Earning Potential Of Movie Streaming Websites.

With the appearance of services like megavideo and vidreel etc, you might have noticed that a lot of websites are coming out who just present the links to the place where one can watch a movie for free. Such websites, which just display the links in an organized manner receive a lot of traffic on daily basis. I just wanted an idea about the effectiveness of monetization of such websites. For obvious reasons, CPC ads like google adsense etc are not going to work on them. And because Google adsense ads are by far the most beneficial ads for webmasters, there is no such luxury available to these movie websites. People don't tend to click on links in these websites, They just want to watch the movies and then go away. However, the great number of visitors that these sites receive suggests that even for a low CPM ad, the earning should be above average as compared to other niche websites requiring similar amount of hard work. Some niche websites may require even more hard work and still earn less than these easy to make money websites. When you visit vidreel, you will see a huge number of ads, some of which are in the form of banners and some in the form of pop-ups and pop-downs. On average, each visitor coming to vidreel must see about 6-8 ads before he can actually watch the movie, which he was looking for. So even for very low CPM rates, the website must make a good sum of money. Similarly the indirect websites, which just organize the movies into categories and then display the links of various places where the movies can actually be watched, also display a huge number of ads. They also tend to receive a huge amount of traffic and thus the earning potential for such websites should also be good.If you compare the amount of work you need to put in creating such a website, with the amount of work needed to create a good quality niche website, you will clearly see that just organizing the movies and displaying links is much more easy than actually creating quality content. For movie sites which just display the links to actual places to watch movies, you just need to copy a poster of the movies from imdb, then write the name of the movie and display the links to places where you can watch it online. On the other hand for niche websites, you need to actually spend hours of time in creating a quality article and then post it in an effective manner, which also requires some time. So if the movies site make even the same amount of income as a niche website of comparable pages, the movies site is still better because there is much less time invested in it.However I would like to know the earning potential of such websites. Also how would the search engines rate them. Because new websites on this strategy are popping out daily, the keywords must be highly competitive so gaining a good position in the search results for these terms might be a difficult task however, if the potential is good, then this risk can be taken.

LOL. It's not that easy. How you managed to get this article, copied or your own thoughts are like this ? Just curios. Anyway, let me break it down to you. If you're linking to copyrighted content and if anyone catches you then they'll send DMCA or other legal notice for broadcasting copied content, even if it is not uploaded by you or served by another user or content. Are you ready for that ? Such content is hosted on FFMPEG and other adult/warez/type of networks which allow such things, try hosting such site and let me know how opaque responds to your site when he gets DMCA. and if you manage to pass that hurdle let me know what ecpm you get or ctr you get for your google adsense account. Hope this gives you hint about what i mean in short when hinting for this type of money making scheme being risky. Second, there are tons of advertisers who like such sites but there are tons of issues to get traffic rolling. You need to literally spam facebook and twitter to get visitors and if not then black hat SEO to get traffic from search engine. In short you end up being darker than black hat guy for manipulating things like this. If you think everything is fair in money and whatever, then you should open yourself up to pay few money to host your such content on protected sites where DMCA can't touch you. In that condition it's possible to make money, else many hosts take down such sites everyday due to legal or DMCA issues. Risk is about getting hosting account deleted, dinged by google index and few other anti-spam blocking your site. are you up for the risk ?

LOL. It's not that easy. How you managed to get this article, copied or your own thoughts are like this ? Just curios. Anyway, let me break it down to you.

These are neither my own thoughts nor have I copied it from somewhere. I have a group of few friends on facebook. All of them are one way or the other related to administrating a website. We were discussing issues about our websites. A friend suggested that we should start a project where all of us can contribute to one single website. In this way the website will develop quickly and we will get our goals soon. After all of us agreed on this suggestion, a search for the topic of the website started. In that research, movie streaming websites were taken into account and the post I made is the summary of that discussion. I wanted to get comments on this (and also make a few credits) so I posted the discussion in my own words here. By the way thanks for providing such a resourceful reply on it.

If you're linking to copyrighted content and if anyone catches you then they'll send DMCA or other legal notice for broadcasting copied content, even if it is not uploaded by you or served by another user or content. Are you ready for that ? Such content is hosted on FFMPEG and other adult/warez/type of networks which allow such things, try hosting such site and let me know how opaque responds to your site when he gets DMCA. and if you manage to pass that hurdle let me know what ecpm you get or ctr you get for your google adsense account. Hope this gives you hint about what i mean in short when hinting for this type of money making scheme being risky.

