How to Make a Video Website Like YouTube
YouTube is an instrumental tool for many brands and solopreneurs that are creating an online presence. With free video hosting and built-in discoverability tools, YouTube is an accessible tool for the early stages of building a brand.
However, when it comes time to scale your video business, you’re typically better off streaming on a site of your own. Luckily, creating a video website like YouTube with your own branding on your own domain is pretty straightforward.
In this article, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of creating a video streaming website like YouTube. We will start by covering why you’d want to create your own YouTube before jumping into a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a website like YouTube.
Table of Contents
- Why Create a Website Like YouTube?
- How to Make a Website Like YouTube
- Making Your Own YouTube on Maestro
Why Create a Website Like YouTube?
Although YouTube is a powerful tool for expanding your reach, it has some clear limitations for those who want to grow their brand, make more money, and foster their core audiences.
With that said, let’s take a look at a few reasons why you might want to create a YouTube-like website of your own.
Fewer Restrictions
When you stream on a digital platform like YouTube or its social-focused counterparts, community guidelines are huge. These platforms put community guidelines in place to create safe environments for users, but sometimes the restrictions are extreme.
When you create your own YouTube-like website, you make the rules. You have the power to create community guidelines to curate whatever experience makes the most sense for your audience.
For example, if you want to create a family-friendly video-streaming website, you can create the restrictions you need to make that happen. On the flip side, if you want to share mature content that covers sensitive topics, you can expand the boundaries to make that happen, as well.
Flexible Monetization
The only monetization option on YouTube is serving ads. Unfortunately, as a creator, you have no control over what type of ads are shown, and YouTube keeps nearly half of the ad revenue.
Plus, YouTube has a tendency to demonetize videos if they don’t meet the platform’s community guidelines to a T. This can be extremely limiting and frustrating.
Creating your own website like YouTube opens doors to a variety of additional monetization streams, including pay-per-view, ticketed live events, video subscriptions, tipping, live commerce, and more. This flexibility creates more opportunities for generating revenue.
Greater Brand Control
Creating your own video-sharing website allows you to customize the visual elements in a way that YouTube does not. Streaming on your own domain allows you to customize every touch point to fully reflect your brand.
Plus, YouTube suggests other creators’ content on your videos, which can take the attention off your brand. When you’re streaming on your own website, this isn’t a concern.
How to Make a Website Like YouTube
Now that you’re a bit more familiar with the “whys” of creating a website like YouTube for your brand, let’s take a look at the steps you can follow to make a YouTube-like website for your brand.
1. Make a Plan
The first step to creating a website like YouTube is to create a plan. Depending on how well-developed your brand is, you may have a foundation to work with, or you may be starting from scratch. If you’re starting from scratch, narrow in on an industry or niche.
From there, start to think about the purpose of the site. Will the site be part of your business or your business’s entire offer? Make a list of all of your goals and the tools you need to make them a reality.
For example, if you want to create a video subscription service, subscription management tools are a must. If you want to engage your audience, interactivity tools and live chat feeds will come in handy.
The purpose of this exercise is to create a roadmap to follow as you move through the process. It will also better equip you to choose the best technology to support your website.
2. Find a Hosting Platform
Next, it’s time to find a hosting platform. This is where the list of must-haves you created in the previous step will be useful.
You’ll need support for hosting your website and for hosting your video content. Most hosting tools either do one or the other, but luckily, there are tools available, such as Maestro, that do both.
With the support of a platform with a drag-and-drop video website builder, like Maestro, building a site like YouTube is pretty simple.
3. Build Your Website
Next, it’s time to build your website. If you already have a website, you’ll only need to build out the pages that you plan to use to host the video.
As you build your site or pages, keep the user experience at the forefront. Make sure the site is easy to navigate, and all necessary information is accessible.
Also, ensure that your site is completely customized with your brand’s fonts, colors, logos, and so forth. This will help to make your brand more memorable and recognizable to your audience.
4. Upload Your Video
After your site is built out, it’s time to upload your content. This process varies a little bit from platform to platform, but typically, this involves uploading video files, thumbnails, and so forth.
As you upload your content, make sure to add titles, descriptions, and tags to all of your content. Including this metadata will help to keep your files organized. Plus, depending on the nature of your website, metadata can help to make your titles more easy for viewers to browse.
5. Launch Your Website
Once you’ve built your site and uploaded your content, it’s time to launch. How you launch your site depends on how much of a following your brand already has.
For example, if you’ve done things to build an email list or if you have a significant amount of social media followers, you can launch to this audience.
However, if you’re starting from scratch, you should create an ideal customer profile and create digital marketing strategies that address that audience. Paid ads, cold emailing, and content marketing are some great options for getting the word out about your new video website.
Making Your Own YouTube on Maestro
A reliable video hosting platform is key to successfully building a YouTube-like website. Luckily, Maestro has the tools you need to create a comprehensive video-sharing website without any coding or design experience.
In addition to the video website building tools, Maestro offers a fully loaded suite of video monetization tools, so you can uncap your video business’s revenue.
Ready to get started? Sign up for Maestro today to start building your video website for free.
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