Controlling access to your videos

by 16 replies
18
Hi - I'm busy completing my video course.

While I want it hosted online (as opposed to download), I want to restrict access to (obviously) to those who purchased it.

What is the best way of hosting a video but yet restricting access?

I know I can do a private link on YouTube but that can still be shared. Do you host the video on your own site (in a membership area)? But ouch, bandwidth.

Thanks
#main internet marketing discussion forum #access #controlling #videos
  • If I were you, I'd use Amazon S3 to host my private videos and link to those in my membership area on my blog. *If you're using WordPress there's great plugins available to keep people from copying your video hosting links.
    • [3] replies
    • Vimeo offers private videos with username and password if you have Vimeo Pro. You can also use Vimeo for videos on demand where the user purchases straight from Vimeo and then has access just through Vimeo.
    • Wistia is also a pretty good option. That's who I host my videos with.

      ~ Fred
    • Thanks for the suggestion - I like the idea....however, I'm still uncertain as to what prevents someone simply pasting the direct S3 link on a blackhat site or craigslist or warriorforum..or...That is, once someone signs-up, goes into the member area, grabs the links and then shares it.
      • [1] reply
  • Create the video yourself using Camtasia or other similar video rendering software. Once you have the videos made create a membership site so only people who have purchased a membership my login and access the videos. This is the best way and looks the most professional.
  • I would use a membership site and htaccess and htpasswd and host them on your own server, if not on your own then on a cloud server with username and pass and also make sure you have a password protection script so if anyone gives out their username and pass the script will ban them etc..

    ps bandwidth is very very cheap now a days I run some ***** sites with over 40k+ videos and over 400+ members bandwidth isn't as bad as you would think it is. *shrugs*
  • Agree with most here that hosting your videos yourself using Amazon S3 and posting them in a password protected membership site is a smart way to go.

    An alternative solution can be to upload all of your videos into a course at Udemy. They charge zero hosting fees for housing and streaming your videos/content, but keep 3% of your direct sales and 50% of sales they generate. I simply factor Udemy's take into the price of my courses.

    They used to do a 50/50 split on revenue but recently changed to you keep 97% of sales for traffic that you send directly to your course. And you can also make your course private so that it's not searchable within the Udemy marketplace. Not sure why you would want to do that though since they are generating a ton of traffic these days. But if you wanted to ensure that all sales were coming from you so you can keep 97% of the revenue, that's an option.
    • [1] reply
    • There is some nice advice but I don't agree with 100% of it. So, here is what I do with my video courses.

      Set up a wordpress site, use the Optimize Press 2 theme and install Digital Access Pass. Digital Access Pass protects the content and allows you to accept payment from a variety of processors. When the buyer pays, DAP provides them a user name and password to the members area. I like it better than Wishlist since with wish list, if someone knows the registration page, you can bypass payment, not something you can be done with DAP.

      For displaying video, I use Vimeo Pro. While not the cheapest, its $199 a year for unlimited HD views and 20GB of uploads a week which is quite a lot. The beauty of Vimeo Pro, you can restrict it to only stream on particular websites as well as changing the look, feel and branding of the player. In addition, it works on mobile devices as well (converts to HTML 5 for iPad and iPhones).

      I would then use Amazon s3 for things like worksheets, PDF's and others that people may need to download. For my sales page, I would use Wistia to get all the relevant analytics they provide. All in all, you will have a very robust solution to your membership core and only the truly committed will be able to actually pirate your stuff.
  • +1 Vimeo Pro account.
  • Vimeo Pro
    Wordpress blogs with membership plugin
    Easy Video Suite also offers pw protected options
  • Try Udemy
    think of all them also to find customers
    it is a platform for e-learning evolved much
    I still have not tried it but I've heard very good things about them
  • Since I started this thread I thought I'd come back and give an update.

    Just creating a membership portal wasn't enough. Sure, the public was restricted but it only takes one member to log in and then harvest your videos. Thanks to a combination of suggestions above, not only did I end up hosting it on S3, but I found a great plug-in. The way it works is that your videos remain private on S3, but the plug-in generates a temporary valid URL to that video which expires in say 30 minutes. So if they try share the link it is useless. Contrast to a regular membership portal where the videos are behind a login but are simply private/hidden links that you can grab and email out.

    I wanted to try udemy but as I was uploading a video it tells me each video can be no more than 20 minutes...WTF...I have 5 videos each almost a hour long. Not sure why they put a 20 min max length on it.

    Anyhows S3 plus plugin did the trick. Or, at least I think so. I haven't looked around the black hat forums to see if my content is all over the place
    • [1] reply
    • Well done on taking action and not letting all the potential threats deter you.

      What I'm going to state next is probably not what you want to hear, but you do need to hear it.

      First, from my own personal experience with creating, marketing and selling my own products since 2001 to date and with the advancement of technology, I can almost 100% guarantee that if your content is an good it will get ripped off at some point.

      Second, the somewhat comforting news is that the thieves who steal and share it will probably do nothing useful with it.

      Third, if your video can play in Firefox, there are numerous add-ons that will allow someone to capture what's playing in their browser (read: grab your video in it's entirety). The add-ons are legal as far as I'm aware.

      Lastly, take necessary sue diligence steps, however, don't let the fear of what 'might' happen hold you back from moving forward. I spent too much time trying to protect my offline marketing content in the period 2010-2011 and eventually switched my focus, because the digital shoplifters will always exist, and it's not worth the energy to dwell on all eventualities at the expense of making progress.
  • Yes

    Amazon S3 and a membership plugin is the way to go. i personally use DAP with S3 Amazon and it works great. Hope that help
  • if I can't use vimeo pro (restricted in my country), any video player that's good or maybe other software to be used with amazon s3 to 'streaming only' video access with no downloading?
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