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Author Topic: Do animated background videos sell well?  (Read 4772 times)

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« on: July 05, 2017, 02:48 »
0
Referring to those made with after effects.


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SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #1 on: July 05, 2017, 03:17 »
+2
Depends on how good they are, but in general... they do sell, but not amazingly well. Just using VideoHive as an example, as they show sales figures...

This one makes 40 sales a month: https://videohive.net/item/fireworks/19009056

This one makes less than 1 sale a month: https://videohive.net/item/classical-music/18732933


« Reply #2 on: July 05, 2017, 05:52 »
0
Depends on how good they are, but in general... they do sell, but not amazingly well. Just using VideoHive as an example, as they show sales figures...

This one makes 40 sales a month: https://videohive.net/item/fireworks/19009056

This one makes less than 1 sale a month: https://videohive.net/item/classical-music/18732933

Since you are into videos, what sells best?


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« Reply #3 on: July 05, 2017, 07:42 »
+4
Depends on how good they are, but in general... they do sell, but not amazingly well. Just using VideoHive as an example, as they show sales figures...

This one makes 40 sales a month: https://videohive.net/item/fireworks/19009056

This one makes less than 1 sale a month: https://videohive.net/item/classical-music/18732933

My god, 10 lousy bucks for a series of high quality fireworks animations...No wonder microstock is going down the drain.

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #4 on: July 05, 2017, 07:53 »
0
Well the guy makes $280 a month from them. If it was $79 on SS then he'd have to sell 14 a month to make the same. Nothing unlikely about that, but my point is that if he sells them for $10 and gets 40 sales a month, he's unlikely to get 40 sales a month if they are $79.

Just like this: https://videohive.net/item/global-network-orange/12004875

I get $2.88 every time it sells. If it sells on Videoblocks, I get $47.16. The latter is great, and more preferable, but the amount I make on VideoHive is roughly the same as the amount I get on Videblocks, Pond5, iS, SS, DT, 123RF, Motion Elements and Fotolia combined... so there must be something to be said for a lower price-point to drive the volume of sales.   

« Reply #5 on: July 05, 2017, 10:34 »
0
Well the guy makes $280 a month from them. If it was $79 on SS then he'd have to sell 14 a month to make the same. Nothing unlikely about that, but my point is that if he sells them for $10 and gets 40 sales a month, he's unlikely to get 40 sales a month if they are $79.

Just like this: https://videohive.net/item/global-network-orange/12004875

I get $2.88 every time it sells. If it sells on Videoblocks, I get $47.16. The latter is great, and more preferable, but the amount I make on VideoHive is roughly the same as the amount I get on Videblocks, Pond5, iS, SS, DT, 123RF, Motion Elements and Fotolia combined... so there must be something to be said for a lower price-point to drive the volume of sales.   

14 sales on SS is very likely with that quality, it seems to me. If the files are split up and sold separately.
The thing is, with prices like that, video becomes even more a commodity than it already is. If people are willing to buy a single image for $5, he could easily price it $25 and it will still get sales. He's leaving a lot of money on the table (like many other contributors there) because they have no idea how much their work is actually worth.

Plus, how much work goes into it? A whole set of animations and a fancy preview video, in case of AE templates even regular updates for the same package. $280 a month for one package sounds great, but not if you spend too many hours on creating it. And this is a high seller, so it's an exception to the rule. How many of those aren't getting sales?
« Last Edit: July 05, 2017, 10:41 by Noedelhap »

« Reply #6 on: July 05, 2017, 10:56 »
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Well the guy makes $280 a month from them. If it was $79 on SS then he'd have to sell 14 a month to make the same. Nothing unlikely about that, but my point is that if he sells them for $10 and gets 40 sales a month, he's unlikely to get 40 sales a month if they are $79.

Just like this: https://videohive.net/item/global-network-orange/12004875

I get $2.88 every time it sells. If it sells on Videoblocks, I get $47.16. The latter is great, and more preferable, but the amount I make on VideoHive is roughly the same as the amount I get on Videblocks, Pond5, iS, SS, DT, 123RF, Motion Elements and Fotolia combined... so there must be something to be said for a lower price-point to drive the volume of sales.   


