Pssst, the password is: Joshua

Do you remember when the word “viral” only conjured up images of fluish passengers on a commuter train?  Nowadays, we aspire to it.  Every new website, application, and tool promises to make your content viral, particularly when it comes to video.  The problem is, there are still many instances when you don’t want every Tom, Francois, and Shin Sung in the world viewing your videos.

Maybe your project is still in the collaboration stage.  Maybe your tutorial is only intended to be viewed by paid subscribers.  Maybe your message is targeted to a very specific demographic.  Or, maybe you’re recruiting for the Stone Masons. Whatever the reasons may be, sometimes your content requires a bit of crowd control.  That’s where password protection comes in.

Passwords ensure your videos reach your intended audience, and no one else.  Think of them as your video’s own personal bouncer, ushering VIPs towards your content while keeping out the riffraff.  You can assign  passwords to individual videos, or apply a global password to your entire video library.  Learn how in our help documentation.

Keep in mind that Password Protection is part of vzaar’s Pro Toolkit, which means it is only available to Professional, Business, and Enterprise subscribers.  Basic subscribers interested in password protection and the other advanced features like Playlists, White Label Embed Codes, and Podcasts can  upgrade to the Professional from their account page .

While we’re on the topic of paywalls this week, let’s take a look at how vzaar client Dr. Najeeb has built a million dollar business selling subscriptions to his online lectures.  Armed with a Sony HXR-MC5ON, a whiteboard, and no marketing budget to speak of, Dr. Najeeb is proof that content really is king.  After spending two decades teaching students basic medical science, Dr. Najeeb realized the potential for a comprehensive collection of medical concepts accessible from all over the world.   Just over a year later, he’s assembled the largest library of basic medical videos available online and built a massive following of med students preparing for their Boards.

Read more about how he’s managed to do so in our latest case study.

We love speaking with  different businesses about their online video strategies and how they’re making use of their vzaar accounts, and recently we had a chance to do just that with Arena Flowers.  Arena has managed to become one the UK’s leading florists by doing things a little differently–from the way they source flowers direct from suppliers across the world, to the professional writer they’ve hired to build up a following of thousands on Twitter.  At the moment they’re A/B testing how different promotional videos perform on their homepage, but that just cracks the surface of the creative use of video on their site.

Once Arena began integrating video into their marketing, it didn’t take long for CEO Will Wynne to realize they could make much greater use of vzaar’s technology.  Will conceived of a video messaging service customers could opt in on while in the checkout phase of their flower order.  Arena’s team came to vzaar with their idea, and a few days later, Arena Flowers became the first florist in the world to offer a video message accompaniment with flower delivery, and their customers couldn’t be more delighted.  Video messaging gives them a unique opportunity to truly personalize gifts the gifts they send loved ones.

Read more about how Will and his team are using vzaar to offer their customers a truly special flower delivery experience in our latest video case study.

There is no right way to share a video.  Some videos were born to be embedded directly on your site, while others were created to stand on their own.  Which is why we’ve designed Branded Video Pages:

Embeds allow your videos to roam free across the internet, but Branded Video Pages serve as a home base – a totally customizable home base designed to do nothing but showcase your video content.   You don’t need to build an entirely new page on your own site to deliver cuts to clients for approval, share content on Twitter and Facebook, or circulate company training videos internally.  Just grab the your video’s public URL and starting sharing.

There has always been a public video page for every video marked as “public” in your account, but now with a few clicks you can transform your public vzaar video pages into a slick, branded environment of your own design – no coding necessary.  Check out these examples.  The Branded Video Pages help doc has the full rundown on how you can brand your own video pages with a few clicks.

Are “a few clicks” a few too many clicks for you?  What about one click?  If you’ve already spent time developing a custom design for your Twitter,  you can also reskin your vzaar pages with the very same logos, and colors saved in your Twitter account – with a single click!  How’s that for brand consistency?

As long as you have at least one video in your account marked as public, you can start branding your video pages now.  The sooner you setup your branded video pages, the sooner you can share them with us.  We’re very excited to see what you come up with, so get started!