Turn five seconds of your time into $10,000

This doesn’t relate to being an electrical engineer, but it might make you think twice next time you catch a silly video on your smart phone. A weekend moment could put extra money in your pocket if you have a little foresight and even a slight appetite for risk. . . .

People earn livings by uploading videos to YouTube. More than that, some people become exceedingly wealthy by uploading videos to YouTube.

The Internet is changing the way people earn a living by enabling them to provide more highly specific services to a much wider audience than ever before in history.

Where we thought before that we might have interesting but useless talents, the Internet lets us discover that other people really do value them after all.

This benefits the person with the talent because they can make money and gain a sense of satisfaction by supplying their service. It benefits the person who uses the service who, before the Internet, could never have gained access to that service at such an affordable price.

Don’t believe me?

This video has gained over 1.9 million views after being online for just 12 days:

It is short: 17 seconds.

At half a cent per viewing, this video could have earned almost $10,000 or more in advertising revenue. It is free to watch for anyone with an Internet connection.

Have you ever caught five seconds of video on your phone that could attract 2 million views?

And which could also earn you $10,000?

Think five seconds isn’t long enough?

Fine. Run it through a free video editor, play it back in slo-mo for 12 seconds, then combine the two clips into one longer one.

Who would have ever thought such a thing were even possible prior to the Internet?

Next time you capture an interesting video, consider uploading it to YouTube. It might earn enough to make your next mortgage payment.

What do you think?