Is YouTube making people partners good for marketers?

I was pleased with the recent move by YouTube, owned by Google, to offer a financial incentive to ordinary people who have been successfully making and loading content on the hugely successful site. It is, after all content that is always "king".

If there was not content on the site that attracted people there, then there would be no YouTube at all.

As someone that has (as of writing this) posted 140 video clips that I have made and that have been viewed 884200 times (!), it was also an important incentive. I also think it will help to start to affect the content on the site.

YouTube are only making people partners to share in ad revenue served up on the page with the video if the content is;

- original content made by the partner. So no copyright stealing

- has a proven track record of their content attracting viewers in large numbers

I know that for me this is never going to make me rich, but like the small revenue I make from Google Adsense ads served up on my sites and blogs, it does provide an incentive to think even more about the content I make. Admittedly my videos of hotel rooms and attractions I make are somewhat cheesy - but I know people find them helpful.

I visit YouTube to check out videos of hotels I am considering. And if I want to keep people engaged enough to watch the full clip before the ad is served up at the end - I will think just that bit harder about it when making them.

Consumer generated content online is becoming an important destination online, and responsible for a lot of traffic - which will only grow. It can provide excellent space and environments for us marketers to deliver content relevant brand messages (so , for example, the hotel and other tourist services delivering ads on the page where someone is watching my clip of that very hotel is likely to get a response as whoever is watching it is in high interest mode).

But as marketers we want to know the context and content is quality and appropriate. This move by YouTube may be one way of helping to ensure that.

By the way, visit my YouTube channel and watch my videos - and remember the ads!