Looking for a little help with finding and selecting a system

[Paul FilmMaker]

Hi All

I'm building something for myself. If I describe it, does anyone have a solution?

What I'm looking to build is a systems where there are loads of tutorial videos. The first page will be completely open so everyone can see it, a second page with a load of testimonials and then the 'hidden' stuff which will be a ton of 'how to' videos.

I'd like the 'how to' section to be a 'log in' only. i.e. Someone has to register, login and then they can access all the vids. We need to know which vid viewers will choose to watch. Each of these vids will be preceded by a short quiz. After watching the vid, we'll have a slightly longer quiz to tell us if someone's watched the whole vid all the way through. We'd also need an ability to put vids up, take them down, put them in categories (e.g. 'woodworking') and

The site will need to be supported by advertising so we need an ability to do this.

The site would need to support 60,000 registrations (max) although we'd only envisage 5,000 people at a time accessing it.

Does anyone know any solutions that achieve this and how much this kind of thing costs?

 

[Paul Carmen]

Where does it live; e.g. is it online and going to be accessed via online marketing?

I may be missing something, but it just sounds like a decent WordPress website linked to a basic email platform, either with or without login access credentials... we've done this sort of build lots of times; e.g.

1. Your main pages are indexed in search engines and could also be landing pages for PPC
2. Customers can browse those to their hearts content, to access any of the hidden content they: -
   1. have to sign up via a form, once they click on the link in the email they can access the hidden content
   2. the risk with the approach above is the hidden (non indexed) pages could go viral or be posted online, so you make users create an account and the content is only visible when logged in

Now that's a simplistic view, but realistically that's the bones of your system. You can add anything you need on top; e.g. Google Analytics for behaviour tracking, the videos can be tracked easily, the marketing can be tracked easily and extras like paywall content and a payment checkout system can be added pretty simply too.

In terms of supporting lots of users, that's about setup and hosting/server resources. The cost side is harder to pin down, as it depends on the final functional spec, other factors like video creation (I'm assuming that's you) and hosting, plus who's doing the marketing etc. But it shouldn't be a huge build or hugely costly.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

Where does it live; e.g. is it online and going to be accessed via online marketing?

I may be missing something, but it just sounds like a decent WordPress website linked to a basic email platform, either with or without login access credentials... we've done this sort of build lots of times; e.g.

1. Your main pages are indexed in search engines and could also be landing pages for PPC
2. Customers can browse those to their hearts content, to access any of the hidden content they: -
   1. have to sign up via a form, once they click on the link in the email they can access the hidden content
   2. the risk with the approach above is the hidden (non indexed) pages could go viral or be posted online, so you make users create an account and the content is only visible when logged in

Now that's a simplistic view, but realistically that's the bones of your system. You can add anything you need on top; e.g. Google Analytics for behaviour tracking, the videos can be tracked easily, the marketing can be tracked easily and extras like paywall content and a payment checkout system can be added pretty simply too.

In terms of supporting lots of users, that's about setup and hosting/server resources. The cost side is harder to pin down, as it depends on the final functional spec, other factors like video creation (I'm assuming that's you) and hosting, plus who's doing the marketing etc. But it shouldn't be a huge build or hugely costly.

That's pretty much it. The content only visible when logged in and all we need to know is if they've played and watched the vid and then taken the quiz. There's nothing fancy about it, just a straightforward solution.

I'd be doing the video creation and then we'd mostly do email marketing.

The only issue is we'd need it to handle 50k+ people, have a search function so people could find the vids by category etc...

What do you think about pricing on something like this?

 

[Paul Carmen]

What do you think about pricing on something like this?

The devil is in the detail Paul, it will come down to:

• what the site needs to look like and whether you're happy with a theme, or whether bespoke web/graphic design, logos, customer functionality (e.g. what's the quiz) etc needs creating
• do you need any customer, market, keyword research and copy creation undertaken
• how many pages does the site need and are they mainly the same, or do you need lots of different style of pages designed
• the video functionality, I'm guessing you would need to host this, as a simple solution like YouTube is probably not what you want
• the complexity of the logged in journeys and whether ecommerce (payment is needed)
• the email/CRM side; e.g. the amount of emails templates you need creating, the number you need to send monthly, the total amount of contacts in the lists
• any other marketing requirements on top of email; e.g. PPC, SEO and what level of tracking/analysis you need

Once the full spec is established its pretty easy to research the work, any plugins or custom work needed, and therefore the cost.

It's a bit beyond the realm of the forum, if you're interested in progressing this and are happy to drop me a PM, I can arrange a call with either me or our web team.

 

[fisicx]

Agree with Paul, wordpress can do this for you without too much stress.

There are a number of ways to monitor views and test completion. The simple way is free but if you want to manage this from your dashboard then there will be a cost.

