The Youtube partner program is an exclusive arrangement with Youtube where you can actually make money off of your videos. The program has been extremely tightly controlled and Youtube only allows the most prominent producers into the program.

Today, Youtube is expanding the partner program. They are allowing more applicants to the program into the program. Most notable among the new partners is Tay Zonday, the guy behind the original Chocolate Rain song. The Chocolate Rain video became wildly popular because it was just so odd. It even sparked a number of hilarous remakes, including one by Darth Vader. Zonday most recently created a more modern rap version of the original and that video has already gotten almost 1.5 million views.

Well, Tay can now cash in on his fame directly from Youtube.

We feel it’s important to reward our most dedicated community members: those who are regularly uploading original content to YouTube. In evaluating applications, we will focus on the users who have built a significant audience on YouTube (as measured by video views, subscribers, etc.) and who consistently comply with the YouTube Terms of Use.

While the program is expanding, it is, no doubt, out of reach from the overwhelming majority of content producers. We’ll await more word on who else gets accepted into the program.