14 sales on SS is very likely with that quality, it seems to me. If the files are split up and sold separately.
The thing is, with prices like that, video becomes even more a commodity than it already is. If people are willing to buy a single image for $5, he could easily price it $25 and it will still get sales. He's leaving a lot of money on the table (like many other contributors there) because they have no idea how much their work is actually worth.

Plus, how much work goes into it? A whole set of animations and a fancy preview video, in case of AE templates even regular updates for the same package. $280 a month for one package sounds great, but not if you spend too many hours on creating it. And this is a high seller, so it's an exception to the rule. How many of those aren't getting sales?
Don't worry, VH are basically not accepting footage anymore.
There is a 6 months (!!!) waiting list for reviews and apparently they only have one reviewer. What a joke!
From what they said in their forum, they seem to be dropping footage altogether (but not graphic animations).
With the low prices they have they cannot even afford reviewers and bandwidth, at least for regular footage

« Reply #7 on: July 05, 2017, 12:33 »
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You can give the source. I can not find out that no Videohive will no longer want video material

« Reply #8 on: July 05, 2017, 12:41 »
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You can give the source. I can not find out that no Videohive will no longer want video material
I said: they seem to be dropping footage.

This a reply from VH to a complaint about review time:

Last week I wrote 3 times for Envato Help.
They just answered me yesterday. Here I transcribe the received email. I think it's pretty clear:

"Hi

Thanks for your email.

I appreciate that you may be tired of hearing about what we are doing to reduce the wait time - this is not meant to be an excuse but more of an explanation.

I wish there was good news in terms of this but the bottom line is that nothing is going to change soon with these wait times.

We literally are doing all we can but we have so many stock footage items being submitted right now.

We value your authorship with us, but understand that if the wait is not sustainable for you, you might have to submit this elsewhere.

Thanks"

« Reply #9 on: July 05, 2017, 12:53 »
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They have not yet closed the upload and still can send video clips

« Reply #10 on: July 05, 2017, 13:30 »
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They have not yet closed the upload and still can send video clips
I know, but be prepared for years waiting for review...

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #11 on: July 06, 2017, 02:26 »
0
They're approving up to 3000 stock videos a week, and if you include the ones that are rejected, then they're probably reviewing quite a few more than that. So it's not like they've given up on stock footage, they're maybe just not wanting to plough that many resources into bringing the queue down. Although I'm sure they have been taking steps to minimising the queue, as it does seem to have plateaued after steadily increasing, and looks like it's ever so slowly starting to come down.

And if they are reviewing 4/5/6K a week, then it's highly unlikely they have just one person reviewing, not sure where you heard that one from.

And this thread is about motion graphics where the wait time for review is around a week, just so you know.

Quote
From what they said in their forum, they seem to be dropping footage altogether

I've not read that anywhere. 

 

« Reply #12 on: July 06, 2017, 10:25 »
+1
And if they are reviewing 4/5/6K a week, then it's highly unlikely they have just one person reviewing, not sure where you heard that one from.

if we consider an average of 20" per clip, 6k clips cover 33 hours of footage per week

there could be just one reviewer, indeed...

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #13 on: July 06, 2017, 22:38 »
0
That's if a robot is doing it and all they have to do is press a yes/no button. Include the one second it takes to shut the video down and that's another hour and a half. The three seconds it takes to locate, open and play the next clip... another four and a half hours. One second to click the yes/no button, another hour and a half. Then take into account they have to watch the preview video which is the same length as the actual video... another 33 hours.

They then have to check the thumbnail, the tags, read the item description, set the price, nominate the clip for the weekly featured file if it's good enough, possibly watch the clip again if they're borderline on whether it's good or not, document what's been done, send approval emails, soft rejection emails or hard rejection emails... that's probably another 100 hours.

So we're up to 173 hours before you even take into account annual leave, sick days, training, meetings, breaks, performance reviews, grabbing a coffee, re-reviewing soft-rejected items, and catching up with the crazy dudes and dudettes at the water cooler.

I may have over-estimated, but I'd say that you've definitely under-estimated... so if we average the two to be fair, it's still 106 hours, which would require three full time staff. 

SpaceStockFootage

  • Space, Sci-Fi and Astronomy Related Stock Footage

« Reply #14 on: July 06, 2017, 23:00 »
+1
because they have no idea how much their work is actually worth.

