How to create a website like YouTube

This article is an easy-to-follow tutorial on how to create a website like YouTube in 5 steps.

Building a video-sharing platform like youtube can have many benefits and does not always require using JavaScript, CSS, HTML, or other web programming languages. You can launch a website similar to YouTube without coding using WordPress, the Bimber theme, and a WordPress video player plugin.

Why should you create a similar YouTube website instead of the YouTube platform?

YouTube is a great platform to post and promote your videos. But there are many limitations for content creators.

No spammy or shady content

On your website, you have complete control over what content gets published, who can see it, and how they access it. You’ll have less chance of someone uploading shady content or spamming your site.

More revenue

The biggest reason is that there are millions of dollars spent annually on advertising on YouTube to get people to watch your video. If you have created your website and have engaged your users, this could lead to more revenue for you than using YouTube.

Implement your policies or fee structure

if you don’t want to deal with YouTube’s policies or fee structure, you have other options. You can create your website so users can upload videos, comment on them, and share them with others.

Easy to navigate quality content

The biggest drawback of YouTube is its high volume of low-quality videos. Finding what you are looking for can often be difficult because it’s such a large and diverse platform with so much content.

Creating your YouTube-similar website will give you more control over the type of content you want to publish and make money from it. You don’t need to know much about coding, either!

How to develop your YouTube-similar website

Building a website like YouTube can be a daunting task. But it doesn’t have to be! Follow these basic instructions, and you’ll be well on creating your website in no time.

1. Find a lucrative Niche

To create a website like YouTube, you must know what content you will host. You should begin by deciding the field of interest you want to focus on. You can choose from various topics, including beauty, DIY projects, cooking, and lots more!

You may have heard that you should focus on a specific niche and build your audience around that topic, but in reality, you should research what content people are searching for and create videos based on that research.

Consider the types of questions people ask or issues they have and create content that resonates with these audiences. You know you’ve found a great niche when it’s so tiny that no one else has been covering it yet–or if they have, they aren’t doing it well enough.

2. Go for Curated content

You need to create a system for identifying and removing low-quality content. – YouTube doesn’t screen videos, so anyone can upload anything. – Low-quality videos could tarnish your brand, so you must ensure that the only uploaded videos are of high quality.

Basic Features – you must include in your video streaming website

To create a successful video streaming platform, you must first decide on all the features it should have. Some suggestions include the following.

Enable content rating system

One of the essential features of your video streaming website is a content rating system, such as the “like” and “dislike” buttons. This function allows users to signal—to other viewers or creators themselves. Creators can see what works and adjust their content accordingly, while the platform’s data collection also helps improve its recommended videos by pushing already popular ones.

Content flagging system

A flagging function may be unnecessary if you implement a video curation system to approve content before it’s made public. However, you’ll need one if you want audience members (rather than the creators) to have the final say over what gets posted online. This will enable viewers to flag inappropriate content for removal from your video website.

Offer creator studio

Like YouTube, you can offer the most valuable tools to your creators. But providing a complete content creation studio for a startup site is not necessary. Giving creators access to basic editing features such as video cutting and custom thumbnails will enrich your platform. So, try to provide only basic content creation features such as cutting, thumbnail editing, and closed caption generator.

Steps to creating a YouTube-like website

WordPress is an excellent choice for a video-sharing site: it provides support, themes, and customization options in addition to being easy enough to set up that you could do so in just a few steps.

Let’s look at the steps that will get you started with creating a WordPress website today.

Purchase a domain name and web hosting for your video streaming site

You can start a YouTube-like website by purchasing a domain name and hosting for your video streaming website.

The first step in creating a website is to purchase a domain name and web hosting for your video streaming website. A domain name is an exclusive address people use to find your website. This can be anything—you are limited only by your imagination, and the title should be available.

Some companies charge extra for specific names such as “.com.” Web hosting is the space that houses all of your content on the internet and allows users to access it from anywhere in the world.

Once you’ve purchased these two things, it will be time to set up your site! This process depends on your website builder tool, but most are simple and intuitive enough for even novice users to get started immediately.

Install WordPress and WordPress theme

You have two ways to get WordPress installed on your site. The first is the easiest: if you have a website hosting account, sign in, go to the cPanel section, and click “WordPress.” If your web hosting does not offer it, you can manually install it by following these steps:

1. Download the latest version of WordPress from their website (the file will be named something like WordPress-5.2.zip).

