Royalty-Free Stock Video Footage and Stock Photos

Make money selling royalty free stock video footage

camera sony pd-170

Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new material

Microstock as an industry is maturing and prolific and highly talented people are rising to the forefront and making significantly large amounts of money, the amateur shooter is being left behind, or the new hobbyist shooter just joining microstock today doesn't see the process of selling their footage clips as a business, it's almost a vanity publishing hobby.

This is leaving a large amount of money on the table that the amateur shooter should be pocketing.

Video footage can be any sort of video clip that you may have taken yourself and that you own the copyright to. Since the price of video cameras has come down and most are digital now, having or getting video clips is relatively easy.

If you like filming random things, or if you have a series of random clips, you may want to consider selling your video clips or footage to one or more of the different companies online that offer video footage for sale.

If you’re just getting started selling ‘royalty-free’ stock footage and you’d like to know where to upload your content.

Just as you can make money selling your photographs to places like Shutterstock or similar sites, you can also sell your video footage.

Which content are the best sellings

Clips that are time lapse, people, nature, sport like soccer or foottball, business concept and industry oriented sell the best. Gather any video clips that you would like to sell to others. Make sure these are clips you have taken yourself and that you own the copyright to.

Earning

Make a list of the different websites that allow videographers to upload their footage and sell it. Examples include ecofootage.com, istockphoto.com, stockxpert.com and shuttershock.com.

Look for websites that have a nonexclusive agreement, which means you can sell your video footage at other websites as well. This makes it possible for you to make more money since you are not tied to just one website. Also, look for websites that offer at least a 40 percent royalty on every sale of your video footage.

Withdraw

All producers must have a PayPal or MoneyBookers account. This is how you will receive your royalty payments. Go to www.paypal.com or www.moneybookers.com to sign up! It's free!

How to build stock footage

Marketers, advertisers, corporations and entertainment companies are always looking for quality stock footage to fill in production gaps. Before you begin shooting, find out what the competition is already offering in the way of stock footage.

Instructions:

1.Make a list of subjects you can shoot. Take a look around you. Note what specific subjects you have access to. Focus on the subjects that have broad appeal.

2.Shoot the stock footage. Practice professional lighting, exposure, focus, camera control and proper equipment use. Use a high-definition camera to maximize compatibility with stock footage distributors.

3.Get model and property releases from any subjects you shoot depicting individuals or private property. This backs you up legally and will allow you to sell the stock footage without having to pay royalties. Crowds and public spaces are an exception to this rule.

4.Tag the stock footage. As you review the stock footage you shot, think of all the ways in which consumers would search for your footage. Whatever is depicted in the stock footage should become a tag. Also generate tags describing the dominant colors, light levels, moods and other attributes of the stock footage. Include technical details such as definition and camera used.

5.Archive and back up your growing stock footage library on hard disk and removable data storage devices.

Best agencies to sell stock video footage

If you’re just getting started selling ‘royalty-free’ stock footage and you’d like to know where to upload your content, here are my top picks!

Shutterstock

New York City, New York, USA

Payout: 26.5% to 30% of product price. Agency sets product price.
Products for sale: Footage (available for sale in original res. and smaller web sizes), Photos, Vector graphics.

Another NYC based agency, Shutterstock has always brought in the sales. There are some frustrations with SS – they reject a lot of my content – but overall I like this place. They’re definitely one to include in the mix. Though they usually come in third for me each month (in terms of dollars in the door), I’m placing them second because they’re easier to deal with than #3!

PROS: Good looking site with high quality footage content. Helpful community. Easy upload and keywording process.

CONS: Low commission rates. FTP performance is varied. Various bugs and glitches in the site’s code can be tedious ie. when keywording file descriptions that use “quotation marks”, you get weird extra characters that are generated – which then have to be erased

Pond5

New York City, New York, USA

Payout: 50% of product price. Artist sets product price. No upper price limit.
Products for sale: Footage, Audio FX and Music.

Pond5 consistently pulls in the sales and with a 50% commission rate they’ve almost always been my top monthly earner. In fact, since I started selling stock footage back in June 2008, P5 has been no.1 for 20 out of 24 months!
Pond5 is unique in that it has no upper pricing limit – so if you have specialized footage that you think is worth a couple of grand, you can sell it here.

PROS: Great payout rate at 50%. No upper pricing limit. Helpful community. Easy upload and keywording process. Fast (within a week) file approval. FTP always works.
CONS: Unlike istock and shutterstock, Pond5 does not automatically scale HD and SD footage down to smaller web sizes, which can mean lost sales. Also the maximum allowable amount of keywords for each clip on Pond5 is 25 words – which for some clips, can be on the lean side.

iStockphoto

Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (owned by media giant – Getty

Comission rates for non-exclusive contributors in 2010 at istock were between 15% and 20% based on number of sales. Rates for exclusive contributors in 2010 were between 25% and 45%. See schedule here: http://www.istockphoto.com/rate_schedule.php

Products for sale: Footage (available for sale in original res. and smaller web sizes), Sound FX, Music, Photographs, Vector graphics.The wait time to get footage approved at istock is the longest in the biz – currently at about 5 weeks.

iStockphoto also has the most complicated uploading process, and though it was developed to better organize content on istock’s servers, its not doing any favours for submitters – especially to those starting out.

Despite the frustrations of working with this site and the relatively low percentage payout (vs. Pond5′s 50%), istock spends more money on marketing than anyone else. This means more buyers see your work, which translates into more sales.

PROS: istock is a beautiful looking site. It also comes with some very clever features that help buyers find what they want. (ie. Buyers can search based on colour or textspace requirements. As well there’s the ‘BestMatch’ keyword search system that allows buyers to give more relevancy to certain keywords in their searches). Thanks to Getty’s involvement (who own the site) there are also serious marketing dollars pushing istock, so you get lots of eyeballs on your work.
CONS: Low commission rates. Longest wait in the industry to get content approved (As of this writing, it takes 5 weeks to get work approved). Time-consuming to upload and keyword.

Technical glitches – ie. at the time of this writing FTP and thumbnail generation is not working. Non-exclusives* are limited to uploading 20 video files a week.