Category: Online

24:11:2011

Wave Goodbye

Just received this Email from the Google Wave guys … Despite my ups and downs with Wave, it’s still sad but good for Google for giving it a go!

——-

Dear Wavers,

More than a year ago, we announced that Google Wave would no longer be developed as a separate product. At the time, we committed to maintaining the site at least through to the end of 2010. Today, we are sharing the specific dates for ending this maintenance period and shutting down Wave. As of January 31, 2012, all waves will be read-only, and the Wave service will be turned off on April 30, 2012. You will be able to continue exporting individual waves using the existing PDF export feature until the Google Wave service is turned off. We encourage you to export any important data before April 30, 2012.

If you would like to continue using Wave, there are a number of open source projects, including Apache Wave. There is also an open source project called Walkaround that includes an experimental feature that lets you import all your Waves from Google. This feature will also work until the Wave service is turned off on April 30, 2012.

For more details, please see our help center.

Yours sincerely,

The Wave Team

17:11:2011

Become Master of your Email Inbox

Is your email inbox bursting at the seams? Overrun with nonsense,? Drowning in newsletters?

Here are a few easy tips to get your wayward email inbox whipped into shape.

The idea here is to reduce the number of emails in your inbox, so the important ones aren’t forgotten about.

Before you clear out your inbox (we’ll do that later), LOOK at the emails in there – they should fall into one of four categories:

EASY TO DEAL WITH EMAILS

Deal with them … right now. Sounds silly, but the rush you’ll get by just getting it down will be worth it

Alternatively, if you’d prefer and have the facility – convert the email to a task

UNWANTED EMAILS:

Unsubscribe from them. There should be an unsubscribe option at the bottom. It seems like a hassle now, but think – how many of these emails do you delete every week? Trust me – it’s worth it.
If you are receiving unwanted emails from individuals simply ask to stop receiving them. A polite email explaining why (i.e. your job role has changed, your interests have changed, or you get the information from other sources etc.) should do the job. This also applies to chain email that at some point applied to you, but don’t now.
You could also set up a filter to delete unwanted mailouts before they even enter your inbox BUT be warned: in the future you may want to resubscribe to this service, so you will need to remove the filter if so. Also, the more specific you cna be with your filter, the less chance of other emails being caught.

“NEED LATER” EMAILS

These re messages you don’t need to see now, but will need later.

The answer here is to FILTER. If you use a free-mail service, like GMail or Hotmail, or Outlook, make use of the filtering / archiving process which skips the inbox and moves the emails directly into a folder.

Examples:

newsletters from fashion stores / vouchers etc. can be hidden away until your next shopping trip
work documents that I will need for a future task but don’t need reviewing now
job alerts – I file these away, and set myself a calendar reminder to check that folder every couple of days so I don’t miss anything important

PESKY EMAILS (aka All the rest …)

These emails will annoy the hell out of you, and make you feel bad about yourself until you can deal with them. Often these depend on other people/situations. My solution is to remove it from your inbox but set up a reminder to deal with it, when you know you’ll be able to.

In order to do this – think – what’s stopping you from answering it immediately?

You need to consider your response / it’s not urgent and you’re busy right now – Sometimes you’re just not in the mood, right? Sometimes it’s just not a priority. Sometimes that difficult email needs an extra cup of coffee / lunchbreak or an entire day before you feel up to dealing with it. First, be honest – are you just procrastinating, or does this really need some thought? If so, allocate yourself a time of the day/week to deal with emails like this. End of the day perhaps? Start of the day – before things get to hectic? Set yourself a timed reminder, or a morning todo list, archive the email and forget about it until then.
Are you waiting for a specific date? – either archive and set yourself an calendar reminder, or - if it’s an email that needs sending – does your email system have a DELAY email function? (you could also give ifttt.com a go – this allows you to schedule emails to a specific person through your Google Calendar – very geeky and very clever). There are other email schedulers available - these seem to allow a small number of free emails (eg 10 a month) but for larger amounts you will need to pay.
Are you waiting for an email from someone else? – if so, archive the email currently in your inbox – the email from them will remind you to deal with this
Do you need to have a phone call/conversation/meeting with someone else first? - do you know when this will be? If so, you could either set yourself a calendar reminder for the date you will find out the information, or a reminder for the deadline when it has to be dealt with.

