MicrostockGroup

Never had a sale at AlwaysHD but Clipcanvas looks promising...

Forgot about Fotolia... they have one of the lowest payouts out of all the sites for video.  I haven't deal with a site that sells in Euro's.  Do you get euro's in your paypal account when you cash out or do they convert to US dollars?

I don't use Fotolia because they sell HD for $3 on subscription.

I would recommend Clipcanvas.  And PayPal converts Euros to Dollars when you get paid.  They do charge a fee for the currency conversion, but with the current exchange rates it still works VERY MUCH in your favor.

I conducted a lengthy experiment, over a period of a year now. I sumbitted my entire portfolio to ALL the sites I could. iSyndica was up then, so it wasn't so bad, just a lot of keywording on some. From my experience in sales, the majority of sites are not worth the effort. Other stock professionals, who also make their living do this confirm it and confirm the top four sellers. I have approximately 400 clips on line on each site with an income nearing 1500 - 2000 per month. These four sites, in order of income produced on a monthly basis are the top earners - consistently.


Don't be fooled by the percentages paid out. Sure, iStockphoto sucks if you look at it that way at 16% now. But they command their market and the sheer number of downloads makes it a top earner. Pond5.com is the easiest of sites to submit and upload to commands it's own market. I don't worry about the 3 buck sub sales on Fotalia - as every sale on each site is most likely a unique sale. That's three budks you wont be making there if you pull out. Anyway, Fotalia is a marginal earner, with about 50 bucks a month average with 350 clips online. There is only so much time I want to spend uploading at this point, so I have limited my upload to the top earners.

We don't belong to the big players. But from now on we also distribute footage from other cinematographers. Our upload does not work automaticly because we want to take care about our cataloge personly. Our focus is on 2-4k (later 5k) video stock footage with film-like asthetic. So If you're interested just have a look at http://www.footage-online.de

Cheers
Thomas.

I have a love/hate relationship with Pond5... I love the fact that they accept almost everything and I HATE the fact that they accept almost everything.  That said... I'm looking at nearly a 2500% increase in sales for 2010 over 2009 at Pond5 with a near-steady 4-figure monthly payout that is still growing.  And that's after a 700% increase in 2009 sales over 2008.  Best of all, I'm seeing my clips regularly in television production and occasionally in movie production.  And I had my first direct contact with a big time production studio this year who ordered custom animations from me as a result of my work on Pond5.  As far as I'm concerned, they set the standard for footage.  They consistently outsell every other agency and are leading the charge in "agency-contributor partnering" which is another reason why I think they lead the industry.  Pond5 treats contributors with respect and works with them to make both the contributor and BUYER experience a better one.

RevoStock and ClipCanvas are learning from this and their efforts over the past year to build a MUCH MORE friendly relationship with contributors has resulted in their huge growth in numbers and sales this year.  While still not at Pond5 levels, they are headed towards surpassing ShutterStock and Fotolia in size and sales in the footage marketplace and perhaps even challenging iStock in the future as well.

I think that's where a lot of new sites make a huge fatal mistake.  They see the success of iStock, ShutterStock and Fotolia and think they can treat contributors just as crappy.  And they end of failing.  Sites which PARTNER with contributors are finding success because contributors are willing to sacrifice a little more WITHOUT all of the bitching and complaints if they feel they are being treated fairly.

Very well stated. 

^^^You might not like it but other people do.  And there's more markets than just the web.  Video for stock is alive and kicking.

Very good, keep thinking that!

You can see my break down, and earnest advice at http://www.stockvideoseller.com/public_html/where-to-sell/. From my experience, and I have submitted the same portfolio to all the major and most of the minor sites, there are only a few serious players in the market. The rest of the sites aren't worth uploading too - in terms of ROI. That may not always be true for every specific seller (i.e. graphics and animation or straight editorial) but generally so. ClipCanvas has occasional sales, but has a difficult back end which uses a search in ranked order, so you need to redo your keyword order. Just not worth it for the sales I have got. Perhaps someone has had a different experience with them.

I think what many people forget regarding iStock despite the low percentage is that it is also by far the most work to submit. You forgot this in your calculation. Pond5 ( http://www.pond5.com/ )is so easy to submit it is nearly effortless and they also accept editorial and are by far the best seller for video.
I can understand that people don't wanna left out iStock for pictures because they are so strong in pictures but for video the are nowthere even close so strong.
Many people complain about the low percentages we get from agencies but in video we really have the chance to make a point and only submit to agencies which are treating us fair without loosing significant income.
I still have my doubts that video will ever be a good seller as photography (comparing the effort needed with the earning results) but it is big fun for me so I simply do it besides my photography.
I personally decided not to upload videos to iStock and Fotolia anymore it doesn't hurt me much in earnings but makes me feel a lot better.
I also didn't like your hidden referral links on your site so is anyone interested in signing up at Pond5 I would recommend Sharpshot's referall link you can find in his signature and a little bit more above this thread.

You don't have to do it one by one.

FTP access is available for everyone; I know, because I use it, and I'm not exclusive.

OTOH, it hasn't been working since early Friday ....