Let me reason with you on this. You said that linking to a copyrighted content can make me get a legal notice. I will quote the example of http://www.onlinewatchmovies.co/ where such thing is going on. All they have done is posted a message in which they say that they are not responsible for the legal status of the content linked from their pages and the website is running well. It is receiving a lot of traffic on daily basis which is suggested by its good alexa rank. Suppose you link to a page and the content on the page is copied. How are you supposed to know that the content is copy righted. I have a personal experience of taking guidance from some pages on the internet to write an article. Then when the article is complete, I drop a link to the source from where I took the guidance. How am I supposed to know that the content is copied from somewhere else or is illegal. My duty is to keep my own website clean and I cannot make others clean because I have no control over them. You would argue here that even you cannot make others clean, but at least you can stay away from others, but my reply to this is that to survive online, you need to be social. If you are not interacting with other websites , you can't survive. It is as simple as this.I want your comments on this.

In the end I would really appreciate if you can provide me suggestions on what type of website we must start. Or at least where we can find the guidance on this.

Let me reason with you on this. You said that linking to a copyrighted content can make me get a legal notice. I will quote the example of http://www.onlinewatchmovies.co/ where such thing is going on. All they have done is posted a message in which they say that they are not responsible for the legal status of the content linked from their pages and the website is running well.

Please read our rules, they are here http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and a reminder link is in the left bar of each forum page.

Illegal Content (ban): Posting illegal content, or referring to it with, for example, a link, and even discussing such material will not be allowed. Such material includes but is not limited to :
Warez, or other illegally distributed software.
Hacking tools.
Pornography or nudity not safe for children.

This means that you accept our rules, and you know that you are fully responsible of the contents of your website. Posting illegal contents, like copyrighted movies, will make you been banned from the forum and your website will simple be deactivated. So, please, do not play such games on your Xisto account.

Please read our rules, they are here http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ and a reminder link is in the left bar of each forum page.
This means that you accept our rules, and you know that you are fully responsible of the contents of your website. Posting illegal contents, like copyrighted movies, will make you been banned from the forum and your website will simple be deactivated. So, please, do not play such games on your Xisto account.

LOL
MR moderator is getting curious about me. Dear yordan I am not going to create an illegal website on Xisto forum. Don't you worry about this.
However, as you have contributed in the discussion, and because you are a moderator as well, I would love to get your comment on the following reasoning.
You said that I am not allowed to place copyrighted movies on my website. Suppose (only suppose ok) that I create a website where there is no illegal content on it. But it contains links to illegal content placed somewhere else on the internet. Would this be counted as "Promoting Illeagal Content" or there can be a way out?

If your website has illegal contents, you are guilty.
Links to websites showing illegal contents is a way of displaying illegal contents.
The current tendency in all judgements is punishing the people giving access to illegal contents even more strongly than the initial faulty people.
A link to illegal content is a way for some people to have access to this content, these people would less easily have access to it if your site did not display that info.
Have a look here : http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

Any activity on our network that is a violation of any state or federal law is a violation of this policy and will result in immediate termination of service. Prohibited activities include, but are not limited to:
ÂťTransmitting obscene materials or child pornography

ÂťIntentionally spreading or threatening to spread computer viruses

ÂťGaining or attempting to gain unauthorized access to any network, including Xisto - Web Hosting's private network infrastructure

ÂťAccessing or attempting to access information not intended for you

ÂťTransmitting pirated software

ÂťConducting or participating in illegal gambling

ÂťSoliciting for pyramid and other illegal schemes.

Xisto - Web Hosting does not permit any site that contains: (i) images (including on banner ads) of nude models that appear to be under the age of 18 (in Xisto - Web Hosting's sole judgment), (ii) sexually explicit images (including on banner ads) of models that appear to be under the age of 18 (in Xisto - Web Hosting's sole judgment); or (iii) sites containing language promoting child pornography together with any sexually explicit or nude images. As required by federal law in the United States, Xisto - Web Hosting will forward all offenders of this policy to the appropriate federal agency.

