Entrepreneurs are special people. They are creative and they take risks. They are great at forming a concept and telling a story (to bring partners on board).

If you’ve got the entrepreneurial spirit, and are still in college, it might be worth entering this 2008 video scholarship contest that’s taking place on YouTube.

Here’s a quote of the page contest :

As a leader in educational guidance, Peterson’s has helped millions of students connect with the right colleges and achieve their educational dreams. Now, we’re giving you the chance to win up to $5,000 for college by submitting a video that will be featured on YouTube telling us “What Makes U Special?”.

All you have to do is submit a video explaining what makes you special. Not a tough task for the true entrepreneur. Just apply the same creative skills that you use in your business… develop a compelling concept and put it to video.

Prizes!

1. Grand prize is $5000
2. 10 runners up receive $100 gift certificates to Barnes & Noble.

So you’re into the challenge? You can enter the contest here. And make sure you submit your video by July 31st.
Goodluck guys!

NFIB (National Federation for Independent Business) is one of the leading small business organizations in the nation, and they’re offering a new money making opportunity to all interested video producers / Entrepreneurs / viral YouTubers. They’re holding a contest awarding $5,000 cash and a free trip to the 2008 National Small Business Summit in Washington DC for the best 30 second YouTube clip answering the question “Why does small business work for America?”

The contest judges will weight these videos by the following criteria:

50% Originality
25% Creativity
25% Answering the question

So really, the key is the creativity part, since it covers 75% of the grading criteria. This seems like a great opportunity for college students, because of the cash, the free time, and the right sense of humor and originality.

Go here for the official contest rules, and here is NFIB’s YouTube page for the competition. Best of luck to anyone participating.

Metacafe is a web community/service of online video makers and viewers. Pretty much works like YouTube, with a cash rewards twist.

At the face of it, there are basically two ways you can make money online via Metacafe and web videos:

1. Producer Rewards Program.

This is specifically geared for people who enjoy creating original videos. Original videos may be uploaded by users and submitted to the producer rewards program.

Basically, your video makes money when it meets certain criteria. Other than being original (and free from copyright issues), it starts “making money” when it reaches 1,000 views. You get $5 per thousand views.

The catch? You can only get paid when your video reaches 20,000 views ($100) or more – AND it must keep a user rating of 3.0 or better. So yeah, you must bring in the numbers first.

A tough gig to do, for sure. But, one user have been reported to have made nearly $100,000 in total. Other top producers have made $30,000+. Some have just made a few hundred dollars. I don’t think many YouTube users get that opportunity to make that type of money. At least, not at this time.

2. Metacafe Affiliate Program.

If you’re not interested in creating original videos, but you still want to make money from online videos, then you might want to be a Metacafe affiliate instead. Just sign-up and put the video-sharing code on your site, and hope that that’s enough to collect some dollars. On closer look, though, I’m not really sure about this program, as it doesn’t say much about how folks are going to get paid and such.

At first, I thought this is about hotel scandals sold to video sites. But it’s actually about getting paid for a video that gives an idea to anyone who’d like to place a booking at the hotel filmed – a review video.

Tripr.TV is the website that’s offering payment for every booked hotel that resulted from the viewing of the submitted hotel video.

Achieve Pro Status

If a video review submitter achieves the Pro status which can be attained with the help of a good camera work, good lighting, video sound, and other criteria that add to the quality of the video review, one can earn 30% of the total commission.

This is a good source of extra income for those who travel a lot and can’t live without their video cameras.
Good in video shoot, camera lighting, angle takes..? This one might be the one for you.