getting the most from web video

Hiding the location of your video files

So you've just looked at your bandwidth bill. After picking your jaw off the floor, you do some sleuthing and find out why it's so high: some other Web site has discovered your videos, and are hot-linking to them. They're displaying your movies on their site, and using your own server bandwidth to do it.

Then you remember there's a trick you can do with .htaccess files to restrict your server from delivering files unless they are requested from your domain. Only problem is, this technique works for images, but not Flash videos.

Some Web browsers - notably Firefox - do not provide referrer information for videos played through Adobe Flash Player. It's left blank, so your server never knows if the request for the video came from your domain, or some place else.

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

Web sites know where your videos are located on your server because their paths and filenames are specified in the HTML code of your Web page. That's the way most Flash video players work. You provide the full path and name of the video as a Flashvar, and include that in the configuration parameters for the player. Something like:

myplayer.swf?video=/somepath/somefile.flv

The video= says you're specifying the name and location of the file, in this case /somepath/somefile.flv. All some rogue Web site owner has to do is point his player to this same path (including your domain name), and your video is now playable on his site.

When you build your own players in the Adobe Flash authoring program, you can specify the name of the video right inside the code. It never has to be revealed in your Web pages. Unfortunately, that also means you have to create a new player for every video you want to show.

Playola World of Color makes hiding your video assets easier by allowing you to store a secret directory path in your player, then specify only the filename in your Web page. The player combines the secret path with the filename.

Anyone looking at your Web pages only see the filename to the video. But without their directory location, they can't as easily rob them from you. This solution is simple and amazingly effective.

When you want people to steal your videos!

There are times when you'd prefer folks cop the videos on your site. This is the notion of viral video: It's a video that is spread from site to site, and builds views by being openly shared. If your movie gets on 100 sites, it has that much more potential of being seen.

Viral videos work only when all or most of the following conditions apply. Otherwise, your trials at marketing yourself, or your site, with a viral video may backfire, costing you plenty.

• Always watermark your videos with your site name, so people know where it comes from. You can add the watermark when you edit or convert the video.
• Be sure you have a hosting plan with lots of extra bandwidth. Videos can take up a HUGE amount of data transfer, so you want a plan that allows as many gigabytes as possible.
• So called "unlimited" plans look attractive from a bandwidth usage standpoint, but the fine print reveals that you can be cut off if you use too much resources. You could wake up to a suspended account, and a video that doesn't play. Be careful.
• If possible, ask that those sharing your videos use the player embed code you provide. That way viewers see your video in your player. Your player can have additional branding elements, such as a clickable logo or menu. (Playola World of Color offers both.)