Vimeo: On Demand Users Earn $260 Per One Thousand Trailer Views

Vimeo may not have as many users as some other platforms. Regardless, the video site certainly has some huge advantages of its own, especially in terms of creator earnings. Vimeo claims creators who sell through its Vimeo On Demand platform can potentially pull in $260 for every 1,000 views of a project trailer.

In a company blog post, Vimeo laid out some basic factors that went into its projection. First, the online video site assumed creators would charge $9.21 for their work on Vimeo On Demand. Vimeo also estimated that 3.2% of people who viewed a trailer on its site would convert to a buyer.

With those guidelines in place, Vimeo believes creators could easily earn that $260 after 1,000 trailer views. That number is a whopping $246 more than the $14 a creator might earn from a very generous $25 cost-per-thousand-views (CPM) rate on YouTube. Vimeo also notes sellers who get 1 million trailer views are likely to earn about $260,000 from their work. Again, assuming a $25 CPM on YouTube, those same creators would only pull in about $13,750 from a million views on Google’s site. That’s $246,250 YouTube users are potentially leaving on the table.

Of course, Vimeo makes some very big generalizations in their creator earnings projections. First, the site assumes one trailer view on On Demand equals one video view on YouTube. In reality, YouTube has a much larger user base and its most successful creators typically score millions of video views per day. A creator might have to work harder to get eyeballs on his or her trailer on Vimeo On Demand.

Additionally, Vimeo’s calculations leave out the fact that many YouTubers monetize outside of Google’s online video site by selling their own merchandise, striking endorsement deals, making public appearances, etc. Factoring in all those earnings could mean creators on YouTube easily pull in the same $260 for every 1,000 views as Vimeo claims to offer.

However, Vimeo On Demand does seem to provide a reasonable payout for creators who want to directly sell streaming and downloadable content to fans. It makes sense, then, that Freddie Wong would put all the seasons of his popular Video Game High School on Vimeo On Demand, and that Philip DeFranco would put his live Los Angeles show recording on the platform, as well. Essentially, creators looking to monetize in every possible way should take advantage of what Vimeo On Demand has to offer.