Ok, so you want to join the user generated content revolution. And rightly so, user-generated content sites are among the fastest growing brands on the internet today, bringing in millions of unique viewers daily. With industry analysts predicting significant continued growth in this sector — estimating the volume of downloads or views on these sites will surpass 65 billion by 2010 — it is no wonder that an overriding theme with many content owners, publishers and advertisers this year will be finding a way to tap into the buzz, and how to make money doing it. Revenues tied to user submitted content are expected to exceed $850 million by 2010, causing traditional companies to take notice of the opportunities available to them and extending their businesses online.

With the advent as tools such as Sonic’s “Easy Media Creator 9″ www.sonic.com now anyone with a camcorder, laptop, and internet connection can make videos and post them to the net. I remember way back in 1994 when I first started playing with video on a computer. We used a $10,000 Pentium 90 with a whole one gig SCSI Barracuda hard drive and we made a postage stamp size piece of video run, wow! That was huge. Now, sites like www.youtube.com, www.break.com, www.blip.tv, and a plethora of sites are the launching pads for the next big thing.

A perfect example of corporate America cashing in on User Generated content is Heinz 57 Ketchup, yep the Ketchup giant is waging a marketing campaign to find the next great commercial. The winner, according to the viewer’s votes wins $57,000 and their ad runs on national TV!

http://www.topthistv.com/

User-submitted content sites are the new resources of entertainment and information. For publishers, these new outlets represent the next generation of web technologies that can be monetized. Once you establish brand loyalty, you will find you have a viable media product that advertisers will pay for. What does this all mean? is Americas best and brightest advertising agencies losing it? Or is this the future of advertising? Time will tell, but in the mean time, grab your camcorder, laptop, a copy of Sonic’s Easy Media Creator 9 and think about that Ketchup commercial your going to air-

Sean Hendrickson
Manager, Affiliate Marketing
oneNetworkDirect

References: iMediaPublished: February 27, 2007 Connection, Heinz 57 Ketchup