Shutterstock, Pond5, Adobe, ETC . .

tck444 · Dec 24, 2018

Anyone uploading to any of the agencies and trying to sell videos? I have tried numerous platforms including BlackBox with very limited success. Not trying to get rich, but perhaps able monetize the hobby in some way ? Admitting, many of my early attempts were of poor quality.

Just guessing that most of these portals have many more contributors than buyers ??

Sample below of the ONE success .

Drone on · Dec 25, 2018

I have uploaded 130 15 second clips through black box without a single sale. All have been picked up by the four agencies Blackbox supports. Not all agencies have picked up all videos, but collectively all videos are available for sale. It's a weird sensation seeing a $159 price tag on your work.

Targeting video snippets for sale has really honed my approach to cinematography, so it was worth it from that perspective, and I still follow that approach, but sometimes I like to just wander the skies and see what's going on from above. Of course, we can do both.
There are over 10,000,000 clips available for sale. The odds of being found are not particularly strong regardless of keyword strength, etc..

Knowing the competition, I did not have high expectations. As to whether or not I will continue, probably not. I have a collection of 15 second shots, well exposed, good white balance and grading, but frustrating to watch because they are only 15 seconds without a thread to connect. It's frustrating to kick back to watch my videos only to have to advance to the next clip because the 15 seconds have passed.

I have gone back to producing short videos set to music portraying a particular location. The final product is more enjoyable. This approach is a lot more work than shooting for Blackbox, which was easy; especially if you have all 49 keywords ready to copy paste

I think that even if I were encourage by sales, I would abandon the approach as it less fulfilling for me.

If I were to return to producing snippets, I will focus on editorial, and not commercial. They pay the same, and local news is more likely to pick up a local icon, than is a producer of a more regional/national interest.

Sometimes I'll see drone footage on TV that was clearly acquired by the production company. This is clearly the case as the footage attributes do not match the main body of the program footage. To me, it sticks out; obviously...like the proverbial sore thumb.

tck444 · Dec 25, 2018

Yes, my experience also.

But let me suggest, Pond5 . There you are able to set your own price for clips or photos. Relatively easy upload process. They also will create a web version of your work at lower resolution and of course lower selling prices. Perhaps a chance to get a sale when competing with true professionals.

I also have questioned what length of clip is most marketable ? I have even used friends as models without success. But in the end just too much competition !

I have mostly given up but count it as a good learning experience with a few good clips in my collection of work .

Good luck !

macfawlty · Dec 26, 2018

I have a lot of experience with Gettyimages/iStock. I have about 800 video clips and about the same number of photos. Most of my videos and photos are around Washington, DC, particularly Capitol Hill. Obviously not drone videos of DC as drones are not legal to fly and there’s also a very large NFZ. I do have some drone videos from locations outside of DC on the Potomac River I uploaded to see if there was any interest. The problem with Gettyimages is they have devalued contributor’s content with very low agency subscription rates. So, a lot of my video content will net between $1 and $4 to me. It seems the only times where I get a reasonable price for content are from the ‘credit pack’ or other non-premium access buyers. Unfortunately, a larger and larger percentage of my sales are the premium-access buyers (a majority). If it was ever worth the effort, it’s not now. I started contributing several years ago as an experiment and because I had a lot of content just sitting on hard drives that I shot for my own video projects. But, I might have as many as 400 sales in a month that generate only $1,000 or so.

So, I’d recommend against Gettyimages. I haven’t taken the time to upload to other agencies at this point.