Can I make a site like youtube?

[floob]

Hope this thread is in the right place, I was just wondering if anyone knew much about making a user content generated video site?

I'm a huge smelly novice in terms of coding and all that jazz, so I really don't know how hard it would be. The things that are perplexing me are how to actually manage the video uploads by the users, how to then convert them to the right format so it doesn't take up too much space and what sort of hosting/bandwidth am I going to need?

If worse comes to worse I might just pay someone to do it, but it's a long term plan I've got so I'm willing to sit and learn/fail alot of times, so yeah.

Does anyone know much about this? Is there some way to do it smoothly using a cms? If only there was a wordpress plugin....

Would appreciate any advice you gusy have.

Cheers.

 

[stunna]

Do you have a super-targetted niche?

If not, don't waste your time with a project like this.

 

[MarketerX]

Do you have a super-targetted niche?

If not, don't waste your time with a project like this.

This is what I was gonna say.

Anyways,if you want to make a site like Youtube google "tube site script".

There are a few free ones available that are basically youtube clones.

 

[Dark Knight]

Creating site is easy these day but promoting is really hard. you can create a site like youtube. it would be much nicer then that but you won't get any traffic. no traffic no money = another fail project think before you start

 

[floob]

Yeah I've got a nice little niche that I was going to do a test on.

Obviously I'm not going to make a site as good as youtube, but just wanted to see how this would work.

Anyway thanks for the info guys, I'll keep digging around. Promoting is would definitely be difficult, but I found a similar site which is doing exactly what I wanted to do, pr6 and huge amounts of traffic.

My plan was to break it down a little more than they did.

Anyway, all just thoughts and plans at the moment.

Thanks again for the advice.

 

[Dirty Hippy]

While possible to create one like, its unlikely to create one that will be used similarly.

When thinking about this, you need to consider the cost of simple operation.

Initially it could be started on a GOOD and RELIABLE shared hosting environment that supports FFmpeg, has reasonable disk-space (stay away from "unlimited" hosts, its simply a marketing gimmick), and preferably a non-oversold host the server resources aren't being shared by as many people.

As it grows, you'd be looking at getting a VPS or Dedicated Server quickly. A cheap VPS to suit your needs could be around $40/mo or so, but as with most things you 'get what you pay for', so a quality one would be more expensive. For a dedicated server, you're looking at One, to Several hundred dollars a month.

You'd probably have to spend a nice chunk of change too, for initial advertising/marketing. While SEO will work for long term, you still need to spend money to get the word out or wait months+ for it to happen organically.

ETC

If you do that, target a specific niche, and are willing to spend some money for a while before you're able to turn a profit over on advertising... I'd say you could do it

 

[devtom55]

why creating something that is already available?

why copying what people already have?

Brainstorm and try to come up with ideas that aren't available yet.

 

[lordgiap]

you need a bullet proof hosting to create youtube similar site. because of the brandwith problem they probably need 10k$ + per month to maintain their site or more...

 

[floob]

why creating something that is already available?

why copying what people already have?

Not planning on copying anyone, just trying to take advantage of some things I think they have missed and possibly do a better job.

 

[bkind]

The web is 95% marketing 5% usefulness. Even iphone apps that are great now with no marketing get lost in the shuffle.. the web is saturated and mobile is really the only still open market but that is quickly getting smaller..

either be on the leading edge and first to market or have a enough money to build a brand otherwise, become an affliate or do services for others...

 

[invic]

You do realise that youtube does not make money

Google forks out millions a month to keep youtube going. The hosting costs for streaming video are astronomical

 

[voyevoda]

You do realise that youtube does not make money

http://newteevee.com/2010/01/14/analyst-youtube-could-turn-a-profit-in-2010/

Google forks out millions a month to keep youtube going. The hosting costs for streaming video are astronomical

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/10/youtube-bandwidth/

 

[fameboxx]

I can help you with this project if you want to avail my service, just pm me, i have a code for this kind of site and also i have worked out a niche for the same. believe me it would work wonders for you
http://fameboxx.com