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Microstock Footage Forum => General - Stock Video => Topic started by: videostocker on February 24, 2016, 06:06

Title: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: videostocker on February 24, 2016, 06:06
Hi people,

Let me share my experience after 1 year selling stock footage in microstock platforms.

I started on January 2015 selling content at Shutterstock, Pond5 and 123RF, adding Fotolia, iStock, Nimia, Dissolve, DepositPhotos, Videoblocks and Motionelements in the following months. In May I had all platforms selling my footage. At the end of 2015 I had 300 clips average in each platform with the same clips (more or less).

I've made sales in all platforms except Motionelements where I have no sales so far.

I created an excel file, where I wrote each sale in monthly basis (Number of sales and $ amount)

And here are my results: (All are not exclusive)

Agency       Clips sold   Earnings percentage
Pond5           29 sales     35% of sales
Shutterstock  22 sales     31%
Videoblocks   3 sales       10%
Nimia            1 sale        7%
123rf             6 sales      6%
Fotolia           8 sales      4%
iStock            9 sales       3%
Depositphotos 1 sale        2%
Dissolve         2 sales       2%

So, my conclusion, based in this experience is that, for maximize profit and time only Pond5, Shutterstock and Videoblocks* deserve the upload. The others, during 2015, were not profitable.

*Videoblocks are too new so I'm not sure it they will be profitable in 2016 due to the amount of people uploading.

As you can see, istock and Fotolia are the worst in terms of number of clips sold vs profit. They are a waste of time. Maybe if you play the exclusive role with those, results will be really different.

This 2016 Nimia has lower prices so maybe this 2016 they will be also at the bottom of the list (or not, maybe they will sell more due to the new prices, who knows)

This year I started to upload only to Pond5, Shutterstock and Videoblocks, as they are by far and based in my experience the most convenient places to sell clips nowadays.





Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: Lana on February 24, 2016, 07:08
Happy Anniversary! :)

Thank you for your stats and congrats on a good start!

Just wanted to ask a few things for a better understanding:
Are you selling only HD or 4k too?
How long did it take you before getting the first sale at SS and Pond?

I'm also weighing on whether to start doing footage..
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: videostocker on February 24, 2016, 07:52
Happy Anniversary! :)

Thank you for your stats and congrats on a good start!

Just wanted to ask a few things for a better understanding:
Are you selling only HD or 4k too?
How long did it take you before getting the first sale at SS and Pond?

I'm also weighing on whether to start doing footage..

Well, I started with HD only, but today I've most 4K in my portfolio. But, I still sell most HD than 4K.

My first sale came on SS in just 15 days after approval. Not much sales in the first 2-3 months. But of course in the beginning I had less clips for sale than at the end of the year.

Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: ACS on February 24, 2016, 07:57
I started to make video clips for stock in 2013 and my experience is very similar to yours. As you mentioned, P5, SS, VB and (according to my stats) Fotolia are the agencies worth to submit nowadays and most likely they cover %75 of all the revenue made from videostock market.
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: cobalt on February 24, 2016, 10:15
Thank you for sharing. It will be interesting to see how videoblocks does this year and if Fotolia sees an upswing by being integrated into adobe.
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: alno on February 24, 2016, 16:38
Hi people,

Let me share my experience after 1 year selling stock footage in microstock platforms.


Thank you for sharing and congratulations. My own and friend of mine experience shows approximately the same percentage.
Fotolia is a complete waste of time.
Nimia seems nice just for storing own content. Their overpriced 'Content request' thing seems to be a kind of homemade fraud just to get people involved. Submitting content is a bit awkward - does any buyer really cares about flourecent or halogen lamp the footage was shot with?
 
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: videostocker on February 24, 2016, 17:46
Hi Irina,

Regarding Nimia, I also started to use it as backup platform and even a showcase platform to share clips with clients. Regarding sales, I don't expect too much. I don't use their content request system.
For backup and archive purposes, Nimia has a great file system, but I avoid to specify many of the fields like the temperature of the color or the type of lens, I don't need them. Maybe could be nice for some productions to have this kind of detail for organization purposes.


Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: damseremie on February 25, 2016, 14:34
Hi Irina,

Regarding Nimia, I also started to use it as backup platform and even a showcase platform to share clips with clients. Regarding sales, I don't expect too much. I don't use their content request system.
For backup and archive purposes, Nimia has a great file system, but I avoid to specify many of the fields like the temperature of the color or the type of lens, I don't need them. Maybe could be nice for some productions to have this kind of detail for organization purposes.


Thanks for sharing
That's a wealth of info there, great for those of us just starting out, I hope to also post my 1 year report in Jan 2017.
Would you be able to share  actual income figures? ;D if not,  no problem
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: ccbcc on February 25, 2016, 15:12
Hi Irina,

Regarding Nimia, I also started to use it as backup platform and even a showcase platform to share clips with clients. Regarding sales, I don't expect too much. I don't use their content request system.
For backup and archive purposes, Nimia has a great file system, but I avoid to specify many of the fields like the temperature of the color or the type of lens, I don't need them. Maybe could be nice for some productions to have this kind of detail for organization purposes.


