Author Topic: Experience after first 18 months of selling stock footage (Read 14817 times)

StockbyNumbers · « **on:** February 04, 2018, 18:01 »

Hi All,

A post from @videostocker about two years ago inspired me to get into stock footage in the first place, so I thought it would be appropriate to share in a similar way.

I started selling roughly 18 months ago on Shutterstock, Pond5 and Videoblocks. (with a few clips on dissolve and fotolia that never started selling like the other agencies).

For about six months I only had around 50 clips at each agency, then around 300, finally growing to around 750 for the last six months.

I've earned close to $8,200 with rough percentages of that coming from the agencies below:

Agency Clips sold Earnings percentage

Shutterstock 170 sales 57%
Pond5 45 sales 36% of earnings
Videoblocks 10 sales 6%
Dissolve 1 sales <1%

According to stockperformer this puts me roughly in the middle of the pack. Not sure how it stacks up to everyone else's first year and change and would love to hear more.

Here is a link to my port on P5, any feedback / critique is appreciated: https://www.pond5.com/artist/stockbynumbers#1/2063

JaenStock · « **Reply #1 on:** February 05, 2018, 09:30 »

Thanks for share. Good Job.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #2 on:** February 05, 2018, 10:09 »

Nice footage. Good color. A bit constrained in subject matter. I liked this one : https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/64344834/steadicam-past-two-rock-climbers-going-ropes-deep-canyon-dur.html

wds · « **Reply #3 on:** February 05, 2018, 10:34 »

Nice port. Since some of the agencies allow you to set your own price and some do not, it would be a more insightful comparison to let folks know what price points you are setting on agencies that allow you to set your own prices.

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #4 on:** February 05, 2018, 11:55 »

Thanks all for the feedback and kind words about my port.

@sean - agreed it is a bit constrained. Looking to branch out more soon.

@wds - I actually just started a pricing experiment to try to optimize profits on Pond5.

For the last 18 months 4K clips were $299 and HD were $199. It was actually a mistake originally that they were priced that way, and I only noticed when three 4K clips sold at those prices. So I kept them high. Sales dropped off a lot after September though so I went to a more common pricing of $189 / 79 or so. It's just anecdotal for now, but I've had two HD sales in the week since I lowered the prices.

silveandalu · « **Reply #5 on:** February 06, 2018, 04:17 »

Thanks for sharing, nice port

I am beginning in the microstock footage world, well, I stared in october, Now I have near of 1.500 clips in SS, Pond and Adobe Stock... I am sorprised that the best for me is Adobe, then Pond and then SS... I dont know if the sells will increase more with time... The people say that in pond the sells ups a year later... But I have sold some clips... my grows are in theese 3 months around 15-20 clips per agency, so more or less 5-7 clips per month, in Pond 3-4 (althought just 1 in january and 0 in february)

Sorry about my english

Here is my port (is similar in the others agencies) https://www.pond5.com/artist/silvestregarcia#1/2063

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #6 on:** February 06, 2018, 07:20 »

Thanks for sharing @silvanalu - great looking port.

Wow - that is a lot of footage to get up in just four months.

It sounds like I’ve been a little late to the Adobe Stock game, going to get everything up on it soon to start seeing how it does.

That was my experience with Pond5 overall - took a few months for sales to start.

Looking forward to hearing more about your progress in the future.

csm · « **Reply #7 on:** February 06, 2018, 08:24 »

Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 06, 2018, 07:20

Thanks for sharing @silvanalu - great looking port.

Wow - that is a lot of footage to get up in just four months.

It sounds like I’ve been a little late to the Adobe Stock game, going to get everything up on it soon to start seeing how it does.

That was my experience with Pond5 overall - took a few months for sales to start.

Looking forward to hearing more about your progress in the future.

Intersting info, thanks for sharing.
Intersting website, will be interesting to see how things work out for you this year.
You are just a little ahead of me, I joined Pond5 a years ago, got about 600 clips now with them, still waiting for the ball to start moving. I think I must have spent more hours on it than you, I don't know how you do it and do other things aswell!

Hard work getting the ball rolling, and everyone talks about the lag on Pond5 being a year, which is interesting.

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #8 on:** February 06, 2018, 11:17 »

@csm - my sales on P5 fell off for three months towards the end of last year but just started picking back up with two sales in the last week.

