7 top ways to profit from video

Niche publishers are moving into video at a rapid clip.

In one of our most action-packed roundtables, publishers shared what they are creating and why. It was not always about the money. There were some surprising side benefits to some video strategies.

1. Promotions

It is becoming more common for video to promote advertising, or events, on the website.

An example of a well done promotional video was created by Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles to support their flagship event, Designer Home Showcase (full case study  on how the $500,000 even is put together here),

They tapped an editor as the talent and used the clip on their site to sell tickets and support the value proposition for advertisers throughout the year.

Other publishers are working on adding a video to promote advertising and reader revenue. NichePublisher.biz created a sample video aimed at solving the problem of a site that looks like a news site, but is actually a community site. The goal is to create an explainer video while the site is redesigned.

This clip was a first attempt, to be rescripted and recorded again, along with explainers for other site areas – a toe in the water for an important component of a site using new technology to connect members.

2. Content Extension

Adding video to content draws in younger readers and makes the story more memorable.

Walt Cooley, VP of publishing at Agproud, shared a multi-component video strategy, but sometimes, he said, the editor just needs a video clip to make the story work. Here’s a moo-ving example from Progressive Dairy. 

So, pretty easy to ingest a video that the source already has.

3. Show us the $: Podcasts and sponsorcasts

Another initiative at AgProud is podcasts and sponsorcasts that run on the home page and have extra distribution via Podcast.co‘s distribution network.

The content is produced in-house by a team member in the production department, who is not only the editor of the commercial sponsorcasts, but also the host. The positions are sold out, and the secret sauce to sales is Podcast.co’s analytics showing the number of downloads from the distribution network – a number that can run from 500 to 7000 at a time.

4. Upgrading event sponsorships

We took a quick look at Builder Innovator’s event-first, video-first model, designed by owner John Galante. Attendees are hosted free,  but vendors pay for a video shoot, along with a guaranteed number of one-on-one meetings with attendees.

The innovation at the 2026 show was to include video in every sponsorship package, supporting an overall price increase and providing a competitive advantage (see full case study here).

A key to this video strategy: Acquiring video on the show floor is super efficient. One person on staff with an iPhone can collect more than a hundred videos of vendors describing products from their booths at the show over three days.

5. Ongoing Shows

A few publishers host full video shows to gain advertisers or support other types of sponsorship.

Fishing Tackle Retailer adds value to the daily newsletter (see the advertising membership model used here), with a weekly “news round-up show,” Fishing Newswire.

Publisher Angie Thompson showed us below how she set up her office as a video studio and uses video content from advertisements in that week’s native-style newsletter. In short, the purpose of the show is in part to promote the brand via the extra distribution. But it also supports her advertiser membership model. The website has  FTW channel where all of the videos lives.

Walt Cooley, from Agproud also created a show, the Real Producer’s Exchange, for which two sponsors pay $2750 each to sponsor each episode.

He uses clips from the webinar as a “sneak peek” to build interest in the main event, a live webinar that has 150 to 300 attendees. Potential sponsors nominate customers doing something interesting, and Cooley goes on “Farm Tours” to collect vide0 from them in the field, shooting with an iPhone

Readers much be logged in to watch the shows, which stay permanently on the website, accumulating views and user registrations.

6. Using a Video Webinars as Lead Generators

Reversing the strategy: Rather than using video to sell sponsorships, publishers can also use it to generate leads. Gewuerz, of Local News Industry Pulse, a webinar series, talked about how this works.

This may be the most overlooked use case for starting a webcast – the ability to make connections with people who may turn into customers down the line. Like Yarber, part of the strategy is simply building important relationships.

7. Cementing relationships

Publishers have some great set-ups, but one publisher, Keith Yarber of Tops Lexington Magazine,  is building two studios in-house, one for podcasts and one for video. The main purpose, he says, is to bring customers into the studio to build a closer relationship. With a new magazine in town, no one can be taken for granted.

The main purpose of creating a profession TV-studio-like environment is “showbiz,” Yarber, who has a radio background, said.

There will be a couple of $1000+ chairs, a neon sign that says Tops, and preset lighting and sound that is ready to go when a client walks in. He plans to shoot professional head shots of clients, a much-needed service, as a loss leader to bring potential clients in the door.

“Just the value-add of taking some of our best clients” and having them be a guest on a show is intended to “get our clients closer to us.”

Many thanks to these publishers for sharing their strategies with us. Don’t miss Part 2, where publishers explain how they set up, edit, and distribute their shoots.