Metacafe is a video sharing site, just like Youtube. The difference between Youtube and Metacafe is that, Metacafe pays the users for their videos. Metacafe has a Producer Rewards program which allows original content providers to upload their original videos to metacafe in various categories. And for the number of views, they have a chance to earn.
Author of this article has had initial good experience with metacafe. I had purchased a Sony Digital Camera. Video quality in there was quite interesting.
Photography is my hobby so my basic intention with buying this camera was photography only. But as I found its video quality to be good, videography interest started to emerge in me.
My previous office was on a highly-traffic road ‘Gondal Road’ in Rajkot city. From office-window I could see a square point of Gondal road. During evening times, traffic was outrageous.
Almost, every kind of vehicle was passing by, from buses to bicycles. On one such a highly-traffic time, I switched on my camera, stood near window and started shooting the frame. Shot almost 2 minutes video of that traffic.
I had no idea if this video would be a hit on metacafe or not. Rather, let me say I was sure that utmost some 100 or 200 people would watch this video. Now Metacafe had such a lucrative Producer Rewards program at that time. For 20,000 views of your particular video, Metacafe used to pay US $100. I was totally negative about my video’s success. I mean, 20,000 views is a big deal after all. But anyhow, I uploaded that video to Metacafe. Forgot it for couple of days. But after two days I just thought to have a look at views and to my surprise they were over 18,000. At first, I was stunned. Only 2000 views were left in my first payout. And the rest 2000 views were completed in another 2 days. Hurray! I had earned US $100.
Video I’m talking about is here.
So far, above video has received over 40,000 views. Metacafe paid me right in time.
A Metacafe user by name ‘Kip Kay‘ has earned over US $ 1,00,000 by uploading his various videos. He is the highest earner on Metacafe so far.
He was kind of inspiration for me. I then uploaded many more videos from India. Some were selected under top videos too. But they couldn’t reach the mark of 20,000.
But then, Metacafe has changed their Producer Rewards program, and it has become very tough now to earn with Metacafe. Like now they are paying US $2 for 1000 views received from US only. Earlier, worldwide views too were considered.
Metacafe also embeds Youtube videos in their site. While searching for any term in Metacafe, Youtube videos are displayed in search results. They are using Youtube API. This is a smart move by metacafe. Youtube has millions of videos hosted which metacafe can use for free.
I came to know by searching Google that Metacafe is a hit in India too. In Alexa’s top 100 sites of India, I found Metacafe as well which tells its popularity in India. I also came to know that from India, people search various terms like ‘metacafe nipple slips’ (aah! a lucrative term), ‘metacafe video’, ‘metacafe nude’, ‘metacafe sex scenes’, ‘sex metacafe’, ‘topless metacafe’, ‘metacafe videos’, ‘metacafe sex videos’. Now these are the highest searched terms for metacafe, which clearly tells that people are looking for videos which are related to ‘sex’ in metacafe, from India.
Another hit video of mine on Metacafe was ‘Reverse Water Flow’, which demonstrates a Yoga teacher, drinking 2 litre of water at a time, and then by inserting a plastic tube in her stomach, she pours back all drank water. It was amazing, and also received over 20,000 views. But as per Metacafe’s rule of getting 20,000 views within six months of video submission for getting paid, this video received 20,000 views but not within six months. So I wasn’t paid. But video is worth to watch.