Hi,

When you are talking about "marketing" your own business/footage, that is entirely different from what you are currently doing.

Right now - essentially you are helping to build other businesses (the microstock agencies) - and giving them more value when you submit. They have more stock, therefore more valueable, therefore people prefer 'shopping' there. (I.e., would you prefer to shop at walmart, or a lemonade stand in the middle of no where that only sold one product?) (It's incidentally in marketing called the network effect too. The more users on the site, the more valuable an asset it becomes, and the more users it gets. I.e., It takes money to make money).

Yes - you get a little bit in return in form of commissions for helping them build their business. But you don't have any control over your customers, (really) your rates, what to do about rejected footage, etc, etc.

While I think you can & should definitely continue submitting to the stock agencies, because (I am assuming) you are making some money from that...

If you want to market your own footage (something I have been considering as I understand this business more) - you need to do this.

a) Obviously build a website, shopping cart, nice easy to use layout, etc.
b) Learn about marketing. I.e., customer lists, reselling, cross-sells, upsells, 'featured' content, etc. (Essentially what the microstock agencies are doing. I'm not talking about SEO - I am actually talking about copywriting - the abilty to write persuasive copy, + market research, market segmentation, etc, etc).
c) Then - you apply all that, and you make sales. Of course - still do the SEO - so you can get the marginal sales. But learn marketing.

If you want to market yourself/your own business - I suggest you focus on a very specific niche.

I.e., if you try and be broad (1 picture of a cat, 1 of a wedding, etc) - it will be difficult to be successful - because you are too broad and in essence competing with the microstock agencies. But - if you become an "expert" say specially on cats, and have 1000 pictures of cats in different poses, playing with different balls of string - then it becomes much easier - because you are the 'go-to' guy for cats.

Hope that helps. What is your website currently? And what type of footage do you focus on?

Here is what I have never understood reading people talking about marketing in relation to the agencies. Why would you fight in their arena using the same tools they use? It is self defeating. They use their millions to dominate the traditional advertising spaces.

If it was me, I would look for those arenas that the agencies do not use or don't use effectively. If I provide niche or unique content, who is my target audience? Do they all only use the big agencies? I doubt it. Having been a photo buyer at many companies, the vast majority had no idea how to source images (or footage) or could even name more than one (maybe 2) agencies.

For footage, again, who uses it? I would think those who have the skills who can place/edit/build content. Which is not usually the end user, but those companies who provide that service, like web design companies or contractors. They have their own forums, sites, resources... That's where I would go.

When I was self employed, I direct-marketed my photo services (not stock) to designers and other creatives who had a use for them within a very specific industry that I provided niche content for (anyone who has read me over the years knows my niche). They were a good audience and I could tailor shoots directed towards their needs.

Simply putting up a website and battling for SEO space on social media, I don't think it would be terribly successful even with top notch content. If I had to do it again, I would likely partner with a marketing expert and split with them, rather than work for a tiny commission.

Hope that helps. What is your website currently? And what type of footage do you focus on?

SuperPhoto thanks for taking the time to respond. Solid stuff. I don't think I can compete with the big stock companies though...the best I can do is try to bring attention to my few items on their shelves.

Your logic is solid though. I agree in principle, just not sure I have the resources in practice.

My site is www.lathepoland.com and I have an array of content topics. This is in part because I get bored with same topic after awhile, and secondly I think of myself as being in the "hook" business. Lots of fish out there maybe they will like one of my hooks.

Having been a photo buyer at many companies, the vast majority had no idea how to source images (or footage) or could even name more than one (maybe 2) agencies.

Farbled...That is an interesting point. I guess I need to figure out how to get infront of more of those people.

Question.

If you were a buyer - would you prefer to see a regular 4k, but 'watermarked' clip? Or - would a downsampled (i.e., 480p or 360p) with no watermark be okay? I decided to put up a youtube channel - but have gotten very minimal traction over several months for about 100 clips. (I.e., I think '20' visits to my videos)...

I�ve been a commercial editor for almost a decade and have just gotten into producing stock footage over the last year and a half or so. My take on this might be a bit different as I�ve usually been the buyer rather than seller.

I found myself often just googling the stock footage clip I needed rather than going to one site over another. Most of the time this would lead me to YouTube. Some contributors and agencies seem to list Footage there. I would either then go back to the agency or a contributors site to buy it.

Seems like YouTube kind of creates a more level playing field, as an ad at the start of the video would often play for a Stock Footage agency ( I assume since I was using �stock footage� as a keyword in google) but the YouTube video of the subject itself that best fit what I was looking for would be from any normal stock contributor or producer. So the mega ad buys from the agencies seem to miss the target and google just finds whatever clip matches best.

All of that is to say it might be worth trying to list some watermarked clips on YouTube that link back to your site or portfolio.

Is that how you are using it Tyson?


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I actually just tried this again and realize I may have spoken too soon. Shutterstock and Pond5�s videos now appear on the �videos� tab on google search. That used to just show YouTube videos. Not sure when that changed.


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