Author Topic: How much time do I need to see if some footages sell? (Read 15968 times)

Moonlight · « **on:** September 18, 2016, 04:26 »

Before this summer, I started a collaboration with a drone operator.
From May to now I have uploaded more than 500 new clips, some of them really beautiful.
The problem is that my income has increased very slightly.
I would like to figure out how much do I have to wait to get an estimate of the actual sales potential.
Is it too early to say?
I work with p5, vb and shutter.
I need to understand because I have to see if, maybe, I did something wrong with the tags, with the description or, simply, clips sell less than I expected.
Thanks.

Video-StockOrg · « **Reply #1 on:** September 18, 2016, 05:08 »

There is no formula to it. Some footage sell right away, some take time. It depends really how unique and interesting for further use your footage is. We did have some occasion that footage got sales right away, but mostly all needed few months to get some sales.

We did put this in to account and we shoot further without any expectations. We do what we like to do and it pays of somewhere in the future.

Moonlight · « **Reply #2 on:** September 18, 2016, 05:45 »

Yeah, I agree. But I also believe that a valuation is necessary to improve.
Otherwise I can not figure out if a certain type of footage sells or not.
I do not think so "fatalistic" upload is the best choice.
I just wonder after how many months I can get a rough idea, to see if it is worth continuing the collaboration or concentrate my efforts on another kind of clips.

Video-StockOrg · « **Reply #3 on:** September 18, 2016, 05:57 »

Well, being honest, even if my wife didn't believe me it will work, buying a cute cat was a really good investment. It costed a bit, but it sells like crazy.

PS; Now we have a cute dog too.

We've done a lot of aerial shooting too, but only few particular shoots are constantly selling. That's why we are planning new sets with related theme if it will sell too.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #4 on:** September 18, 2016, 06:41 »

I would give it a year at least. Unless you only shoot the big seller stuff it takes time to find a buyer, but when you do, you get a big nice smile on your face and hopefully a decent payout.

pkphotos · « **Reply #5 on:** September 18, 2016, 07:15 »

You probably need to be patient and give it 5-10 years. If nothing has sold by then change it up a bit.

Benozaur · « **Reply #6 on:** September 18, 2016, 07:17 »

Its hard to tell without seeing your clips, keywords and titles. Please post a link to your public portfolio and and we can offer more insight other than just general opinion.

Moonlight · « **Reply #7 on:** September 18, 2016, 07:20 »

Quote from: pkphotos on September 18, 2016, 07:15

You probably need to be patient and give it 5-10 years. If nothing has sold by then change it up a bit.

5-10 YEARS???

oh my...

Moonlight · « **Reply #8 on:** September 18, 2016, 07:22 »

Quote from: Benozaur on September 18, 2016, 07:17

Its hard to tell without seeing your clips, keywords and titles. Please post a link to your public portfolio and and we can offer more insight other than just general opinion.

http://www.shutterstock.com/video/gallery/2581123/

odesigns · « **Reply #9 on:** September 18, 2016, 07:31 »

You have good stuff. Spot-checking, you have good keywords. Just give it time and don't stop. Stuff will sell in time.

You may want to add a few more agencies once you feel comfortable adding to your upload workload. In my experience, all agencies never seem to fire on all cylinders at the same time. So, if agency 'A' and 'B' are down one week, agencies 'C' and 'D' may perform better for you for some reason.

Here are my agencies I submit too: http://orlowskidesigns.com/affiliated-agencies/. Yes, I spend hours submitting to all of them, and some don't perform as well as others, but it all eventually pays off. And some even take spreadsheets for submissions, so aside from prepping your XLS file, uploading to those are relatively easy.

Moonlight · « **Reply #10 on:** September 18, 2016, 07:43 »

Quote from: odesigns on September 18, 2016, 07:31

You have good stuff. Spot-checking, you have good keywords. Just give it time and don't stop. Stuff will sell in time.

You may want to add a few more agencies once you feel comfortable adding to your upload workload.

