YouTube Star Freddie Wong Launches His Own Ad-Supported Site, Rocket Jump, And Earns 7 Million Views

Filmmakers who post videos to YouTube receive little (if any) of the revenue that YouTube (Google’s online video service) earns from ad sales.

One of YouTube's biggest stars, Freddie Wong, has decided that he can continue to use YouTube (to market his new work) - but that he also can make money and make a stronger personal connection with fans by hosting his content on his own site. That's why Freddie and his partners launched Rocket Jump.

According to a post by Lucas Shaw to The Wrap, Freddie Wong used a Kickstarter campaign to raise $273,276 (of a $500,000 budget?) for his feature length project - Video Game High School. To recoup the budget of VGHS, Freddie Wong and his partners launched VGHS "chopped up into nine 10- to 20-minute pieces" on RocketJump, his own ad-supported site.

RocketJump has accounted for more than 7 million views (as of August 24th, 2012) since VGHS launched in May 2012.

Besides the larger share of revenue available on their own site - there are creative opportunities as well: “We can create a more immersive experience on a platform Freddie owns and controls,” Dan Weinstein, head of the Collective's digital enterprise, told TheWrap. As Freddie Wong explained: "We need our own place to exhibit our own content and we need to be able to control that user experience, and have a way to guide viewers through content.”