Make Money Selling Stock Footage

Can I make money selling stock footage? Yes but before you get to excited there is a lot to consider. I have written this article to help streamline your induction to the stock footage community.

The easiest way to make money selling stock footage is to get someone else to sell it for you. Sure the stock footage agencies you contribute to take a large percentage of your royalties, but you are responsibility free. All you need to do is sit back and watch the money roll in…unless you want to make even more money in which case you should get busy making more stock footage.

Should I register to sell my stock footage with one or many agencies? Some stock footage agencies offer higher royalty rates if you contribute to them exclusively. Personally I think you’re better off contributing to a few agencies. Which stock footage agencies are the best? From my experience iStockphoto. Pond5. Shutterstock. Clipcanvas and Revostock are by far the most lucrative. Other agencies I have contributed to include ClipDealer. Fotolia. CanStockPhoto and Motiondrops. Why not contribute to every stock footage agency I find? You have to decide whether your time is better spent uploading and tagging videos or producing more content.

Which stock footage sells best? The best way to see what sells is to do some research. I like to do my research at iStockphoto since they allow you to see roughly how many times each video has been downloaded. For example if I do a search on iStockphoto for clown. only 100 videos are available and the most popular one has only been downloaded >30 times in over 4 years. You can interpret this in two ways; people aren’t interested in purchasing footage of clowns or they didn’t like any of the footage on offer. At the top of your search results you can select Sort by Downloads to see which footage has had the most downloads. Scroll to the bottom of your search results and click on Display Settings. under File Details select Downloads to see how many times each video has been downloaded directly in your search results. iStockphoto Trends is a helpful page that lists the best selling videos, don’t forget to select Video from the drop down menu to see the statistics for stock footage.

If you see something that sells well and you think you can do it better or present it in a new light go for it. Alternatively you can try and find a hole in the market and fill it.

Produce your stock footage at Full HD 1920×1080 using progressive frames rather than interlaced. Also keep in mind that Quad Full HD 3840×2160 will most likely be the standard within a few years. Stereo 3D stock footage is now available at some agencies but I don’t forsee it taking a big piece of the market until their is a larger adoption and use of 3D televisions. Some agencies to consider contributing stereo 3D stock footage to include Artbeats (must be exclusive), Stereobank and Pond5 .

Give your stock footage as much exposure as possible. Logicaly the more people who see your stock footage the more sales you’re likely to get. Uploading to Youtube and Vimeo with links to where your stock footage can be purchased is a great start. Keep in mind you can only use Vimeo for business or commercial purposes with the purchase of a Vimeo PRO account.

Having my stock footage on Youtube and Vimeo has also landed me some freelance work from international clients on projects like The Darkest Hour film and the Maritime Xperiential Museum Typhoon Theatre ride on Sentosa Island in Singapore.