Thanks so much.
Yes you are right. I also just started with Fotolia now.
But I have another 700 clips to be uploaded on the top 3 agencies before dedicate myself more seriously to other agencies.
The problem for me is just the "upload time" which forces me to make a choice.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #11 on:** September 18, 2016, 09:15 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 18, 2016, 07:22

Quote from: Benozaur on September 18, 2016, 07:17
Its hard to tell without seeing your clips, keywords and titles. Please post a link to your public portfolio and and we can offer more insight other than just general opinion.

http://www.shutterstock.com/video/gallery/2581123/

Overall, your lighting looks very drab and the colors are murky and not white balanced correctly. That may be a result of vintage filtering you're adding.

alno · « **Reply #12 on:** September 18, 2016, 09:16 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 18, 2016, 07:43

Quote from: odesigns on September 18, 2016, 07:31
You have good stuff. Spot-checking, you have good keywords. Just give it time and don't stop. Stuff will sell in time.

You may want to add a few more agencies once you feel comfortable adding to your upload workload.

Thanks so much.
Yes you are right. I also just started with Fotolia now.
But I have another 700 clips to be uploaded on the top 3 agencies before dedicate myself more seriously to other agencies.
The problem for me is just the "upload time" which forces me to make a choice.

Why not upload to all agencies at same time? For previous uploads you can use CSV file from pond5 for example and Stocksubmitter program.

Moonlight · « **Reply #13 on:** September 18, 2016, 09:46 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 18, 2016, 09:15

Overall, your lighting looks very drab and the colors are murky and not white balanced correctly. That may be a result of vintage filtering you're adding.

Hi, It depends on which clips you saw.
Generally I use a "vintage effect" only when I have same problems with the original clip (noise, wrong exposure, etc) but I think the clip may still sell.
Example of color "vintage" made out of necessity:
http://www.shutterstock.com/it/video/clip-11275286-stock-footage-reproduction-vintage-video-making-cheese-traditional-manually-clip-filtered-to-look-like.html?src=gallery/ZTq1BJPb8uK64BL6-0hWQg:1:23/3p
http://www.shutterstock.com/it/video/clip-17768941-stock-footage-car-vintage-effect-mm-with-aerial-drone-n-the-camera-follows-the-machine-black-and-white.html?src=gallery/ZTq1BJPb8uK64BL6-0hWQg:1:31/3p

Example of "normal" color correction:
http://www.shutterstock.com/it/video/clip-16491727-stock-footage-muslim-floating-village-panyee-island-phanga-thailand-drone-aerial-shot-james-bond-island.html?src=gallery/ZTq1BJPb8uK64BL6-0hWQg:1:55/3p
http://www.shutterstock.com/it/video/clip-13641410-stock-footage-a-beautiful-girl-reads-shocking-news-on-her-smartphone-on-internet-as-the-beginning-of-a-war-or-a.html?src=gallery/ZTq1BJPb8uK64BL6-0hWQg:1:70/3p

Honestly, there are no differences between the number of sales vintage/no vintage clips, indeed, some of the "vintage" sell well.

Quote from: Irina Anosova on September 18, 2016, 09:16

Why not upload to all agencies at same time? For previous uploads you can use CSV file from pond5 for example and Stocksubmitter program.

I tried it, but I still loaded separately on each ftp. Am I wrong?
My problem is not individually insert tags and descriptions, the problem is precisely the time to upload the files because they weigh a lot.

wds · « **Reply #14 on:** September 18, 2016, 10:02 »

Sometimes I wonder with all the hype about clips...how much do they really sell?....is it more for the future?
Of course they do sell, but they are also harder to produce as compared to stills. Given that difference in effort, are clips worth the extra effort?

If you had a library of 3000 quality stills vs. 3000 quality clips, how would the income streams compare?

I understand it is hard to compare "quality", but let's say you had some scenarios, whether it be people in the workplace, or people in a restaurant and
you created a series of stills vs. a series of clips, how would the sales compare, taking into account, that it is much easier to create more stills than clips
for a given scenario (implying that you would generate more stills that clips from a given scenario). If you do both clips and stills for a given scenario,
the question still remains as you have limited time and resources in a shoot and that will limit your "output".

