Create a Video Portal: 10 Tips for Its Creation

Everyone knows video portals like YouTube, Vimeo, or Dailymotion. From simple music videos to series and documentaries, you can find everything your heart desires. Who hasn’t listened to music on YouTube while doing housework or watched a series on Dailymotion? Who hasn’t seen a language or jokes on such a portal? The use of video portals is widespread and today offers users numerous possibilities. Platforms like YouTube not only provide video clips for visitors. With YouTube Premium you get an enormous paid offering of extras and new features, and YouTube TV allows you to watch television via the well-known Video Portal. 

In other words: video portals around the world are booming. It is therefore not surprising that many companies and organizations decide to launch their own portal of this kind. In this article, you will get to know seven expert tips that will make your own video portal a success.

The Essentials in Brief

Which Online Platform Would You Like to Create?

Examples of Well-Known Video Portals

What Exactly Is a Video Portal?

Video portals have been known worldwide for years. Leading the way is the pioneer and market leader YouTube, which is now part of Google. But there are also various other video platforms that have established themselves on the market and become well-known. Among them are Dailymotion, one of the largest platforms after YouTube, and the provider Vimeo, which also enables hosting videos that are paid. Accordingly, Vimeo is, for example, used for the videos of paid online courses. Another area in which online videos are used is the business sector. Here, among other things, Loom has established itself. 

But what exactly does a video portal do? As the name suggests, it is a website on which videos are uploaded and stored. These videos are then either accessible to the public or to a specific group of people. Who has access to which video can be set in the settings. It is important to know that video portals like YouTube and others generally do not upload videos themselves or only use the platform to a very limited extent. The videos stored on the video platform are therefore primarily from users or from stars and publishers who release the songs of their stars.  

Due to the enormous size of modern, high-resolution videos, especially in HD, a server with enormous storage capacity is required to operate a video portal on a larger scale. Especially if you yourself are considering the creation of a video portal, this is an important factor, as this is why very high costs come into play.

YouTube is the classic example when it comes to video portals

Tips for the Successful Development of a Video Platform

There are many reasons to create your own video platform. Some of these you have already learned about in this article. You have also discovered that this undertaking is a very complex and elaborate project. Thorough planning and preparation, as well as sufficient capital, are important factors. In this section, we present our expert tips to help you succeed in the development and planning of your online platform on the internet.

1. What Type of Video Portal Do You Need?

There is a multitude of different online portals. They differ in their features as well as in their complexity. Furthermore, there are differences in how the platforms are structured. Many simple portals can be found, for example, as plug-ins for common CMS such as WordPress or Drupal, while more complex systems usually have to be programmed from scratch.  

The first decision you must make when creating an online platform is the type of platform. Should it be a basic platform with simple features? Or do you perhaps need a platform that is a bit more sophisticated? For professional and paid portals, you generally cannot avoid a complex and elaborate platform, as ready-made solutions and plug-ins are usually insufficient in functionality and flexibility.

Therefore, you need to consider in advance what goals you want to achieve with your online portal and which functions the platform should or must fulfill. The decision you make here also has a lasting impact on the costs. 

The more complex and extensive the online portal, the higher the effort and correspondingly the greater the required capital. If you plan thoroughly from the start, you can save money on the development of your online platform right from the beginning.

Before you proceed with the development of a video platform, you must be clear about what type of platform you want to create and where it will be used. In many cases, a simple or medium platform is sufficient. Only in very specific cases is it necessary to have a truly complex video platform developed from scratch.

2. Financing Your Video Portal

The next important step you must address, which is directly related to the point mentioned above, is the financing of your online platform. The development of your portal is costly and expenses will arise that you must cover for its development, usually before your platform generates any income. Financing is therefore an important factor to consider. 

Basically, there are two possibilities. Either you have the capital to have your own platform of this kind developed and pay the resulting costs out of your own pocket. Then you can, of course, start immediately and begin the development of the platform, and nothing will stand in the way of the project launch. 

In most cases, however, you will not have enough capital and can only show a partial amount. In this case, you must look for other means of financing. One possibility is banks and credit institutions, which usually grant loans to companies without any problems. An alternative, particularly here, is crowdfunding.  

That means you present your project on a crowdfunding platform such as Patreon or Kickstarter and have the development financed by interested parties in the form of pledges. For this option to work, you need a certain amount of equity and must create a prototype of your platform. In addition, you must use information, videos, and marketing to attract potential investors to your project and convince them to support you financially. In return, the backers receive something from you. This could be a free membership or a free ad on your platform, or something else entirely. Here, your creativity is key. Basically, anything that can excite customers or investors is possible. 

Storage capacity has an enormous impact on the financing and capital requirements of a video platform. Videos today are large—especially in HD or UHD quality. Your platform may need to store thousands or even millions of these videos. Plan ahead and prepare accordingly.

