YouTube is expanding its user partner programme to the UK, which means any user can apply to be an official partner and take around half the advertising revenue generated by their pages.
Paperlilies is one of a handful of testers for YouTube's partner programme in the UK. Her carefully staged theatrical takes on Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears and Miss South Carolina have notched up several million views - so how important is the money?
"I never had any plans with my YouTube channel," she said.
"I just had broadband and happened to have a video camera in my new computer. I saw other people on YouTube doing vlogs and thought 'well, that looks pretty easy- I can do that!', so I did. I wanted to bring a British voice to what was then mostly an American site. I think that was my hook, what brought people to my channel initially - I was 'the English girl' with 'the cute accent'.
Paperlilies started posting on YouTube in May 2006, and says she has received thousands of messages since she started the project. She joined the revenue-sharing programme late last year but says that even her highest-traffic videos only earned her around £500 in one month for more than 1.5m views. She has also had some offers of work in graphic design and web video, but it is clear that her motivation is not to make money or to find work.
"It wasn't til I had a lot of subscribers and had been doing it for a year or so that I got any offers of fame and fortune, and it's not like they are coming in thick and fast. I have met hundreds of people, recieved thousands of messages, made lots and lots of amazing friends, who I would never otherwise had any contact with. I have been exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking."
The site has deteriorated since the scheme started
She's a bit disappointed, though, about how the atmosphere of the YouTube community has changed since the partner programme started.
"Making money has become something of an incentive to stick around as much of the site has deteriorated since the partnership programme has been introduced," she said.
"The thrill of having a million views now means money, so integrity has been compromised for what people know will be watched. WhatTheBuck, SXEphil and Blunty3000 are some prime examples of people whose videos have totally changed since the partnership was introduced. They now make videos that are solely about getting as many views as possible - about celebrity gossip, with thumbnails that promise boobs in the video, about sex, etc. These will garner the most views, and therefore make the most money.
"I think that people have always hoped to achieve the most views on youtube as a matter of pride and it being a goal that people naturally want to achieve. Now, however, people can much more ruthless about it."
Martin Scorcese is not on YouTube
YouTube, she says, is not a TV killer. The attraction for users is the interactivity - something they don't get with conventional TV but that they probably don't want.
"You can't message Martin Scorcese and tell him what you thought of his last film, but you can message someone on youtube and say what you think of their videos. It is a real integration between content maker and watcher.
"I think the TV vs internet video argument is akin to the newspapers/books vs online blogs from a few years ago. No-one stopped reading newspapers, but there was finally a way that 'the common folk' could voice their opinion. This is the same, just video instead of the written word."
Paperlilies - or Bryony, to the real-world - sees TV as a place for the big-budget shows she loves like CSI and Lost, where she can enjoy the surround sound and the big screen. The web is a place for something different: "TV will never have people vlogging from their bedrooms, and you wouldn't want it to anyway!"
Why the long tail doesn't work when you're part of it
No-one in the industry was surprised when Google bought YouTube - everyone felt that video was the Next Big Thing. But people were surprised that Google paid so much for a site with no proven business model. YouTube has since ramped up display advertising and introduced overlay ads on videos, though whether that covers the $1m + monthly data costs, we don't know.
But YouTube's advertising works on that old long tail, making a tiny amount per page but from an enormous number of pages. That same structure just cannot be that lucrative for the average, or even the above-average, YouTuber. And though it is only fair that Google shares some of its billions with the users that have built the soul of the YouTube phenomenon, it would be sad if the dollar signs should become more important than experimenting, sharing and discussing.