Moonlight · « **Reply #15 on:** September 18, 2016, 10:41 »

Quote from: wds on September 18, 2016, 10:02

If you had a library of 3000 quality stills vs. 3000 quality clips, how would the income streams compare?

I really do not know because I have always worked in video (I'm a director), I never made photography.
For me it is much easier (and convenient) to make a good video that a good still.

alno · « **Reply #16 on:** September 18, 2016, 12:00 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 18, 2016, 09:46

I tried it, but I still loaded separately on each ftp. Am I wrong?
My problem is not individually insert tags and descriptions, the problem is precisely the time to upload the files because they weigh a lot.

How this could be wrong if you just feel more comfortable with separate ftp upload?

Of course this depends on what type of internet access you have at the moment.

Moonlight · « **Reply #17 on:** September 18, 2016, 12:20 »

Quote from: Irina Anosova on September 18, 2016, 12:00

Of course this depends on what type of internet access you have at the moment.

The very slow type

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #18 on:** September 18, 2016, 13:37 »

As some have pointed out, your white balance is off on many (most) of the clips, and there are more color issues. I would fix that and upload again. They have a greenish tint that doesn't look too pleasing. Check the pharmacy stuff - neutral or with slightly blue looks better.

alno · « **Reply #19 on:** September 18, 2016, 13:40 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 18, 2016, 12:20

Quote from: Irina Anosova on September 18, 2016, 12:00
Of course this depends on what type of internet access you have at the moment.
The very slow type

Check Stocksubmitter forum here soon, they are about to release new cloud service version. It might be good for you since you only have to upload once and the program will distribute content to many stock sites.

Moonlight · « **Reply #20 on:** September 18, 2016, 14:05 »

Thank you all for the suggestions, but, to be honest, I did not write the post to have a report on my videos.
Generally they sell all (especially those in the pharmacy) with an average of $ 1 / clips per month.
I do not change what already works for me.
My question concerns some aerial video that I added in the last four months, which, however, have an average sales of 0.5 / clips per month.
What I want to find out is if it is still too early to judge the yield, or if it is just the kind of video that sells less.
When and if I serve suggestions for everything else, I will be delighted to create a separate post.

Moonlight · « **Reply #21 on:** September 18, 2016, 14:09 »

Quote from: Irina Anosova on September 18, 2016, 13:40

Check Stocksubmitter forum here soon, they are about to release new cloud service version. It might be good for you since you only have to upload once and the program will distribute content to many stock sites.

Yeah, I know, I am following their "evolution." Would be great.

Mantis · « **Reply #22 on:** September 18, 2016, 14:27 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 18, 2016, 14:05

Thank you all for the suggestions, but, to be honest, I did not write the post to have a report on my videos.
Generally they sell all (especially those in the pharmacy) with an average of $ 1 / clips per month.
I do not change what already works for me.
My question concerns some aerial video that I added in the last four months, which, however, have an average sales of 0.5 / clips per month.
What I want to find out is if it is still too early to judge the yield, or if it is just the kind of video that sells less.
When and if I serve suggestions for everything else, I will be delighted to create a separate post.

Here are my thoughts:

1. There is a lot of drone footage these days, so you have to really get unique, well shot footage to get repeatable sales.

2. Diversify your drone footage

3. Do your homework. Research what sells, create your own style (seems you have done some of this already).

4. Sales for videos is not the same as stills, so you really must have volume in most cases. Shooters like spacestockfootage have fairly unique stuff. When you shoot competitive compositions it will be exponentially more difficult to gain sales as the competitive landscape toughens. For example, there are a lot of beach shots on Pond 5. I have a lot of beach shots. Only a couple of my beach shots do well because they are more unique and well shot. The rest just allow me to claim I have 1300 videos, more or less.

