Hey guys, what do you think about a pay per view type video website? My partner and I were toying with this idea a few years back and are considering giving it another try.
Basically this is a website that allows anybody to upload a video and select a price to sell that video at. The site would have the normal categories, top earners, popular videos and all that stuff and would enable people to browse through and purchase videos that interest them for unlimited viewing in their library. The video would be streamed online via flash in the highest possible quality. Videos would be paid for with credits kinda like istockphoto. You would buy 10 credits for $10. Each video could sell for X credits. It could be 1 credit, it could be 100 credits -- it's up to the producer. There would also probably be some type of subscription model too where you can subscribe to a producer for Y credits per month and have access to their entire library.
I've pretty much programmed the entire site, so it is pretty much built but would just need to be cleaned up a bit. All videos would be streamed through a custom flash player that allows you to preview each video. If you like the preview you can then purchase the video to watch the full thing. Credits are bought through the shopping cart and then deducted from your account as you purchase videos.
I have a custom flash player that can be embedded on other sites. When embedded on another site it would show the preview and you would have the ability to purchase the video from the other site. I already have the player built where you can buy any video on any site if you are already logged into the main site. If you aren't logged in you can simply log in through the flash player and purchase on the spot through the flash, if you have credits. If you don't have credits you go to the cart on our site and buy credits. We would also allow any user to embed any video they want to and receive a commission on each sale from videos they embed.
We would obviously make money by taking a cut of each purchase, ~20% or so and the producer would receive the rest. If an affiliate was involved they would get a percentage out of our share.
Over time we have had some people come through and upload videos and have also had people come through and purchase credits but we have been busy with other projects and haven't really felt the need to give it a solid push. Now we are considering giving it a push.
Concerns:
The obvious things that come to mind as issues would be finding quality producers who have good content people will buy, and also will people pay for videos? There are obviously tons of free video sites out there with great information. Will people pay maybe $1 or less for a really good educational or training video (wanting to avoid porn). Is there a market for this? Could this work with churches? What about people who produce training videos? What about comedians or other entertainers that have followings that can support them by subscribing?
Also, has this already been done by others? I know Youtube sort of offers this with video rentals and things like that. They also offer share adsense with certain users, but do they offer anything like this? Do any other sites offer anything like this? It seems like if this was a viable business model people would already be doing it. Have people tried this and given up? Do people just not want to spend money for videos? I am pretty sure I would spend a couple bucks here and there if I could watch high quality videos by people like Robert Kiyosaki or Mike Maloney.
Please by all means rip this idea to shreds. We are somewhat torn on whether or not to commit more funds to this and give it a whirl. We pretty much have everything built and would just need to clean it up and market the hell out of it.
All feedback is highly appreciated. Thanks!
Basically this is a website that allows anybody to upload a video and select a price to sell that video at. The site would have the normal categories, top earners, popular videos and all that stuff and would enable people to browse through and purchase videos that interest them for unlimited viewing in their library. The video would be streamed online via flash in the highest possible quality. Videos would be paid for with credits kinda like istockphoto. You would buy 10 credits for $10. Each video could sell for X credits. It could be 1 credit, it could be 100 credits -- it's up to the producer. There would also probably be some type of subscription model too where you can subscribe to a producer for Y credits per month and have access to their entire library.
I've pretty much programmed the entire site, so it is pretty much built but would just need to be cleaned up a bit. All videos would be streamed through a custom flash player that allows you to preview each video. If you like the preview you can then purchase the video to watch the full thing. Credits are bought through the shopping cart and then deducted from your account as you purchase videos.
I have a custom flash player that can be embedded on other sites. When embedded on another site it would show the preview and you would have the ability to purchase the video from the other site. I already have the player built where you can buy any video on any site if you are already logged into the main site. If you aren't logged in you can simply log in through the flash player and purchase on the spot through the flash, if you have credits. If you don't have credits you go to the cart on our site and buy credits. We would also allow any user to embed any video they want to and receive a commission on each sale from videos they embed.
We would obviously make money by taking a cut of each purchase, ~20% or so and the producer would receive the rest. If an affiliate was involved they would get a percentage out of our share.
Over time we have had some people come through and upload videos and have also had people come through and purchase credits but we have been busy with other projects and haven't really felt the need to give it a solid push. Now we are considering giving it a push.
Concerns:
The obvious things that come to mind as issues would be finding quality producers who have good content people will buy, and also will people pay for videos? There are obviously tons of free video sites out there with great information. Will people pay maybe $1 or less for a really good educational or training video (wanting to avoid porn). Is there a market for this? Could this work with churches? What about people who produce training videos? What about comedians or other entertainers that have followings that can support them by subscribing?
Also, has this already been done by others? I know Youtube sort of offers this with video rentals and things like that. They also offer share adsense with certain users, but do they offer anything like this? Do any other sites offer anything like this? It seems like if this was a viable business model people would already be doing it. Have people tried this and given up? Do people just not want to spend money for videos? I am pretty sure I would spend a couple bucks here and there if I could watch high quality videos by people like Robert Kiyosaki or Mike Maloney.
Please by all means rip this idea to shreds. We are somewhat torn on whether or not to commit more funds to this and give it a whirl. We pretty much have everything built and would just need to clean it up and market the hell out of it.
All feedback is highly appreciated. Thanks!