3. It’s On – The Starting Signal for Your Video Portal

Once you have developed a concept for your online portal and secured financing, the starting signal can be given. Now it’s time to get down to business and the development of your online platform begins. It is important here to collaborate with a professional agency, such as Shopboostr. We have accompanied the development of various online platforms, online shops, and other applications several times and have been experts in the field for many years. However, to ensure that the development of your online platform is a success, you must consider a few key factors. The most important of these are: 

• An excellent idea: Why should anyone invest in your project? 
• A strong development team that programs the platform.
• A team for community management and building a community.
• Cooperation with companies and firms that will use your platform.
• A well-written whitepaper that presents your project in detail
• Professional marketing on specialized portals and in social media
• A strong management team
• A professional agency that implements your ideas and concepts. 
• A server with sufficient resources, capacity, and storage space for videos.

Loom is a video portal with a focus on the business sector

4. Your Idea and Its Implementation

For your project to be successful, it needs an idea. This means you must solve a problem or offer a service that is interesting to customers and convinces investors to invest in your venture. You must also consider that there are now many competing platforms of this kind on the market. They have been active for a long time and offer a wide range of services and features. Often, many ideas already exist. Your idea is almost certainly already represented, so you must make it clear to investors why they should invest in your platform and not in a competitor’s project, or why they should choose you. 

It is best to ask yourself whether you would invest in your own project and why, or whether you would study it yourself or choose another platform and why. Look at what problems other projects, especially those with a similar or the same offering as yours, are facing. Then consider how you want to solve these problems and be better than the competition. That way, you are on the right track. The field is fiercely competitive and there are many competitors.

In some cases, it is necessary or advisable to specialize in a specific area. For example, you could focus on a particular demographic or professional group, such as public service, students, etc. This would give you significant importance compared to the numerous general platforms. In addition, you could develop into an expert in the industry.

5. Start Small with the Programming

The development of a complete online platform is very complex and extensive. This is especially true if you want to have a sophisticated online portal custom-built. In this case, you cannot use a CMS or existing software and adapt it for your purposes. This means that very high costs can arise. This is also because many CMSs are open-source software and can therefore be used free of charge, with you only paying for the individual customization. In contrast, with an advanced platform, everything has to be built from scratch. Programming therefore consumes a large part of the budget.

We therefore recommend that you start small. Develop a prototype and the basic structure (MVA). Everything you need to promote your project and attract investors. Once you have achieved this goal, you can use the prototype to secure additional capital, which you can then use to continuously expand the prototype. Avoid trying to perfect everything from the start. In the worst case, you will end up without capital and without investors because you do not have a prototype to use for raising funds and marketing.

6. Assemble a Team of Professional Programmers

For the programming of your online platform, you need an experienced team of professional programmers. The implementation of your portal and the underlying technology are complex areas. Accordingly, you need various developers who not only master different programming languages but ideally are also familiar with the respective industry or niche. 

Just as the project team and consultants must convince investors, your programmers must also do so. The best ideas mean nothing if there is no capability to implement them. Experts and investors in the field know their stuff very well and will pay particular attention to whether your idea can indeed be executed by you. That is precisely why a prototype can also be useful. With it, the programmers can demonstrate their expertise in practice.

7. Assemble a Team of Partners and Experts

Before your platform can start operating, you must create a professional team. You need administrators who handle new members, registrations, possibly certificates, etc. You need IT personnel to maintain the platform and take care of security and technical issues. Additionally, you may need community managers, etc. Most importantly, however, you must have a competent network of experts. These include companies that advertise on your site, advertising partners for financing, payment providers such as Stripe or PayPal that enable your visitors to pay directly via the website, etc.

The Best-Known Video Portals

There are already a multitude of online portals in various fields on the market. They usually already have a range of customers as well as partners and collaborations. Therefore, it can be difficult to gain a foothold with a new, private platform. Convincing arguments and features that other competing platforms do not offer, as well as specialization in certain areas, are useful strategies to overcome this challenge. 

Analyzing these platforms and their projects or courses gives you insight into the competition and which projects already exist. In addition, you gain insight into various online portals, their structure, and their features. Many platforms offer the opportunity to register for free or to try out the paid features on a trial basis. We recommend taking advantage of this offer. This is the best way to familiarize yourself with the offerings and possibilities of the competition.

Vimeo is the second top contender after YouTube in the ranking of top video portals

Simple, Complex, or Advanced? What Makes Sense?

When developing an online platform, as you have already learned, you have various options. You must decide on a concept or model. Is a simple or a complex platform sufficient? Or does it need to be an advanced platform? And which platform makes sense? 

We cannot give you a one-size-fits-all answer to this question in this article. It depends on the project, the functions, and your individual venture. In most cases, in our opinion and experience, a simple or complex platform is sufficient. These already offer many functions and cover all the important options. An individually developed platform is only necessary in the rarest of cases—namely when the available simple and advanced solutions cannot offer you the required features and cannot be retrofitted.

We recommend that you have an expert advise you on this decision right from the start. Shopboostr is your expert for video platforms, online shops, and other online platforms. Our team is happy to provide individual and non-binding advice, and if desired, we are also ready to accompany you with your project. Simple, uncomplicated, and from the very beginning.

Conclusion and Summary

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