A few more things you can do …

Turn off social network notifications – if you are on Twitter / Facebook all day anyway (or have an app on your smartphone) do you really need an email alert as well? If you’re like me you are signed up to a lot of accounts, so the notifications are endless!! Also think – what’s the point of getting a Facebook alert if you’re at work and can’t do anything about it? Turn them off, save yourself the frustration!
Preview setting on mobile email readers – I miss important emails because I review them on my mobile, but can’t deal with them. Now I use the “PREVIEW 5 lines” function (IPhone) so I can get an idea of what the email is about, without having to open it (which marks it as read). It will then remain in your inbox unread, until you get to office/home etc.
Similarly, review your the “mark as read” setting on your desktop email – change this from “mark as read as soon as open” to something that means you have really processed with it. It means emails will stay as unread until dealt with.
Reduce the time you spend receiving emails. This takes self-control and is definitely not suited to every role. Decide how often you will check your email (2/3 times a day) and set an autoresponder (out of office reply) explaining this fact. Also spell out WHEN you will be replying to the email, if one is required. This will cut down on email “ping pong” – when an email turns into an entire conversation as senders will be a LOT more concise and it won’t turn into a conversation.
Mailing Lists – consider changing the settings of these. Do you really need to receive ever update of an email list – or would a daily / weekly email be enough?

NOW ITS TIME TO BE RUTHLESS

Go through your emails and decide – are they:

dealt with – then delete
contain important information – archive or remove info (ie contact details) and delete
pending – process as above … archive and setting dated/timed calender reminders

Also – depending on your workflow, I would say bulk archiving emails before a certain date is a good move. Think about it, they’ve probably been resolved now anyway.

NEED MORE ROOM?

All of this archiving can put a strain on your email account size – even giant accounts like Gmail have a limit, and corporate accounts are very limiting when it comes to how much you can archive Consider an archiving / filing service like Evernote / Springpad (useful list here).

These are cloud based and will store your files, emails etc. so you can retrieve them from in different ways (i.e. computer, smart phone, tablet etc.).

I use Evernote, and as it comes with an email address, I now forward a lot of emails to this automatically, and also manually when they arrive. (using Gmail filters) but there are others available (both free and paid for) – find the one that suits you the best!

08:11:2011

6 Tips for Using Evernote

If you’ve ever had a conversation with me about workload, computers, tech etc -then there’s a *very* good chance that I’ve mentioned Evernote.

If you’re not aware of it – it’s equivalent to an external hard drive, on the cloud – so you can archive important / interesting information – read more here (http://www.evernote.com/)

There are hundreds of different ways you can use Evernote – here are my top 6 tips:

1. A DESKTOP FOLDER

In Evernote open Tools > Import Folders

Here you can specify ANY folder, and files within that folder will be automatically imported into Evernote

I decided to create a folder called “For Evernote”. This sits on the C Drive but by creating a shortcut on your desktop, you now have a place where you can drag files for quick importing.

I also specified this folder as a FAVOURITE so it is easy to find when I am saving a file from another program.

NOTE: When I set up this folder, I set SOURCE to DELETE – which removes files once they have been imported into Evernote.

I had been hoping to specify a Dropbox folder as an import folder, but this is not possible – hence, Tip #2

2. GOODSYNC

Goodsync – a very useful desktop tool anyway for backing up files/moving etc, but great for syncing Dropbox with Evernote.

I wanted to use this to automatically backup my portfolio as I develop it, but it could be used for anything (images, documents etc).

Point Goodsync at the source file, and again at your Evernote desktop shortcut, and viola! (you can also alter the settings - so you can have a 2 way sync (not useful here), backup or move (ie delete file from source location)

I have also used this to move a host of images from my IPhone and IPad (before I upgraded to IOS5) to Evernote.

By installing the Dropbox App I uploaded ALL my images to my Dropbox > Evernote folder, and they are - one by one – moved (and then deleted) from Dropbox to Evernote Import (by Goodsync) then moved (and deleted form source) into Evernote automatically. (I currently use this to move my IPad screen captures into Evernote)

3. SYNC ICLOUD to EVERNOTE

(Disclaimer: I’m not entirely sure HOW I’ve achieved this. I set up a LOT of different syncing techniques and I’m now unable to find out which one works .. but I think this is it – but apologies if it doesn’t work for you)

ICloud is Apple’s latest product to sync items on all of your kit – Ipad, IPhone, Mac etc.

