Online advertising seems to be picking up, but it's still down from previous levels. But while search and display ads under-perform, up-and-coming video advertising seems to be a Heaven-sent for websites looking to boost up their revenues. And not only are they becoming more popular with advertisers, they are also fetching a lot more money that other types of ads.

This is the reason why more and more news sites are increasingly focused on video and are emphasizing it by placing it in easier-to-spot locations, according to a lengthy piece by the New York Times. So why are advertisers paying more for video ads? It has to do with the fact that online video as a whole is growing fast with more and more people getting accustomed to viewing videos online.

The market is still young, but judging by the success of sites like Hulu, not to mention YouTube, there is a definite need for more video content online. Spurred by the increase in broadband availability, it's not just the dedicated sites that get more popular, news sites with video content are also seeing an increase in viewers.

And with every big event which sets records in terms of online audiences, there is a big bump in overall viewership as users realize they're not bound to the TV for quality video content. Events like the US presidential elections or the death of Michael Jackson drew a huge number of people to discover online video and many remained regular viewers.

With the new viewers comes more advertising money. A lot more actually, as numbers from the Internet Advertising Bureau would indicate. While search and display ads are relatively static in revenue, video brought in $477 million in the first half of this year, up by 38 percent from the same period last year. It's 10 times less than what websites earned from search advertising, but, at the rate at which it is growing, it's bound to become one of the biggest segments of online advertising.