Overlay.TV Turns Your Favorite Videos into Cold Hard Cash

While online videos have given us many laughs, monetizing them has remained an ongoing issue?until now. After a successful 6 month beta trial, Canadian-based Overlay.TV just announced the general availability of their interactive video platform, giving video creators and viewers, as well as marketers the power to cash in on popular videos for the first time.

Video viewers and creators can simply grab their favorite videos off of YouTube, MySpace TV, Google Video and Yahoo! Video and then mash them up by adding videos, product placements, hyperlinks, commentary, clip art and text on top of the video (similar to pop-up video). They can then share the enhanced video via email, their blogs, social networking profiles, personal websites and social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and Digg. Viewers are able to opt-in to receive “overlays” or turn them off.

Users can start making money today with Overlay?s Pay-pal-integrated monetization system that deposits cash into video creator?s PayPal accounts when their friends make purchases at Overlay?s 1000 affiliate retailer Web sites, such as iTunes, Amazon and Macy?s. Also included in the release is:

Video-in-video capability for adding commentary or doing ?Video Karaoke?. Check out an example here: http://www.overlay.tv/overlay/3415

• Easier-to-use creation tool that centralizes videos and third-party merchandise
• Open API
• Twitter integration

Check out some of Overlay.TV?s sample videos:

Nettwerk Records (Representing artists such as Sarah McLaughlan and Uh Huh Her) uses Overlay to help promote CDs here: http://www.overlay.tv/overlay/3541

Uh Huh Her, American Musicians, use a custom Overlay player to promote their brand:http://www.uhhuhher.com/

Amber MacArthur (Online Video Tech Host) uses Overlay to enrich her content: http://www.overlay.tv/overlay/3551