Selling Stock Video Footage.

[Steven Digges]

Key Word Help:

I have searched like crazy and can't find these answers.

1. Do you only put one word in a space or do you use multiple words for some singular counts?

2. If you use two words as one term do you also put those two words in separately? Ie; "scenic drive" as one and then "scenic" and "drive" separately. Is this even something that will help? I find the biggest difficulty with keywords is you can only use any word about 3 times before they delete it anyway.

3. If you do use multiple words as one do you put spaces in or write it all as one word? Pond5 does not answer these questions. I have that question because they do it that way themselves. For example they suggest you use something similar to "citizenjournalistcurrentnews" as a keyword so they find your current events.

My Updates:
I never talk money, ever. But so far this is still small potatoes I'm dabbling in so I will through some round info out there to let you guys know how I am doing just having fun with this. I find everything Doug has said is true. I am doing it my own way but based on his video information.

I dumped Shutterstock and went exclusive with Pond5. I had no sales at Shutterstock, even on clips that sold on Pond5. When I shoot I cover a lot. I try to create shots that give an editor choices. I started getting regular rejections from Shutterstock for "similar content". If I submitted 10 different shots of something they would accept 3 and reject 7. On one hand this makes sense but Pond5 accepts all 10 and sometimes they sell. I think Shutterstock is taking internal steps to manage submissions based on the massive amounts of data theses agencies deal with (just my thought). Rejections are time consuming. On one batch of 10 clips Shutterstock rejected them all. I got it, they weren't my best shots. But I have since made over $200.00 off those clips on Pond5 because all ten were accepted.

Pond5 makes it easy and I am lazy. That is probably a mistake but submitting to just one agency is clean and easy. I also get paid better on Pond5 being exclusive and a small fish contributor. They are not holding my enrings over my head for better pay rates. I like getting 60%.

I only have 250 clips on Pond5. They have gone up very intermittently over a period of years. The quality varies widely. Garbage does not sell, I am much more careful now.

My total sales for 250 clips is around $2,500.00
BUT...before you say wow, one clip has sold 12 times (even extra licensing) for $828.00
My next best sold 6 times for $414.00
The rest is made up from other clips here and there. Just like Doug says, once it sells once a clip is likely to sell again or other ones like it.

Anyway this is fun. I do it when I can. It is like fishing and I am a fisherman. I put bait out there when I want to and once in a while I get an e-mail that says I made a few bucks. I can see how you could get out what you put in to it.

Also, Pond5 does not claim this is part of being exclusive....But...for me, my sales went up right after I did it. That has been reported by others guys on their forum too.

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Bob Safay]

Steven, I am feeling the same way. The last clip I sold on Shutterstock got me $2.00 US, and my last clip on Pond5 got me $32.50 US. Also, two weeks ago I submitted 9 clips to both Shutterstock and Pond5. Same clips. Pond5 accepted all of my clips, Shutterstock accepted 3 and rejected all the others because of "artifacts". Question, did you close your Shutterstock account so that you could go exclusive with Pond5? What about clips that already sold on Shutterstock, can you still consider them exclusive? I am seriously thinking of dropping Shutterstock. Like you I don't really need the income, just doing it for fun and yet I don't need the hassle of Shutterstock. Thanks, Bob

[Steven Digges]

Hi Bob,

I can not answer your questions with authority so check my response to best suit you.

I never sold a clip on shutterstock so it was easy for me to go exclusive with Pond5. In fairness I had been dabeling with Pond5 for several years. I was only on Shutterstock for about a year. If I was to get serious about stock, Shutterstock may be viable, I am just not willing to do it. For me, I think the exclusive set up at Pond5 is best.

My shutterstock clips are technically still there but not on the market or viewable. They have an option to put them in limbo before you totally delete your account. I will be deleting my Shutterstock account.

Kind Regards,

Steve

[Bob Safay]

Steve, thanks. I think I'll just keep the account open but not submit anymore clips. Bob

[Mark Williams]

Bob, I closed my Shutterstock account due to low pricing over a year ago. There was a huge contributor revolt there over pricing. I am still with Pond5 where I have a long relationship and recently added Adobe Stock.

[Doug Jensen]

It only makes sense to submit to as many agencies as you can. That's why having a good spreadsheet with all your metadata is so vital. I didn't have time to upload very many new clips last year, but nevertheless, 2020 was by best year ever at Shutterstock with an average of about $95/day. 2021 is off to a poor start and I'm averaging about 30% less. But heck, the work is already done, and $50 - $60 per day for doing absolutely nothing still comes in handy. I've got a back log of about 2500 4K clips that need metadata before I can submit them, but I will get to it when my schedule allows. I have certainly not given up on Shutterstock despite their recent changes for the worse. And submitting more clips to Adobe and Pond5 is also on my to do list. I know I am leaving money on the table every day that those two agencies don't have more of my portfolio. If only there was more time in the day.

[Brock Burwell]

I don't upload much footage and I hate the idea of going to many different websites to upload footage, so I have been using BlackBox. I know they take a percentage of the total, but I feel like it's worth it to me to only submit footage once.

I've sold several clips and am always surprised by how much I end up getting (even after they take their cut).

What are your thoughts on them?

[Doug Jensen]

Correct me if I am wrong, but that company takes 15% off the top of every sale, and you still have to do to all the painstaking metadata creation yourself, right?

