How to sell videos successfully?

Just getting started. Any tips for new users?
What's your experience with pond5?

I'd love to hear your stories and see your footage.

Thanks!

Doubt anyone will chime in. I am just checking these forums out and was trying to find out if Pond 5 is cool with me making a youtube video showing my dashboard and seen your question.. I love helping and will be making some pretty dope videos explaining how I do what I do. I started in this game 15 months ago, since that time I have right at 8000 assets on a crazy amount of platforms. Pond 5 is my absolute fav so yeah bro, I got you... don't run out and buy an expensive DSLR or SLR!!!! That would be a HUGE waste of money for the most part, start out cheap, I have a video of my gear on my youtube channel it is Visual Stimulant VS, I make some pretty crazy microstock videos hehee..
All you really need is what I have in that video, I will share that I sell mostly GoPro videos, very few of my Canon videos have sold on any platform. Many reasons for this, first I film in ways most people simply won't as I could lose one of my gopros. However, I take that chance because the shots I get are often mind boggling if you did not know how I did it.
If you can find a GoPro 7, GET IT! I have the 8 and it is terrible. My 7 silver is amazing!! I sell video mostly from that camera.
Be patient, it takes a significant portfolio to make any serious money, so far my Pond5 exclusive account (Photoguy5000) has made me the most and just made it a few months ago.
Time, if you don't have it, stay away. I work a full time job and edit everyday 3 hours before and 3 hours after, I am extremely aggressive in this game, on my days off its 12 to 17 hours straight. I shoot a LOT of content and can only get through about 30% of it. I film every single day.
Hard drives .. you will need a LOT of space, I have already filled up about 12 TB worth of hard drives, about to buy a larger one. Again, I show this in my video.
It will either blow up for you or be typical, that is, your first sale will take a while so be prepared for that.
When you get a sale, wow.. even though it may not be much, you now know you are doing it right, best feeling.
Editing, this is by far the biggest and most overlooked topic on microstock, don't worry fam I am changing that! A beast computer will allow for more editing and more uploads faster and efficiently equating to sales! Editing platform, I use Premiere Pro and have been for 20 plus years. There are plenty others out there and youtube is your best friend for that.
If you are not sure of your editing skills, price accordingly.. Pond5 will usually accept it but that does not necessarily translate to sales, however I have sold video with noise, at night with almost no light so that is what I love about Pond5, they let the buyer decide!!!
That is just a summary, I can't possibly type it all here as there are so many caveats and tiny details that mean so much, one is metadata, another overlooked topic, Pond5 reads video metadata, you add the Metadata in Premiere on the export screen, Metadata at the bottom left and expand Dublin Core, bingo, enter your keywords, description and title and now you just upload, the only agencies that read this Metadata are Pond5, Dreamstime and Adobestock. Google also reads this metadata, I even put it in my youtube videos.
Stay away from gimmicky effects, LUTS, only a few are ok, I almost never use them for stock, over saturation and speed ramps. Use all of that on youtube not for stock unless you are doing content that requires cool stuff.
Build a balanced portfolio, Editorial is my best category, commercial is ok, nothing to talk about. If you shoot nature make sure you are pro at it because the folks in that space are. I try to find unique situations and wild ways to film, spend any time on either of my portfolios on Pond5 and you will see that. I stay away from popular things unless it is something I can also sell on Stringr, and yeah, I sell videos there too... video vs. image ratio, I am running at about 15/85 but lately really been on video, 306 in Feb alone. Things you think won't sell will surprise you! I have seen mainstream youtubers say they don't sell images on Pond5 so they don't waste their time, I do and I have sold plenty of images and for higher revenue than most agencies.

That about sums it up my friend. I wish you the best, just understand, this is a long term plan that will pay you forever and I have sold some videos more than once and expect to continue to sell them over and over again.

@Jason, you know as well as I do that is just scratching the surface, hardly a holy grail :) but some simple yet effective tips for anyone starting out. Btw your portfolio is nice!

@ Madvideos, I've been doing video since the early 90's and selling stock video for more than 13 years but having to flaunt ones ego to a newbie who just asked for helpful tips.

@Jason, I am sorry, did you post some helpful tips to the OP? Nope, did you offer your tips in your post now? Nope. I am trying to figure out what your contribution to this post is? To troll it maybe?

@Madvideos Sorry but you need more help than the OP.

Thank you Madvideos for the details.. much appreciated :)

Great post @Madvideos! A lot of advice in there... link us in when you have the video.

Any tips on keywords or similar aspects? Are there ways to get the footage seen? I have no sales, but I don't even get any views either? :)