Want to make money from your Google drive video? Google drive, the most popular file storage service, isn’t usually taken as a video streaming or file sharing software. but it doesn’t mean you can’t use it like that. Using our guide to share Google drive videos securely by putting a paywall, you can convert your drive storage into a small streaming or downloading platform.
You can store a tutorial, self-produced movies or video series or a video course on Google drive and through shareable links, you can share videos from Google drive directly without using any third-party service. And by putting paywall on Google drive videos, you can make it a source of additional income too.
But first thing first, let’s learn what a video paywall actually is.
What is a Video Paywall?
A Video paywall is like a gateway to the actual content or service that you are providing. In case of videos hosted on Google drive, a video paywall will act as a collection-point for the price you have put for your hosted video. It is also like a virtual gatekeeper that protects your Google drive video from being used without payment or subscription that you seek as compensation.
Type of video paywalls you can use for Google drive videos
There are multiple ways you can put a video paywall on a Google drive hosted video. You can either make it a one-time payment structure, or you can ask for a subscription fee. You can also choose to provide a free-preview before asking for money or you can ask the viewer to first pay and then watch the video.
But not all paywall options can be put on a Google drive video that easily. At least, some of them will require additional software or setup which we will explain in this step-by-step guide.
4 ways to Put Video Paywall to Google Drive hosted videos
First, let us talk about the easy paywall options. There are some options that do not require third-party services while others involve integrating a third-party tool to put video paywall. Google drive gives you option to share video link and play video in Google drive by double-clicking it. But to add conditions for video sharing, you can use these options-
Keep the video sharing restricted to selected members only
This isn’t exactly a paywall but works exactly like that. You can turn off the public access for the video hosted on Google drive. Create a shareable link and add condition that only people with these email address can access the video file. This is a simple method and works if you have small numbers of paying audience.
Create a Google Chat Space of paid members and share google drive video to the space
This method works exactly like a paywall but for bigger audience. This is also an easier way to manage bigger number of video buyers. Go to Google Chat and then create a private space. Click on the + symbol on the bottom left, and then integrate Google drive. Select the file you want to share and provide the permission as preferred. Now, go to Google drive and modify the permission for whether someone can only view it or can also download it or share it. Add paid members to the chat space and they can only watch the video as long as they are part of the space. This is an easier way because they can request access which you can grant on payment verification.
Add an expiration date to Google video sharing link and use it as a temporary paywall
This again isn’t a very convenient option for a major business but works for small-level file sharing. If you are aware that your video is not going to be in demand forever and you want to reap some quick money from it, you wouldn’t mind using the expiration link option as paywall for Google drive videos. In this option, you need to have a work or school account. Add an expiration time or date to the video link so that the person who buys it needs to watch the video in a certain time period. This will act like the rent option many video streaming websites have.
Create a Google group and add paid members to it
This is almost similar to the Google chat space option and acts as a similar paywall to your Google drive hosted video. In this option, you make a group of paid members and then share the file to Google group with access granted only to members who are currently in group. This solves the expiration problem but it is still manual and has very low security as one can screen-record and share it easily.
Things to understand about this Google drive video paywall options
We understand that these options are very easy to use and don’t require any third-party downloading. All of these options can be used by the audience directly in their browsers or apps already installed in most of the android phones. But there are limitations and problems you should know about these paywall options.
- You cannot scale this to a large audience as it is very manual task.
- There is no way to stop piracy of your video content in these options.
- You have to work within Google’s terms of usage for their services like Drive, Groups, Chat spaces etc.
- Customer experience won’t be as good as they will expect while paying for a video to be streamed as none of this apps are streaming apps.
So these are some of the ways you can use to add paywall to Google drive hosted videos. These aren’t very safe but they work to an extent. Also, make sure that you follow Google’s terms for usage of Google drive. Google asks you to keep the usage fair and ethical so do not host any file that is either illegal or has copyright issues. You also need to refrain from sharing or selling anyone’s private, disrespectful and illegally occupied videos which may lead to legal consequences.
Even with all these limitations, if used within ethical boundaries, these paywall options for Google drive hosted videos have value and worth. You can try it as a starting point and then move gradually towards a better and more secure option that might need some investment.
Some FAQs about hosting videos on Google Drive and adding paywall to it
Can I embed video in Google drive?
No, Google drive is a file storing service so you can only store video by uploading it in the drive and not embedding it.
Can I play video in Google drive?
Yes. Double-click on the video to play within Google drive. You can also make it full-sized by using the expand icon in the video player.
How to make a Google drive video link?
Select the video in your google drive and click on Share button to generate a video link. Grant access to selected members or make the access public to whoever has the URL.
How to host a video on Google drive?
Go to your google drive home and then click on Upload icon. Upload the video file you want to host and create a shareable link. Make the video publicly accessible by granting public access and then share the link to play hosted videos on Google drive.
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