Pond 5 Top Ten Sales | Stock footage examples of sold clips | WHAT I'VE LEARNT 

Great advice, thank you James! What type of clips have sold the most for you?

@@agreatalternative Honestly, I fell into the establishing shot niche, quite by accident. But those can net me up to $300 per sale. I even wrote a book about it on Amazon.

That’s made my day seeing that, cheers Joel 👍 So if you had one piece of advice for a new stock video creator, what would it be? That’s the dream and main reason why we put video on stock sites, so that in ten years time money is still appearing in our bank account. Aiming to live off grid having many passive income streams is an aim of mine, I’m looking into creating courses with local crafters, just not sure what yet 😁

@@agreatalternative There are lots of useful tips, but I would say that if I gave only one it would be to always keep stock footage clips in mind when you go anywhere. I usually always have my video camera and tripod with me with when I drive somewhere. With today's smart phone technology, you don't even need a camera for great 4K shots. But notice your surroundings and what might be a cool shot. To follow up on my previous post, I was on my way back from camping in Wyoming back in 2010. Instead of taking the main highway across South Dakota I took a different route to get to Pierre, the state capitol. At the time, there were no shots of the capitol on Pond5. After uploading them, I didn't sell any shots of the capitol until 2013. Then I sold it for the first time. That's three years after I uploaded it. Soon after, I saw a national news story on TV and saw my clip being used as a b-roll shot. A-ha! So that's who bought it. Since then, I've sold it four more times but it has been a while since the last purchase. And looking at Pond5 now, I see a number of other shots of the capitol that are 4K and include drone shots. So, I really don't expect more sales of that one, but you never know. It takes time but you never know what someone will buy. The main thing for new creators to remember is, once it's up on the site, your job is done. Enjoy the profits of your work while you add more content.

@@joelpackman Great tips thanks Joel! That’s one thing that (I understand why not) but would be great is if you could see where your clips have been used. Most of mine have been sold for the lowest licence but there is one that I know has been used for TV so I’m itching to find out where 😁

Thank you for your insight, you raise a good point! I think most creators don’t suggest timelapse any more as it’s over done but in reality by it’s very nature timelapse takes time to produce so it’s a type of shot that your standard creator won’t shoot. Therefore good for stock! Plus my favourite thing about timelapse is it means you can go find a nice shot then sit (ideally with a coffee and some cake) while it does it’s thing 😁

hello, excuse me, how much memory is needed to shoot timelaps?

That totally depends on how many photos you take and the file size of your photos. On average I take around 400-600 photos for one timelapse with each image being about 28mb

@@agreatalternative thank you very much!

I did deliberately frame out most of it so as not to see our dirty washing and general clutter so you’re forgiven 😁👍 What kinda van are you in? How do you deal with working online, especially where videos are concerned? (I’m constantly pulling my hair out over upload speed)

Thanks Rich, I totally agree! If you get chance to shoot stock just for the fun as well you can tryout abstract ideas that maybe you couldn’t on a regular paid gig!

Cheers! Good luck with the uploads, don’t get deterred if you don’t sell any for a while 👊

Great idea! Whatever the case I’m sure you’ll be surprised! Good luck!! 👍

My pleasure, I’m glad you found it useful!! 😊

Thanks Amy 😊 Gotta challenge yourself right!? Otherwise you’d get bored with the repetitivenesses, be creating is meant to be fun!

@@agreatalternative yes and you have to love being creative or you're going to hate doing stock footage, lol!

@@RedMoonRising24 That’s one of my favourite things about shootings stock - no client, just me 😁

I’m sure there wouldn’t be anything like your glassware on any stock site! Oooo the possibilities!! 😁

No worries, really happy it helped 😊

I think that’s a great point; Good titles, good keywords, diversity and quantity! Good luck with it 👍

@@agreatalternative can you put locations in your key words?

@@consciouscoma85 You can yes, I’ve done that with some of my stuff, including my top selling clips which is of a specific touristy spot.

🥳 Hello 🥳 Does daddy know you’re using his channel?

@@agreatalternative I do 😂

Thanks for the comment, that’s made my day 👊 What topic would you like me to cover?

Yeah that’s a good point! What an idea!!! 🤩 Recreations!! You could do famous films (like shot for shot remake) which would also work if it was deliberately rubbish too 😁 Or how about famous real life events? I bet it would be a load of fun to film as well! Thank you 👍

Cheers 👍

Honestly hadn’t thought about it, could be a good shout!! I’ve uploaded a few 5-7k timelapses before but haven’t noticed any increased sales because of it but haven’t attempted RAW or pro res. It’s a good idea as an editor may want the option to totally grade the clips themselves! The only reason why I’d do H264 is due ti my computer speed and ease of editing for my regular projects. So if it was a shoot done just for stock then RAW, whereas if it’s a standard RU-vid vid that I may get a few clips out of but want to be able to edit quickly then H264.