Thanks for sharing
That's a wealth of info there, great for those of us just starting out, I hope to also post my 1 year report in Jan 2017.
Would you be able to share  actual income figures? ;D if not,  no problem

3 sales at Videoblocks is around $150, which is 10% of total earnings, so that means $1500 in 1 year. Assuming HD sales.
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: damseremie on February 25, 2016, 18:10

3 sales at Videoblocks is around $150, which is 10% of total earnings, so that means $1500 in 1 year. Assuming HD sales.
True,..nice breakdown but it could very well be that two of those sales were 4k or something... making a total of $450 from Video Blocks which will throw the total all the way up to $4500  ;D
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: videostocker on February 26, 2016, 10:31
No problem sharing revenue,

ccbcc it's right, about 1500$ in one year.

As soon as I start to earn more than $150000 I will stop sharing revenue :D.



Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: ccbcc on February 27, 2016, 13:48
 ;D
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: aetb on March 18, 2016, 16:08
I would say... keep clean .csv files of your meta data and when you get 1000 files, you can upload everything at once on other agencies. Then do it again when getting to 2000 files + uploading the 2000 files on new agencies that worth it. Etc.
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: Roy Howell on May 29, 2016, 11:02
Hello.....I am actually a 'customer' in need of advice. I am a composer in need of footage for some of my songs. (I've done 9 scores for the Discovery Channel, etc.).....I use Sony Vegas Pro to create the few personal vids I've done for my music, but I need to buy some excellent footage for some of my instrumentals.
My main question to you pros is this. What is the general LENGTH of the videos these companies offer in their 'plan' for consumers, and also, which companies do you guys consider the best, in terms of variety and the amount of vids they offer?
I noticed one of the companies offer a $99 'plan', but they're very candid about what you actually get for that.....thanks SO much for any advice.....I am 'Roy Howell' on Facebook and 'The Roy Howells' is my music page.....................thanks, Roy
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: thepokergod on May 29, 2016, 21:35
Hello.....I am actually a 'customer' in need of advice. I am a composer in need of footage for some of my songs. (I've done 9 scores for the Discovery Channel, etc.).....I use Sony Vegas Pro to create the few personal vids I've done for my music, but I need to buy some excellent footage for some of my instrumentals.
My main question to you pros is this. What is the general LENGTH of the videos these companies offer in their 'plan' for consumers, and also, which companies do you guys consider the best, in terms of variety and the amount of vids they offer?
I noticed one of the companies offer a $99 'plan', but they're very candid about what you actually get for that.....thanks SO much for any advice.....I am 'Roy Howell' on Facebook and 'The Roy Howells' is my music page.....................thanks, Roy

Hi Roy.

Sounds like you do some awesome work! As a creator of footage I'd have to recommend Pond5 since they have the most generous split with content providers, 50/50. General stock footage clips are between 10 - 30 seconds long, on Pond5 you can actually filter by clip duration if you're looking for clips of a specific length.

Good luck and happy shopping!
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: Roy Howell on June 01, 2016, 11:15
thepokergod.......Thanks SO much for the info....I will definitely check out Pond5.....best of luck in all your endeavors..... ;)      -Roy
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: AlexRvan on June 02, 2016, 11:44
Is there a way to upload editable After Effects templates to Shutterstock? I've seen a few templates and animated icons but I'm wondering how does one edit a .mov? Or is it another codec/filetype?
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: increasingdifficulty on June 02, 2016, 11:50
Not as far as I know.

They should though, since AE templates sell much, much times more than non-editable footage. Takes a lot longer to make too of course...
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: arapix on July 27, 2016, 10:55
Hello,
Many thanks for sharing your experience.
I have a question , why didn't you try videohive ?
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: lopezbert on September 06, 2017, 11:48
hi videostocker.
just a question. you have experience in selling on various sites. just want to know. have u sold the same image on various stock sites. is it ok to do so.
need your feedback
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: dpimborough on September 06, 2017, 14:39
hi videostocker.
just a question. you have experience in selling on various sites. just want to know. have u sold the same image on various stock sites. is it ok to do so.
need your feedback

This thread is over a year old you know :)
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: Sean Locke Photography on September 06, 2017, 15:01
hi videostocker.
just a question. you have experience in selling on various sites. just want to know. have u sold the same image on various stock sites. is it ok to do so.
need your feedback


http://stockphotoadviser.com/exclusive-or-non-exclusive/ (http://stockphotoadviser.com/exclusive-or-non-exclusive/)
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: LHMedia on January 07, 2019, 18:06
This is quite an old thread, but I am just curious, @Videostocker how are you doing now? Are you still in Stock Footage business? Have your portfolio increased? What about your earnings, do you have new stats? I feel, that this topic is still missing on microstock and would be interesting to see how the market changed since your last post.

Thank you and have a great time!
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: silveandalu on January 09, 2019, 13:15
This is quite an old thread, but I am just curious, @Videostocker how are you doing now? Are you still in Stock Footage business? Have your portfolio increased? What about your earnings, do you have new stats? I feel, that this topic is still missing on microstock and would be interesting to see how the market changed since your last post.

Thank you and have a great time!

Yes, would be nice to know how it goes now ;)
Title: Re: My experience after 1 year selling stock footage
Post by: NicolasKristen on January 29, 2019, 02:10
That sounds nice. And shutterstock and pon5 are convenient according to my experiences.

I've started uploading on Envato. It is good so far. But I recently got the invitation of 100Wa from my private message in Envato. 100wa said they could offer me earnings in advance. It is attractive and I don't have to wait for a long time to get my income. But I am not sure whether I should try that. Cuz I haven't heard of 100Wa before. But it interests me when I was told they do Asian especially Chinese Market which is huge and potential.

Did anyone work with Envato or 100Wa? Their address https://envato.com/  https://100wa.com/en/
How do you think 100Wa's offer?