Live streaming holds one compelling promise: you can get closer to your audience and gain their trust. Earning good money, however, is a challenge.
Popular streaming platforms like Twitch earn 50-70% of streamers’ revenue. TikTok also earns 50% of the profits if you gain access to their Live Giveaways feature.
As live streaming hits all-time highs, drawing more than 163 million US viewers by 2023, sharing all that revenue makes less sense. As a creator, you have other monetization options besides sharing your earnings.
During a time when people are signing up for subscription services, a membership model can help you earn more money. With your own live streaming website, you can earn recurring fees from your subscribers and earn a steady income while doing what you love.
This guide shares how to create a high-quality live streaming website and build a sustainable creator business through video.
The first step is to consider the creative and technical requirements when setting up your live streaming website. The approach you take and the equipment you need will depend on it.
Give some thought to these questions. They will help determine what type of video streaming solution and video hosting service is best for your needs. Plus, it will help you stay on budget while making sure your own streaming video site meets everything you and your viewers need.
With a subscription service, viewers will pay a monthly, quarterly, or annual fee to access all of your video content. This is the most common business model for live streaming websites. Platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Disney, and HBO use this business model exclusively.
Our data shows that users who use Uscreen to build their live streaming website earn an average of $5,800 per month.
Take a look at High Vibe TV for example. They are a subscription based video streaming service. They create high-quality lifestyle content for people interested in spirituality and astrology.
People can subscribe by paying a monthly, quarterly or semi-annual membership fee:
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People can access the content as long as they pay their monthly fee. High Vibe TV wins big here. They can:
Easily predict revenue.
Better predict growth.
Create stronger bonds with members.
Whether you’re a gamer, talk show host, astronomer, DJ or any other type of streamer on live, SVOD gives you the best chance of success.
TVOD
🥇 Best for: one-off live streaming events.
With ODTV, your viewers pay per view. They buy or rent individual videos that they can watch anytime, anywhere.
Pros:
You get paid every time someone watches one of your videos.
It’s great for one- time events like concerts, conferences and sports matches.
You can charge a high fee for exclusive events.
Cons:
Getting people to pay for each video can be a lot of work.
No recurring revenue.
In addition to selling subscriptions, creators they also monetize live streams by promoting their own products, finding stream sponsors, or accepting Patreon Pledges.
Hybrid
🥇 Best for: selling unique viewers to subscribers.
You can earn money with one-time purchases and recurring fees when you combine SVOD and TVOD. Let’s say, for example, that you sell live streams individually or in series, but you also offer a large catalog of current and future streams for a monthly fee.
Suppose someone buys access to a live broadcast. They love it so much that they visit your membership website and join your email list. Or they end up subscribing right away.
Benefits:
Gives viewers a try-before-you-buy experience, which builds trust.
Helps you build an email list faster.
Allows you to reach a larger audience with your live broadcasts.
You can increase sales of ODTV viewers to your membership program.
Cons:
May not generate as much revenue as a business model that focuses on a revenue stream.
Managing multiple sources of income can be difficult.
A hybrid model can benefit creators with the right technology. Uscreen allows you to accept multiple payment options for your live streams, whether you use SVOD, TVOD, or both, and track revenue in one location.
3. Set Up Your Technology
Instead of streaming to social media platforms like Twitch, Facebook, and YouTub Live, you’ll be streaming to your domain, where you have full control of what you post and who can see your content.
Domain. This is the address of your website on the Internet, such as example.com. You can buy a domain name from a web hosting company like Namecheap for as little as $13 per year.
Web hosting. This is where your website files and data will be stored. Hostgator and Bluehost are the most popular web hosting providers among creators. You can also do it yourself and build your own live streaming server.
4. Choose a Live Website Video Streaming Platform
If you want to launch your live streaming website quickly and without headaches, then using an all-in-one solution like Uscreen is the way to go. .
With Uscreen, you’ll have access to web hosting, security, and a payment gateway. More importantly, Uscreen has a wide range of customization options, so you can build your site your way.
We recommend using one of our website templates as a base. From there, you can change the…
Branding
Color Schemes
Header Images
Writing Advertising
Video Thumbnails
Buttons
… and more. Anything your customers will interact with and use on the front end of your site.
And because our builder is plug-and-play, you can do all of this without any technical knowledge. You can easily create the most important elements for a streaming site, such as:
Home page. Where you showcase your brand and video content. You can also create a custom landing page for subscribers who are already logged in.
