There are two excellent places to sell videos online: Shopify and Vimeo. You can build an online empire selling videos by using tools on both sites. Videos are used by more than 80% of businesses as marketing tools. Therefore, videos are the king content strategy.
YouTube is a great place to get advertising revenue.
YouTube is a great platform, but it’s not the best for selling premium video content. It’s better for influencers with large audiences as the advertising revenue is low.
YouTube is a great place to post excerpts from your videos. Teaser trailers are used to showcase premium content that you make available via other services.
YouTube (Google), through its Terms of Service, owns all content on its website. To retain ownership of your video content so that you can make real money, keep it away from YouTube.
How to Start Your Shopify Video Sales Business
Check out our guide on how to sell digital products
Before we dive into the deep end, I suggest you read my guide on how digital products . This guide could be redundant as video content is considered a digital product.
To avoid repetition, we assume that you already have a Shopify account. This guide will give you tips for listing digital products, protecting your assets and disabling shipping notifications.
Step two can be taken after you feel you have an understanding of Shopify’s digital storefronts.
Choose a niche for your video making service
A product niche is a group of videos that you wish to share with the rest of the world. Here are some examples:
- Educational videos for children
- Online video content in different programming languages
- Videos for health and fitness with step-by-step training guides
- Online lessons for video production
Your target niche should be something you are familiar with and of great interest to you. You will be able to help if you choose something you are familiar with.
It’s more difficult to sell a topic if you have little experience in it. If you feel a topic has potential, you might consider consulting a third party.
You can confirm the success of your niche by looking at its popularity on learning sites. You can see the work of other content creators on sites like Skillshare and YouTube.
You might consider creating a YouTube sample video if the topic is not well-represented. This sample video can be used as a sales channel to direct people to your video sales website.
Reddit is a great place to find a niche in video.
Reddit can be used to search keywords related to your topic. Although your topic may be very narrow, you should aim to reach underserved communities with at least 100 000 members.
If you are looking to teach others how to make pizza, then a Reddit board such as r/RedditInTheKitchen would be a great place to start.
Be careful not to make too many sales pitches. People may love to buy but hate being sold to.
Reddit users with smaller groups may not be able to target niches. To see all your options, start with long-tail keywords and then convert them into shorter keywords.
This can be compared with the results from other social media pages. You will see which niche you are most likely to succeed in.
Choose the type of videos you want to sell
Below is a screenshot of Udemy, the largest online course marketplace. This is an example of how creating an online learning platform can be one of the most profitable selling videos.
Video content is easy to understand and broken down into smaller pieces. It is clear that someone has explained it to you. This doesn’t mean you have to use the online video courses.
You can benefit from many underserved video formats. Here are some examples of areas that you could target:
Example 1: Stock videos
Stock videos can be used to apply to any item, much like stock photos. A stock video might be needed by a small company that sells accessories for skateboarding.
They can use video editing magic to announce a sale on the skater. One of the most popular stock video providers is Pexels (see the image above).
Example 2: Entertainment videos
People are always on the lookout for innovative ways to make people laugh. Find out what content you want to entertain your target audience and then create it.
This content production method is not for everyone. You will need to be more efficient than people who do it for a fee. Be sure to make your content stand out from others in the same niche.
One example is Rooster Teeth, who has mastered entertainment subscriptions. They also add a healthy amount of free content to supplement their paid content.
Example 3: Educational Content
Because they offer value to the reader in an area that you (hopefully!) have expertise in, educational videos are the easiest option. This idea is the basis of entire websites like Skillshare or Udemy. However, you can choose to focus on a specific video niche instead.
No matter what kind of videos you make, the goal is to stand out from your competitors. Your unique selling point should make you stand out from your competitors.
For workouts, it is important to teach proper form and function. FitFusion by Jillian Michals is a great example of how to choose an informative niche.
Choose the type of payment method you want
How you receive money from customers will depend on your payment system. You have several options when it comes to video:
Payment Option 1 for Permanent Access
Option 1 is the most friendly option for customers. This allows shoppers to pay for access to your download codes permanently.
You will need to protect your digital assets with an online tool such as Downloadable Digital Assets. After purchase, you can send personalized files or custom assets to this tool.
Udemy is a great example of this type of business model. To draw more attention to their website, they host regular sales. This helps to increase their digital exposure.
There are two options for sharing videos.
