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Vimeo On Demand
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  • Kit_LKit_L

    Hello Douglas and VK,

    VK, your assessment is 100% accurate.

    Douglas: we have figured it out (for micro payments) using VOD, but as Douglas says, the literature is unclear (what there is of it). Without going into a rant here, I was told a number of times that PP micro payments just "did not exist"; this was over their Help line, while I was looking at their own page, on the Australian PP site, that discussed this. It was the work of three separate mornings before I was finally put in contact with the "head of the micropayments department".

    Even a long discussion with this gentleman was misleading, in one sense: we were told that (on our business account) the micro payments scheme would operate on amounts up to $10 (USD; no other currencies are handled yet, but this is not a problem for us) and then the payment calculation reverts to the standard 3% plus 30¢ per transaction cost for amounts over $10. This is not accurate; the flat 5% operates over all amounts and we have proven this.

    So we opened a second account; this is for the workshops I run internationally, and those amounts will be a thousand USD or more.

    VOD has no capacity to use one account up to a certain amount, and the other over that, as far as I can work out. So, all our VOD work will be < $10.00. The only implication for me is that I will not be able to offer bundles of programs for sale; all programs ("series" in VOD terms) will be < $10, and the individual elements (exercises, or any series' comprising elements/programs) will be 99¢-$2.99 each.

    On the programs we have sold so far, the total take via Vimeo is about 20% (and AFAIK, that includes the 5% to Paypal). I have asked for a breakdown several times, but none has been forthcoming, so far, but I will persist.

    So, overall, this scheme will work for me, for my kinds of products. If what you want to rent/sell works at under $10, then, and considering the alternatives, VOD could work very well. I am in the process of editing 5 programs, each of which comprises 12–15 elements; using the Series model on VOD, we will have five series, and any of the comprising elements will be purchasable as well. This gives buyers an inexpensive way to test your wares, or to get only exercises they need, or buy any whole series (about 1.5 hours each) for $8.99. There is no way to let a customer bundle series together for a discount, but that's OK for now.

  • Kit_LKit_L

    Just a quick update; I have six programs up on VOD and all are selling. Three problems:

    1. As Vimeo has an arrangement with PP, they (Vimeo) keep all income for 30 days minimum; this means that we have both wasted out time getting the micropayments to work (as far as Vimeo is concerned) because we believe that we will be charged by PP on the whole amount that Vimeo will remit to us (and not the micropayment rate on each transaction); we have not received any paper work from PP (though our clients have). So, Vimeo will hold the money and use PP to transfer it to us in one lump, and we believe that this is where the normal rate will apply.

    2. The info. Doug cites above is inaccurate; once a micropayment scheme applies to an account, it applies to all transactions independent of value; we have proved this ourselves on our two accounts. The solution is two accounts (this is what we do). We will only use the micropayment account for small-value downloads from one of our sites and once Vimeo has remitted the first payments to us, we will calculate all the charges and get back to you here. Presently, their calculations (seen on the VOD performance page on each program) shows that they take ~20%, not the 10% advertised. Still, as they handle the whole back end, OK by me. I have not done the math but there will be a point where the two schemes take the same amount, and then the 5% one will be the more expensive for all values after that.

    One difficulty is that there is no way on Vimeo (or any other platform, AFAIK) where I can nominate accounts by product value. It's moot with Vimeo, because all the income goes into their account; and will be sent to me in one transaction; and that will accrue the 3% + 30¢, we believe.

    One further problem is the uploading process: we are on a 1MB upload connection here; one programs whose upload failed is 1.67GB. Deleting this program from the VOD area of Vimeo does not delete it from Vimeo; we have had discussions about this; the point is that VOD is in no way quarantined from ordinary Vimeo; users need to know that deletion (for example) has to happen in two places for it to actually happen. And Settings for each location, for each program, are different too (VOD settings are a different set to ordinary Vimeo).

    Doug, off to read your blogs now.

    hth, KL

  • DouglasHornDouglasHorn

    @Kit_L - Thanks for the great information. I think someday PayPal - or someone will figure out meaningful micro payments.

    I'd heard a bit about Vimeo's accounting in my research. I vastly prefer Reelhouse in this way because the PayPal transaction is direct between the customer and me. (Reelhouse then charges its 6% of gross.) However, it makes micropayments all the more important. I sell many of my short films for US$3. I was doing 48-hour rentals for $1, but with standard PayPal rates, too much of the money goes to transaction fees.

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Info about few stats and similar updates - http://vimeo.com/blog/post:633

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Vimeo On Demand Selling Handbook - https://f.vimeocdn.com/downloads/vod_selling-handbook.pdf

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Vimeo are offering 20% off with code BFCM20 on Vimeo PRO

    https://vimeo.com/upgrade

  • Vitaliy_KiselevVitaliy_Kiselev

    Vimeo is getting ready to go 4K: The IAC-owned video platform started to roll out adaptive bitrate streaming across its service Thursday, which will allow it to stream videos with a resolution of up to 4K video to its viewers. “We launched 4K upload support for PRO members last year, and now, as we start to see more widespread adoption of 4K-enabled screens in the market, we’re excited to roll out adaptive streaming across Vimeo,” said Vimeo CEO Andrew Pile.

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