Holtocw - Newbie intro

Hi folks - Just wanted to introduce myself before jumping in on the forum. I'm a backpack journalist who travels a lot and comes home with tons of exotic footage - most of which gets used making news features and freelance projects. But when I'm done with it, my 11-year-old son has taken to uploading it to Pond5. We started this together as a homeschool lesson for him in the concept of passive income, and I have to admit I never dreamed it would be so profitable and easy.

Now I'm wondering about foreign missionaries - people who live in visually target-rich environments who are always needing a little support, and thinking this sort of thing might be a good way for them to make a few extra $$.

Anyway, I'm astounded by the quality of the clips I see here, and have purchased more than a few of them for my own projects, like this one:



Freelance project at Vimeo

Now that I'm getting the hang of this a little, I'm starting to see "pond5 clips" everywhere I travel. My companions are going to get tired of me shouting, "Wait! Pull over!"

Cheers,

Chuck Holton

That is really cool that your son is putting your "used" footage on P5 and making money from it. Better than washing Dad's car. A really great lesson in economics. I hope he makes a lot from it. :) Best of successes to you both, -Sandi

Welcome to p5. Good luck with making allot of sales.

My dad and my sister have the same thing with the "pull over" your talking about.. My mom does stock photos and i make footage ;)

Well, I wish there was a way to see WHO is buying your clips - might make me better at shooting stuff I know people will want. Plus, I'm just curious.

As a buyer, I'm most likely to buy graphics, since I'm not able to do those myself.

The stuff that has sold well for me has been mostly war footage from Afghanistan. Luckily I'm headed back there in September so I'll be able to get some more "generic" war footage this time.