Help Fred the baker raise the dough.

March 24, 2008 10:27 AM

How would you transform YouTube fame into money?

Fred and Sharon have almost a million hits on YouTube, but between answering emails and baking bread they have no time or expertise to plan a strategy to make money with this. Their window of opportunity may be very short. How can people with overnight fame but limited resources succeed financially in the longer term?

posted by weapons-grade pandemonium to work & money (12 comments total)

Very quickly publish a book tangentially related to their source of fame (say, a compendium of their best-written emails?), but with key words prominently featured on the cover.
posted by kittyprecious at 10:36 AM on March 24

Talk shows, merchandise, books, tapes on CD, etc.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:43 AM on March 24

Yes, release a book expanding on what you do online.
posted by fire&wings at 10:45 AM on March 24

lonelygirl15 actress Jessica Rose got an agent and started getting roles on TV and in movies.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:46 AM on March 24 [1 favorite]

You have take this with a great grain of salt, Weapons-grade pandemonium, because you must remember that with the vast variety of web video that have gone viral there has been a strong willingness - element - to be exploited. The Fred and Sharon thing, from what I see, was truly accidental and entrepreneurial, rather than seemingly exploitative and entrepreneurial in the way that that guy's three year old daughter explained Star Wars.

I think a really worthwhile promotion for them is to get them to go to something like the Kids Choice Awards or one of the many movie premieres in New York or LA and put together their own filming and narration, edit it themselves, and put it on Youtube. You could be the funder for like airfare, hotel and $500 and if you did one, probably you could get a gig with TV Guide Channel or E! to produce more episodes.
posted by parmanparman at 11:15 AM on March 24

By the way, I'd love to see the pilot when you get the master of that first epi done.
posted by parmanparman at 11:21 AM on March 24

Whose Masaui? Inquiring minds at MetaFilter would like to know.
posted by watercarrier at 11:47 AM on March 24

More episodes on a video site that actually pays. Short bit on youtube, "see the rest over here on [Paytube]."
posted by user92371 at 12:51 PM on March 24

More episodes on a video site that actually pays. Short bit on youtube, "see the rest over here on [Paytube]."

No, people aren't paying for user generated content. It's about building an ad base on your own site or through an existing site. This is really, for Pandemonium, a chance to either network an idea and see if it flies, or start a site himself. Networking to sites is not difficult, though, if you are willing to perfect your elevator pitch, learn to converse in loud clubs, and carry plenty of business cards that aren't printed by Vista Print. In the meantime, you have the content creators churn out content that matches your original meme. The thing you must remember is that Fred and Sharon might just really want to do weddings and baptisms, instead of remaking their ad and like-sounding promotions for smaller amounts of money.

Think about what the rewards really are for accidental popularity.
posted by parmanparman at 12:57 PM on March 24

I think YouTube is paying a very select portion of their content producers who have tons of views. Email them and ask if these videos can be included in that program.
posted by IndigoRain at 2:32 PM on March 24

You may also want to check out Revver. which has a built in revenue sharing plan.
posted by ryanissuper at 5:38 PM on March 24

Just this morning, my girlfriend told me this quote: "getting into blogs to make money is like learning ventriloquism to meet girls." (I should mention that I run a ventriloquist blog). Feels apropos with the whole viral video money making thing.
posted by history is a weapon at 1:38 PM on March 25