猫咪视频成了家庭工业
Cat Videos Are a Cottage Industry
在工作的时候看看可爱的动物照片和视频，能或者不能提高你的工作效率，但是这却无疑使它们的所有者变得更加富裕了——尽管只有其中一些人。
Looking at cute animal photos and videos at work may or may not be making you more productive, but it's certainly making their owners a lot richer -- some of them, anyway.
影视音乐互动大会的特色就是由Scott Stulen举办的互联网猫咪视频节，Alternet网在SXSW的座谈会上报道称：在明尼苏达州展览会上的猫咪视频秀所售门票数与赶时髦乐队相比还要多3,000余张。（唉！在这里写下让自己感到刺骨的笑话吧。）
Alternet reports on a panel session at SXSW, which featured Scott Stulen, curator of the Internet Cat Video Festival, a live showing of kitty vids that sold 3,000 more tickets at the Minnesota State Fair than Depeche Mode. (Sigh, and fill in your own Spinal Tap joke here.)
座谈小组也以优酷Henri le Chat Noir频道的所有者Will Braden为特色，他通过广告和搭卖商品来获取收益。
The panel also featured Will Braden, proprietor of the YouTube channel Henri le Chat Noir, who makes money off of ad revenue and tie-in merchandise.
在六年前将第一个Henri的视频发到网上的Braden说：“我从来没想过这将成为一种事业，或者能够从中盈利。我当时只是感觉很兴奋，因为视频吸引了数百万的人来围观。”
"In no way did I ever think this was going to be a career, or any money was going to come out of it," said Braden, who posted the first Henri video six years ago. "I just thought how exciting it was that I was getting millions of views for this video."
尽管Braden声称猫咪每千户的高收益未必能转化成财富，但是想要获得具体的收入数字也是很难的。此外，更加成功的猫咪帝国，例如Grumpy猫，就更需要将可爱的猫科动物与深知工业诀窍、有门路的所有者或者懂得游戏规则的代理商结合在一起。
Specific salary figures are hard to come by, although Braden cautions that his cat's high CPMs don't necessarily translate to wealth. In addition, the more successful cat empires, e.g. Grumpy Cat, require a combination of adorable felines and owners with industry know-how or access to someone, an agent or similar, who knows how to play the game.
而且，在这样一个时代，互联网常常被认为是毁灭工作的事物，但是当你听到有人说互联网是有利可图、可诞生新行业的新事物之时，至少你会感到振奋鼓舞。
Still, in an age when the internet is frequently accused of destroying jobs, it's at least a little heartening to hear of a few new, if niche, industries arising from it.
无论如何，这都是有趣的白日梦——至少和白日梦差不多。
Anyway, it's a fun daydream -- and a familiar one.
Kelly Faircloth在Jezebel上面写道“将互联网创造明星的能力与好莱坞的能力相比较是很平常的一件事。但是，或许更好的比较对象是古老的好莱坞，那里是凭空想象狂热追求财富的地方。在古老的好莱坞，工作室的执行者随时都会说服整个国家相信‘从小镇药店里选拔出来的姑娘也可以成为明星’——但是，请注意！你的猫咪也能帮你大发横财哦。年轻人，不要去西部开发区。赶快将自己放在Reddit网上吧！“
"It's common to compare the Internet's star-making power to that of Hollywood," writes Kelly Faircloth at Jezebel. "But perhaps a better comparison is Old Hollywood, a place where wild fortunes were conjured out of thin air, where studio execs managed to convince an entire nation that, at any moment, a hometown gal could be plucked from a drugstore and made into a star. That era is long, long gone -- but hey, your cat can still make it big! Don't go west, young man. Get yourself on Reddit!"
告诉我们你的看法
Tell Us What You Think
在你看来，目前从互联网中诞生的最疯狂的职业是什么呢？
What's the craziest business that's come from the internet so far, in your opinion?