A great deal of publishers have been increasingly switching to producing more video content these days and many major media outlets have recently fired a great deal of their writers in order to pursue this transition to video.
But for the various publishers who have sought to produce more video content, they might be surprised to see that things don't work out exactly as they had planned.
To start with, many websites saw a dramatic decrease in their viewers and despite producing more video content these publishers still might be struggling to generate the revenue that they seek.
For most sites who made this change, places like Vocativ, Mic, Fox Sports, and others, the majority of their views are going to take place on other platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or Facebook, rather than their own website. And we saw this direct impact after they made the change, with viewership for several sites decreasing by millions to their own domain.
Right now, Facebook is the most popular alternative platform for publishers to post their content and gain views.
And in a way these other platforms sort of trap publishers because they feel as if they need to post on there in order to retain their audiences. It's much easier for someone to get all of their news from Facebook or Twitter today, than it is for them to visit dozens of sites individually in order to gather all of the information that they might be interested in.
But publishers don't have the same ability to monetize their content on these other platforms like Facebook and YouTube and so it might limit their ability to earn by having to go that route and heavily relying on that traffic.
And many publishers are criticizing Facebook's video ad program and saying that it isn't providing enough money in return for content makers. Also, the limits surrounding implementation of those ads in videos can sometimes be too restrictive.
Popular Content On Facebook
When it comes to the most popular video content on Facebook, food content and animal videos reign supreme. It's estimated that animal videos alone generate at least 2.1 billion views every month.
Those other sites that produce sports and news content, that have recently fired a great deal of writers, might have thought that their solution to their monetization problems was simply more video. However, if they aren't producing the most popular video content (the “right kind of video) then that is going to impact their potential for financial success on the site.
Following pets and food, fashion and beauty are two other extremely popular categories for video on Facebook as well. After those topics, other popular content categories are things like humor videos, gaming, tech, and DIY videos.
Those news sites who recently made changes to cut writers might have thought that video would be the best approach for them, but they might need to re-think their strategy and try to maintain a healthy mixture of both.
SMTs To The Rescue?
For those content publishers who are tired of relying on Facebook and YouTube for monetization, there is now the option of getting their platform onto the blockchain and utilizing the new SMTs.
This is an incredibly valuable solution for monetization that offers publishers a very easy approach for them to start taking advantage of.
This creative monetization approach is the future of the internet, as it provides a valuable alternative for publishers outside of the mega platforms like YouTube and Facebook, for them to be able to further monetize their content. It also offers an incentive for users of those platforms to become more engaged with publishers. For the sites that might be still struggling with monetization, SMTs are the next best place that they should be looking.
Pics:
Tracey Moore via vocativ.com/362925/music-industry-targets-youtube-ripping-mp3-pirates/index.html
via diysolarpanelsv.com
via digiday
Buzzsumo via aol
Vocativ via vocativ.com/money/wall-st/many-people-hate-young-investors/
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When Switching To Video Content Doesn't Work Out Like You Thought It Would
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https://steemit.com/steem/@ned/smart-media-tokens-why-we-re-doing-it-video