Registration page. Where subscribers can easily sign up for membership and create an account.
Video categories. People can browse your video files and find the content they want to see.
About page. A place where you can share your story, experience, and unique selling points of your membership.
You can learn more about Uscreen’s customization options here. Or, you can take a look at our free Branding lessons to help you create the right look and feel for your site.
The best part is that you’ll have peace of mind knowing that you’ll pay for all the features at one rate. Fixed monthly between $79 and $159. It’s also flexible, so you can downgrade or upgrade depending on where you are in your business.
Alternative (and more time-intensive) ways to create one live streaming site include:
Hire a developer. If you want full control over your live streaming website, hiring a developer is a good option. You can hire a freelance developer on job boards like Upwork, Fiverr, or Toptal. It can cost you around $10,000 up front.
Build a WordPress website. WordPress is an option if you are ambitious and want to save money. You can do it for free with open source streaming software, but you’ll have to spend a lot of time setting everything up.You will also need to find a live streaming plugin that supports HLS or RTMP streams.
5. Set up your streaming server
The process is easier when streaming directly to social media platforms. They handle everything from capturing your video input to distributing the video to viewer devices like mobile phones and laptops in different locations.
There’s a huge technical infrastructure running behind the scenes! flat!
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But once you start streaming to your own live streaming platform, you’ll need to choose the streaming protocol, an encoder, and a CDN.
Explore the options Encoder
Your streaming encoder is the software that captures your video and audio input and converts it to a digital format that can be streamed online. There are many types of encoders on the market, from hardware devices to software applications.
A hardware encoder is a physical device that you connect to your computer. It is usually more expensive than a software application, but it is more reliable and secure.
If you want to use a software application, there are many different ones to choose from. Some popular options include OBS Studio, Wirecast, and vMix.
The most popular and easiest option is to use a cloud-based solution like Restream, Streamyard, Ecamm. If you’re an experienced streamer, chances are you’ve used one or all of them.
That’s the best thing about using Uscreen because you can still use these tools to create your live stream. The only major difference in your process is that instead of choosing Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch as your destination, you’ll choose your own site.
Here’s how you can schedule a live stream on Uscreen:
Login to your Uscreen account.
Navigate to Content and then go to Live Events.
Get the stream key and stream URL.
Go to your software encoder. For example, if you use Restream, create a stream there.
Add a channel and choose Custom RTMP.
Once you have that set up, you can start streaming immediately or during your scheduled stream.
Now, if you’re building your own live streaming software from scratch, you’ll have You have to think about streaming protocols.
Create your streaming protocol
A streaming protocol is a language that your encoder and media player use to communicate with each other. The 2 most popular streaming protocols are RTMP and HLS.
If you want to create a live streaming website, you will need to support both protocols because they are used by different devices. For example, computers primarily use RTMP, while mobile devices use HLS.
RTMP ( Real Time Messaging Protocol) : This is the most common protocol for live streaming. Most media players and encoders, including YouTube Live, Facebook Live, and Twitch, support it.
HLS (HTTP streaming in vivo ) : This is a protocol developed by Apple that is designed for low latency streaming. Many OTT platforms such as Hulu and Netflix use it.
For more information on streaming protocols and how video is transmitted over the Internet, check out this RTMP post.
Choose a CDN
A CDN (Content Delivery Network) is a global network of servers that deliver content to viewers based on their location. A CDN can improve your video quality and reduce latency by caching your streaming content on servers closer to your viewers.
The most popular CDNs are:
Cloudflare
Akamai
Fastly
Amazon CloudFront
Google Cloud CDN
You’ll need to think about a few things when choosing a CDN for your live streaming website.
Want a self-service platform where you can manage your account and CDN settings yourself? Or do you want a managed service where the CDN provider takes care of everything for you?
Another thing to consider is price. Most CDNs charge based on traffic usage, so you’ll need to estimate how much traffic your live streams generate.
To summarize:
If you want full technical control of your site, the best option is to build it from scratch by choosing your encoder, streaming protocols and CDN.
If you want to focus more on making money , Uscreen is a good choice because all those technical requirements happen in the background. You can also continue with your existing process and use similar tools like your cloud-based live streaming software.
6. Create your own video library
You’ve set up your site and clearly understand your pricing model. Now is the time to build your video library.The easiest way to do this is to use what you already have.
