If you’ve ever wondered, “Can you make money from Vimeo?” the short answer is: Yep. The slightly longer answer is: Yes, and in more ways than one, all of which we’ll get to shortly. Ever since we launched Vimeo OTT and Vimeo On Demand, we’ve seen an influx of YouTube creators selling their videos on our platform. We’re super excited to see so much great work being shared, bought, and sold on Vimeo and — most importantly — seeing creators earn that much-deserved money for their hard work. If you’re making videos and want to earn money from them without dousing them in ads, consider selling through either Vimeo OTT or Vimeo On Demand. Together, these two services have helped thousands of people — including the creators of the hit web series High Maintenance — sell their videos, their way. Allow us to demonstrate…
The high-quality home for high-quality videos
Since Katja and Ben dreamt up the show in 2012, High Maintenance has aggregated a passionate, loyal following that has streamed the series millions of times. And that following caught the attention of HBO, where it’s been a critically-acclaimed show since 2016. Because of Vimeo’s high-quality viewing experience and creator-friendly revenue model, the meager benefits that a popular title might see on YouTube are magnified exponentially via Vimeo’s streaming monetization platforms.
Vimeo means more money for creators
When comparing Vimeo to the average YouTube creator advertising terms, High Maintenance made more money selling directly to fans in just two days on Vimeo than it would have in over two years based on a traditional advertising revenue model. And High Maintenance isn’t the only streaming monetization success story on Vimeo. With over 1,000 OTT apps launched, creators on Vimeo OTT are finding scalable, reliable revenue through subscription and transactional video on demand, pay-per-view, and live stream monetization.
Can you monetize videos on Vimeo?
Yes. Vimeo offers multiple ways to monetize your content. Vimeo OTT is a turnkey subscription video on demand platform that offers monthly, annual, transactional, and pay-per-view monetization options across the web, mobile, and connected TV apps. Anyone can sign up and sell their content on Vimeo OTT.
Vimeo On Demand is another service for one-off, individual transactional video sales, and requires a paid Vimeo subscription to get started.
How to make money on Vimeo
Vimeo OTT
If you have an existing and growing library of content, you may want to consider an SVOD-based streaming monetization strategy with Vimeo OTT. Creators on Vimeo OTT can earn a steady source of revenue through both on-demand video and live stream monetization, on a monthly or annual basis. What’s more, Vimeo OTT offers branded apps across a suite of streaming platforms, including Android, iOS, Apple TV, Roku, Tizen, and more. This means you can stream your content under your brand, while offering a top-notch app experience for your clients. Entertainment brands like MHz Choice rely on Vimeo OTT to distribute their films and series to their growing audience, wherever they are.
Stellar streaming, everywhere.
Vimeo live pay-per-view (live PPV)
You can also blend a TVOD (transactional video on demand) model with your SVOD strategy on Vimeo OTT, too, including live pay per view events. This means you have the flexibility to monetize a library of content on a monthly or annual basis, with additional options for one-off payments to buy or rent specific titles.
Vimeo on Demand
Vimeo On Demand is better suited for an individual title that you want to monetize. Customers can watch Vimeo On Demand titles via Android, iOS, and other platforms via the Vimeo app, although without a branded viewing experience.
Which is better for monetization: YouTube or Vimeo?
YouTube’s monetization process requires amassing a large number of followers and viewers to earn revenue from their ad-based video on demand (AVOD) model. Very few creators on YouTube can earn sustainable revenue streams from YouTube alone.
Vimeo OTT offers multiple ways to monetize video content. Subscription video on demand offers more ways to scale and earn regular, recurring, and meaningful revenue compared to YouTube.
Vimeo vs. YouTube monetization
Curious about how the math would play out for your own videos on Vimeo vs. YouTube? When comparing an average YouTube creator advertising term ($3 CPM), it’s clear that monetizing your content through a transactional or subscription video on demand model is a direct line to more revenue.
Learn more about Vimeo's features outside of monetization like video analytics, video creation, video hosting, and video editing tools.
Streaming monetization 101
There's a whole alphabet soup of monetization models: SVOD, TVOD, AVOD, and PPV. We've got the scoop to help you make sense of it.
