Need advice about controlling access to videos

10 replies
Hi guys. I've been asked to build a website for a yoga teacher who wants a membership site for her customers. They pay and get access to videos, content and the teacher. So far, so good. I can do that bit. But she wants to deliver a series of automated emails (one per week) to new sign ups and each email will contain a video. When they click to watch their video she does not want them to be access her video channel and be able to see the next week's video until she sends it to them in next week's video. The idea is that she is teaching them step by step and they need to practise for a week before they move onto the next technique.

My questions are:-

1. How do I set up an automated email system for new sign ups which send out weekly emails? I think there will be about 10 emails so each sign up must start with email 1 and receive them in the correct order.

2. Is it possible to host videos with Youtube in a private channel but ensure that viewers cannot somehow access other videos within the private channel until they are given the link?

Or am I missing a trick and is there a better way of doing this? I've checked out other people who do this like Chalene Johnson but she seemed to use her own software and hosting until she started promoting Kajabi but I dont know anything about this platform.

I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks.
#access #advice #controlling #membership #videos
  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    look into something like wishlist member, or optimize press

    al
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  • Profile picture of the author PBScott
    You can host the videos on the website, either password protected or not. Just upload them to a folder on your server, and get the code to link/embed them.
    Set up a mail list signup form, there are code examples on the web. It is pretty simple.
    Then you need some mass mailing software.
    It really isnt that complex a job, just approach the tasks one at a time.
    Mailchimp can help you with the mailing and mail list collection if you dont want to do it yourself.
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    • Profile picture of the author unifiedac
      Originally Posted by PBScott View Post

      You can host the videos on the website, either password protected or not. Just upload them to a folder on your server, and get the code to link/embed them.
      This is probably the safest way to do it. If you want total control, host the videos locally, password protect the page, and include the password in the email.

      Ultimately, there is always a way to share things on the internet. It's nearly impossible to avoid, you're just mitigating the problem by making it more difficult.
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  • Profile picture of the author aseltz
    Originally Posted by busybee100 View Post

    My questions are:-

    1. How do I set up an automated email system for new sign ups which send out weekly emails? I think there will be about 10 emails so each sign up must start with email 1 and receive them in the correct order.

    2. Is it possible to host videos with Youtube in a private channel but ensure that viewers cannot somehow access other videos within the private channel until they are given the link?

    Or am I missing a trick and is there a better way of doing this? I've checked out other people who do this like Chalene Johnson but she seemed to use her own software and hosting until she started promoting Kajabi but I dont know anything about this platform.

    I'd appreciate any advice or suggestions. Thanks.
    YouTube private channels won't work for this. They limit the number of people who can be added to the channel (last I checked it was 50), they have to have a YouTube account to join, and (to the best of my knowledge) there is no automated way to add them. Beyond that, you wouldn't have any way to drip feed access to the videos.

    If you already have the membership setup, I would create a drip feed of content on the site that releases the videos (embedded on a page) and then sync up an email sequence that sends out a reminder email that directs the users to the membership to see the next video each week. Most membership scripts allow you to automatically subscribe a new member to an email service like Aweber, Constant Contact, MailChimp, etc.


    Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Hope
    Make your videos Unlisted on Youtube, then send out the link to those in the autoresponder series.

    There is no viewer limit, and a Youtube account isn't required to view. They won't be shown in her channel video listings, and only those who have a link to any given video will be able to see them. Of course the video links can be shared, but so can everything else if someone wants to badly enough.
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    • Profile picture of the author aseltz
      Originally Posted by Jeff Hope View Post

      Make your videos Unlisted on Youtube, then send out the link to those in the autoresponder series.

      There is no viewer limit, and a Youtube account isn't required to view. They won't be shown in her channel video listings, and only those who have a link to any given video will be able to see them. Of course the video links can be shared, but so can everything else if someone wants to badly enough.
      The main problem with this is that the videos can be shared very easily! Click the view on YouTube icon, copy the URL, and it can be shared with the world. Other solutions at least add a few extra hurdles to stop casual sharing.

      I licensed a video player solution for my sites that makes it super easy to embed videos onto my websites without serving from YouTube (but that is still and option.) There are SAAS solutions out there that do the same thing. You add the links to your source file and then cut and paste a bit of code to embed the video on your site,

      It comes down to your client's budget and expectations. There is more than one way to get the job done.

      Andrew
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  • Profile picture of the author Laksh
    You may get a better solution ... but this is wat I can think of at the moment.

    1. Host videos on YT as unlisted
    2. Post them on to ur website with unique post/page names, but don't let them get crawled by search engines.
    3. Signup with Aweber
    4. Setup a sign up form per week, with Double Sign up in place.
    5. Setup an email seq per week with respective signup form for that week ... each week signup form will redirect user to respective week's video post/page
    6. Start the email campaign

    This will help to achieve below
    1. Let visitors signup every time they gets to this link. Aweber let's u by pass double confirmed option process if the visitor signed up already once & u can configure it further with help of their support, if it's not clear. (If some one else gets the link they can be redirected to an actual PayPal page or sign up page)
    2. Create videos & have them not visible for everyone ( unless they have the direct video link )

    You may also try using self video hosting on your wp site.
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  • Profile picture of the author busybee100
    Thanks everyone. Really appreciate all your replies
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  • Profile picture of the author spearce000
    Set up a membership site as @agmccall says above.
    Upload your videos as MP4 files to a bucket on Amazon S3 and embed them into Wordpress. The software will automatically set up a player for you. You can then release the videos one at a time. Stay away from YouTube. Even an unlisted video is still public.
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  • Profile picture of the author rritz
    I would recommend amazon too, I have seen it in many membership sites. Haven't done it myself so don't know how it work exactly.
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