New to stock footage

Hello all,

I am new here, and new to stock footage as well. How does Pond5 compare to the other guys? (shutterstock, istockphoto)

And how long does it typically take for clips to be reviewed?

Thanks for your time and I look forward to the future with this website.

Ryan

Technically the best site - by far. The traffic could be better, but then we're still in beta mode. Still, for me SS and P5 make about the same amount of money.

IS on the other hand is like giving your work away for free. I love their photo side, but footage is too cheap there (or more precisely, 20% feels like a kick in the behind compared to 50% here...)

Ya and 20% of almost nothing at IS. That site is definately a place for a hobby not to pay for equipment and time. When P5 gets going this is the place ... fingers crossed for luck ;)

Thanks for your comments :)

Any figure on time frames for clips to be reviewed?

Thanks..

My experience is less than one week, but they said much quicker. I am sure they try their best to improve it

I had clips reviewed within less than 12 hours, but a few batches also took 10 days or so. It's usually less than three days though.

I am a potential 'deep swimmer' in Pond 5. I have joined today and am reviewing the site to determine the benefits. After considerable research, it seems to me that Pond 5 offers a great deal more than the traditional sites (Getty, IStockVideo et al), particularly for content providers. As I see it, 50% of the Pond is better than 20% elsewhere (60/40 in favour of providers would be better, but I'm comfortable about you guys making money off my sweat, so long as I see good, consistent, innovative and effective promotion).

I have considerable PAL 4:3 (and to a lesser extent 16:9 SD) imagery (also increasing HD) - particularly in the corporate, industrial and tourism areas (albeit in Australia, but very 'generic'). My images are very interesting visually (after years of Broadcast freelance work) and beyond Boadcast, offer web-video and Powerpoint operators some very viable stuff (to be frank, on-line web-video and other emerging technologies are the way to go).

The point I'm asking is this: is Pond5 gonna 'make waves' in the on-line distribution game, or are you gonna get run over by the 'biggies'? I've always been an 'outsider' when it comes to computers and programs, starting way back with Omega, Osborne and Apple MacIntosh (now graduated to Mac G5 and a raft of programs - including FCP with all the 'bells and whistles' etc, etc), and from what I can see, Pond 5 is in that somewhat 'pioneering' category.

I'm really happy to support and promote and upload to you guys, so long as you're out there batting for me and my videos.

It took me a lot of time to find you through 'generic' Google searches, so at the moment, I'm obviously not happy with your metadata 'professionalism'. If I can't find you with a simple 'web video' or 'stock video' Google search, you've obviously got a problem or two.

Convince me that if I upload vision with you guys that I will get superlative exposure. Can you guarantee that? If you can, then we will all make a great deal of money.

Minutman

We are most certainly gonna make waves, Minitman. We're in it for the long haul, and will be putting a lot of resources into getting exposure and buyers for our artists' work. We do well when you do well, so we're putting everything into making that happen.

As far as search coverage, we're getting better results by the day. We recently brought in an SEO guru who's been working quite a bit of magic. Try googling for "stock footage mongolia" or "stock video sunrise" and we're on the first page of natural results - big change from a couple weeks ago. And for searches like "stock footage" or "stock video", Pond5 is usually pretty high in the paid results (he's tweaking those as well).

We're also in the midst of preparing a big pr and marketing campaign that will bring more exposure. So in short - you should absolutely upload your clips. Assuming the footage is marketable, I think Pond5 is going to be the best long term bet for generating revenues with it.

Minitman,
You should upload clips absolutely, video stock is just a baby at the moment. And we want to make it grow, and we need everyone here to make it happen. I joined just more than a month ago. Not much longer than you. I knew another diver in this pond. Hope to see your clips soon