How to Start Your Own Live Streaming Service and Become a Re-seller
In a decade wherein live streaming has become a phenomenon, a shift in cultural inertia has been evident in bigger organizations as well. Some of these are-
- Government
- Small and Medium-sized businesses
- Enterprises
- Medium to large-scale associations
- Sports organizations
- Community groups
- Faith-based organization
These groups and organizations have just begun understanding the power of live streaming and are bent upon leveraging these platforms to the fullest. To reach out to a broader audience base and add new dimensions to their businesses, these organizations have started broadcasting live content through multiple live streaming services. For many of them, these live streaming services have proved to be potential revenue generators.
Soon after, these organizations realized that simply owning live streaming websites may not suffice. Especially if they are on a lookout for more revenue. So they started exploring the other facets of the best video streaming services. Eventually, they understood that value-added reselling can be a superior way to make money through live streaming.
But before that, we need to understand what reselling is.
What is reselling?
In regard to live streaming service, reselling primarily entails purchasing a live streaming video hosting plan. In the next step, broadcasters can sell sizeable chunks of that plan to other people. This works somewhat like co-op. The broadcasters purchase in bulk from a live streaming server and then divide the access individually.
An example of value-added reselling
Say you own a small business that provides video recording services to others in the community. Also, you have a team of video technicians whom anyone can hire to record live events. Post event, you might be providing additional services like producing DVDs or doing custom video edits.
Such businesses can flourish many fold if you add live streaming feature to its offerings. After buying a hosting plan in bulk from a live video streaming service, the company can divide the plan and offer the same service to their customers at a fairly low price. This provides a unique selling point and a competitive edge in the rapidly evolving marketplace.
How to set up your own live streaming platform
The approach can be twofold. If you are planning to offer simple solutions, you may use the built-in management system of the live streaming service. This direct approach lets you add users and allocate specific bandwidth to each.
To start live streaming, the users will firstly log onto the online video platforms. Next, they have to create a live streaming channel through a few quick and simple steps. After this, they need to connect their encoding software to the live streaming service. All you need to do is input a unique username, password, and URL assigned in the platform. This will take even less than 10 minutes.
Pros and cons of using your host’s live streaming platform
The main advantage with such websites is that they are easy to set up and operate. But one limitation of such live streaming software is that it does not let you use custom branding. Your customers will know for sure that you are just selling them a part of the larger subscription and only a limited number of features will be available.
How to set up your live stream with API
For the beginners, API stands for Application Programming Interface. It allows users to build their own applications.
For live streaming services, API can provide access to a number of features such as-
- Analytics
- Uploading and Streaming
- Altering descriptions, tags and titles
- Settings enabled for subscription, privacy and monetization
- Integration with broadcast systems
Simply put, a complete live streaming API can completely replicate the whole video streaming and hosting service. This forms the basis of becoming a white-label live streaming reseller. Using the same API you can create your own service which offers all the necessary features for live streaming to your audience.
This mode of reselling enables transparency in your services. Your customers are clear about the fact that your reselling business is based on some other platform. They will only be concerned about the quality of service you provide.
There are two things you can do here-
- Resell the live streaming service as a white-label one, or
- Include your own branding
Now we shall proceed to the discussion on how to use an API as a first-time user.
Get started with API to make money live streaming
To set up the best live streaming platform based on API, you may need to have certain amount of coding skills. It is best to hire an expert for this purpose even though the coding is simple.
You need to follow a few simple steps-
- Build a web application your user can log into
- Create a basic user interface which can be an exact replication of the GUI (Graphic User Interface) of the live streaming service
- Have buttons and descriptions to help users begin a stream, choose options for monetization, connect their encoder and so on.
You may readily implement all the above using API calls to import useful data from the live streaming host. For a reseller looking to make it big in the live streaming market, this approach is the answer and the way forward. You do not need to build the infrastructure all by yourself, yet, you can utilize each and every functionality of a dedicated live-streaming service. This way, you also let your customers benefit from the advanced features. You simply need to build an interface and leave the rest on API.
Additional resources to set up and resell your live streaming software
Basic reselling
You do not need a lot of amenities for basic reselling of your live streaming software. An account with a video live streaming service should suffice. You need to make your own calculations though for the best pricing model. The customers, in this case, might need some technical assistance.
API resources
Leveraging the potential of API may require a few additional components which are listed below-
Technical expertise: Programming skills are required to some extent if you want to be an established live streaming reseller. You may even choose to hire a professional coder to set up your platform. Going forward, you will require little to no technical support to keep your site up and running.
Basic service infrastructure: A certain level of server infrastructure will be required if you want to host your own live streaming platform. For this, you do not even need an entire data center. A reliable and cost-effective approach is to purchase cloud data providers such as Amazon S3.
Testing: Before offering your live streaming service to your customers, you need to make sure that it is fully functional. This mandates an end-to-end testing before your streaming service goes live. This helps isolate and fix bugs before your buyers start using your service.
Sales and Marketing: This will be the most critical point to heed as a live streaming reseller. You need to come up with a solid marketing plan. The skills to count here are mostly-
- Communication
- Marketing
- Ability to make sales
If you are going with the API-based approach, you may implement a basic reseller program and integrate it with advanced features.
You are all set to becoming a reseller post setting up your own live streaming service.
Happy streaming!
