Using Lightning.Video to Monetize Video and Streaming Content
Don’t be a slave to social media algorithms like Youtewbe, Criktok or Instflam. Don’t waste your time simping for followers and subscribers just so you can have the privilege to monetize your work. Instead, use lightning.video to paywall your content using real peer-to-peer transactions on Lightning.
Seriously, imagine I had a property on which I offered you to come and earn your living, on one condition: you have to be my slave first for three years. But then, next door someone offers you a better piece of land, and says you are free to earn your living there starting now. You’d probably tell me to go fuck myself.
But that’s not what’s happening. Normies and even Bitcoiners are flocking to the slavers.
Lightning.Video - Video Content for Bitcoiners
Lightning.video allows creators to create a paywall on their video content and charge fees as small as a single Satoshi (which at the time of writing is only 0.0084 USD). A micropayment such this is settled instantly using the magic of the Lightning Network.
In this guide, I will go through the following to get started accepting sats for your content:
- Creating an account
- Uploading, publishing and sharing your content
- Consuming content and funding your account
Let’s get started…
Creating an Account
Navigate to Lightning.video and click on the “Upload File” or “Create Channel” button. You will then see this screen. Click on “login.”
Next choose “Auth to Sanctum.” This should open a new tab. It will then ask you to enter your email address. Do this and open your email and enter the authorization code. Enter your code, press submit and return to Lightning.video. Your account will now be logged in. At the time of writing, NOSTR authentication is not available, but should be soon. That’s ok, it’s just another authentication method.
Now you are ready to upload video content. Click LV Studio on the left menu, then “upload a new video”
Uploading and Publishing Video Content
You now have a choice to “Publish” or “Go Live.” This guide will focus on publishing. Live streams are another powerful tool for educators to monetize live demos and courses and will be left for another guide.
Upload the desired file from your device, give your video a name, description and choose some tags.
You will then be asked to either create a paywall or make the video open to everyone. I suggest paywalling your content with a small fee, as this will encourage positive engagement with your content. If your content is not getting engagement then Lightning.Video will un-list it.
Choose your paywall price and whether you want to allow comments. Remember, the pay-to-post model reduces spam and unwanted flies will quickly be repelled from you. Now you can also choose if you’d like to un-list your content, which means it will only be made available if you provide a sharing link. Lightning.video does not censor explicit content, so you may want to un-list your video if you are providing all-ages content.
Next you will have the choice to provide a teaser clip. Use this to give viewers a taste of what you can do, but don’t give everything away!
During the upload, try to prevent your device from going to sleep. From my experience this can interrupt the connection and result in lost upload progress.
Finally, click on upload and wait for your content to go live.
Sharing Your Content
Great! Now you’ve uploaded content to lightning.video. You can share using the url. To do this on Unschooled use the code:
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<a href= "<LIGHTNING.VIDEO URL>" target="_blank" style="display: inline-block; padding: 10px 20px; background-color:rgb(251, 255, 0); color: grey; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 5px;">
<BUTTON LABEL>
Engaging With Creators
Watching content on lightning video is easy. You just need to have a lightning wallet with some sats in it. If you’re stuck here, I recommend checking out Darth Coin’s Guides.
Simply find content that interests you and click Pay Now. Lightning.Video has an internal wallet that you can pre-load sats into for ease, but you can just top up anytime you are ready to watch something by paying directly from your own wallet.
Final Remarks
Well, there you have it. Lightning.video allows creators to ear a revenue stream for their content. It does not require a Googlew account, or any personal information - just a single authentication method such as an email address or NOSTR Nsec.
I’ve demonstrated how a short guitar demo can me monetized, but this is just an exercise to prove that it can be done. If you have the ability to create something of value, then you shouldn’t be forfeiting your time and energy to big-tech companies that want to sell your data for ad-revenue.
Use Lightning.Video to create a travel-blog, open-source your lectures, teach an instrument, host your live bitcoin-meetups or start uploading your podcasts to lightning.video. It is as simple as uploading a video to your cloud storage and adding the metadata. And if you already proficient with Lighting, then you’re off to the races!