully commit to ban content creators and delete all their followers for breaking such rules).
You typically aren’t allowed to share others’ content on your site, requiring you to have full rights and privileges to use every facet of that content. YouTubers and video creators of all kinds have routinely experienced harsh penalties for using copyrighted music in their videos, even just a few seconds could lead to YouTube completely demonetizing their content (while YouTube still rakes in all the advertisement revenue). These and more difficult policies consistently make creating video content a laborious and arduous affair.
When you own your content, you can choose how it’s displayed and what the content is about. In the words of trademark attorney Angela Langlotz, “If you want to control the rights to your video content, then a good way to ensure that is to upload it only to a website that you control.” This way, you keep creative and marketing control over your content, allowing you to promote the message and style you intend, not limited by the ever-changing guidelines and policies of third-party video sites.
Why Owning Your Video Content is So Important
When you post your video content on large third party platforms like Facebook, Google, or YouTube, those platforms own the content. Sure, it has your name on it, you can earn advertising revenue from it, and you can (usually) upload and remove your videos when you wish…but ultimately, the power of video content lies in the viewers. These third-party sites decide when your videos are shown, and to whom…if they’re even shown at all.
Contrary to popular belief, it’s not users that decide what content they see on a social media site, but the platform itself. The platform understandably has its own interests in mind, and if your content doesn’t seem helpful to the platform’s larger strategy…chances are no one will see your content.
But when you own your content and can dictate how it’s shown, where it’s displayed, and what content you can make, you’re always in control. You can choose to promote others’ content on your site, or your own videos. You have access to larger advertisement revenue payouts. Most importantly, you still own and control all your content. When you upload content on sites and in places that still allow you to truly “own” your content, you set yourself and your site up for long-term success.
It’s not just about monetizing your content, it’s about owning your brand so that you can take it in whatever direction you choose. Many publishers see massive potential for their website, but are severely limited by the kinds of content they can post on platforms like YouTube, or what content they can legally promote on their site.
Your business may look very different 12 months from now, but you can rest assured knowing that whatever direction you go, you’ll always own your content.
