Revver Reaches One Year, $1 Million
Video-sharing site Revver is celebrating its first anniversary since dropping the ‘beta’ tag on Sept. 13th of last year, and in a happy coincidence, is also announcing that it’s paid out $1 million to video creators and syndicators. Doug Bresler of Doogtoons will be receiving an honorary check for the millionth dollar. Who’s the top earner on the site? It’s the mad scientists at EepyBird, who have earned over $50,000 to date for the nearly 11 million views garnered by the Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments clip.
Revver mails out over 1,000 checks a month, according to a spokesperson from Edelman PR (who was citing CEO Kevin Wells), and more than 25,000 people have earned the $20 minimum needed to receive a check. Revver splits ad revenue 50-50 with creators, and syndicators who embed Revver clips can earn 20 percent off the top, with creators and the company splitting the rest. Taken together, the numbers suggest that the average Revver user who has received a payment has earned about $40.
It’s certainly a big announcement for the startup, which has had its ups and downs over the course of the year: Popular creators Ze Frank and Ask a Ninja moved their video publishing to Blip.tv and Castfire, respectively; rumors surfaced about a possible sale; and founding CEO Steven Starr stepped aside, with Kevin Wells taking his place. Meanwhile, YouTube began offering revenue sharing to a hand-picked stable of stars.
I followed up with Tim Street, who has been able to pay his rent with revenue from Revver thanks to the popularity of his French Maid TV series. He confirmed in a brief phone interview that he’s been earning anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000 a month through the site. He recommended creators take advantage of Revver-formated QuickTime files for podcast distribution, since it allows for ads and views to be tracked, even if they’re distributed through the iTunes podcast directory.
Today’s announcement isn’t just good news for the company, but also for creators looking to earn residuals on work distributed online.
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