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What's the best way to host videos when selling a video course?

by Robert X
21 replies
Hey all,

Just checking in here to see if there's any NEW or better way to host videos for a course I plan on releasing in the next month. Is Youtube a sure fire way to not get overloaded if too many people try to watch at the same time?

I've done this before using Screencast and it was ok, but I just wanted to see if there was some new simple way to do this. It was kinda laborious when I used Screencast. I may just use Youtube but any other suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

Robert Cottom
The Warrior Syndicate
#host #selling #video #videos
  • Profile picture of the author Rbtmarshall
    have you looked at Amazon s3
    aws.amazon.com/s3/

    or were you talking live seminar type video and google hangouts?
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  • Profile picture of the author Maria Jimenez
    Youtube is free, easy and can handle unlimited views, Vimeo and Wistia are good but not free, unless your are not expecting a lot of sales , you can host your videos in 4shared or putlocker .
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  • Profile picture of the author Geri Richmond
    Hi,
    I have a post on my blog about Amazon S3.
    Good luck in finding what you want.
    Geri Richmond
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  • Profile picture of the author Derek_Gehl
    My favorite combo = Amazon S3 + Amazon Cloudfront + EZS3.com
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  • Profile picture of the author spearce000
    The trouble with putting a paid-for course on YouTube is that people associate YouTube with free. Even if it's a private YT video, people will still think you're ripping them off. There are two options here IMHO.
    1) Amazon S3 and JW player on a protected area of your website, or
    2) Save the video as an MP4 file, zip it, and let people download it and play it from their computers. Again, Amazon S3 would be my preferred hosting.
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  • Profile picture of the author Maikel Michiels
    From what I've heard Vimeo would be a good option. As they allow you to restrict the websites your video can be uploaded to. With YouTube for example, your video could be embedded onto another site.

    You do still hold the risk of people downloading your video and then re-uploading it again though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sharpster
    Amazon S3 with Cloudfront - can't beat it - dirt cheap and always delivers on demand.
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    • Profile picture of the author scorpio9
      depends on whether you want to stream the videos or make them downloads. If you intend to stream them I suggest you go with Amazon S3 and EasyVideoSuite, very good combination in my experience.
      If you are interested in using EasyVideoPlayer drop me a PM.

      Lee
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      BeaconSites - Websites Designed For Lead Generation & Conversions
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      • Profile picture of the author hoststreamsell
        If you want to provide stream only, or a combination of streaming and download then have a look at my website http://www.HostStreamSell.com as an option. Using this platform, you can easily get setup selling videos with WordPress and either WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads (we have integration plugins for both).

        We also have a WordPress plugin to use with any membership plugin such as s2member, WooCommerce Subscriptions, etc. You simply use a shortcode to embed the streaming video in a protected page.

        The videos are streamed from purpose built media servers, and playback works seamlessly across browsers and devices.

        Gavin
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  • Profile picture of the author seonutshell
    I think people will feel more at home with youtube. Remember, you can always just mak it so that the only people who can view the videos are those with the links.
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  • Profile picture of the author XponentSYS
    I don't know if it's the best way or not.... hell I know it's not NEW but for me it works.

    For my video courses, I convert the videos to FLV, upload them to my word press media library and post them in the members area using the FLO PLAYER plug in.

    I use WP, btw.

    Also, I have a dedicated server so bandwidth isn't an issue.

    Again, may not be the BEST way but that's how I do it and it works for me!
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    • Profile picture of the author OnlineStoreHelp
      I think it all depends on where your customers are going to view it, what the cost of your product will be, and whether you are worried about people raiding your s3 bucket?

      I used Amazon s3 and embeded in my membership pages behind Digital Access Pass. I then protect the bucked and download link with a Wicket Cool Plugin's plugin that protects the bucket. Unfortunately, no go on ipad.

      A couple other course I am working on, I most likely will use Vimeo since, as others have said, you can restrict which site it will play on, plus, it will convert to html 5 for mobile use.

      I am not a fan of using youtube unless it is free content. It buffers to damn much, and if you end up having ads on it, just looks unprofessional, plus it is super easy to copy the page your videos are on and share it with everyone.

      There are also companies like Wisita, Viddler, Vidcaster and others but they do have a cost to them.
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  • Profile picture of the author absolutelee
    It's according to how much I want to protect the content. Amazon s3, if I'm worried about someone stealing my content. YouTube, if I actually want the content stolen. (which I don't mind for shorter less valuable content, because I believe that leads to more traffic for me.)
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  • Profile picture of the author Superstar88
    I agree. There are a lot of videos being stolen from YouTube. If you want to protect your videos, better use Amazon S3.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve L
    Originally Posted by Robert X View Post

    Hey all,

    Just checking in here to see if there's any NEW or better way to host videos for a course I plan on releasing in the next month. Is Youtube a sure fire way to not get overloaded if too many people try to watch at the same time?

    I've done this before using Screencast and it was ok, but I just wanted to see if there was some new simple way to do this. It was kinda laborious when I used Screencast. I may just use Youtube but any other suggestions are welcome.

    Thanks,

    Robert Cottom
    The Warrior Syndicate
    You can use Amazon S3, Google Drive, or Dropbox even. I've been using Google Drive at the moment.
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  • Profile picture of the author alamest
    I have never used Amazon s3 I all the time use GVO, when you join with their hosting packages they give you free video hosting for unlimited, you can show it public or you show it private as well, so. It depends on many things.

    Go for GVO it will really interesting
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve King
    Hi Robert

    I host my videos on Amazon S3 Servers, Use Easy Video Suite as the player and then embed them into a wordpress site utilising Wishlist Member to protect the content - It's completely reliable and secure

    cheers
    Stev
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  • Profile picture of the author robinsonstreaming
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author ElGuapo
      It depends on a few things, e.g. your budget, the number of videos, your flexibility requirements, your website platform, etc.

      I just finished a project that involved hundreds of videos. The sheer size of the project meant I wanted a host I could trust; I wasn't about to go uploading so many videos and updating their links again. If you only have a handful of videos, then it's not such a huge decision.

      FWIW, I went with Wistia. Great reputation, drag and drop interface, and dead easy to customise elements of the video (e.g. video buttons, timed messages, placeholder images, size embedding, etc.)

      In hindsight, though, I should have gone with Vimeo Pro, for the sole reason that they work more harmoniously with Wordpress. It's taken an extra plugin or two to make Wistia videos responsive, and even then they start small and 'bounce' into shape. A small gripe though.
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      • Profile picture of the author scorpio9
        I noticed people on here a saying host with Amazon S3 for protection - this is not 100% accurate, sure you can protect the buckets but once the video is being viewed that are many ways to copy or download it - it's just a matter of having the right tool to do so.

        For sure Amazon S3 does offer better protection than say hosting on your own server, but don't make the mistake of thinking your videos are 100% safe.

        Lee
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  • Profile picture of the author troy23
    Amazon S3 is a good way to go and costs pennies. I've also used YouTube in the past to host the videos and it worked well enough. No method is foolproof and videos can be copied from anywhere if you have the right tools.
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