The money from profit-sharing schemes can be an added bonus for amateur videographers, but Holahan says that once an online video star is successful (like HappySlip's Christine Gambito or Ze Frank), there is more money to be made from hosting the content on a separate site and selling ads against it.

That's not to say that the YouTubes of the world are not important. Their ability to aggregate millions of videos makes them a destination for the mass audiences so coveted by independent—and often unknown—creators. It's a first step to grabbing audience and then ad dollars. The sites' considerable traffic also helps the sites broker deals with large marketing firms that an independent creator with an audience of only 5,000 individuals a day—Gambito, for instance—would have difficulty getting on the phone. "Brands don't even want to go through the effort of the legal stuff unless they can spend $200 grand at once," says Frank, adding that a site with several thousand dedicated viewers won't grab that kind of cash.

At the same time, the ad revenue these sites share often can't compare with the amount creators could get if they built their own sites into destinations complete with advertising and merchandise.