Also happy to throw my towel in the ring if you want to send me a PM.

The only thing is the 5000 concurrent users. If you plan to have this number logging in and using the site at the same time you will need decent hosting. May even be worth considering a dedicated server.

 

[Paul FilmMaker]

The devil is in the detail Paul, it will come down to:

• what the site needs to look like and whether you're happy with a theme, or whether bespoke web/graphic design, logos, customer functionality (e.g. what's the quiz) etc needs creating
• do you need any customer, market, keyword research and copy creation undertaken
• how many pages does the site need and are they mainly the same, or do you need lots of different style of pages designed
• the video functionality, I'm guessing you would need to host this, as a simple solution like YouTube is probably not what you want
• the complexity of the logged in journeys and whether ecommerce (payment is needed)
• the email/CRM side; e.g. the amount of emails templates you need creating, the number you need to send monthly, the total amount of contacts in the lists
• any other marketing requirements on top of email; e.g. PPC, SEO and what level of tracking/analysis you need

Once the full spec is established its pretty easy to research the work, any plugins or custom work needed, and therefore the cost.

It's a bit beyond the realm of the forum, if you're interested in progressing this and are happy to drop me a PM, I can arrange a call with either me or our web team.

We're looking at simple. So the description is pretty much what it is. No payment for anyone accessing the vids. We don't want to email the users regularly, tracking etc... isn't what we're looking for.

Where does it live; e.g. is it online and going to be accessed via online marketing?

I may be missing something, but it just sounds like a decent WordPress website linked to a basic email platform, either with or without login access credentials... we've done this sort of build lots of times; e.g.

1. Your main pages are indexed in search engines and could also be landing pages for PPC
2. Customers can browse those to their hearts content, to access any of the hidden content they: -
   1. have to sign up via a form, once they click on the link in the email they can access the hidden content
   2. the risk with the approach above is the hidden (non indexed) pages could go viral or be posted online, so you make users create an account and the content is only visible when logged in

Now that's a simplistic view, but realistically that's the bones of your system. You can add anything you need on top; e.g. Google Analytics for behaviour tracking, the videos can be tracked easily, the marketing can be tracked easily and extras like paywall content and a payment checkout system can be added pretty simply too.

In terms of supporting lots of users, that's about setup and hosting/server resources. The cost side is harder to pin down, as it depends on the final functional spec, other factors like video creation (I'm assuming that's you) and hosting, plus who's doing the marketing etc. But it shouldn't be a huge build or hugely costly.

Don't think 'fancy.' If you think 'basic.' So we just need to know if someone logs in and watches a vid. As for the hosting, we have a discount with a hosting company so will probably take that. The CEO and I are old friends.

We'd need additional functionality after this in 6 months but not until then.

 

[fisicx]

We're looking at simple.... We don't want to email the users regularly, tracking etc... isn't what we're looking for.

Yes, it is mostly simple. But you said:

Someone has to register, login and then they can access all the vids. We need to know which vid viewers will choose to watch. Each of these vids will be preceded by a short quiz. After watching the vid, we'll have a slightly longer quiz to tell us if someone's watched the whole vid all the way through.

It's this that makes it complicated. You can use any analytics package to see which videos have been viewed. But if you want track the videos each user watches and how well they did on the test you need a tracking system.

You don't even say how the test will work. Is in an external package?

 

[Paul Carmen]

As Fisicx says, there are many questions still to be answered. There is no such thing as 'fancy' or 'basic', it's too subjective. There's the usability and design of the website to support the functionality and customer journeys required.

This is why many projects founder and expectations aren't met, or clients end up with unexpected costs, because they're not set out or properly identified and agreed in the first place.

Pretty much all the questions I asked are still relevant to ascertaining and costing a build, unless the cost guide you want is somewhere between a few hundred and many thousands of pounds!

To clarify:

• There is a big difference between setting this up and merchandising it if it has 6 pages and a few videos, or 60, or 600 pages etc.
  • This determines some of the build costs
• Is there no copy or design required at all?
  • If so what does this look like, who's supplying it etc, as this is a cost factor
• How many videos does it have, what size are they, where are they hosted, what bandwidth will be needed to allow multiple users to watch them at once?
  • This determines the build and hosting costs
• What's the quiz customer journey, what will this be built with, what happens when someone takes it?
  • This determines whether bespoke functionality, or a plugin can be used and helps define cost
• The email marketing process needs defining, as it sounds like it has an integration with the website and may need to take future needs into consideration?
  • There is big difference in cost between you sending 60,000 emails in a package you already have, or integrating an email platform and having to store 60,000+ contacts in it
• There is also support and any monthly costs for the functionality to be take into account, without a spec this is all unknown

If you want to PM me to discuss this then happy to help and setup a call, if not, I'll bow out and good luck with the project.