In conclusion, diversification, quality, uniqueness and volume will help differentiate your work and probably lead to more sales. Sales on one site will be different than on others. That is something you simply must accept.

Some of your clips are pretty cool. I would make sure, as others have said, that your key wording is top notch. Research key words for your subject matter. It can really help, but does consume a lot of time to die a good job. Key wording is an art, more or less. Some are very good at it and can plop 30 words that are spot on. Others put in c r a p and never get found. Others take their time and make sure their key words are relevant and researched.

That's my 2 cents.

Moonlight · « **Reply #23 on:** September 18, 2016, 14:34 »

Quote from: Mantis on September 18, 2016, 14:27

Here are my thoughts:

1. There is a lot of drone footage these days, so you have to really get unique, well shot footage to get repeatable sales.

2. Diversify your drone footage

3. Do your homework. Research what sells, create your own style (seems you have done some of this already).

4. Sales for videos is not the same as stills, so you really must have volume in most cases. Shooters like spacestockfootage have fairly unique stuff. When you shoot competitive compositions it will be exponentially more difficult to gain sales as the competitive landscape toughens. For example, there are a lot of beach shots on Pond 5. I have a lot of beach shots. Only a couple of my beach shots do well because they are more unique and well shot. The rest just allow me to claim I have 1300 videos, more or less.

In conclusion, diversification, quality, uniqueness and volume will help differentiate your work and probably lead to more sales. Sales on one site will be different than on others. That is something you simply must accept.

Some of your clips are pretty cool. I would make sure, as others have said, that your key wording is top notch. Research key words for your subject matter. It can really help, but does consume a lot of time to die a good job. Key wording is an art, more or less. Some are very good at it and can plop 30 words that are spot on. Others put in c r a p and never get found. Others take their time and make sure their key words are relevant and researched.

That's my 2 cents.

<3 Thanks, good and useful.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #24 on:** September 18, 2016, 15:04 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 18, 2016, 14:05

Thank you all for the suggestions, but, to be honest, I did not write the post to have a report on my videos.
Generally they sell all (especially those in the pharmacy)

Imagine how much they would sell if they were perfect so that the buyers don't have to color correct. That stuff could sell every day.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #25 on:** September 18, 2016, 15:15 »

Right. I guess if the occasional sale makes you happy, keep on doing what 'works'.

Moonlight · « **Reply #26 on:** September 19, 2016, 11:25 »

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 18, 2016, 15:15

Right. I guess if the occasional sale makes you happy, keep on doing what 'works'.

No need to be polemical.
I will see for the next few things that I will upload and I will make an idea about it. But if you suggest me to re-upload hundreds of videos (that now I'm selling well), rather than focus on what I need to do in the future to "get better", it is normal that your suggestion does not interest me (because it doesn't make sense). Should I lose months and months to re-upload old stuff instead of new, I don't think so.
That is why I created the post: I have to concentrate on what to do next.
Sorry if I seemed rude in my previous message, it was not my intention, I do not speak English well.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #27 on:** September 19, 2016, 12:22 »

$1 per clip, per month? I don't think I'd get out of bed knowing I was only going to get $60 for a clip over a five year period.

Sure, I do have a bunch of clips that get me around $1 a month, some even less, but for those I give myself a slap on the wrists and a 'must try harder' talking to.

My general thinking is if I get $5 a month then it'll do. $10 a month, then I'm reasonably happy, $20 a month, I'm very happy and then there's the few ones were I've pretty much nailed it and I get $25 to $200. If I make less than $5 a month for a clip, then I'll write it off as a bit of a failure.

That's just me though. And I guess it depends on how many clips you can produce in a day. If I could make twenty a day, then $240 over a year for that day of work wouldn't be too bad. $2400 would be a lot better though!