This is the document you sign when you purchase a hosting account at Xisto, if you don't agree you were pleased to press the "cancel" button.
Everything forbidden in any state is forbidden in your website if we host it. If you want to have illegal stuff on your website, please purchase hosting from somewhere else.

In the end I would really appreciate if you can provide me suggestions on what type of website we must start. Or at least where we can find the guidance on this.

Sorry. I'm not going to spoon feed you for every genuine niche question or the niche research that requires my own time. I'm getting paid for such work and it takes my own time for to figure out what works and what doesn't. So i can help in general but not going to spoon feed you for the stuff which costs me money, sorry even i need to get paid for my consulting time. You should spend your own time to do search sometimes. There are plenty of internet marketing forums and sites that can spoon feed you or let you learn to make money online.
As for copyrighted content hosting, your example of onlinemovies is proof that triggers DMCA. Do you know they can trigger DMCA on that site anytime. Just because it is not hosting content and just linking to it doesn't mean they're out of law. If you work with thieves, you become one of them. This is again issue of ethics and what is allowed on hosting company. On Xisto this is not at all allowed. So good luck finding hosting for such stuff. On Xisto or other xisto channels this is strictly prohibited.

Few things i need to tell you so that you can understand how risky it is. If you're playing with warez/copyrighted content then your adsense account is few steps away from deletion. Adsense team keeps eye on every keyword on page and they delete adsense accounts from those pages. Ask opaque how many times some buzzwords trigger in his adsense email when team mails him for the words on his sites or forum pages. Some vulgar words related to female body or male body trigger adsense alarm and they keep eye on your account.If they see it coming from forum then simply lower the ecpm value and hence earning goes down. See ? if it comes from blogs then they simply warn publisher or delete account. They don't care if it is from youtube or someone else. If it violates rules, they remove the account.

Another thing is about linking to copyrighted content. If you like to distribute someone's content which is copyrighted and is hosted by pirates and distributed then by linking to pirated content, you become one of them. So there is no way out. It's similar to buying illegal tickets for movies. Hope you get the analogy.

Sharing affiliate ids on single sites and then using black hat techniques to make sales is surefire way of getting ban from networks like commision junction, clickbank and some others. So you're in risk when you create site with your friends. It's not revenue sharing model you guys are working on but more of few black hattters spamming or violating copyrights to make sales.

As for being social, there are ways which don't violate DMCA or someone's copyright laws in any country and still make money. Just because others are doing it doesn't mean that you should do it with excuse of money. By going above this you cross boundary of black hat people and now move into area of piracy and illegal activity. Good luck making money via this method, no matter how long you make it.

If your website has illegal contents, you are guilty.Links to websites showing illegal contents is a way of displaying illegal contents.
The current tendency in all judgements is punishing the people giving access to illegal contents even more strongly than the initial faulty people.
A link to illegal content is a way for some people to have access to this content, these people would less easily have access to it if your site did not display that info.
Have a look here : http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/

This is the document you sign when you purchase a hosting account at Xisto, if you don't agree you were pleased to press the "cancel" button.
Everything forbidden in any state is forbidden in your website if we host it. If you want to have illegal stuff on your website, please purchase hosting from somewhere else.

OK OK, don't be angry upon me. I assured you in my previous post that I am not going to create any website on xisto which violates our agreement. I just wanted to have your comments on it.
By the way thanx for the serious comments and reminding me of our agreement.

Sorry. I'm not going to spoon feed you for every genuine niche question or the niche research that requires my own time. I'm getting paid for such work and it takes my own time for to figure out what works and what doesn't. So i can help in general but not going to spoon feed you for the stuff which costs me money, sorry even i need to get paid for my consulting time. You should spend your own time to do search sometimes. There are plenty of internet marketing forums and sites that can spoon feed you or let you learn to make money online.

First of all let me say that I am really thankful for all your help during my entire period on Xisto forums, however, I used to think that you enjoy sharing your experiences with people. After hearing the above paragraph, I am disappointed, not with you but with myself. I should have been more careful and must have not bothered a professional like you so many time. So all I can do now is assure that I don't bother you in future. But still, I am very very thankful for all your help.