I used Goodsync (above) to link your C:\Users\sony\Pictures\Photo Stream\Uploads folder to my Evernote import folder (as set up above)

Now this only works when my laptop is on, but that works for me: Goodsync moves all the images that appear in my photostream into Evernote

This is useful for keeping track of snaps I take, but ALSO, more importantly for me, screen captures I take on my Iphone (and soon IPad)

4. Filtering and moving with IFTTT.com

Ifttt is a very useful website (a little clunky in places) but great tool for moving pretty much any online content, to somewhere else.

I currently have it sorting certain GMmail messages. Pro: You can specify the Evernote folder in which the item will be moved Con: 1. Sometimes it cuts off the body of the text 2. It does not delete the original message. For some emails now I have reverted to Gmail Filters – see next tip)
I have it moving anything I post to my Tumblr images account (http://www.carolinebeavon.tumblr.com) as an image into Evernote
Articles I “star” in Google Reader are now moved to Evernote – this does not copy the body, just the title so this is not perfect for reading but useful to a degree
Messages I “favourite” on Twitter are sent to Evenote
Anything I send to Instapaper (I have a magazine reader on my Ipad that does not have an Evernote link) i import to Evernote.

5. GMAIL FILTERS

> using a filter to forward / move certain emails into Evernote

As stated above – the con of this system is that you cannot specify which Evernote folder the email goes into but it is a trustworthy system.

Find your Evernote email address – within Evernote
Set up a filter to forward and keep (or forward and delete) emails into Evernote
When you log into Evernote you will have to deal with them in your default folder

6. GOOGLE CHROME EVERNOTE PLUGIN

Such a useful tool and I’m sure IE and Firefox have a similar thing.

It’s a button that sits in your toolbar, that lets you grab webpage and send it to Evernote – allowing you to grab bits of pages, entire pages or URL’s of the page you are looking at. You can also specify the destination folder AND add tags as you go.

28:04:2011

Dear Delicious User …(email)

Dear Delicious User,

Yahoo! is excited to announce that Delicious has been acquired by the founders of YouTube, Chad Hurley and Steve Chen. As creators of the largest online video platform, Hurley and Chen have firsthand expertise enabling millions of consumers to share their experiences with the world. Delicious will become part of their new Internet company, AVOS.

To continue using Delicious, you must agree to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks to AVOS. After a transition period and after your bookmarks are transferred, you will be subject to the AVOS terms of service and privacy policy.

Reasons to let Yahoo! transfer your bookmarks

• Continue uninterrupted use of Delicious.
• Keep your Delicious account and all your bookmarks.
• Enjoy the same look and feel of Delicious today plus future product innovations.

What happens if you do not transfer your bookmarks

• Delicious in its current form will be available until approximately July 2011.
• After that, you will no longer be able to use your existing Delicious account and will not have access to your existing bookmarks or account information.

About AVOS

AVOS is a new Internet company founded by Chad Hurley and Steve Chen who, in 2005, founded YouTube, the world’s largest online video platform. Before YouTube, Hurley and Chen were early employees at PayPal, a leading online payment service that is now part of eBay. Delicious will become a part of AVOS, based in San Mateo, California.

Thank you for using Delicious. Yahoo! has appreciated having you with us, and we are pleased to be able to transfer Delicious to an incredible new owner — you’re in good hands.
The Yahoo! Delicious Team

Please do not reply to this message. This is a service email related to your use of Yahoo! Delicious. To learn more about Yahoo!’s use of personal information, including the use of Web beacons in HTML-based email, please read our Privacy Policy. Yahoo! is located at 701 First Avenue, Sunnyvale, CA 94089.
RefID:lp-1028425

20:04:2011

Statement: Demand Media acquires CoveritLive

Demand Media acquired CoveritLive in February:
Many of our biggest customers already know this but for those of you who didn’t…surprise. It’s all very very good for us and for them. Given that Demand is a publicly traded company, I can’t really talk too much about the acquisition other than: a) it made us all happy; and, b) it will make all of our customers happier.

