So you want to start putting your videos online for the world to see but you only know of YouTube.
Well there are other options for you to consider. Let's dive in here.
Where you place your videos online really comes down to a decision you need to make first. And that is what do you want to achieve from your video?
Do you want to just upload a shaky video of you sprucing your product from the convenience of your phone? And yes there is a place for that type of reality-style shooting in the marketplace for example see the video from Tribe here. It comes across as authentic, real and heartfelt.
In the early days of the internet we didn’t have just great streaming service as YouTube and Vimeo. The early days were more about flash files that were embedded into your website. This meant that your viewers had to wait until the video had loaded almost in its entirety before they could start playing it. Then of course if your viewers didn’t have flash player installed on their internet browser they could not even play your video.
We seem to take for granted these days that we can simply watch any of the 300 hours of video that are uploaded to YouTube every minute. But it’s no small feat that the top video streaming services out there have worked very hard over a number of years to continually perfect the way videos can be seen online. Today watching videos on all devices with almost no load time is just accepted as the norm.
YouTube
But of course with YouTube, there are advertisements spread across the lower third of your video and the YouTube platform, in general, can come across as a bit amateur looking. Saying that it is a great way to have your brand seen by the world as it is a massive search engine only second in line to its parent company Google. Almost 5 billion videos are watched on YoutTube every single day.
YouTube is free to use so it is a valuable video streaming service for businesses and consumers alike.
YouTube also has its Red service. YouTube Red is a paid membership that gives you an enhanced, uninterrupted experience across YouTube, YouTube Music and YouTube Gaming.
YouTube Red benefits:
- Ad-free videos: Watch videos without interruptions
- Download: Save videos and songs on your mobile device to watch offline
- Background play: Keep videos or music playing when using other apps or when your screen’s off
- Audio mode: Listen to audio only on the YouTube Music app
- Google Play Music subscription: Included at no additional cost.
YouTube Red benefits won’t work on YouTube videos that you pay to view, such as paid channels, movie rentals and pay-per-view purchases. Learn more about paid content on YouTube. YouTube Red is available for mobile phones, tablets, desktop computers and TVs. Some benefits are compatible only with certain devices
Source; YouTube
Vimeo
Vimeo is another great channel for streaming your video content.
Vimeo sets itself apart from YouTube by offering different plans to suit different creators and business models. Below are the Vimeo plans as of the time of writing this blog. their plans range in price from free up to $55 AUD per month
Vimeo also has its Vimeo on-demand service that allows you to sell your videos to the world. Yes, that’s right. If you think your video is something that people will pay for then you can charge a fee to watch it. Vimeo will keep 10% and you keep 90%. This might be a better option to earn money from your videos compared to waiting for YouTube aAdsensemoney which is around $1 USD per 1000 plays.
Vimeo also has its subscription service. Vimeo OTT
Subscription services are a great way for you to secure your income. See our article on building a subscription income here. But be warned, if you offer a video subscription service you must be uploading regular content that offers value to your viewers. If there is no value in your content for the viewer they will disable their subscriptions very quickly.
Here’s a case study from Adriene Mishler who started offering free videos on youTube, and has since grown her fan base on YouTube to over two million subscribers. After finding success with selling a Yoga With Adriene video series, she and her team launched a subscription service under her motto, “Find What Feels Good.” Learn how this small yoga business went from YouTube channel to successful subscription business.
Wistia
Wistia is another great video streaming service. Wistia is more aimed at the educational market.
Wistia is aimed strongly towards the business and education sector. With its powerful options and data analysis, you can extract the most from your video campaign.
One of Wistias greatest tools is the engagement graph tool that shows you when people are dropping off fro your video and thus giving you the tools you need to perhaps re-edit your video based around the parts that are obviously not interesting to your viewers.
Wistia offers competitive pricing ranging from free up to a customised price made to order.
Wistia also offers their Soapbox product. Soapbox is a video recording service that allows to to record your computer screen and record your face from your webcam at the same time. Its a Google Chrome browser extension and is a great tool for someone who doesn’t want to invest in a traditional 3 point lighting, video camera and microphone set up.
Wistia also offers their Turnstile product. A very useful feature that allows you to request an email collection right inside your video. This is a fantastic feature that the other providers do not offer. Wistias Turnstile feature allows you to collect an email address before the viewer can play your video, now that a powerful marketing feature. Think about someone like Casey Neistat who can have millions of views on a single video. Now he can collect millions of email addresses for later marketing purposes.
From Wistias site “Turnstile lets you collect emails and names from the visitors who watch your videos across your website, and on Twitter too. It’s a clean form that can appear at any time during your video, and will work on any and all devices”.
Summary
All these companies offer a great streaming service that will showcase your product to your customers eyes either via the streaming service website alone or more commonly embedding the video into your own website as you can see here on this blog.
YouTube
- No pay per view service
Vimeo
- Pay per view service and subscription service
Wistia
- No pay per view service but advanced video analytics