Definitely takes time in the evenings but I am pretty happy with my workflow now and am starting to pump out clips more efficiently.

I would recommend getting your footage up on Shutterstocm ASAP. I earn more there and it takes less tome for clips to start earning once uploaded.

This is mostly just conjecture, but I recently noticed that my sales spike on months where I upload 100 clips or more, but not sales of those specific clips, sales of the rest of my port.

I’m going to try some tests to see if there is any correlation over the course of the year.

silveandalu · « **Reply #9 on:** February 07, 2018, 04:48 »

Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 06, 2018, 07:20

Thanks for sharing @silvanalu - great looking port.

Wow - that is a lot of footage to get up in just four months.

It sounds like I’ve been a little late to the Adobe Stock game, going to get everything up on it soon to start seeing how it does.

That was my experience with Pond5 overall - took a few months for sales to start.

Looking forward to hearing more about your progress in the future.

Thanks, I already had the material, I am uploading it to the stock plataforms... hard work hehehe. Pond is frozen since 5 january... I dont know if this fluctancy is normal...

About the prices... I am starting trying with 89 for 4k and 69 for HD, I would like to up more... I will see how it sell...

I Will share when I have more data.

If I can ask you: How were your 5th first months?

Regards!

miR156 · « **Reply #10 on:** February 07, 2018, 08:33 »

Quote from: silveandalu on February 06, 2018, 04:17

Thanks for sharing, nice port

I am beginning in the microstock footage world, well, I stared in october, Now I have near of 1.500 clips in SS, Pond and Adobe Stock... I am sorprised that the best for me is Adobe, then Pond and then SS... I dont know if the sells will increase more with time... The people say that in pond the sells ups a year later... But I have sold some clips... my grows are in theese 3 months around 15-20 clips per agency, so more or less 5-7 clips per month, in Pond 3-4 (althought just 1 in january and 0 in february)

Sorry about my english

Here is my port (is similar in the others agencies) https://www.pond5.com/artist/silvestregarcia#1/2063

Interestingly, for me Adobe is the best too, though my port size is very small (100-200) on each site. SS follows Adobe, then IS, Pond5. I've only made 1 sale on VB.

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #11 on:** February 07, 2018, 09:48 »

Quote from: silveandalu on February 07, 2018, 04:48

Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 06, 2018, 07:20
Thanks for sharing @silvanalu - great looking port.

Wow - that is a lot of footage to get up in just four months.

It sounds like I’ve been a little late to the Adobe Stock game, going to get everything up on it soon to start seeing how it does.

That was my experience with Pond5 overall - took a few months for sales to start.

Looking forward to hearing more about your progress in the future.

Thanks, I already had the material, I am uploading it to the stock plataforms... hard work hehehe. Pond is frozen since 5 january... I dont know if this fluctancy is normal...

About the prices... I am starting trying with 89 for 4k and 69 for HD, I would like to up more... I will see how it sell...

I Will share when I have more data.

If I can ask you: How were your 5th first months?

Regards!

I’d be curious to see how your 4k clips sell at that price since they’re so close to your HD price. Pretty easy upsell it would seem to me.

The first 4-5 months on Pond5 were very very slow, but then it picked up quickly. There was a lull last year during the holidays so I’m not too worried about it, especially as it’s picking back up now. Had another sale last night, so three in about a week:

https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/77817457/aerial-boat-crystal-clear-water-beach-greece.html

Your port looks great as well, prett similar to the clip that just sold above actually

i’d expct good sales but keep us posted.

[/quote]
Interestingly, for me Adobe is the best too, though my port size is very small (100-200) on each site. SS follows Adobe, then IS, Pond5. I've only made 1 sale on VB.
[/quote]

I’m working on getting onto Adobe ASAP - been hearing this a lot lately.

Is IStock better than P5 in terms of earnings? Are you exclusive there? I haven’t uploaded because of the low commission but would reconsider if sales volume makes up for it.

Videoblocks has gone totally dead for me over the last three months. Was getting a few sales before that. We’ll see if it picks back up.

miR156 · « **Reply #12 on:** February 08, 2018, 03:33 »

Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 07, 2018, 09:48

Quote from: silveandalu on February 07, 2018, 04:48
Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 06, 2018, 07:20
Thanks for sharing @silvanalu - great looking port.

Wow - that is a lot of footage to get up in just four months.

