Am I barking up the wrong tree?

I became a contributor about a month ago. I am a nature videographer. I know this is a saturated market and not the best for sales, but I shoot high quality 4k close up video with professional equipment, so I feel that I have maybe a chance to make a sale here and there. This is a hobby, so I am not trying to get rich. I uploaded 100 4K videos as a test to see how my content will perform on Pond 5. I came to Pond5 because I was told by several sources that Pond5 might be a better place for my type of content than Adobe or Shutterstock.

So far, I have not had a single sale and almost no page views. Again, I was not expecting a whole lot, but not even getting page views, has me wondering if it is worth my time to do the work of uploading more content.

Any Advice is appreciated.

Sales used to be great here TheNatureGuy, but since SS take over, have got really bad. I have over 8600 clips, but only one sale in the past 4 weeks. No idea if Pond5 will get a decent sales team in, but not hopeful. Sad times being a contributor.

I think you said yourself. The nature market is saturated.
That said, even on the best times here you would need many more than 100 to test the water.
Maybe 500 to 1000

But pond5 isn’t like it used to be. Not for years.
And whoever told you adobe doesn’t sell isn’t telling the truth, that’s one of the only places that makes consistent sales.

The market is saturated you are not wong there, but 100 videoes is a drop in the ocean, but i would have a look at your subjects and see how many of the same are here, a bird on the feeder i dare to look, ok i did dare to look and the answer is 25000

100 videos is very little, also, at least in my case, videos often need much longer to be downloaded than photos, sometimes 18 months before a series starts selling.

You need to create a constant stream of files coming in, so when buyers do a search for newest content there is always something from you they can find.

Uploading files once and then waiting does not get you anywhere.

I would also upload to several other agencies, especially adobe, but also shutterstock and istock.

You are offering a genre that has a lot of content, so at least upload to several marketplaces to reach all buyers.

I am not a big video pro, my experience is mostly in photography, but I have been doing stock for a long time and also used to be a buyer.

eta

Customers are locked into their subscription contracts, so it is rare buyers look at many different platforms. That is if you are not present on other platforms you simply don't have access to these customers.

There are a lot of discussions about price points. But since you are starting out, I would consider uploading at least 2000 clips to different platforms with a variety of prices to at least get some sales. What is it that customers are interested in buying from you?

Then you make more of that.

I would also suggest to try many other subjects, not just your personal favorites. Have a look at the self reported sales thread for ideas.

For instance I started much too late with editorial and that is quite a good money maker.

Do you want the money, or do you just want to present your favorite files?

And how can you mix both for best results?

Editorial definitely was a good money maker for me, before the industry collapsed I had a couple of $160K years just on Pond5 alone selling editorial news clips, now it's hobby money for most, I personally make about $300/month in total from P5/SSTK if that but it's a different market and terrible economy overall.

That is an amazing collapse. Congratulations on the prvious earning, but from over 10k to 300 dollars…where are the customers buying now?

Editorial is not so easy to replace, this is really strange. And frightening.

@newsmarket

One more question: do these storm chasers have large youtube channels with millions of followers? Or instareels etc...?

Perhaps they are making very good money on social media.

It would explain how they can afford the time and the equipment.

And if that is the case, would you consider starting a similar channel?

Perhaps it might be worth considering to make money with streaming instead of individual downloads.

Or just for the Beta content, which will probably be still higher quality than what the amateurs have.

My account isn't that large, but pond5 is the only agency I haven't had a single sale on. Even on Adobe with less assets I've had sales.

It's a weird place though. I have noticed recently my profile is starting to get views, not so much individual asset views which is a shame. But I did notice that now a year in my page is somehow being seen. What is difficult is knowing what to upload here. Even industries with demand might produce nothing. Whether it's real estate/development or industry or nature. I'm reaching the point of just trying a bit of everything to see what finally sticks here.

Even if they are categories that are incredibly popular, I think it's worth just adding to the folio and getting that upload number up. So 100 definitely won't be enough. Especially if they're of similar things.

I had 3 sales this year for a total of 41 dollars.

But I only have 1090 clips, shame on me.