Live Gaming is Live:
We’re crazy excited about this. Customers love our Polls feature where they can ask the audience a question and get instant votes back. Take that idea, but now it’s a Trivia Question and your readers earn points on a live scoreboard. Imagine the engagement you can drive with that. We even created a version where you can take live ‘bets’ (no, not real money) on things like, “who will score first tonight?” or, “Who will the Bucs take in the 5th round?”. Your readers will be stuck to their devices earning points and having fun. Like all things we do, no setup required…just click the tab under Polls & Interactive and you’re live.

Android App is Live:
We’re sorry it took this long. Really. But now that CoveritLive is part of Demand Media, we have more resources for development and testing which means more cool stuff for you. We know iPhone users love mobile coverage with our iPhone app but now Android joins the party. It’s a really good first version with more upgrades, as usual, to come quickly. Go to the Android Marketplace to get it today.

Facebook sharing and Polls:
Live Polls are an extremely popular feature and now your readers are prompted to share their votes on Facebook immediately after they vote. Their friends come back to your site.

Last, I wanted to personally, as best I can, thank the many of you who helped make CoveritLive the company it is today. Your feedback, patience and support has meant a lot to me personally and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching so many customers around the world engage audiences with what we’ve built. The acquisition does start a new chapter for us (sorry, not sure how to say that without sounding corny) and it should be a great one.

Keith McSpurren
President, CoveritLive
@coveritlive

04:03:2011

Top 10 Crimes of Online Writing

(this post was inspired by a lecture for 2nd Year Online Journalism student by Paul Bradshaw -(Online Journalism Blog)

I am currently carrying our workshops with 2nd Year students at Birmingham City University who’ve elected to take the Online Journalism Module.

3 weeks in, here is a quick run through of the main issues arising, and a few suggestions to help!

Clever or Boring Title
Image too Big / Image always in the same place / Boring pictures – how about diagrams?
Epic paragraphs
No headers / subheaders
No Links / links not working
No Lists
Facts and figures – how about a table?
tagging and categories
Spread the word …
I lied … and am open to suggestions for a number 10

1. Too Clever/Too Boring/Too Complex Title

The title of an online post needs to be clear and succinct – no clever tabloid puns or vagueness here please!
Avoid figures, but use place names, people etc. they will catch attention.
The difference between: “Birmingham man falls into pub-cellar after night out” and “Down the Hatch”
Avoid long titles, they’ll drop off the end of tweets if people share your story. Rethink your focus if you are struggling to write a clear title.

2. Images to big/boring/stock photos

Images are a useful way to not only break up a story but also to improve traffic. Have you ever seen a story posted onto Facebook? Often the article IMAGE is the first thing you will see. Remember that!

Size: Don’t automatically use the original size. Unless the image is VITAL to the article (i.e. if it is illustrating a point) keep it small, and wrap the text around the image to avoid white space.
Location: Does that image REALLY have to be at the top on the left hand side? Would it work better further down? Consider using it to break up a block of text, or illustrate a particular point in the article.
Multiple Pictures: Instead of ONE picture, how about several? How about an embedded Flickr slideshow? A gallery?
Diagrams: Not all images have to be photographs. Is the story complex – would it benefit from a diagram? How about drawing your own with an art package (even Paint can work for simple diagrams), then save it and embed. (If it’s a personal blog, how about taking a photograph of your own doodles, flow charts, schedules etc and posting those up?)

3. Epic Paragraphs

It’s a common mistake of print journalists – they simply paste their copy online, add an image and have done with.

The eye simply cannot cope with the same about of text on a screen. Also, image if someone is reading the article on a mobile phone.

Keep paragraphs short

One idea, one paragraph.

People will scan the article – they will glance at paragraphs, and move on if it does not interest them. Don’t bury the facts in a paragraph they may not read.

4. No Header / Subheader

If the article is long, breaking it up into sections will help the reader find what that want quickly.

See how this article is divided into sections? Did it help you find what you wanted? Good.

5. No links / links not working

Links are vital – and useful.

they give the reader a chance to find out more about a story
they give your story credibility
the linked person will know you’ve linked to them – creating interest and a possible link back
you can keep your article short by linking to a resource elsewhere (read more here, see full list here etc.)

Never post a full link into your article – it looks messy and amateurish. Instead create a LINK within the article using relevant words (more here, for example).

See below (Spreading the Word – for details of creating short links)

6. No Lists

What would you prefer to read?