@@agreatalternative You could try to shoot with no intention of using post in any way. Have the camera pre muted and just upload the unaltered clips. Pro Res is uncompressed, and favored wildly for post production because of this. H.264 is (supposedly) more work on your PC/Mac while in post because of the compression. The possibilities for what can be done to the footage in post with Pro Res are in a diff. ball park from H.264 as well.

@@CatEqualsYes That’s certainly opened my eyes to a new way of doing it! I’ll try that thanks 👍

Good questions! The mall escalator = Yes, I was there getting a few timelapses as part of a paid project so got permission from the internal team. Although when it came to filming they only wanted to know what time I was going to be there to let security know, I was given free reign to go shoot whatever and they didn’t ask to see what I’d shot. The historic sites = No. I cover what I found on the police website about what’s allowed on one of my other videos “making money from historic sites”. Overall I think it was ok as it’s a public location, especially if you’re not filming from land that isn’t owned by the location.

@@agreatalternative Can you typically have the right to sell the footage that you've shot for a paid client's project? thx!

@@James_m7 Good question. Totally depends on what’s been agreed upon with the client. To be totally safe you should have a contract to prove this but I’ve also done it as a voiced agreement between myself and my client. Also generally the shot I use wouldn’t be specific to them, like employees/ their buildings to make it less likely for them to change their mind at a later date but also that’s dependent on the project.

Cheers Hafiz 👍 I let Pond5 set the price because my guess is that it’s more likely to sell. Plus I’m not sure if when you set your own price it means the clip won’t be included in bulk subscription options. That said I haven’t tried both ways yet so you could try it for a couple months (half set by you/ half set by pond5) and see what works?

@@agreatalternative Thanks for a speedy reply ! and thanks for the sharing. My portfolio is still small on Pond5 and I start with stock photo. Then I realised that Stock Photo is not worth the effort now and now I'm focusing on the footage. Will try to set to Auto-pricing and see how it goes.

@@hafizmustapha4391 I think that’s a wise move, good luck with it 👊

No worries, really glad it helped! I export in H.264 not ProRes 422. To increase quality within the file I tend to do a 2 Pass with a bit rate of 70 - 100. That makes the files sizes big but not massive. This is also for the 4K footage that is recorded in a high bit rate, over 100mbs so I’m not falsely raising the quality.

@@agreatalternative Hey, Thanks for the reply. I painfully uploaded 55 clips lol. Now I'm going to upload in H.264 instead. Thanks and Hi from Jakarta Indonesia

Don’t re-upload that’s a waste of time!! 😁 I don’t think it really matters too much as long as you’re trying to give the best results while at the same time making it manageable for you. Good luck!! 👍 Hello from Wales, UK 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 🇬🇧😊

@@agreatalternative No sir, H. 264 it's for future uploads. Thank you, 😊

I use dropstock.io It’s a site that’s free to sign up and has a keyword tool that’ll show you what’s popular 👍 Pond 5 allows 50 tags per clip and it’s probably a good idea to use them all if you can. Plus a specific title is good, rather than a super generic one like “New York aerial at dusk”

@@agreatalternative thank you for these tips. Much appreciated 🫡

Hi Gabriela, That’s a really good point, I hadn’t thought about the monetisation of this video as the main purpose of these clips was for stock. I didn’t seek permission for the historical/ tourist sites. If you check out my video about filming in historical sites I show what the police guidelines are for this but overall I’ve found it to be a really tricky grey area as depending on who you ask there can be a different response.

@@agreatalternative Very grey, in particular about stock footage the platforms will most often ask you for license in order to upload your content on their platforms. That's why I was wondering how you did it.

@@G_Channel_G Right I see. Pond 5 haven’t asked and to be totally honest the way they choose commercial or not doesn’t seem to make sense, overall it seems to come down to if there is branding in a shot. In regards to historical sites again I think it seems to depend on who is checking the clips as some of mine are and some aren’t and I can’t totally figure out why. Sorry if that’s not too much help!

@@agreatalternative Thanks for sharing your experience. Sometimes one can have the whole creativity and equipment, but stressful obstacles like that which make it complicated may discourage people. Nothing is easy... I'm watching your video now for the historical sites, thanks for making it!

@@G_Channel_G My pleasure, it’s for (hopefully) the help I can be to awesome people like you that is one of the main reasons I do it……. along with taking a wander to go shoot timelapses cos that’s just fun 😁 My general view is to cover a load of different areas just in case one doesn’t work out. So for example Pond5 is just one of many ways to make money out of the original filming, plus even then I don’t just shoot buildings. It’s all about variety! Good luck with your filming!!

I think you may need quite a lot more on there but the first 1000 is a great start! I’m not sure how images relate to video so please keep me updated. Yes feel free to share links in the comments 👍 I did know Shutterstock acquired Pond5, in fact I made a video about it 😁

Images don't seem worth the time.

@@sk810av I suppose it could be quicker to shoot a lot more, but then you have to sell so many I think you’re right, is it really worth it!

Mostly between 8-12 seconds. Whenever I do a Timelapse I try to take at least 300 images as sometimes you have to trim one end of if for example the weather gets worse.