I was just wondering how folks have gone about setting up a video tutorial site? Do you use vimeo plus and some kind of lockdown page (is that plug-in still supported?) or is there a better way?
Thanks to anyone taking time to reply.
are you liking to charge fur access to the tutorials?
It would be useful to describe a bit more what you are trying to accomplish. Iām just taking a guess here ā¦
ā¦ but if you want the tutorials to be made private to users only (whether they pay or not) then youāll want 2 key features:
- Sitelok: this is essentially membership software. It allows you to control who is a āmemberā and thus has access to your website. You can even have different groups of members so some only have access to your ālearn about cookingā videos as opposed to your ārock climbingā videos.
- Vimeo Plus (or Pro if you want to pay more) provide good security options from there end. So itās possible to post to Vimeo, but no one can find (even other Vimeo users). Thus the only place the video ever shows up is behind your Sitelok protected site.
ā¦ I donāt remember if YouTube have implemented their paid subscription service yet. This may be another option, but Iām 100% happy with Vimeo Plus.
Most likely, some charging. Sitelock and Vimeo are the tools I would have looked at. Iād tried lockdown and Vimeo plus before.
I run a medical education website and we host hundreds of videos inside a āmembersā area. We use Sitelok to control access, and payment is automated via the PayPal plugin that Vibralogix also sells (for a very reasonable sum).
All of our videos are hosted on Wistia (https://wistia.com). When we first started our site we used Amazon to host the videos, but the quality of streaming video was very flaky at the time. We then tried other content delivery networks, and finally settled upon Wistia, who are excellent. I cannot speak more highly of either Wistia or Vibralogix (who sell Sitelok), as their support is fabulous.
You can have a look at a sample info page on our site at the link below. Just scroll down a bit and youāll see some embedded videos.
Sitelok will be a much more complete solution for you relative to Lockdown. Complete no brainer. Itās really an excellent solution.
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Why did you choose Wistia over something like Vimeo Plus or Pro? Iāve heard a number of good things about Wistia, but it also is a lot more expensive. The extra expense may well be worth it but it be interesting to hear more about why Wistia was your choice of product to roll with.
Well I can only really comment on my own specific circumstances, but I do find the Wistia pricing pretty good.
I mentioned above that we host āhundredsā of videos, but I just checked and we actually only host 183 videosā¦ so I lied there. Apologies.
In any case, I also just checked what I am paying Wistia to host these 183 videos and it is US $260.75 annually.
I then took a look at Vimeo Proās pricing structure and their website says that it will cost me $288 annually to join. I am not sure if they have any other deals, but their landing page says āJoin Vimeo PRO for just $24/month billed annuallyā.
The reason that I went with Wistia basically comes down to the quality of the streaming video and reliability. I have tried other providers (e.g. BitGravity), and the performance was very patchy. Wistia has been rock solid most of the time, and if there has ever been a problem they have been incredibly helpful. They are constantly adding features to their video player also, such as the ability to generate excellent analytics, capture email addresses within the player for lead generation, and other such niceties.
Matthew: Thanks for the details. I use Vimeo Plus (not Pro) which provides all the basics I need (especially security and presentation options). Itās $60 per year. But itās true that the Pro version may be more equivalent to what you are expecting.
When I look at the Wistia Pro pricing it states it is $99 per month and āAdd as many videos as you need for 25Ā¢ each per monthā. That, of course, is a lot more expensive than what you pay. Is it possible you got a really good deal? Or that Iām not looking in the right place? This is the page Iām looking at:
https://wistia.com/pricing
(Or it may be you were an earlier adopter who now has been grandfathered better pricing.)
Matthew - that site looks fab. What else dd you use to create it?
Yes I was an early Wistia adopter, so that may well be a factor in my pricing. I shall have to do some homework and see exactly how it would otherwise compare.
Thanks Bazza.
The main theme I use is Codex, by Michael David Design (http://michaeldaviddesign.com). Note that this is actually a āsingle-pageā theme, but thereās nothing to stop you using it for very large sites if you are happy to create your own menu system to replace the inbuilt single-page one that comes with the theme.
To create my site menu I use other a variety of stacks to create a drop-down menu on a separate hidden page, and then import them into every Codex page on the site using Joe Workmanās Global Content stack. Then, if I make a change to the main menu page it will propagate throughout the site (a bit like a āpartialā).
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