A new YouTube business model

[jayhenry]

YouTube Saves the World
By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMFBreakerRick)
December 6, 2006
Hello, Dolly

Valentina from Val's Art Diary opened her YouTube account a few weeks ago. As an unknown painter with a Mac and a knack for video editing, she decided to chronicle the creation of her artwork with a video diary. With the camera rolling, she explains the artistic process behind "Dolly Wants to Play," but also peppers in a little personal commentary. Her ex-landlord's a thief. Her ex-boyfriend is a jerk. Her mother isn't doing so well. The eventual acrylic painting is then put on the block at eBay, along with a companion DVD.

It's a brilliant business model, as long as you can draw a crowd. Val's big break came when YouTube decided to feature her video. 367,000 views later, her eBay auction ended with a healthy winning bid of $710.

... read whole story

[jayhenry]

Val has shot past Jonas as the most-subscribed YouTuber of the week.

Here's her channel: www.youtube.com/profile?user=valsartdiary

Interestingly, she appears to be quite the LG fan, she's even made response videos to OpAphid.

[milowent]

Interesting. I'm sure there are many others, but the 1st time I saw someone using YouTube in combination with ebay was gohepcat, who sold his old laptop on ebay, with a companion vid showing the product. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey7jzm48qhE One would think that everyone selling a house or car online would include a tour (better than Jonas') of the product for sale.

"It's a brilliant business model as long as you can draw a crowd." Val did so well because her video was featured on youtube, of course. I'd love to see the criteria for how videos are featured, it just seems to be "editor's favorite" type thing.

ETA: val is queen of short youtube videos - almost all (save the vlogs) are 5 seconds or less. that is hilarious.