MicrostockGroup

Hi all,

Since I am getting more and more into Video, maybe the more experienced in this field can recommend me _selling_ video sites. So far I am with:

- Fotolia (low sales)
- Pond5 (very good sales)
- Revostock (every now and then)
- Shutterstock (average)
- Canstock (nothing)

Thanks :-)

Pond5 is way ahead of the other sites for me.  I don't use FT for video, they need to raise their prices and the commission is too low for the time it takes to u.pload.

I like Revostock but sales are infrequent.  SS also has less sales than Pond5 but hopefully they will get serious with video in the future.  Sold a few clips with ClipCanvas and CanStockPhoto.

I gave up on istock, 15% commissions, low sales and a horrible upload procedure took away any reason to use them.

Hopefully alamy will launch their video site soon and 123RF might be worth using.

Thanks for all the responses...I think I`ll add Clipcanvas and then wait how things are going...

I wonder why Dreamstime doesn`t have Video?

I have a small portfolio with mostly nature shots so I`m not a high volume seller. So I have slow sales on low earners like Clipdealer and Clipcanvas but Clipdealer is doing much better for me.

My humble results from the first 2 months of video independence (and around 50 videos):

Pond5: 74 dollars, 2 sales

SS: 45 Dollars, 2 sales

istock: 26 dollars, 3 sales

No sales yet on clipdealer or clipcanvas and I haven´t tried other sites yet.

I think video is a slow process but I like being able to set my own prices on Pond5 and clipcanvas. Only the artist knows how much time and work went into a production and this really helps to get your investment back. And a 50% royalty rate allows you to still price your files very competively, so the customer gets a good deal as well.

At the moment I'm only selling video on Pond5, SS and Istock.

I'm not going to put anything on Fotolia unless they change their policy with subscriptions, and won't bother with sites like Canstock & Revostock. 

For me Pond5 has the best sales so far, but then I've got more videos there than elsewhere. Istock is very limited in what I can upload, so the handful of clips that fit their restrictions are going up there, but so far 3 sales on 2 clips including an EL is pretty good going.

I'm probably going to look at a way of selling clips directly in the next few months once my collection gets big enough to make this worthwhile.

Prices are just far too low - the site sets the price, but for whatever reason they seem to think a $1-30 price range is enough for footage. The majority seems to be set at around $5. At these prices video would be selling for far less than my still images, and at much lower volumes - it just doesn't make any sense to upload there.

I guess that's why they have 691 timelapse clips, compared to 32,952 on Pond5.

You do know that you can disable subscription sales for video?

Go here: https://www.fotolia.com/Member/Modify/Contributor

and disable the check box at the bottom.

 

Here are my earners in order of sales each month:

Pond5
iStockphoto***
Shutterstock**
Revostock
ClipCanvas*

This of course, all depends on what you are offering, as motion graphics, etc perform differently on different sites - but there seems to be general agreement on these sites. Most of the offbeat sites, Fotolia, ClipDealer, AlwaysHD, earn marginal returns for most submitters and are not worth the time and effort of uploading and tagging.

Pond5 is the vast crowd-sourced flea market of video clips - and apparently the most difficult for the buyer to ply through. I upload everything to Pond5 without restriction. For the novice, it would be the most productive for the initial investment of time.

*ClipCanvas is getting more sales lately, so I have been putting more effort into submitting there. Revostock has ben consistently declining. **Editorial footage (if tagged with the exactlng restrictions / guidelines) on Shutterstock have seen consistent sales. ***Despite all the badmouthing, iStockphoto has been a very strong earner for me. Submission requirements have only gotten more burdensome, but the volume of sales is good.

So can I ask a silly question here - what sort of camera do you really NEED to get clips accepted/selling? Most point and shoots these days have super-slo-mo HD recording and so on at 1080p. Are these sorts of files acceptable? Or is it limited to 3CCD cameras and the high end DSLR's with video capablities?

I know the BEST answer, but I am after the realistic answer - is anyone using these cheapy's and selling?

I use the Sony Nex5 as my small camera that also makes good videos. But the camera has a very large sensor, same size as my canon600d.

I think anything smaller than that will create too many artifacts.

Thanks, I really don´t know much about the technical side of video.

There was an interview about a year or so ago where Serban said Dreamstime would definitely be offering video in the near future. I hope they move soon while the marketplace is still open for competition.