If a consolidator makes sense for you, then that's what you should use. For me personally, here are my arguments against it.

1) I still have to all the work of editing, grading, and creating metadata, so there is no time savings there. BTW, I wouldn't want to farm out those critical steps to somebody else even if I could. Those steps is too important to leave in the hands of others. Metadata is just as important at the clip itself.

2) There are only three agencies worth submitting to, so if a consolidator is claiming to submit my footage to dozens of agencies I would say --- so what? I'm not about to give up a 15% commission at the big three just so I can pick up a few extra pennies at the small boutique agencies.

3) Why would I give up 15% across the board for every sale forever just to save a little time uploading. It's not like I stand there watching my clips upload. I start a batch uploading via FTP and come back later and they are ready to go. Then I do the same for the next agency. What's the big deal? If someone paid extra for data usage maybe that would be an argument for only having to upload once, but how many people pay for data at home?

4) My metadata for each clip is created/stored in a custom spreadsheet, so it just takes me a few minutes to create a modified CSV for each of the three agencies -- and then all the metadata is populated in a matter of seconds after uploading. Fast and painless.

5) I earn about $30K-$35K per year from stock. 15% of that amount would be $4500 - $5200 per year. PER YEAR for the life of my clips!!! For what benefit to me? Just to save a little time at the very begining FTPing clips -- which I am not sitting around watching anyway. FTP happens overnight or while I'm doing other things. Even if I earned far less, say maybe $2000 per year, I still wouldn't want to give up 15%.

6) I don't know what the situation is currently, but a few months ago there was a huge uproar on the Shutterstock forum when all the clips (from all individual contributors who use them) were removed from the site without notice. I don't want my eggs to be carried in the same basket with eggs from shady contributors who may not be submitting legal clips.

7) I prefer to be in 100% control of my assets and how they are managed.

In my opinion, consolidators prey on people who don't have much confidence that their footage is worth anything, or who simply don't want to be bothered with doing the necessary work. If the choice is between turning things over to a consolidator or not doing anything at all, then the consolidator suddenly looks appealing. But I think is a bad choice for anyone who has commercially viable footage and is willing to spend just a tiny bit more time on their workflow.

That's my 2 cents.

[Brock Burwell]

Good to know! Thanks for your input.

[Bob Safay]

Well its been awhile. How is everyone doing? So again I have been submitting clips to both Shutterstock and Pond5. As usual Shutterstock rejects 80% and Pond5 accepts 95%. Same excuse, noise/artifacts, similar content, out of focus. Let me say I shoot with a Canon XF705 on a Sachtler flowtech 75 tripod and a Sachtler head. I shoot in 4k using peaking and zebra stripping. I edit with DaVinci Resolve. I am over Shutterstock. I am not in this for the money, but Shutterstock has taken the fun out of it.

[Doug Jensen]

Bob, I'm sorry to hear that. I've been so busy with other things that I have barely submitted anything new to any of the stock agencies this year, so I can't tell you how my own acceptance rates compare. I'm now sitting on over 5000 graded and edited 4K clips that need to be submitted -- after I do the metadata -- so one of these days (probably next winter) I will be able to report how well they are accepted.

In the meantime, sales of my existing portfolio is holding pretty steady and I'm doing okay. Income is down about 30% from last year due to changes at Shutterstock, but I'm still averaging about $2K per month without submitting anything new for a long time.

I will say that if you are not in it for the money then it is probably best not to waste your time submitting anyway. Keep shooting for the fun of it, but why do through the drudgery of the metadata if you don't care about the money? If I didn't care about the money I would cease submitting this very minute -- but continue shooting for the fun of it.

I've been in Yellowstone shooting wildlife since last Monday and I have to say there are far fewer animals than in the past. Too many people and too many cars. I guess the animals have moved to the back country. The first two days we had snow and clouds, great weather. But mostly it has been bright blue skies, which don't make for nice images. But I've still got some "keepers" of bull elks bugling, bison crossing rivers, bald eagles, osprey, geese, ducks,coyotes, wolf, etc. No bears worth shooting, but I never expect to get any decent bear footage anyway. If it happens it happens, but not worth spending hours and hours waiting.

We move down to Jackson and the Grand Tetons tomorrow so hopefully I will have better success there with moose.

[Bob Safay]

Doug, be careful in the Tetons, I heard there are still a lot of investigators there. I do enjoy making money selling clips but my real pleasure was in knowing that someone in Tele Aviv liked my dragonfly clip over thousands of others enough to buy it, or that someone in New Zealand wanted my clip of two adult African Lions. That is a big kick for me. I love shooting video. I would be happy filming a brick as long as it was outdoors. So I will continue to travel and shoot video and submit to Pond5 and probably Shutterstock. After all, I am retired. Safe travels and hope to see you at Merrill's Inlet in early January. Bob

[Doug Jensen]

Bob, you're right. I agree that it is cool to know that someone chose one of our images over hundreds of other choices they were presented with. That validation is worth something beyond the income it brings.

I have had the idea more than once just to dump all of my footage into the public domain and let people have at it. Wouldn't that be a disruption for all the people who have similar content!

See you in Florida.

[Bob Safay]

Doug. I like your style!!! Safe travels, Bob