How it works is that users upload an original video to the site. Revver places an ad at the end of the video (about three seconds long) and if that ad is clicked, the user gets 50% of the revenue that it generates! Sounds easy!

Let’s look at the details of it. Revver will place your ad with a targeted ad of their choosing. Unfortunately, this means that you don’t get to choose which ad is associated with your video, but that is really no different than a lot of other advertising programs. What makes it special is that the ad is embedded in the video so that no matter how the video is shared, it still has the potential to make money!

There are lots of videos spread these days through e-mail, placed on Myspace sites, etc but as soon as they are no longer viewed on their original site, all the advertising revenue is lost - but not at Revver. Having the ad embedded means that the ad travels with the video - so even if it’s e-mailed or shared through P2P, they can still track the ad click and pay you. If YouTube did that, there’d be some very, very rich people me thinks!

Even if you’re not the author of the video, you can still make money for sharing it with others. For example, I could post a video on this site and it would generate 20% of the revenue earned for each ad click. Fabulous for sites with a lot of traffic (not me!)!

So what are the negatives? Well, each video has it’s content reviewed which means there’s a chance that your video could be rejected. Also, they’re strict on ensuring that the video is yours and that you own the rights to it. No making money off somebody else’s video!

Also, payment is only made after you’ve earned $20 and your videos have undergone a 30-day verification period. The verification period is for Revver to check your earnings to make sure there haven’t been any fraudulent clicks (much the same as Adsense - no clicking your own ad!!). Another drawback is that (again, like Adsense) you can’t encourage people to click on the ad. No “please click the ad at the end of this video” instructions next to the video!

The biggest drawback I see is that I feel earnings would be quite low. PayPerClick ads pay notoriously low amounts and after Revver takes their 50% of the revenue, users wouldn’t be left with much. Furthermore, even if an ad was seen at the end of a video, how many people would click on it? Users are not too used to clicking on videos to be redirected somewhere (without instruction) so I doubt the click-through rate would be high. Lastly, the ads are shown at the end of the video, so if somebody ceases watching the video before it’s finished or only watches it partially, there is no chance of making money! They must watch the full video.

In the end, given that some of the incredibly popular videos on the internet can receive TENS OF MILLIONS of viewings, even a low click-through rate could generate a fair bit of cash. If you’re the Numa Numa man at least. Or the Star Wars kid….

Thanks to Brad for putting me on to Revver. You can see his videos here.