hosting paid-for video
 

Hi folks, I have another burning question:

I want to sell videos so need a way to host them. If I put them up on YouTube why would anyone want to pay to see them when they can view them for free?!?!?!

I can't host media content directly on my web hosting provider, they have strict rules against it. What do I do?

I know a lot of people do stuff like this, but how??????

Anyone??

I think you need to find another web host. I'm not aware of any that host pay per view videos as a service, but I haven't looked. So I think it's going to be up to you to develop the software to collect fees and provide access to the videos.

I know that most, but not all, hosts in the US will allow video hosting. Perhaps there are some in your area that will.

Thanks Tripp. Appreciate the help.

In my preliminary research I've found a site that offers such a service. Does anyone know whether Youreeeka - Sell video online, Pay per view video sales, online streaming video, Internet video publishing is a good idea? Has anyone used this service before? Are there any others like it? How does this site rank along with others like it? I have so many questions!

Would appreciate some insight into this issue. Thanks!

If they're kind of instructional in nature 'how to do _____', a good site could be MindBites.com:

How-to videos | MindBites

They also let you create your own themed micro-stores with just your content if you want, though there's a monthly fee associated with that.

Vimeo offers paid "Plus" service that gives more control over who can see it.
Presenting Vimeo Plus

You can also host it yourself but comes with caveats:
- you have to build your own web pages, and as your library increase so does the complexity of organizing and maintaining the code.
- you need to encode the video. This is both a pro and a con. The con is its time consuming. The pro is you have full control of the amount of compression. Services such as Youtube and Vimeo will display your video at a fixed dimension and compression.
- The last caveat is web hosts that allow you to upload videos charge more for that feature because video uses lots of space and bandwidth. Avoid cheap hosts that offer unlimited bandwidth/space because they are counting on you not to use it. As a result videos will stream slower and your customers will be unhappy. So you won't be saving money over a video service like Vimeo it just affords you more control.

Amazon S3?
 

Thanks for the info guys. Just been learning more on this topic and have also come across Amazon's S3 service. How does that measure up? Is it even relevant in my case? more economical? Any Pros? Cons?

There is also these guys who may be able to help: Streaming video hosting and publishing services - Streaming Video Provider - Online business video publishing, video streaming, on demand and live flash video, pay per view video services