YouTube Partners Carve Out Niche, Rake In Cash

YouTube's "partnership" deal with users is generating cash for both sides, the New York Times reports. Splitting ad revenues helps YouTube avoid the copyright kerfuffles that have hamstrung much of its moneymaking potential. Hundreds of partners are making thousands of dollars a month, the company says, allowing some self-made celebs to quit their day jobs.

YouTube execs say the deals are as revolutionary as the AdSense program that sent Google's revenue into the stratosphere. The partners themselves say that while it's hard work to carve out an online niche, it's more than worth the rewards of turning a hobby into a job. "I didn’t start it to make money,” said one man who pulls in more than $100,000 a year from his celebrity chat show and now has a deal with HBO, "but what a lovely surprise." (More YouTube stories.)