The development of online video is often considered to be a result of television fragmentation. Just as television in the United States fragmented from the three commercial networks (NBC, CBS and ABC) to hundreds of cable channels, online video is also constantly fragmenting.  With the fragmentation of television, a variety of new content-centric channels emerged catering to diverse interests, like sports, food, and women. The fragmentation of online video has lead to the development of even more varied content, with skilled content creators developing videos for specific niches.

Khan Academy

One of the best examples of how a content creator used online video to create a profitable online business is the Khan Academy, launched by Salman Khan, an American educator.  The story began in around 2006, when Sal’s cousin who was living in Louisiana asked him to help with some math tutoring over the Internet. As they could not decide on a convenient time when they could both be available on their Web cams for tutoring sessions, Sal thought he would just record his lessons, upload them to YouTube, and send his cousin a link for viewing the video.

However, after he uploaded his math videos, he discovered that it was not just his little cousin who watched it, but thousands of other YouTube users who wanted to learn how to solve different types of equations. Seeing the huge response to his videos, Khan uploaded more videos on other numerical problems. Very soon, he noticed that his videos had collected more than a million views. The management of YouTube soon contacted him about a digital marketing proposal. Sal Khan was made a partner of the website, and digital marketing advertisements were displayed on his educational videos. This way he got a share of the revenue accruing from digital marketing activities on YouTube.

In 2009, Sal Khan generated enough revenues from digital marketing advertisements for him to resign from his lucrative job at a hedge fund. He now began to concentrate fulltime on creating online educational videos for Khan Academy. Today, the Khan Academy is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to providing high quality education to anyone, anywhere. It continues to be supported with digital marketing advertisements from YouTube.

Though YouTube hosts digital marketing ad supported videos from many educators, including taped lectures from highly reputed universities like MIT and Stanford, no educational video has become as popular as Salman’s. In fact, his online videos have been viewed more than 30 million times, which makes him the biggest single educator on YouTube.

This means that great digital marketing content can come from anywhere. Content creators just need to brainstorm various video niches, which can be developed as lucrative avenues for the display of digital marketing ads.

Qudos Digital is a leading digital marketing agency, and can be contacted on 0845 388 5583 or info@qudosdigital.co.uk.