Game Walkthrough | Sandbox

YouTube - Online Game Walkthroughs

Synopsis

Create YouTube video walkthroughs^* of online flash games together with an associated YouTube channel and an external web site.
* a walkthrough is a demonstration of how to play the game.

Purposes

Test the flow through to a separate site from YouTube.
Test the take up of video views in an existing market, generally considered to be saturated.
Test the monetisation process with YouTube.

Approach

Set up a channel, https://www.youtube.com/user/TheDancingBrolga as a partnership, link to an existing adsense account.
Limit scope to online flash games as subjects for the walkthroughs - generally these are quick to play and the resultant videos are easily separable into readily digestible pieces by the audience.
Create some high quality* video walkthroughs using best practises elicited from sampling the existing offerings. These were complete in and of themselves, i.e. a full game was handled, not just an isolated component.
* IMHO a high quality walkthrough includes an educational component (such as some combination of strategy, tips, hints and tutorial) as well as a quick way to advance to the area of interest (e.g. a particular level or puzzle)

A walkthrough site set up as a blog - advertising will be considered as an add-on to test for any perceptible impact.
This site is to be simple and uncluttered.

Establish relationships with original content providers and owners. Contact the content sponsors and/or owners directly using their provided mechanism, e.g. web form or email.

Findings to Date

There's a lot of chat in various forums (including comment threads on "how to monetise" videos on YouTube itself) about the allegedly haphazard nature of YouTube reviews of monetisation requests where you are building on top of someone else's content. The generally held belief is that this is irrespective of whether or not you have the original content owner's permission or are following the YouTube guidelines.
Other than a warm glow of satisfaction at a job well done, the developers need to get some reward for their efforts. This is generally either directly through advertising OR (much more commonly) through sponsorships from someone with a much larger turnover and, again, an advertising model. Under this arrangement the developer (apparently) maintains ownership of their original content.
Based on a small sample, the content owners and sponsors are very happy for these walkthroughs to be created and willing for their content to be used in them. This makes sense because the availability of these walkthroughs encourages playing of the game - the player can work around something they are stuck on and so will continue playing rather than give up. This means more views which translates directly to more revenue for the sponsor and/or developer.
Side note: based on the same small sample, both sponsors and developers are passionate about their products and great to deal with.
YouTube appear to target 720p (HD) videos for active review of monetisation requests much more than standard 320p videos.
What started out as an exercise ended up being a lot of fun. I might continue on with this purely for the enjoyment.

Brolga & Swan

YouTube - Online Game Walkthroughs

Synopsis

Purposes

Approach

Findings to Date