YouTube says they will pay me for a video I uploaded

[Lokishadow]

A long time ago I uploaded a gameplay video of Titan Quest. I'm pretty sure when I originally uploaded the video I did it to post it it here in a Titan Quest thread I started.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xELM62DYTHg

It's the #1 result when you search "titan quest gameplay", and has over 72,000 views. I got this in my email inbox a while ago:

Your video Titan Quest Gameplay has become popular on YouTube, and you're eligible to apply for the YouTube Partnership Program, which allows you to make money from playbacks of your video.

Is this worth doing? If there is even a chance of me receiving like a $0.25 cheque from Google for this video I might just go for it just to say "GOOGLE GAVE ME MONEY!". I'd frame the cheque and put it over my computer as a badge of victory. When the internet gives you money, you win.

DeeBye,

I'm not familiar with the whole Google Partnership thing, but you should definitely look into it. You might also contact Husky Starcraft (his channel is www.youtube.com/huskystarcraft), and see if he has time to give you pointers.

My understanding is this:

1) you must have live footage, i.e. a short intro video with a real person.
2) the material must not be copywritten. Husky ran into some filter issues with his Starcraft 2 videos, and was denied partnership.
3) when you become a Google Partner, Google sticks a commercial in front of your video, and you get a portion of the proceeds from clickthroughs, sales, etc.

That's all I know, and I'm sure there are reams of legalese over which to pore. But it could well be worth it. You might also consider uploading a lot of videos and sticking a "Donate" button linked to a PayPal account on your channel page (Husky and HD both did this, and apparently got some money out of it). It can start as a source of supplemental income, but if you put up enough popular videos, and get enough followers, fans, and donors, you can make a living playing video games.

Just don't bank on it until you've got enough flowing in to pay all your bills.

GLHF
-Loki