Last Footage Sold

Hi TonyCaulfield,
I’m a new contributor here, and I was curious to know how much you earned from selling your pigeon bird video. Also, how are your monthly sales going so far? If anyone else happens to see this message, I would also love to hear about your sales experiences. I’m just asking out of interest as I’m learning and starting my journey here.

I have 7,500+ Footages From 1st August to 7th September in these 38 days i earn 35.96 USD.
May it help you.

Hello BilalHafeez3249,
Thank you so much for sharing this kind of real information. Actually, I wanted to ask—how many years have you been working sincerely on Pond5? Also, after uploading content to your account, when did you make your very first sale?

3258 Videos
2160 Illustrations
507 Photos

For 3 months my income from this site is zero dollars.
Why am I wasting time sending files?

Hello Myshkovsky,
After hearing about your uploads, I started thinking—because I have only uploaded 48 videos, so how can I even expect any income? It seems almost impossible. Anyway, I have a question, brother. From your profile, it looks like you joined Pond5 in 2017. But did you not work consistently all those years? Did you keep your account without uploading for a long time? I’m very curious to know—during those eight years, were you active or not really active?

You need THOUSANDS of files over several agencies to get a regular income.

Stock portfolios also never go viral or "suddenly take off" like a youtube channel or instaprofile.

It is a slow steady grind and gradually you have sales, very slowly they grow.

It is not a reliable source of income, those who make money are usually professional videographers/photographers that upload stock between work for hire jobs.

There is a lot of disinformation on the internet from people promising magic money and "passive income", trying to sell their books and classes.

Please don't give the scammers your money.

A realistic expectation is 50-300 dollars average monthly income after 2-4 years and after uploading thousands of files over SEVERAL platforms.

Or the same amount after 6 years if you upload slowly, only during vacations etc...

It is not a get rich quick thing and absolutely not a reliable income source because sales can vary greatly.

But if you do it casually as a hobby or as a pro you upload some leftover files clients don't need or do some test shoots between real work, it is ok.

Less money than a few years ago, but often still easier than trying to sell directly from your own webshop.

Hi Yousuf

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't see your post earlier.

My pigeons clip was priced at 39 USD by pond5 (it used to be 60 USD when we could set our own prices).

Sold for 22.22 USD (License: "Global Market Earnings").

My earnings (after 60% commission for pond5): 8.89 USD.

That footage was shot in 2018 with an old camcorder (Panasonic AG-AC30), 1920x1080, 25p.

Surprisingly, the full HD shots seem to sell more often than the 4k footage I got.

Currently, I got 1586 videos in my portfolio and haven't uploaded in over a year.

My sales are lower than ever now, and I never made a living or just break even on the equipment I bought over the years. To give you some context: I never tried as hard to build up a large portfolio as I had planned initially, cause I lack the time now and have lost hope, that this would have as much potential as I thought in the beginning.

Considering the changes to how pond5 operates now and the impact of AI generated footage on the entire industry, I think it will be quite a challenge nowadays to make a living on stock footage, even if you build up a way larger portfolio.

But I still believe that if you love videography, enjoy the process, and can be happy about an occassional sale, it still makes sense to start.

All the best to you!

Tony