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #28 on:** September 19, 2016, 12:54 »

Quote from: Moonlight on September 19, 2016, 11:25

Quote from: Sean Locke Photography on September 18, 2016, 15:15
Right. I guess if the occasional sale makes you happy, keep on doing what 'works'.
No need to be polemical.
I will see for the next few things that I will upload and I will make an idea about it. But if you suggest me to re-upload hundreds of videos (that now I'm selling well), rather than focus on what I need to do in the future to "get better"

Yes, I was suggesting you focus on getting better color and white balance to do better in the future. It sounded like you were happy with how your sales on the rest of your clips are and weren't interested in improving them.

Moonlight · « **Reply #29 on:** September 19, 2016, 13:00 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on September 19, 2016, 12:22

$1 per clip, per month? I don't think I'd get out of bed knowing I was only going to get $60 for a clip over a five year period.

Good for you if you do better

.
I thought it was not bad reading this post:
http://www.microstockgroup.com/general-stock-video/clip-numbers-versus-income-your-numbers-please/

Some people even get to $ 3 per clip, but also who is 0,2.

Sure makes me glad the advice to improve.
But I'm new in stockfootage only as a seller, because, instead, I bought for a very long time.
So I simply follow the criteria by which I buy.
For example, many European productions make me deliver jobs with lights under 80 in YCbCr Parade, I will never buy a clip that goes above this.
Americans are demanding more high, in fact, my sales are concentrated in Europe and Africa.
But while a clip is simple "lift it" it is difficult to lower it.
This is faulty reasoning? Maybe, I'll try in different way in future.
The fact is that, right now, is not what I need to know because it does not represent THE problem for me.
I certainly do not throw a year of uploads because, MAYBE, I could do more, even to think about it is absurd.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #30 on:** September 19, 2016, 13:41 »

I think the $1 per clip per month is quite normal, and not at all BAD. It can always be better of course...

I think it's a bit unfair to count your AE projects SpaceStockFootage - that's an ENTIRELY different story and you can't include them in Stock Footage averages. And rendered animations also take MUCH longer to make than filming which means you'd expect a higher return per clip.

For pure stock footage it's not a problem making 20 clips per day if it's your full-time gig.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #31 on:** September 19, 2016, 17:25 »

I didn't include those in my figures. I get up to $350 a month for one of those, so theyre a bit different. I was talking about video only. And I really don't think buyers take render time into account when it comes to perceived value.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #32 on:** September 19, 2016, 17:34 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on September 19, 2016, 17:25

And I really don't think buyers take render time into account when it comes to perceived value.

No but you can't produce 20 of those per day, meaning there aren't that many around = value goes up. Regular, filmed, stock footage you can produce 20 a day. Value goes down.

Moonlight · « **Reply #33 on:** September 20, 2016, 02:57 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on September 19, 2016, 17:25

I didn't include those in my figures. I get up to $350 a month for one of those, so theyre a bit different. I was talking about video only. And I really don't think buyers take render time into account when it comes to perceived value.

There are many considerations to make.
The first is that Increasingdifficulty is right, there is less competition.
In addition to this you must consider that your work can be inserted anywhere where servant, customer choice will be based only on the quality of work.
Example: I need the videoof the world that revolves around the sun, I will choose the most beautiful videos (and yours are fantastic)
If, however, I need a woman drinking a glass of wine, perhaps, I will not buy "the most beautiful video", but what is best suited to my project.
In fact I have some terrible animations that I think I'll never sell, while the equivalent shot video could also sell enough.
Some time ago I needed the video of a rabbit on a white background.
I did not choose "the better" but what is best inserted in the film.
This definitely creates more "volatility" of the shot video footage sales, rather than the animations ((The good ones, of course).

Video-StockOrg · « **Reply #34 on:** September 22, 2016, 13:13 »

Maybe this statistics will give you some support, what can be done in just a year or two.
http://video-stock.org/best-stock-video-agencies-for-footage-sales/

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #35 on:** September 22, 2016, 13:52 »

Quote from: bafan4u on September 22, 2016, 13:13

Maybe this statistics will give you some support, what can be done in just a year or two.
http://video-stock.org/best-stock-video-agencies-for-footage-sales/

No numbers? Could be anything from $1 to $1 million.

