The Idiot’s Guide to Making Your Own Video Site

Check out the new www.CubeBreak.com. It’s using Revver’s new widgets, so I get:

• Easy way to customize the website with the videos I select from Revver.
• Free hosting/serving of videos
• Affiliate fee of 20% if someone clicks the ad. If they click ads on my videos I get the 20% and then 50% of what’s left.
• The ability to update site without having to go back to the hosting software (Yahoo SiteBuilder)

It will take you about 2-3 hours. Here’s how I did it, and you don’t need to know a lick of programming to do it. I’ve been in the interactive world since 1996 and I’ve never touched code.

1. Park a domain via Yahoo.com. Get the package (I think it’s about $15 a month) that includes Yahoo SiteBuilder and e-mail. There are plenty of other alternatives like Magnify (which makes it easier but means you have to share the affiliate fee) and other hosting providers.
2. Yahoo SiteBuilder is as easy as Powerpoint. You can create page templates, but I just copy all my stuff on blank pages (like the navigation bar and masthead). You can easily insert text, images and “HTML” boxes (but you have to size these right). Start by drawing a text box in the dimensions required, then draw an HTML box over it and delete the text box when you’re done.
3. Go to Revver and set up an account. Create manual collections of videos in various classes. Once you’ve populated these, select the icon that looks like a puzzle piece. That gives you the HTML code to create your widget back on the site. Copy and paste the code into your HTML boxes on your site.
4. One weird thing- you have to eliminate the first line of code from your second widget and all the rest. You can only have this puppy appear once… Here’s the line (<script src=”http://widget.revver.com/js/1.0/revver.js” type=”text/javascript”></script>)
5. Be sure to drop some Google Adsense ads in- I’ve made about $50 a month which covers my hosting cost. The Revver revenue is then gravy. I’m running Amazon affiliate ads now, but they haven’t been as profitable. Putting in ads is the same as putting in HTML code for the Revver widgets. You do have to set up a Google Adsense account, which is kinda a pain.
6. A few optional steps… Be sure to tag your pages so the search engines find you (since you won’t benefit from any of the copy in the widgets). You’ll notice I also dragged headers over the widget because each Widget had the same name… Revver video. I wanted viewers to know which widget was which.

Now when you want to update the collections you do it at Revver and don’t have to keep opening Yahoo SiteBuilder. Be sure to read more of this blog’s entry so you can learn how to publicize your site (for instance, watermarking your videos with the URL).

It sounds harder than it is. Post comments if you have questions, or visit the Revver Forum for more details.