TechCrunch has a piece on YouTube reaching the 100 million videos served a day mark. I guess this is good news for YouTube however, as much as I love YouTube I fear they are bound to fail as a revenue generating business.
Online advertising success is predicated on what I refer to as contextual relevance. You get clicks only if your link (text or rich media) is relevant and in the focus of whatever the user goals are. This is why AdWords succeeds. This is why eBay succeeds. This is why affiliate marketing delivers. Contextual relevance.
Take a look at the top YouTube videos for the past week. Where are the advertising opportunities here that are contextually relevant to the content? The content is a mix of user generated comedy, young girls lip syncing, a UFO over New York City, a whale and a plane taking off next to sunbathers on a beach. The user goals here are to be entertained and the user focus laser like on the vids
Can you monetize UGC? These videos aren’t selling anything…and maybe that’s just why YouTube has become so popular. They are relevant to exactly why users are coming to YouTube. To be passively entertained, which as we know is the worst time to be trying to sell anything to anyone.
Revenue generation will be a tough nut for YouTube to crack. I wish them the best of luck.
jonathanmendezblog.com 
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