Author Topic: 422 videos made me only 99$ on shutterstock (Read 7006 times)

lor4nt · « **on:** May 01, 2017, 12:21 »

Hello guys, I am new on shutterstock.

I am constantly uploading videos on shutterstock and after 6 months I've made only 99$ bucks.

If I may ask what's your range of earnings and how big is your library?

How long should I wait to see consistent earnings?

Many thanks in advance everyone.

LDV81 · « **Reply #1 on:** May 01, 2017, 12:36 »

It's more important what kind of videos you upload than how many.
You can upload a gazillion of videos and not see a dime.

How big are other people's portfolios, is irrelevant, because they have different clips, different subject matter, different positions in the search results than you do.
If you want to increase your earnings, you should upload the kind of clips that the agency's customers need and not compare the size of your portfolio with other people.

If I say, I make $xxx per month with xxx videos, how can it help you? Many people make more, and many make less.

lor4nt · « **Reply #2 on:** May 01, 2017, 12:42 »

thank you for your reply.

I am always putting nice content, so I am aware that quality is much better than quantity, but I wanted to know roughly if one day is it possibile to kinda make a living out of this or is it always going to be an extra ?

LDV81 · « **Reply #3 on:** May 01, 2017, 12:48 »

Quote from: lor4nt on May 01, 2017, 12:42

thank you for your reply.

I wanted to know roughly if one day is it possibile to kinda make a living out of this or is it always going to be an extra ?

It is "kinda possible". Some people can make a living, if they are very good. Most, however, cannot and it will only get more and more difficult, because the market is saturating rapidly. My advice is: don't quit your day job to shoot stock.

Quote from: lor4nt on May 01, 2017, 12:42

I am always putting nice content

"Nice" is relative. What matters more, is this content useful to the customers, how much competition you have in that subject matter and how good your competitors are.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #4 on:** May 01, 2017, 14:13 »

Quote from: lor4nt on May 01, 2017, 12:42

thank you for your reply.

I am always putting nice content, so I am aware that quality is much better than quantity, but I wanted to know roughly if one day is it possibile to kinda make a living out of this or is it always going to be an extra ?

Your average sounds quite low. Hard to say anything else without seeing your portfolio. As LDV81 said, "Nice" doesn't really mean anything...

It's absolutely possible to make a living with stock footage, a good living. A year of uploading very consistently is probably required though. A good business sense (where to upload, when, what, SEO, pricing, formats, etc.) is extremely important however.

I see many people just throwing stuff at the sites without much thought about keywording, descriptions, color correction, stabilizing etc. and they can have 10,000 clips with low sales...

A portfolio of 1000+ clips that are all beautifully filmed with high commercial value can earn a living with a bit of luck.

pkphotos · « **Reply #5 on:** May 01, 2017, 15:37 »

It's about having the type of content that sells. 400 well shot nature clips may get no sales whereas 40 averagely shot clips of an in demand subject which nobody else has shot may make you consistent sales. Over supply is here so the only way to make a few dollars in this game today is to set the bar very high and think outside the box a little. That means being original and finding niches. Copycats and those shooting obvious well covered subjects won't have much success other than continuing to over supply an already over supplied market.

miR156 · « **Reply #6 on:** May 01, 2017, 17:21 »

I started uploading video clips about half a year ago but only managed to make a dozen files online. So far shutterstock made me only 4 sales, 230USD total. FT made me 11 sales, 350usd total. Pond5 1 sale, 35usd. Return per file was definitely better than stills, but my sample pool is too small to tell anything statistically meaningful.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #7 on:** May 01, 2017, 18:24 »

Quote from: miR156 on May 01, 2017, 17:21

I started uploading video clips about half a year ago but only managed to make a dozen files online. So far shutterstock made me only 4 sales, 230USD total. FT made me 11 sales, 350usd total. Pond5 1 sale, 35usd. Return per file was definitely better than stills, but my sample pool is too small to tell anything statistically meaningful.

You have a very small portfolio, but what you have looks very nice! You need to come up to 200+ to get any meaningful data. Right now your average is quite good. If you keep up the quality you could be making $5k/month from 1,000 clips.

I currently get a little over $2 per clip monthly, which isn't too bad I suppose. But it does take quite a while to make and upload 1,000 clips...

miR156 · « **Reply #8 on:** May 01, 2017, 19:04 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 01, 2017, 18:24

Quote from: miR156 on May 01, 2017, 17:21
I started uploading video clips about half a year ago but only managed to make a dozen files online. So far shutterstock made me only 4 sales, 230USD total. FT made me 11 sales, 350usd total. Pond5 1 sale, 35usd. Return per file was definitely better than stills, but my sample pool is too small to tell anything statistically meaningful.

You have a very small portfolio, but what you have looks very nice! You need to come up to 200+ to get any meaningful data. Right now your average is quite good. If you keep up the quality you could be making $5k/month from 1,000 clips.

I currently get a little over $2 per clip monthly, which isn't too bad I suppose. But it does take quite a while to make and upload 1,000 clips...

For me probably it was just a spur of luck. I don't expect the return per file to last. Anyway, I will be trying some more clips when I get free time later this year.

lor4nt · « **Reply #9 on:** May 02, 2017, 03:12 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 01, 2017, 14:13

A year of uploading very consistently is probably required though. A good business sense (where to upload, when, what, SEO, pricing, formats, etc.) is extremely important however.

A portfolio of 1000+ clips that are all beautifully filmed with high commercial value can earn a living with a bit of luck.

My next question is how much consistent do I need to be on uploading videos to my library ?

Better to upload one batch at a time weekly or after a shoot post everything in one go?

Many thanks for your tips guys

LouisPhotos · « **Reply #10 on:** May 09, 2017, 06:49 »

lor4nt can I see your portfolio ? do you have a link. I just want to start selling video clip too.

angelawaye · « **Reply #11 on:** May 09, 2017, 09:42 »

I use to do weekly "dribbles" with lots of different content from different shoots. However, micro is coming to its end so it doesn't make much sense to upload anymore. The garbage and spam is clogging up everything.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #12 on:** May 09, 2017, 21:51 »

If I had 422 videos on Shutterstock, then I'd probably have made about $4680 in 6 months*. Although one thing to note... I'd have probably made about $21K in total from Shutterstock and other sites combined, so it's definitely worth getting your stuff on some other sites. Pond 5, Fotolia and VideoBlocks would be a good start.

*I have 93 clips and I've made $739 this year, so I'm extrapolating.

KB · « **Reply #13 on:** February 04, 2021, 23:02 »

I see -- this thread was necro'd. And here I was, going to post something like:

You think that's bad? I have 1000 videos, and made < $2 in January!

Uncle Pete · « **Reply #14 on:** February 05, 2021, 11:18 »

Quote from: KB on February 04, 2021, 23:02

I see -- this thread was necro'd. And here I was, going to post something like:

You think that's bad? I have 1000 videos, and made < $2 in January!

What's even worse than that, is in 2017 things were better! Since then there have been cuts and then more cuts.

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Author Topic: 422 videos made me only 99$ on shutterstock (Read 7006 times)

lor4nt

LDV81

lor4nt

LDV81

increasingdifficulty

pkphotos

miR156

increasingdifficulty

miR156

lor4nt

LouisPhotos

angelawaye

SpaceStockFootage

KB

Uncle Pete

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