We reviewed YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook, Dailymotion, Bambuser, the Internet Archive, and EngageMedia. There are many others out there.
As you select a site, you may want to look for the following features, depending on your video distribution strategy.
- Average monthly unique visitors to site: Your goal may be to reach the largest possible number of people. Keep in mind how popular a site is and whether or not it is blocked for audiences that you are targeting.
- Video privacy: Do you want to be able to control who sees your video? Vimeo, for example, offers a range of privacy view options, including viewable by anyone, only you, only those you follow, only people with a password, or hidden from Vimeo.com. You can also select privacy options for embedding.
- Open content licensing: Some sites make it very easy to select an open source (Creative Commons) or public domain license.
- Region and/or issue based: If your video focuses on a particular issue or region, look for a site that resonates with your core audience.
- Length and file size limit: Will you be posting long videos with large file size? Some sites have limits on what you can upload.
- Supported input file formats: Are you able to convert your video to a format compatible with the site?
- Videos embeddable or downloadable: Do you want to be able to embed the video on other pages or let others download it from the site? Some distribution sites allow easy embedding and downloading by you or others. Others prohibit it.
- Mobile capabilities: Some sites easily allow you to do everything from your mobile device, either from a mobile browser or via a dedicated app. YouTube, for example, allows you to upload content via the YouTube app, email, or MMS.
- Analytics and tracking: Understanding how your video is performing will help you hone your strategy for video distribution. Many sites offer robust analytics to see data on views, engagement, traffic sources, demographics, and more.