Interested in making a tutorial site for paying users, how do I do this

I'm trying to set up a tutorial site something like Udemy but on a smaller scale using wordpress for a particular niche.

The plan is simple: the moment users pay, they get to watch their streaming video of choice.

I'm planning to use woocommerce with paypal to deal with the payment but I'm not so sure on how to protect my videos from being watch without pay. Also, I plan to host my vids on my own server.

I've done some research on paywalls but I wonder if anyone has any recommendations?

I thought of doing online orders and sending my own tutorial dvds to clients but it's just a hassle with packaging, mailing, and taking orders...

I have never done anything like this so any suggestions or guidance will be extremely appreciated!

Thank you and have a Merry Christmas!

I'd recommend Optimizepress (or something similar if you prefer not to use that) for that, I've found it excellent for handling paywalls and course pages (they've got all that built in the plugin/theme and then you also get the Optinmember for the same price which works as the paywall for members only pages).

Stripe and Paypal payments at least work really well with it.

Check them out. It will cost you some money, no denying it, but sometimes a smallish (97$ in this case) investment is worth it.

I'd also use something like Vimeo to host the videos, because you can block them from being downloaded/viewed outside of the page you yourself embedded it to. Saves a ton of bandwith/server costs.

That's how I do it at least and it's working really well for me.

Edit: Naturally, if you need any further help, just ask.

You can use zippy-courses plugin for wordpress. Its a paid plugin with awesome functionality. I have used it for a client for a client to set up a tutorial site.

LostConnection,

Thanks for the tip. I will check out optimizepress.
The tip with Vimeo sounds awesome. I'm not that familiar with vimeo but how are they blocked from being downloaded? Is this the pro account version on Vimeo?

Thank you so much!

ellie4294,

Thanks so much for recommending zippycourses! So far, from what I see, it looks good! It's a hard choice between this and optimizepress.

In regards to video, how do you protect them from being downloaded?

Thanks!

Corydoras007 said:

ellie4294,

Thanks so much for recommending zippycourses! So far, from what I see, it looks good! It's a hard choice between this and optimizepress.

In regards to video, how do you protect them from being downloaded?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I'm sure zippycourses and optimizepress have some defend against downloading the videos but cam always try some server settings (WHM settings) and of course you can use your .htaccess file to prevent that. My advice to you is this:

Don't ever overthink this! Just do what you planing to do and hope everything will work just fine!

Merry Christmas

You could also check this WordPress plugin our: http://www.learndash.com/

nikiobicata said:

I'm sure zippycourses and optimizepress have some defend against downloading the videos but cam always try some server settings (WHM settings) and of course you can use your .htaccess file to prevent that. My advice to you is this:

Don't ever overthink this! Just do what you planing to do and hope everything will work just fine!

Merry Christmas

Click to expand...

That's some awesome advice you got there! I won't overthink. Merry Christmas to you too!

Corydoras007 said:

LostConnection,

Thanks for the tip. I will check out optimizepress.
The tip with Vimeo sounds awesome. I'm not that familiar with vimeo but how are they blocked from being downloaded? Is this the pro account version on Vimeo?

Thank you so much!

Click to expand...

It simply doesn't allow the download directly, but of course, nothing can guarantee you that it cannot be downloaded. It's really rather easy, but that's how it is with online video.

What you can do, however, is still save bandwith and server space by using a separate player for Wordpress, e.g. Elite player, which allows you to hide the video source and that way makes it more difficult for people with video downloading apps to find the original video source (most people download with the "enter url here to download" type YouTube/Vimeo downloaders after all).

All in all, near impossible to prevent completely, but that's just how it is. And you might also want to put your course up on Udemy mate.

It sounds like a membership site would probably be the best option for you. I personally use DAP, but there are plenty of less expensive (even free) WP plugins out there that will do the job when you're just starting out. I would use Amazon Web Services (AWS) instead of Vimeo to host your videos. There are a few really good plugins that integrate with S3 that will keep your videos safe. If you want any further guidance feel free to reach out to me via PM.

Thanks for the all replies! I've been doing my research and I'm down to Learndash and Sensei... Both look promising but it looks like learndash offers a lot more than sensei.

I wonder if anybody has input on this? Also, thanks Kyle for the PM. I've just added membership site to the equation now. I'll do my research on this.