Loading previous live streams
Having a full playlist of previous streams can add a sense of depth and weight to your platform.
In particular, this is important for new users who want to make sure they are investing in a well-established platform. Your subscribers are likely to engage with past streams if they see a large library of content on their favorite topics.
For example, XR embeds the library beyond live streams to get more plays, since 2012:
This helps give users more than their money’s worth , and they can connect with the emotional moments in a live broadcast whenever they want. Uscreen’s category feature and functionality can help you tag these videos, making them easy for users to navigate.
Schedule new and paid live streams
Once you’ve uploaded your previous live streams, it’s time to create new ones! You will have to figure out a new process once you have your own platform.
Ideally, you’ll use social media platforms to drive traffic to your site. For example, you can broadcast short live streams and give followers a sneak peek of your full-length live stream.
Fitness influencers have a great funnel for this. They post 2-minute workouts on their Instagram feed. But to access the full training, like the entire Yoga for Flexibility sequence, they will need to subscribe to their platform where they can:
Pay for an individual live class, webinar, or live event .
Or pay a monthly or yearly subscription to access a specific live stream and all other live streams in the library.
Once you schedule your new live streams, it’s time to find a regular show.
Create your broadcast schedule
Live streaming is an emotional experience. People want to be there in real time when you turn on the camera and start creating; they love live streams because it makes them part of the user experience.
Plan your streams ahead of time and have a clear schedule to work towards because you give your viewers a set date to score on your schedule. We recommend doing this for at least the next 4 week period.
Take Forward Space, for example. They provide dance classes and have a rolling monthly schedule that allows students to book a class up to a month in advance.
Doing this helps both the student and Forward Space. The students know what is coming and are truly committed; Forward Space can guarantee and prepare for a specific number of viewers.
Take some time to plan out the details of your broadcasts, such as when you will be online and what the content will be about.
7. Promote Your Streaming Website
Now that your live streaming website is up and running, it’s time to start promoting it! If you want to get more viewers on live streams, you will need to have a marketing plan.
Here are some ideas for marketing your streaming business:
Tell your friends. This one is a bit older, but it still works, especially if you’re just starting out. Just tell all your friends and family about your new website. Ask them to share it with their friends and help spread the word!
Inform your email list. If you have a list of email subscribers, send them an email telling them about your new live streaming platform. Your email list is one of the best places to start promoting because your subscribers already know and love your content.
Partner with other creators. Are you friends with other influencers in your niche? Collaborating with them is a great way to reach a new audience who may be interested in accessing their amazing live streams.
Talk about it on social media . Build recognition for your streaming site on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn, wherever your audience is located.
If you want to take your live streaming website to the next level, you might want to consider creating a live streaming app. We like to refer to a live streaming app as the intersection of choice and emotion.
It enables you to deliver your live video streams to any client, anywhere in the world, on any device; Apple TV, iOS phone, Android TV or Android tablet, you name it!
Creating your own app may sound too complicated! But with Uscreen, you can easily add OTT to your live streaming platform. You can read more about OTT live streaming.
This is an added value for your subscribers because they will be able to access your videos and live streams from any device they own.You will also increase the chances that subscribers will see your videos because you will be able to send them mobile notifications.
It’s something to think about in the future once you have the basics of your own live streaming platform.
Why create your own live video streaming website?
We’re not saying live streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube are bad. They’re amazing platforms that can help you connect with billions of people around the world.
But the live streamers are realizing that they create their own si Live streaming is the only way to ensure the long-term future of your business, especially if you depend on revenue from your content.
An independent platform that you own, allowing you to:
Maintain creative freedom.
Control your income.
Reach more people (away from algorithms).
Have something that is yours (with your own brand).
You have full control of the content you publish , the message you want to share with your target audience, and how you make money from your content.
If you plan to make a living from your live streams, having full control over how you make money is crucial.
You may think that setting up and maintaining your own live streaming site requires a lot of work. And in many ways, this is true. But we think it’s worth it in the long run if you want to build a sustainable business around your live streams.
Turn your video streaming website into a lucrative business
The live streaming industry will continue to grow. Now is the time to create your own video streaming platform so you can control what you stream, who watches it, and how much you earn.
With a platform like Uscreen, you can generate stable, recurring income from your live streams and provide an easy-to-use experience for subscribers.
Frequently Asked Questions About Uscreen live broadcast
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