Metacafe: The New Day Job?

Metacafe noted today it’s paid six video creators more than $10,000, a little over a month after it started its “Producer Rewards” program. Sure, this is a publicity stunt by Metacafe, a direct descendant of Revver’s promotion of the Diet Coke and Mentos extravaganza earning $30,000 — but we’re fans of any efforts to help creators easily profit off their popular videos.

Matrix – For Real…joe Eigo – video powered by Metacafe

The six high-earning Metacafe creators have a lot in common; they all make tapes of personal talents, whether it’s origami, massage, or magic tricks. The highest earner, at $24,885, is a single video (above) of an amazingly talented gymnast. The other creators seem to have their earnings more evenly spread across regularly submitted contributions.

Metacafe reports videos registered with the Producer Rewards program have been viewed more than 19 million times. Once a video earns 20,000 views and a 3.0/5.0 rating, registered creators earn $5 for every 1,000 views. Many of the videos include pre-roll ads.

We previously noted paying video creators now seems like one of the most viable ways for independent video sites to stand out, though we doubted that it would be enough to topple the sweetheart deals YouTube is getting, or the power of portals like Yahoo and MySpace.