Brightontl · « **Reply #36 on:** September 22, 2016, 16:16 »

I only do video and I have been around a bit more than a year, portfolio of about 1,100, in the main 5 agencies.
Things for me were going quite well and steadily up until May, when Pond 5 started their membership hell.
After that my sales at P5 disappeared, basically they are giving away very good quality clips almost for free. Also they pushed up in the search engine the members who participated to the thing, so everyone else like me disappeared in the bottom of the ocean.
Little by little sales at other agencies started to drift down as well. Most of the video sales at the moment are in that stupid membership thing and it is getting worse and worse.
I have doubled my portfolio in the last 3 months, but sales are not improving at all.
This membership thing at Pond 5 in my opinion has killed the video market in only a few months.
I really think from now on I will start concentrating on other things and only consider video footage as a spare time hobby that gives me a tiny income. Things were much more promising before the bloody Pond 5 membership started

Cider Apple · « **Reply #37 on:** September 22, 2016, 16:54 »

Quote from: Brightontl on September 22, 2016, 16:16

I only do video and I have been around a bit more than a year, portfolio of about 1,100, in the main 5 agencies.
Things for me were going quite well and steadily up until May, when Pond 5 started their membership hell.
After that my sales at P5 disappeared, basically they are giving away very good quality clips almost for free. Also they pushed up in the search engine the members who participated to the thing, so everyone else like me disappeared in the bottom of the ocean.
Little by little sales at other agencies started to drift down as well. Most of the video sales at the moment are in that stupid membership thing and it is getting worse and worse.
I have doubled my portfolio in the last 3 months, but sales are not improving at all.
This membership thing at Pond 5 in my opinion has killed the video market in only a few months.
I really think from now on I will start concentrating on other things and only consider video footage as a spare time hobby that gives me a tiny income. Things were much more promising before the bloody Pond 5 membership started

I feel sorry for you but Pond5 is not the sole market provider. I don't really submit there. I'm mainly on Shutter, and Getty. I have a port of over 5000 vids and making a full time living out of it.
Honestly I'd move on from Pond5 and focus on stronger agencies. Also content is Number 1.
I can't compete with a lot of videographers making extremely professional business shots etc so I've taken a look around me and filmed whats to my disposal. I've found gaps in the market and having great success. It's taken me a while but instead of rushing out and just filming anything that took my fancy I'm now beginning to think what production houses may want. It's difficult I know but once I found a theme I kind of sort of got it.

Don't give up - invest in the bigger agencies.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #38 on:** September 22, 2016, 20:30 »

I've done 'the math' and I make an average $17 per video, per month. That doesn't include any After Effects templates. I see what you're saying about the render times and the time that goes into motion graphics... but once you've planned, shot, edited and hired a bunch of people/props for a fancy shoot... that can be more time-consuming/costly than whipping up some planets bumming about in the solar system.

Although I'd like to hope that some fancy custom shoot setup would result in a lot more per month than filming toast popping up from the toaster while you're making your breakfast, your tap running, or some clouds shot from your back garden.

Moonlight · « **Reply #39 on:** September 23, 2016, 03:34 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on September 22, 2016, 20:30

I've done 'the math' and I make an average $17 per video, per month. That doesn't include any After Effects templates. I see what you're saying about the render times and the time that goes into motion graphics... but once you've planned, shot, edited and hired a bunch of people/props for a fancy shoot... that can be more time-consuming/costly than whipping up some planets bumming about in the solar system.

Although I'd like to hope that some fancy custom shoot setup would result in a lot more per month than filming toast popping up from the toaster while you're making your breakfast, your tap running, or some clouds shot from your back garden.

It 's true, do shot footage that are not trivial cheaply / media is difficult.
I think we must focus on what we have available, or have a lot of imagination.
I have access to a pharmacy and a laboratory, for example.
However, once prepared the day of shooting you can shot successful 100 clips in a day that you are able to post produce two / three days.
Making animations is definately more beneficial if you are able (as you are).
But if you are not at a high level is worse, you spend a lot of time to create something that will sell very little then.