How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, Earn Money Selling Stock Footage,
Looking to hustle in a new direction? If you love video content, know how to shoot an effective clip, and want to make some extra money on the side, you're a perfect candidate for selling stock footage online.
If you're new to the video space, "stock footage" is the term for pre-recorded video clips that are available for others to purchase and use in their video products. The stock footage library—which we'll explore in more detail below—represents a treasure trove of ready-to-use footage that can fill in gaps in your videos, enhance storytelling, or just provide unique and eye-catching visuals.
As the demand for video content continues to skyrocket, so does the need for high-quality stock footage. Wherever you come!
How can you make money selling stock footage
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, As people purchase stock photos for their projects, video editors and filmmakers are constantly looking for compelling and relevant footage to enhance their videos. By offering your own video clips for sale, you're tapping into this growing market and allowing other content creators to use your creative work in their projects.
The gist is simple: you film original video content that captures what you want, and you upload it to a stock footage library of your choice. When editors are searching for clips to fit into their next video project, if they accept something you've filmed, you'll pay them to use the content.
Everyone wins—you earn some extra cash with your videography skills, and editors and filmmakers can bring their vision to life without having to capture every clip themselves.
Stock footage can also save the day for projects that had a full-scale production. Footage can be lost or damaged, shots can be ruined by bad lighting or background noise, critical moments in the story can be left off the call sheet entirely, or the direction of the video can change in post-production. When these upsets axnd pivots occur, stock footage can save a project from needing to be reshot.
Tips and tricks to film high quality stock footage
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, If you want to sell your video clips, they need to look professional. The higher the quality of your stock footage, the more likely you are to successfully sell your work. Not sure where to start? Here are a few areas to focus on when behind the camera:
Lighting: Wherever you're shooting, make sure your video content is well-lit and visually appealing. Watch out for shadows, avoid overhead lighting and prefer soft light sources whenever possible. (Learn more about effective lighting in this article.)
Composition: Visually moving shots are more useful—and interesting—for most editors. Instead of shooting your subject directly in the center of your frame, try creative shots that set up your subject in an interesting way. You can always post a few similar clips when you go to sell your content, so don't be afraid to experiment.
Stability: Camera stability is crucial when it comes to capturing professional-looking footage. Shaky camera movement confuses viewers, and is a dead giveaway that you're not a professional cameraperson. When in doubt, invest in a tripod or other stabilization equipment to keep all your shots smooth and steady.
Content: In terms of content, prioritize clips depicting popular topics, current trends or evergreen content that will always be in demand. While niche clips have their place (and they sell — just not as much), focusing on broad appeal can increase your chances of buying footage.
You may notice that one variable we left off this list is audio. Why? Most stock footage clips are uploaded without audio, so you don't have to worry about bringing a mic setup or keeping the area quiet while capturing footage. Most editors will work with their own audio or music files anyway, so you don't need to include audio in your uploads
Licensing and copyright considerations for stock footage
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, With these content tips in mind, let's move on to the business side of selling stock footage. As a stock footage seller, it's important to understand how licensing and copyright laws affect your work. When you sell your stock footage, you're not actually selling video clips. Instead, you are selling editors and filmmakers legal permission to use the footage, and that permission takes the form of a "license".
There are a few common license types you'll want to be familiar with. A royalty-free license is the most common type for stock footage libraries, and it gives buyers the right to use copyrighted footage without paying royalties for each use. This is essentially a one-time fee in exchange for the right to use the footage for any number of projects and uses.
A rights-managed license is less common, and allows buyers to use a specific clip for a specific project if they want to reuse the clip for a different use case, requiring them to purchase another license for that project. These licenses typically cost more, and may have implications for exclusive use.
If you want to sell exclusive stock content on a particular site, make sure you don't post the same clip on another stock footage site. While most arrangements (and royalty-free licenses) will allow you to place the same clip in multiple places to maximize your earnings, keep those clips separate if you agree to an exclusivity clause.
Ultimately, there is no right or wrong way to license your stock footage. Make sure you understand the terms of your agreement with each site so you don't set yourself up for failure or a lawsuit.
5 Platforms to Use to Sell Your Stock Footage
Ready to sell your stock footage? Here are five popular platforms to consider:
1) Shutterstock
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, With over 350 million images and videos, Shutterstock is one of the most popular platforms for all types of stock media. As a result, they paid over a billion dollars to users who submitted photos and videos for the site. (As a bonus, you can also get paid for referring other users and contributors!) Here's their creator page to get started.
2) Adobe Stock
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, Adobe Stock is another popular platform, especially because it integrates with Premiere Pro. If you import and edit your clips using that software, you can publish them directly to Adobe Stock You'll earn 33% of all royalties for Adobe Stock content, and you can get started on their creator page here.
3) Pond 5
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, Known for its wide selection of high-quality stock media, Pond5 is another marketplace where you can sell your stock footage. They have an easy upload process and allow you to set your own prices, giving you a bit more control over your earnings than other sites. Also, like Shutterstock, they pay you to refer new users. Here's their creator page to get started.
4) Story block
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, StoryBlocks offers a subscription-based model where customers pay a monthly fee for access to unlimited stock footage. As a contributor, you will be paid based on the percentage of your content downloaded from member libraries.
You have to apply to become a contributor to Storyblocks, so it might be helpful to start with other sites on the list to build a stock footage library. Once you have a large amount of clips in your portfolio, you can prioritize sites like StoryBlock that require applications. Here is their creator page to learn more.
5) ArtGrid
How to Make Money Selling Stock Footage Online, Finally, ArtGrid is a smaller site that has proven to be more profitable for some stock footage creators. Like StoryBlocks, it requires an app, so it's best for videographers who have an established stock footage library. If you're ready to submit an application, here's their builder page.
last thought
Whether you already capture video footage in your daily life or you want to take up a new hobby, selling stock footage is a great way to breathe new life into your video clips. Use the tips and tricks above to capture effective clips and post your content to scouting editors You never know what you might pick up!
