1 year, 340 clips, 7 downloads, please critique

Hello,

I've been on here about a year now, uploaded 340 clips and have only had 9 (not seven, my mistake) downloads. Can anyone have a quick browse below and let me know if there's anything I'm doing wrong, or if there's just not much demand for the clips I'm producing.

http://www.pond5.com/video-sound-effects-music-after-effects-photos-illustrations-3d-models/1/artist:JohnHayward.html

Thanks

Hi John

I should probably preface my answer with the caveat that these are my opinions and should not be taken as "fact" - I know some people think I should not do one of the things I do (of which more later!).

You have a nice selection of clips but they are not "that" varied. You say you have 370 clips but that number includes (for example) 3 sweet chestnut trees, a fair few sheep in the snow, herbs, leaves, frost, hay etc. Giving buyers a choice of shots is a good thing but that cuts down the number of "unique" clips.

I would think about keywords a bit more. For example in America I believe a "skip" is a "dumpster" so perhaps one clip could be titled "Dumpster full of Garbage" or "Dumpster full of trash".as people might see the title and just ignore it.

Things like the South Shropshire countryside clip I would probably label as something like "Green Fields of England" and keep the detail of where it is for the description. This ties in with my "controversial" point. You need to think who your buyers will be. If, by shooting at 29.97FPS you are hoping to attract American buyers then they are not that likely to search for "South Shropshire Countryside from the Long Mynd" but a buyer in the UK might look for something like this. I tend to, whenever possible, shoot at 24,25 and 30 FPS to hopefully appeal to a wide range of buyers who work in different countries (some people think I shouldn't do this!)

Finally, remember that stock is all about numbers, I was once told by a stock photo seller that they worked on $1 per image per year as what they expected to earn. Given the way prices have been driven down it wouldn't surprise me if that is what video sellers should expect in years to come!

Other than that all I can suggest is to keep shooting and uploading!

TE

Thanks TE, appreciate the lengthy reply, I'll look at my keywording more carefully now.

Just one thing regarding the use of the different FPS, are you recommending using 24,25,30 FPS on different clips at the same shoot or to use one FPS at one shoot and a different FPS another day?

I tend to shoot all three frame rates once I have the shot set up. Have a look at my recent Puerto Rico footage:

https://www.pond5.com/video-sound-effects-music-after-effects-photos-illustrations-3d-models/1/clipbin:467297.html

which should show you what I do. I will say that I have no idea if it helps or hurts sales!

TE

At $10 per clip maybe you will sell, but you will not making money.

Mr. David Tiberio indeed sold 198 various clips in 16 months but unfortunately he earned just $990.

12 clips / $62 monthly.

"Quote from tiberio "With the same size portfolio, in 6 months I had sold about 30 clips, because I priced them properly at $10 or less per click."

So 30 sales in 6 months at $5 or less commission each. $150 dollars or less before expenses, not a valid suggestion. Look to the dozens or hundreds of artists here at P5 that make that each day. There are great people here that will and can help. Look to those who are successful for suggestions as SevArt and The Engineer have said.

Good luck.

If anybody is looking for statistics please go to ARTIST RESOURCES

Tiberio is going to wear-out his delete key.

Hmmm... $1/year? That's pretty conservative, don't you think?

With only my first 30 unique clips online, I averaged about $30/clip in the last year, despite having them primarily on Pond5, and only a few on Revostock and Shutterstock. Recently I've started spreading all my clips to many more stock sites, in the hopes of making even more per clip.

I agree that varied keywording is crucial, and also thinking about what the buyers will be looking for.

As for your library, the clips are nicely shot, but you need to think more about what is "commercial." How is stock footage used in TV shows? Commercials? Corporate videos? Blogs, YouTube videos, and other places people might need that extra shot?

I'm still a relative newbie myself, but have worked on TV shows that buy as much as $25,000 of stock footage per episode, so I have a fairly good understanding of what buyers might be looking for (at least in television). I will still upload a shot if it's not "commercial" (like a silly zoo shot of an Alpaca, which surprisingly made me $100 last month), but I try to focus my efforts on what would be appealing to a buyer.

Hope this helps,
Gray.

I should add, spend some time browsing through the forum's "Last Footage Sold" topic... no better way of knowing what's actually selling (and the sale price of each).