 It used to be that if
you wanted videos on your web
site you had two choices: host
the video files yourself or pay a
specialized video hosting company
to do it for you. Those options
are still available, of course,
but for many sites the option of
using a free video hosting
service may be a better way to
go. Many free video
hosting/sharing sites have
appeared in recent years, some of
which will even pay you a share
of the ad revenue for videos you
host with them.Just about everyone has
heard about YouTube, but here are just a
few of the many other services
you could also consider:
I believe all
of the services above offer free
video hosting as of this writing.
Some, like Blip and Vimeo, may
also offer "pro" or
"plus" accounts which
provide more or better features
for a fee. The above list is by
no means exhaustive. Wikipedia
has an entry here which lists a lot of
other video sharing sites. The
video streaming/sharing market is
a very dynamic one at this point,
so new companies are also
entering the field at a rapid
pace.
How does one
choose which video service to
use? I would suggest taking the
following three steps:
(1)
Evaluate your needs
- Do you
want to host only your
own videos, other
people's videos, or both?
- Do you
have any special
technical requirements,
such as particular video
formats or sizes?
- Is
advertisement revenue
sharing important to you
or do you just want base
your decision on other
factors?
- Do you
want to select a service
based for displaying
videos on your site or
blog only or do want
exposure for your videos
on other sites?
- Do you
have any other special
requirements that need to
be met?
(2)
Evaluate the services
- Read the
"terms of
service", frequently
asked questions, etc. Is
the service appropriate
for your intended use?
Are there any
restrictions or
conditions that you would
object to? Are the terms
explained clearly or are
they difficult to
understand?
- Take a
look at some videos that
are currently being
hosted on the services.
Is the quality good? Do
they load reasonably
well? Does it look like
the service can deliver
the results you want?
- Consider
user-friendliness. Does
the service look easy to
work with? Are there good
help screens or forums?
- Search a
bit to see if you can
find out how satisfied
other users of the
service are. Do the
support people respond to
problems quickly and
professionally? Are there
any ongoing problems to
consider? (Revver, for
instance, while offering
many unique and
innovative features, is
way behind in paying its
users their share of the
advertisement revenue as
of this writing, which
does little to inspire
confidence).
Update
12/10/2008: Earlier this week
Revver finally paid its users the
amounts that were due in August.
Hopefully this indicates an
intention on the part of Revver's
parent company, Live Universe, to
work towards fully resolving the
matter. Time will tell.
(3)
Make your choice and get started
Once you have
selected a service to host your
videos it's a good idea to study
any help screens, forums, or
tutorials diligently and learn
all you can. The more
knowledgeable you are about a
service, the better results you
are likely to be able to get from
it. You might also want to test
the waters a bit with only a
small number of videos at first.
Hopefully that way you can spot
any problems at an early stage
and take the steps necessary to
correct them. Of course, you
encounter too many problems,
there's nothing wrong with trying
a different video host.
In the second
part of this article, I hope to
offer some more in depth thoughts
on choosing a video host and
related matters.
(note: second part of the
article posted 11/21/2008)
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