Left and right, companies are attempting to find ways to monetize online video.

The most popular solution at this point are pre-roll (short ads before the video) or post-roll (short ads at the end of the video) spots. However, the effectiveness of such ads have been debated over the last few months as companies utilizing these platforms (such as Revver) continue to seek their way in the online video market.

ScanScout offers an interesting twist on ad placement in videos. ScanScout’s technology allows a company to identify their brands with certain spoken keywords and have their ad show in the bottom of the video player. The user has the chance to click on these ads as they are presented.

At this point, ScanScout is getting paid about $.50 a click from participating advertisers. However, this sort of solution has a great deal of promise for platforms such as affiliate marketing as well.

Rather than layering affiliate links on top of content (and running the risk of infringing on content copyright), this solution allows the affiliate link to be displayed in a highly relevant manner based on the video’s spoken or content keywords.

I wonder if instead of finding one monetization method for online video, we’ll end up using different metrics just as we use CPA, CPC and CPM for text links? Regardless, affiliate marketing has an incredible opportunity to push the envelope and lead the innovation of this space.

Sponsored by:
Register for Affiliate Summit 2007 East Miami - July 8-10, 2007, GalleryPlayer HDTV Affiliate Program

PREMIUM Contributors:
AffStat 2007, SecondLifeVideo.com, Marketing Resources at Cumbrowski.com, AdJungle Banner Management

Contributors:
5 Star Affiliate Forums, Fraser’s Affiliate Marketing Podcast, Jim Kukral Caddy 4 Hire, Vlad