How to Embed a Video on My Site So that it's Private

7 replies
I'm thinking about offering a video training to people that opt-into our opt-in list at our website.

What is a good place/service (other than YouTube) to host the videos online?

I don't want to upload it to YouTube, because if I make it public, anyone can find it (without opting in).

The other option for YouTube would be to make it private, and then manually share it out to each person's YouTube account that opts-in, which isn't feasible.

So my ideal situation would be to host it somewhere that would allow the video to be embedded on my website on a particular page that they'd see after opting-in and confirming their subscription.

In order to keep the amount of people accessing it without opting-in, I know I'd need to periodically change the URL of the website where the video is embedded.

My main concern right now is to host it somewhere where it can't be accessed unless you have access to the webpage where it's embedded
#embed #private #site #video
  • Profile picture of the author Lynn Terry
    Vimeo has that option.

    You can also upload it to Amazon S3
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    • Profile picture of the author mrniceguy123
      Thanks a lot for that insight.

      Sitting here thinking about it, I thought of a couple follow-up questions...

      As I mentioned earlier, since the videos would be embedded on a "hidden" page on our website, it would be smart to modify the URL for those pages every so often.

      Doing so, though, would prevent people who opted-in in the past from being able to access that same page again.

      My additional questions:

      1. Would my only other option be to generate a username and password for each user upon them opting-in, which would keep me from needing to change the URL every so often?

      2. If so, how hard is it to create a username/password system on Wordpress? I'm guessing there's some type of plugin out there that could handle this, right?

      Geez, I'm starting to think that it might be easier just making an ebook out of the information I was going to share in the videos. :confused:

      Sorry, just kinda thinking aloud on this as I go. Any insight is appreciated!
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Maggs
    I think you need to get hold of a membership site plugin, so you can lock down pages. S2 member has a free membership plugin and looks pretty easy to configure. Have a play with that

    s2Member® | A powerful (free) membership plugin for WordPress®
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  • Profile picture of the author Lynn Terry
    Whether you have a video embedded, or a download link for the ebook, it's the same issue - your page being discovered or shared. With an ebook, you have the additional concern of the file floating around out there or ending up on torrent sites.

    Make sure you apply the noindex rule to that page, and otherwise don't worry about it. That's my advice. The kind of people that try to get it any other way aren't the types you really want on your list anyway.

    You can password protect any WordPress post or page, by the way. So if you want to create a password, just include it in your follow-up message once they confirm their subscription.
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  • Profile picture of the author ratracegrad
    When you upload a video to youtube you can mark it as private. Meaning people can only see it if they have the url.

    The problem you will experience is that scammers will always share that url with others so that they can get it for free.
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    • Profile picture of the author Ron Douglas
      Originally Posted by ratracegrad View Post

      When you upload a video to youtube you can mark it as private. Meaning people can only see it if they have the url.

      The problem you will experience is that scammers will always share that url with others so that they can get it for free.
      I don't think anyone can see it if it's private. You have to mark it as "Unlisted" so that only those with the URL or watching on your site can see it.
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      • Profile picture of the author mrniceguy123
        From my experience with setting YouTube videos to private, the person you share it with has to have a YouTube account in order to see it.

        I thought they just needed a gmail email, but according to the rules I saw online, they have to have a Youtube account, which isn't hard to do, but I would imagine that most people don't have one, even if they have a Gmail account.
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