"Up until now there's been a distinction between the content you create and the content created by YouTube's professional content partners," YouTube said Friday on its company blog. "Now some of your favorite YouTube members--including LisaNova, renetto, HappySlip, smosh, and valsartdiary--will begin to participate in the same revenue-sharing and promotional opportunities that are available to YouTube's other partners."

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley hinted at such a revenue share earlier this year while at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

The move comes as YouTube faces greater competition from rival video-sharing sites, many of whom already offer payment for consumer-generated media.

Revver was the first when it announced plans back in October 2005 to split ad revenues with indie producers evenly. Then late last year, Metacafe introduced its producer rewards program, which pays video creators $5 for every 1,000 views of their video shorts.

Discussing its new "partners," YouTube said: "Because they have built and sustained large, persistent audiences through the creation of engaging videos, their content has become attractive for advertisers, which has helped them earn the opportunity to participate on YouTube as a partner."

Participating user-partners will be treated as other content partners, according to YouTube, and will have the ability to control the monetization of the videos they create. Once they have selected a video to be monetized, YouTube will place advertising adjacent to their content so participating user-partners can begin earning revenue.

Content creators who have had the privilege of participating in YouTube's partner program until now have included video game companies, universities, and large production houses.

Added YouTube: "We hope that this program inspires people to keep creating original videos, building audiences and engaging with the YouTube community."

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