It sounds like I’ve been a little late to the Adobe Stock game, going to get everything up on it soon to start seeing how it does.

That was my experience with Pond5 overall - took a few months for sales to start.

Looking forward to hearing more about your progress in the future.

Thanks, I already had the material, I am uploading it to the stock plataforms... hard work hehehe. Pond is frozen since 5 january... I dont know if this fluctancy is normal...

About the prices... I am starting trying with 89 for 4k and 69 for HD, I would like to up more... I will see how it sell...

I Will share when I have more data.

If I can ask you: How were your 5th first months?

Regards!

I’d be curious to see how your 4k clips sell at that price since they’re so close to your HD price. Pretty easy upsell it would seem to me.

The first 4-5 months on Pond5 were very very slow, but then it picked up quickly. There was a lull last year during the holidays so I’m not too worried about it, especially as it’s picking back up now. Had another sale last night, so three in about a week:

https://www.pond5.com/stock-footage/77817457/aerial-boat-crystal-clear-water-beach-greece.html

Your port looks great as well, prett similar to the clip that just sold above actually i’d expct good sales but keep us posted.

Interestingly, for me Adobe is the best too, though my port size is very small (100-200) on each site. SS follows Adobe, then IS, Pond5. I've only made 1 sale on VB.
[/quote]

I’m working on getting onto Adobe ASAP - been hearing this a lot lately.

Is IStock better than P5 in terms of earnings? Are you exclusive there? I haven’t uploaded because of the low commission but would reconsider if sales volume makes up for it.

Videoblocks has gone totally dead for me over the last three months. Was getting a few sales before that. We’ll see if it picks back up.
[/quote]
Non exclusive IS for me is roughly on par with P5 or slightly better ( I don’t have exact statistics) in terms of earnings. The problem of IS is the regular low price < 1usd that bugs me a lot. But there could also be high price downloads. Last statement I got a 115 fhd download. In VB, I just don’t have the luck. I even received request from VB user about custom work( though I could not make it due to my travel plan) , but the download was just not going anywhere.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #13 on:** February 08, 2018, 10:04 »

I’ll take another look at IS after getting my port on Adobe. Split about it as such low commissions don’t bode well for the industry as a whole. Don’t want to miss out though as things can change quickly.

On a side note - I really dig your website, congrats on the PhDs. Looking forward to following along.

miR156 · « **Reply #14 on:** February 08, 2018, 10:20 »

Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 08, 2018, 10:04

I’ll take another look at IS after getting my port on Adobe. Split about it as such low commissions don’t bode well for the industry as a whole. Don’t want to miss out though as things can change quickly.

On a side note - I really dig your website, congrats on the PhDs. Looking forward to following along.

Thanks for looking at the site. I just started getting a rough framework and will try to write more along our travel journey. I finally realize that travelling, stock photo or anything that interests me needs to have a record, just like a lab notebook.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #15 on:** February 08, 2018, 10:23 »

Quote from: miR156 on February 08, 2018, 10:20

Quote from: StockbyNumbers on February 08, 2018, 10:04
I’ll take another look at IS after getting my port on Adobe. Split about it as such low commissions don’t bode well for the industry as a whole. Don’t want to miss out though as things can change quickly.

On a side note - I really dig your website, congrats on the PhDs. Looking forward to following along.
Thanks for looking at the site. I just started getting a rough framework and will try to write more along our travel journey. I finally realize that travelling, stock photo or anything that interests me needs to have a record, just like a lab notebook.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

Great way to think of it and I completely agree. I’m starting a site now to track my progress and try to improve my stock business more deliberately and critically over time.

Thanks for letting us know a bit about yours. Of course would love to hear more as you continue.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

seamless · « **Reply #16 on:** February 12, 2018, 00:47 »

Excellent footage!
Especially the natural face expressions and settings of the persons.
Thanks for sharing your insigths!

StockbyNumbers · « **Reply #17 on:** February 12, 2018, 10:30 »

Thanks for the kind words about the footage!

Definitely trying to aim for the “authentic.” As all the agencies seem to describe it.

Seems to be selling well though.

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Author Topic: Experience after first 18 months of selling stock footage (Read 14817 times)

StockbyNumbers

JaenStock

Sean Locke Photography

wds

StockbyNumbers

silveandalu

StockbyNumbers

csm

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miR156

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