Vlog Site With Merchandise?

[stinger608]

So, there are a hand full of people that I'm working with locally and abroad to create a Vlog. This specific site will include site specific merchandise to offer followers to purchase.

It will also need to incorporate YouTube within the site to link back and forth to the produced videos.

I'm sorry, but at this moment I am not legally at liberty to divulge what the contents of the Vlog will be.

Now, my main question and concern is this: What would some of you suggest as to a decent web hosting site for such a website that would include videos, merchandise, and possibly a user friendly forum?

I wish it could include XenForo, however, at the time I'm not sure the funding will support that forum format. Possibly in the near future it might.

I have suggested that we wait on building a forum until we see the reactions to the actual website and Vlog.

Now, with all of that said, would WordPress support all of the above? Including a link to a XenForo forum in the near future?

For the time being, my suggestion was to just include a simple comment area on each posted video. What does everyone think of that idea?

I'm sure it could be incorporated within WordPress.


Thanks in advance and I look forward to any and all suggestions and comments. I very much appreciate all input in this.
Stinger608

 

[TheLostSwede]

Have you had a look at Simple Machines Forum?

Home of Open Source Free Forum Community Software

Free Open Source Forum Software

www.simplemachines.org

I put this up some years ago when I was working for the company and although it doesn't seem like they've updated it, it's been running fine since at least 2016.

Securifi Community Forum - Index

Securifi Community Forum - Index

forum.securifi.com

It's pretty basic, but it's also what makes it solid.

I've tried a few others, but it's some years ago, but something a bit more modern looking would be Vanilla Forums or Discourse.

 

[Solaris17]

So, there are a hand full of people that I'm working with locally and abroad to create a Vlog. This specific site will include site specific merchandise to offer followers to purchase.

It will also need to incorporate YouTube within the site to link back and forth to the produced videos.

I'm sorry, but at this moment I am not legally at liberty to divulge what the contents of the Vlog will be.

Now, my main question and concern is this: What would some of you suggest as to a decent web hosting site for such a website that would include videos, merchandise, and possibly a user friendly forum?

I wish it could include XenForo, however, at the time I'm not sure the funding will support that forum format. Possibly in the near future it might.

I have suggested that we wait on building a forum until we see the reactions to the actual website and Vlog.

Now, with all of that said, would WordPress support all of the above? Including a link to a XenForo forum in the near future?

For the time being, my suggestion was to just include a simple comment area on each posted video. What does everyone think of that idea?

I'm sure it could be incorporated within WordPress.


Thanks in advance and I look forward to any and all suggestions and comments. I very much appreciate all input in this.
Stinger608

I have a site that uses WP and I use xenforo. Its cheap. It was like $130 for a year of support and updates from them.

 

[stinger608]

I seem to remember using/checking out SimpleMachines forums several years ago. It seemed that it really wasn't all that pleasing to the user? Now, I suppose that could have changed, or maybe I just didn't delve deep enough to find out.

Looking at the sample you posted also looks somewhat bland, and the people I'm working with on this wishes to have something more appealing to the eye? If that makes any since.

I have a site that uses WP and I use xenforo. Its cheap. It was like $130 for a year of support and updates from them.

For XenForo?
Isn't the beginning price a ton more?

 

[Solaris17]

I seem to remember using/checking out SimpleMachines forums several years ago. It seemed that it really wasn't all that pleasing to the user? Now, I suppose that could have changed, or maybe I just didn't delve deep enough to find out.

Looking at the sample you posted also looks somewhat bland, and the people I'm working with on this wishes to have something more appealing to the eye? If that makes any since.



For XenForo?
Isn't the beginning price a ton more?

No not at all. Lets see what it is now.

Self hosted is $160

 

[the54thvoid]

Forgive my noobiness, you'd have your domain and website hosting costs on top? I paid around $300/year for wordpress hosting (for a blog) but I really didnt know what I was doing. Could have done it far cheaper.

 

[W1zzard]

Unless your time is worth only a dollar per hour, I'd definitely just buy XenForo.

 

[stinger608]

Unless your time is worth only a dollar per hour, I'd definitely just buy XenForo.

That's what I'm going to push for. At $160 it's kind of a no brainer!!!!

Thanks for posting that screen shot @Solaris17


Now then; suggestions on a decent web host that has WordPress?

 

[ShiBDiB]

Forgive my noobiness, you'd have your domain and website hosting costs on top? I paid around $300/year for wordpress hosting (for a blog) but I really didnt know what I was doing. Could have done it far cheaper.

This is a lot of money for a blog (unless you were getting a lot of traffic)

A cheap VPS and then install WP yourself on it, then just use the shopify plugin for WP. If you host your videos via youtube and just embed them on your site you'll save yourself a lot of bandwidth.

Honestly, outside of known names like TPU, a forum is a waste of time (and money). Just make a discord/subreddit for discussions amongst your followers.

 

[evernessince]

Honestly, outside of known names like TPU, a forum is a waste of time (and money). Just make a discord/subreddit for discussions amongst your followers.

Discord / reddit definitely make sense for a startup but a larger company would be valid in considering their own forum as that provides complete agency and control instead of being at the mercy of a 3rd party. Also depends on the kind of user base / community that you want cultivated. Reddit tends to lead to an echo-chamber and a lot of drama but it excels at promoting. Discord is great at casual conversation and decent at promoting but tends to discourage less vocal people from doing anything other than lurking due to the fact that there are a limited number of topics (channels) set up by mods and comments are made ticker style which means your latest comment is always on highlight to everyone in the discord. I've noticed in a lot of discords that only a small fraction of the userbase actually comments, even is very large servers. End of the day each approach has it's advantages and disadvantages. Discord and reddit definitely have an advantage for small companies though due to the ease to setup and low to no cost.