Skip Login Screen - same as Disqus plugin

Hello Loic, thanks for the response.

Actually, you're wrong - I would certainly pay and, judging by the amount of people I stumbled across during my search for a suitable service, so would a substantial number of others.

During my own search, I continually found people looking for the same thing, wandering around obscure places online such as the Red5 mailing list or the comment sections of random blog posts.

Attempts to monetize video seems to skew towards either free, ad-based services OR ridiculously expensive "premium" services aimed at corporations - no-one seems to realize that many people would pay for a simple hosted service to collect, store, view and publish webcam messages left on their webcams.

I understand the psychological leap between free and paying even a small amount but, seriously, a lot of website owners would be relieved to pay a reasonable amount for a simple one-click solution that doesn't involve third-party logins, the loss of copyright or ads popping up, with options to white label or co-brand with Seesmic.

I am aware that these are tough times for Seesmic, I sympathize with you and the people you recently lost, I have many friends in similar situations. Perhaps, though, this economic downturn might mark a return to the concept of straight-forward monetization plans, in which people simply pay a fair amount for good services.

I am convinced there is a genuine product opportunity here, one that could be scaled up quite easily as you already have all the necessary skills, experience and reputation. ( Delete or Edit)

I am suggesting something almost identical to your existing WordPress plugin, just streamlined to make it easier and more tempting to use: no login, no ads, just click Record, click Stop and click Save. The service then spits a video code into the comment field, just as the Seesmic, Viddler and Riffly plugins currently do.

Another, even simpler use of the same flash widget would simply allow site visitors to leave a message which isn't tied into a commenting system, the video code is instead emailed to the site owner, who can decide to just watch it or insert it into his site for others to see. Almost a guestbook. I can think of several low-bandwidth, high-utility uses for that i.e. verification that someone submitting a form is who they say they are, or that the person featured in the photo being submitted as their avatar is the same person signing up, video petitions, additional assurance for ebay transactions, contractually-binding video statements etc. Simpler, more specific uses, not an attempt to initiate a grand conversation or network effect, but immediate usefulness worth paying for .

Again, though, I'm not talking about fancy new code, this is just a different use of your existing "save, store and return a token" technology; if you offer those building blocks, people will find almost infinite uses.

Pricing is always tricky but you should note that many people, myself included, would rather pay a reasonable amount to a company we trust as having a realistic plan to stay in business, rather than ride for free with an unknown quantity such as Riffly - if they disappear, so do all my users' comments!

Would simple pricing according to bandwidth usage be workable? I'm not sure of the exact price I would be willing to pay, but obviously, to gain traction among the mass of serious website owners (i.e. not teenage bloggers who will never pay for anything but also not businesses with infinite spending power) the pricing should be pitched as a fair service at a fair price, billed according to usage and not charging such a large premium that people simply roll their own Red5-based solutions.

My hunch is that this is quite a large market, I'm honestly surprised that no-one is catering to it, the first company to get it right could probably dominate this niche if they price keenly enough to discourage smaller competitors but still profit handsomely from scale and buying power.

So, if you do decide to offer a product of this type, I will, absolutely, be your first paying guinea pig. ( Delete or Edit)