The company has created websites for Exfan, Doldoran. The Burmese Artichoke Foundation, Sandcastle Equities, Danders, Phirman Enterprises and Zhulom Corporation

The company has created websites for:

Exfan
Doldoran
The Burmese Artichoke Foundation
Sandcastle Equities
Danders
Phirman Enterprises
Zhulom Corporation

And don’t forget to use those bullet point as LINKS to the relevant page.

7. Fact and Figures

Above I mentioned how diagrams were a useful addition to an article to explain a point. If your story is very NUMBER heavy, how about using a table or a chart to explain the figures?

For WordPress, I have discovered that creating the table in Word, then “pasting from Word” places the table into the post with no strange formatting.

	A	B	C
Dave	3	8	6
Archie	5	6	1
Charles	3	4	2

Also think about a chart – input the data into a spreadsheet program (ie Excel) create a chart, copy it, paste into Paint and add as an image to your article.

8. Tagging and Categories

These are crucial. They allow people to navigate your site, and flag up what the article is about.

If your articles have a lot of links and tag words, consider using Zemanta (no students, we can’t have this on the uni computers). It finds possible links and tags and allows you to add them automatically. By no means does this pick every link, but saves a lot of time with the obvious ones.

Add tag words that a relevant only – don’t add everything – you don’t want to be using tag words to get people to your article under false pretenses.

9. Spread the Word

If you don’t tell anyone about your article, no-one, apart from your mum, will read it.

Here are some ways of spreading the word:

Post the link on Twitter but ALWAYS use a short link (I use Bit.ly – it shortens the link and allows you to track the number of clicks – great/terrible for the ego!)
Post it on Facebook – (useful tip: if you use Hootsuite as a Twitter /Facebook client you can CHOOSE which image will appear next to the link)
Are there forums on this subject? Post it on there. – but be respectful of forum policy – forums are notoriously feisty when it it comes to spamming.
Send it to the contacts, sources and interviewees that you used – they will like to see it and may post it on their websites. Again, send them a short link so you can keep track of the traffic.
Get an email sig that allows you to promote your blog (I use Wisestamp, it adds links to my social networks AND an RSS feed of my blog).

10. Feel free to suggest a Number 10, below …

03:02:2011

Anti-Microsoft Rap … (video)

Dan’s Facebook: http://facebook.com/itsDanBull

Twitter: http://twitter.com/itsDanBull

MySpace: http://myspace.com/danbull

Download the mp3: http://www.mediafire.com/?8x7bgvlshax…

Get Dan’s album here: http://itsdanbull.com/shop

25:11:2010

Why don’t students use Twitter?

I’ve recently been helping out with teaching 1st year Journalism students at BCU in Birmingham.

Dan Davies – who is leading the course – and I are both former Online Journalism MA students, and hence very wired in to the social networks, blogs etc. However, it’s not our background and education which makes us HUGE Twitter fans, but our AGE.

The students we teach are all Facebook afficionados, they use it every day, and often it’s the first site they log into on the computers, NOT their email. So when we got onto the subject of sources, we began preaching about the benefits of using Twitter.

We’d hoped we’d be preaching to the converted, but as it happens, this is not the case.

In fact the response to Twitter has been VERY slow amongst the 18 year old age group. 1 or 2 (out of 25) in each class had accounts, a few others were former users but, as with many people, “didn’t get it” so swiftly logged off. There was also reluctance to sign up to the service, when we asked them. They just don’t like it.

THE FACTS

And it’s not just “our lot”, a recent study ( The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010 | EDUCAUSE) into students use of technology in the US showed some interesting results.

For example:

75% if students have a handheld device or smartphone.

21% of students with handheld smartphones/devices use it to follow ur update microblogs (eg Twitter)

76.9% use it to use social network sites, eg Facebook, Myspace, Bebo or LinkedIn

When it comes to computers, the figures are even more interesting

90.4% of students use computers to access social networks, only 43.5% use it to access microblogs.

21% of students with handheld smartphones/devices use it to follow ur update microblogs (eg Twitter)76.9% use it to use social network sites, eg Facebook, Myspace, Bebo or LinkedIn
When it comes to computers, the figures are even more interesting
90.4% of students use computers to access social networks, only 43.5% use it to access microblogs.

So WHY don’t teenagers like Twitter?