2. Extract this file and open it in your computer file explorer (for example, Windows Explorer). You should see several folders and files inside; open the folder named “WordPress.”

3. Inside this folder, look for another folder named “wp-content”; open it up and then look for another folder named “uploads.” Open up this last folder, too! —these are all your site’s media files (images, videos, etc.). You can delete all other files and folders not mentioned here; they’re probably not necessary anyway!

4. Copy everything from inside this new upload folder to wherever you would like your website hosted.

Choose a WordPress theme for a video streaming website

A video streaming website is a great way to start your YouTube-like site. The best way to create your website is by choosing a WordPress theme that can handle all these tasks simultaneously.

The first step is choosing your theme and ensuring it covers all of these essential points.

The WordPress theme must allow users to upload their videos, watch existing videos on the platform and share them with friends or family through social media channels like Facebook or Twitter.
Make sure that there’s a search box somewhere on your page so that users can quickly get what they are looking for by locating videos in an orderly manner one by one (unless that’s what you want).
Offer users some navigation mechanism to quickly find specific content if something catches their eye while browsing through different categories like comedy shows or educational content.
The best streaming platforms carefully curate the content they offer so users don’t have to worry about being bombarded with low-quality videos that don’t fit their interests. Instead, they can quickly find something that piques their interest and then watch it immediately without waiting for anything to download or buffer first.

We have selected these WordPress themes because they meet our required features.

King

The King WordPress theme is a premium video theme that allows users to upload and manage their videos right on the front end of the site. This theme allows your visitors to include their videos on your site by providing three different ways for them to do so: using oEmbed URLs, embed codes, or uploading MP4 files through a simple user interface.

The first thing you’ll notice about this theme is its user-friendly front-end video uploader. This means that instead of following all the complicated steps to get your video up on the internet, users can upload their MP4 or FLV files directly from their computers. Plus, these files will be compatible with almost any device!

Next up is the categories section—it has one of those too! You can use this section to label each video by category or subcategory so people can easily find what they’re looking for. When you want to make things convenient for your readers, add tags

—you can even search through both tags and categories if you want!

The next feature is search boxes—yes, plural! Users can easily find what they’re looking for with two different search box types.

Engagement options such as likes and comments allow viewers to interact with each other in real-time.

The trending video section is based on views, votes, and comments so that users can see what’s popular at any given time.

And finally, there are robust monetization options for showing ads so that you can make money off of your videos!

You can view King’s demo site Kingtube where the users can upload their videos.

The King’s pricing starts at $59/ year.

Bimber

Bimber WordPress theme is packed with features that make it easy to create a site that looks and feels like YouTube. This theme has a drag-and-drop builder that allows you to customize your site by choosing from a wide array of templates, including layouts and color palettes.

This theme was designed to deliver exceptional digital experiences through easy navigation and intuitive user interface elements consistent across all browsers and devices regardless of screen size or device type (such as desktop computers).

In addition to this customizability, the Bimber WordPress theme offers a front-end video uploader for users and MP4 file support—so you can ensure your videos load quickly and seamlessly. It also comes with categories, search boxes, and tags for easy navigation; video engagement options such as likes and comments; a trending video section based on views and tags; and robust monetization options for showing ads.

Bimber’s pricing starts at $59/year.

Supportive plugins for your video website

Some supportive plugins will help you improve overall user experience, page load time, and speed.

Lazy Loads for video

Lazy Load for Videos is a free plugin that improves page load times. Lazy Load’s clickable preview images replace embedded YouTube and Vimeo videos, so no unnecessary scripts are loaded until you click.

Video slider

If you need a simple video slider with a touch of class and elegance, Video Slider is the right choice for you. For years, this plugin has been tested on all types of websites and works seamlessly regardless of whether you’re using an iPad or a PC.

Although sliders and carousels are hardly the future of website design, they’re still widely used by everyone, from big companies to small businesses.

Conclusion

Building a video-sharing site with WordPress is simple, as we’ve outlined above. Once you have followed these steps, you’ll be well on accumulating an extensive collection of videos that will significantly increase user engagement and improve ad impressions. Creating a video-sharing site is one way to make money online — now, go and do it.