As for copyrighted content hosting, your example of onlinemovies is proof that triggers DMCA. Do you know they can trigger DMCA on that site anytime. Just because it is not hosting content and just linking to it doesn't mean they're out of law. If you work with thieves, you become one of them. This is again issue of ethics and what is allowed on hosting company. On Xisto this is not at all allowed. So good luck finding hosting for such stuff. On Xisto or other xisto channels this is strictly prohibited.
Few things i need to tell you so that you can understand how risky it is. If you're playing with warez/copyrighted content then your adsense account is few steps away from deletion. Adsense team keeps eye on every keyword on page and they delete adsense accounts from those pages. Ask opaque how many times some buzzwords trigger in his adsense email when team mails him for the words on his sites or forum pages. Some vulgar words related to female body or male body trigger adsense alarm and they keep eye on your account.If they see it coming from forum then simply lower the ecpm value and hence earning goes down. See ? if it comes from blogs then they simply warn publisher or delete account. They don't care if it is from youtube or someone else. If it violates rules, they remove the account.

Another thing is about linking to copyrighted content. If you like to distribute someone's content which is copyrighted and is hosted by pirates and distributed then by linking to pirated content, you become one of them. So there is no way out. It's similar to buying illegal tickets for movies. Hope you get the analogy.

Sharing affiliate ids on single sites and then using black hat techniques to make sales is surefire way of getting ban from networks like commision junction, clickbank and some others. So you're in risk when you create site with your friends. It's not revenue sharing model you guys are working on but more of few black hattters spamming or violating copyrights to make sales.

As for being social, there are ways which don't violate DMCA or someone's copyright laws in any country and still make money. Just because others are doing it doesn't mean that you should do it with excuse of money. By going above this you cross boundary of black hat people and now move into area of piracy and illegal activity. Good luck making money via this method, no matter how long you make it.

From this discussion of yours and from the posts made by Yordan, it is clear that such websites are completely illegal and nobody should get into this stuff. I have learned lots of stuff about few high traffic and low competition keywords from this discussion and now I can assume a reason for the keywords that why they have so little competition in spite of the high amount of traffic they get.

It is illegal and hurt the hosting business unless that hosts allow legal adult or such content which triggers DMCA. I found some of the sites hosted on hostwinds (cheap and reliable host than xisto) allows such type of content. Some of the people who lurk around publishers forums that i'm into knows about these type of hosts. To be honest with such hosts, they're much faster and consistent at support than xisto. For example, fantastico sctip on xisto is rarely updated on xisto but this is not the case with the hosts like hostwinds or others who host adult or illegal content. They're very active on security level and as they're into this piracy and illegal activity, they know loopholes much better than xisto folks. If you're in anyway attempting to make such sites (obviously without adsense) then you should look for such hosts. You can ask for recommendation on sites where such publishers share their success or other stuff. It's not hard to find such forums, i can't share here cause it'll not be taken in the spirit of this forum (nothing illegal but still on ethical code). By the way such sites use paypal and some other payment processing modes which are hard to manage if you're living in pakistan. So chances are there that you'll not get into those ad networks. You should instead get into media buy service as those service pay via check. Not sure if you've such plans from your sites. But if you're not getting into this black hat business, then it's better to try media buy/ad placement sales instead.

If you're in anyway attempting to make such sites (obviously without adsense) then you should look for such hosts. You can ask for recommendation on sites where such publishers share their success or other stuff. It's not hard to find such forums, i can't share here cause it'll not be taken in the spirit of this forum (nothing illegal but still on ethical code).

I have tried to make it clear in my previous posts that I am not going to make any website which hosts illegal content or which promotes illegal content. I was just trying to gain some knowledge from experts of Xisto forum and after recieving comments from you and yordan, I can now say that it is one of the most informative topic for me. I have learned a lot of things from the discussions between us.My own website which is based on Human Anatomy is performing reasonably well and has started to show some promise. It is making good earning on per day basis and I have reached very close to achieve my first goal. So instead of wasting my time on another new website (which will still take a lot of time to get settled) I am going to continue with my primary website (MANanatomy.com) because it is showing me a lot of promise. I have added a question answers section to it (although I haven't made it very attractive or informative yet) but still I think it is going to be a valuable addition to my website.
Furthermore I have learned about the behavior of different keywords on search engines and how backlinks can boost your rankings. I am now a much better webmaster than what I was about 4 months ago. And my website is much better that what it was about 4 months ago and I should thank you (@Starscream) for this because it was you who suggested me to go for a CMS (wordpress) instead of designing each page of my website manually with dreamweaver).