stock Video

[cobraclutch2]

I did not know where to post this. Where is a good site to sell stock video footage. Does anyone know where I can sell or trade video stock footage.

[n8ture]

It depends if you want to work with a micro-stock house that sells clips royalty free for small fees, which you need to sell allot to make a living or if you want to sell with a traditional stock house that sells for larger fees but probably results in fewer sales. There are pros and cons to each.

You also need to decide if you want to sell your footage as royalty free or rights managed.

RevoStock is a popular micro-stock house if you want to go that route.

[egproductions]

a place like pond5.com allows you to retain the rights to your footage so that you can use it yourslef or even sell it on another site. You get have the sale amount that you listed it as. I made about $100 in one year for leaving 20 clips on their site.

[n8ture]

Mmm, I've never run across any stock house that you lost your rights to your footage. If they're out there I'd run away quickly. :)

Back when I was doing still photography, the rule was you'd make a dollar for every image you had in an agency per year. So, if you wanted to make $50,000, you'd need 50,000 images online. I've never really heard what the stock footage version of that is.

The two biggest choices you need to make before you choose a stock house are if you want to go royalty free or not and if you want to go with a micro-stock house or not.

Like I said above, there are pros and cons for each. You may have a better chance of selling clips with a low cost micro-stock house that sells RF footage. But, you may have to sell a few dozen clips to equal 1 sale of a rights managed stock house clip.

Either way, you'll need to have allot of clips in order to generate a constant income stream.

[smpproductions]

do the micro stock houses allow you to sell the same footage in other areas? Is it possible to put your footage up for sale on Revo stock, iStockvideo, etc all at the same time to generate more sales?

[n8ture]

I think with RevoStock you can choose to be exclusive or not. I think you get a greater commission if you only use them as a outlet. But I believe you can go with less commission and be able to submit to other stock houses.

Really sit down and do your homework before you decide which route you want to go and what house you want to go with.

Also, just because they give you a contract that is the "standard" contract doesn't mean it can't be changed. The better your footage, the more leverage you have over getting a better deal.

If they don't want to deal then find someone else.

[pixelflow]

These guys are right. I would look for ones that focus on providing the best incentives possible to video artists like you. Pixelflow (http://www.Pixelflow.com) is 100% non-exclusive and offers better returns (80% of sales price) for videographers than any site I know of. You also set your own royalty amounts and uploaded content posts for sale immediately. All source content must be HD, but it can be uploaded in a variety of formats (DVCPro100, HDV, ProRes, DNxHD, AIC, XDCam, and others). Check it out: http://www.Pixelflow.com