LEAN FORWARD V LEAN BACK

Is Facebook the new TV?, a so called lean-back technology, where the information is pumped directly to you and requires very little effort – think about it, Facebook keeps giving, even if you don’t.

Twitter, on the other hand, needs participation to yield results: you have to follow the right people to get the right information (which, I know, is the case with Facebook but sheer numbers have given that the momentum now to carry on).

The content on Twitter is hard work sometimes: that extra click to watch that video clip, or read that article may put some people off, and a stream of text could be seen as a turn off. Facebook, on the other hand, is littered with pretty pictures and video to keep you engaged. A string of words holds less appeal than a brightly coloured link.

All the reasons the Twitterati have shifted from Facebook are exactly the reasons the teenagers love it, the clutter – the bright lights and excitement, the noise and the shouting.

Face it Twitter, you’re too clean for teenagers.

24:11:2010

Y-not? Embedding YouTube

I’m intrigued as to why some record labels still don’t allow embedding of their music videos on Youtube.

Surely Youtube is a KEY viral marketing tool, which means your artist’s music is spread around the net and promotes the album?

MP3′s yes – restrict those all you want if you believe it will impact on album sales (a whole other debate that I won’t go into now), but videos?

Unfortunately you restricting embedding won’t stop the videos being shared, all you’ll get is people making their own copies (whether ripped from online or even videos via phones from TV video channels) and sharing those instead. This means poorer quality, 3rd generation videos are doing the rounds, and end up being used by bloggers/journalists and fans on their social network profiles.

In this day and age, surely sharing videos is key?

08:08:2010

Making Online News Pay – Pt 1 paywalls

I am currently exploring the various avenues for making money from online news as part of my MA Online Journalism.

Over a series of Posts I hope to explore the various methods of generating revenue from online content – looking at the various issues, and pitfalls along the way.

The Project

My idea is a website that offers short, exclusive video interviews with bands – often bands that would not get mainstream coverage elsewhere (e.g. radio and television) but have a small, but cult, following.

The Money Making Options

Paywall
Standard Banner Ads
Ad-content (more on this in future posts)

Paywalls

First, then – the big talking point of the moment, Paywalls.

I would not even consider a paywall model, were I providing standard, general interest news that could be read anywhere. Why would people want to pay for my content, if they could read it for free on a rival site? The beauty of the internet is the sheer volume of material out there, and the means by which to get at it. Websites, RSS feeds, email, social networks – they are all serious competition now for the news outlet.

: Image by tripu via Flickr

The Times is attempting to do exactly this with their paywall. Initial figures are not healthy (losing 2 thirds of their online readership). Of course, that means a third of their readers are happy to pay £2 a week for online news – and those figures may eventually work in their favour, who knows. This is The Times, however, they had more readers to play with in the first place. A small local paper that attempted a paywall would be looking at 33% of not-very-much – an impossible situation.

There have been more successful attempts at a Paywall, all of them offering something unique to the reader (the old ad-men phrase of the USP) be it useful information (in the example of the FT or Wall Street Journal), or “celeb-toriety” (right wing commentator RushLimbaugh in the USA). In fact, many of us already accept paywalls as a way of life – Sky TV subscriptions anyone? Again – offering something that you cannot get for free elsewhere.

The question really is not, WILL people pay for “exclusive” content, but how much?

The Content

The content I am offering is exclusive video interviews with bands.
These will be video interviews, which are quick to digest, interesting to watch and entertaining.
The bands I am interviewing are small enough not to get mainstream media coverage (radio or TV) hence the content has a unique value
The bands have a cult following within their field and there is a genuine interest in their activities
Content will tend to gathered in batches (ie at festivals) so there is an opportunity to promote interest between similar bands

The Audience

This audience are not a business audience – they are music fans (teenagers, early 20′s) who consume their magazines, news etc online via social networks, websites and apps.
They will be happy shopping online, and in theory, would be comfortable using Paypal to sign up to a site
However, would they see the value of this content? And how much would they be willing to pay for it?

Maintaining the Exclusivity

This is icon for social networking website. Th... — Image via Wikipedia

I would go to great lengths to maintain the exclusivity of this content – attending small niche festivals where no other media is interviewing, locking the content as private on video website Viddler, and embedding it behind a subscription page on my own site.

The downside of this is that the content itself cannot be shared, passed on or promoted – only the link to the page – for which you would need to have paid to access.