How much something is worth should be strongly related to how often something is going to sell, and at what price. You're just going with the 'at what price' part. Take a movie that cost $250m to make. That movie is worth $250m or more, but few people are likely to pay $250m to watch it... or $500m would probably be a more likely asking price, so the studios make some profit.

But as multiple people can watch the film, and multiple people probably will, the cinemas can get away with selling a ticket for $10 or so... and the studios are happy for them to do so. Just because the studio is happy for them to sell the tickets for $10 a go, doesn't mean that they don't know the value of their work. Quite the opposite.

Very few people know exactly what their work is worth because it's based on sales figures that can't be predicted with any reliable amount of accuracy. I think we can all agree that the $20 you might get from one SS sale isn't worth it. You wouldn't take on a client commission for $20... but then if you get two sales, three sales and so on and so forth, then it starts to make it worthwhile. That's when the worth of your work starts to reveal itself... not so much the sale price and the commission rate. There's a sweet spot when it comes to sales price versus sales figures which is going to be influenced by the quality and uniqueness of the clip... and none of us know what that sweet spot is until it starts selling. And even if we figured out what that sweet spot price was, there's not much we can do about it unless it's Pond5 or Motion Elements.     

Quote
$280 a month for one package sounds great, but not if you spend too many hours on creating it. And this is a high seller, so it's an exception to the rule. How many of those aren't getting sales?

Exactly. But even if it took him one week, then $3,360 for a weeks work, spread over a year... is pretty good. Not to mention the sales he'll get in year two, year three etc.

As for it being a high seller... it's a high seller because it's a high quality clip and the guy has put the work into something that he feels will be commercially viable. If people are making lower quality stuff that is less commercially viable... then they deserve to have lower sales! The guy seems to know what he's doing though, he's shifted over $250K of stuff there.

« Reply #15 on: July 07, 2017, 05:28 »
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and catching up with the crazy dudes and dudettes at the water cooler.

I may have over-estimated, but I'd say that you've definitely under-estimated... so if we average the two to be fair, it's still 106 hours, which would require three full time staff.

Pretty sure they're working from home in Hungary.

And I doubt they ever read the descriptions or tags, at least from what I've seen get accepted.  ;D

Actually, I doubt they even watch the clips sometimes.  :o

Talking footage here. Things are likely very different for AE templates.

Anyway, I've had 3 different reviewers (at least 3 different accounts) and I think that's how many there are.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2017, 05:43 by increasingdifficulty »

« Reply #16 on: July 07, 2017, 07:09 »
0
because they have no idea how much their work is actually worth.

Very few people know exactly what their work is worth because it's based on sales figures that can't be predicted with any reliable amount of accuracy. I think we can all agree that the $20 you might get from one SS sale isn't worth it. You wouldn't take on a client commission for $20... but then if you get two sales, three sales and so on and so forth, then it starts to make it worthwhile. That's when the worth of your work starts to reveal itself... not so much the sale price and the commission rate. There's a sweet spot when it comes to sales price versus sales figures which is going to be influenced by the quality and uniqueness of the clip... and none of us know what that sweet spot is until it starts selling. And even if we figured out what that sweet spot price was, there's not much we can do about it unless it's Pond5 or Motion Elements.     


You keep mentioning the 'sweet spot', but in my opinion this is far below the sweet spot (considering the video quality and demand). The sweet spot is the exact point where a price increase would result in a drop-off of sales. So what I'm saying is the price could be higher than $8-$10 and it would almost certainly still get the same amount of sales.
Luckily, with Pond5 it's possible to change prices (minimum of $25 I recall) and find out the sweet spot, but with Videohive you're stuck selling for less than the sweet spot, leaving money on the table.
 
As for it being a high seller... it's a high seller because it's a high quality clip and the guy has put the work into something that he feels will be commercially viable. If people are making lower quality stuff that is less commercially viable...

Of course, but the thing is, you can't always predict what will sell. This guy is an exception but I'm sure he has created stuff that is less popular than this fireworks clip, even though he has put in a lot of hours as well. So you have to take those working hours into account as well, so the average hourly rate goes down either way.
« Last Edit: July 07, 2017, 07:16 by Noedelhap »


 

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