Payment Option 2: Allowing users to rent your videos
If you have extremely valuable content, this payment method is the best. The renter can keep the item and make use of it as many times as they wish within a specified time period.
If your content is high-value, this method can bring in great earnings. Amazon, for example, follows this model when it comes to its video streaming services.
This option should be offered with payment for ownership options. This will make it less like you’re trying to rip off customers by offering no other options.
The third option is more difficult.
Payment Option 3: Creating a Subscription Service
To attract new customers, companies like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and Hulu all use subscription-based services. This option is the most attractive because you can receive consistent payments without worrying about your customer.
Customers can cancel their subscription if they don’t like the videos that you offer. Customers are still more likely to use your videos’ value if they do not feel they are either a permanent owner or temporary owner of something that they did not receive any value from.
You expose them to a series. Because they are talking about a series of videos, it is more likely that a single video in that series will create value.
Subscriptions require that subscribers upload new content and be active. This option may not be the best if you don’t intend to release a series.
Vimeo On Demand To Enhance Your Shopify Video Business
Vimeo allows its users to make premium content available behind paywalls, which is not possible with YouTube. Vimeo On Demands makes it possible to transition to premium video content.
These steps will help you create video content.
Step 1: Upgrade to a Premium account
Standard Vimeo users cannot sell videos directly to their audience . They will need one of the following account types:
- Vimeo Pro – $20 per Month (billed annually).
- Vimeo Premium – $75 per Month (Annually)
- Enterprise – Contact sales
Vimeo Premium accounts are limited to a maximum of one gigabyte per week. If you intend to upload more than 20GB per week, the premium level option is recommended.
Premium subscribers or Enterprise subscribers have access to Vimeo’s live streaming service. Vimeo Live is a great tool to host webinars and provide value to your audience.
Step 2: Create your Vimeo Video on Demand Strategy
You can use one of the following strategies by creating a Video On Demand page
- One video can be created that is valuable to the people
- A series of videos can be produced to supplement your main video offering.
These elements must be linked to your Shopify store where you sell content. You have the option to rent, sell, or subscribe to the video.
Vimeo OTT (Over The Top), refers to the subscription service. We will be discussing this aspect next.
Step 3: Use Vimeo OTT (Over the Top)
OTT content is all your paid content management offerings. OTT content is one way to get more subscribers via Vimeo’s base.
Vimeo’s low competition and lower population means that you have a better chance of ranking for your niche using Vimeo Pro and Vimeo Live features.
YouTube is not a prohibited platform, but Vimeo allows you to create premium content. It is important to offer free content in order to attract viewers.
No matter what content you send to your subscribers, make sure it’s something they can use. Don’t bother publishing content that doesn’t offer value to your viewers.
Best Practices For Your Video Sales Business
Here are some quick tips for selling videos online.
Tip 1: Make sure you are using all of your social media channels
Keep in touch with your social media users. Websites such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Instagram are all technically social media.
You can either manage them all across platforms (like HootSuite), or choose to manage a few of them individually to make it easier. Make sure you set aside an hour each week for your team.
Tip 2: Stick with common themes
When it comes to running your business, consistency is key. To keep people interested, you should stick to a common theme or brand when you release videos.
Members of the fitness niche, for example, have a standard format to show people how to do simple moves. They eventually teach others how to do more complicated movements using the same method. This lets users know what to expect and allows them to prepare for the next step.
Tip 3: Create multiple membership plans
When it comes to selecting the right payment method, people love having a limited number of options. Many subscription plans include a basic plan and more complicated options.
You can offer rental, permanent purchase, or subscriptions in your case. You can offer rentals, permanent purchases, and subscriptions. This will allow your users to feel empowered in making decisions.
Tip 4: Use Multiple Monetization Strategy Methods
YouTube advertising revenue may be lower than YouTube subscription revenue, but that doesn’t mean it should be avoided. Online content is a prime example of multiple sales channels.
It might surprise you at how much revenue you can make sharing engaging topics. You can make a lot of money if your videos go viral, which depends on how interesting you are.
Wrap up – Remembers about How to Sell Videos Online
You have two options when it comes to selling video online:
- The content’s utility is what you sell
- A video can be sold so that other people can use it.
It is important to know how to manage digital assets, and what options you have for selling them. You might consider renting out videos or offering a subscription service for those videos with exceptional value.
Knowing your options will allow you to ask the hard questions about how you want your video service to look.
