Pricing of videos on Pond 5

I want to talk about how to price the videos on the website Pond 5, when you first join the site you have the choice of putting HD videos up for anything above 10 dollars, now the temptation is always to go low, this is because you can compete with other members who have a similar shot at 50- 60 dollars, however what is interesting here is that normally these shots won't sell very well. Imagine you work for a TV company who has a budget of 500 dollars for some filler shots, perhaps you are doing a piece on London Underground, which instead of going out and getting a crew (which would cost a couple of thousand) you have 500 dollars to buy stock.




Stock Video Footage: London Underground Time Lapse- Piccadilly Circus


You see a shot for 10 or 15 dollars would you buy it? When you buy some speakers for your computer would you pay 5 or 15 dollars when you have budget of 20? The 5 dollar speakers are bound to be of low quality, so why buy the cheap one?
It's the same with video, Companies have money and they would rather pay for a quality video, so always price the video above 50 dollars.

Remember you only receive half of what the customer pays and Pond 5 will only send you the money if it is over 25 dollars.


Pricing High!!!
The average price of Pond5 footage is 50 - 60 dollars these also sell the most, but lets look at stockage that sells for more.


150 dollars
4 Sales
1321 views
since 2008



This works if you have an exclusive shot which is hard to come by and very well shot like this, now there is a risk, you could be selling more of these at 50 dollars but you would have to be selling 12 sales to get the same amount of money surely if you have shots like this its worthing charging more.


Now this is the same Pond5er his name is Vadervideo and he knew when he was filming this that there wouldn't be many similar shots

399 dollars
1098 views
5 sales
since 2008



He may have of course increased the price over the years as you can change the price of the video at any time. But he may have decided that this is the best price where it keeps selling at,its also a handy 200 bucks every time it sells, now thats better than 25 dollars! Now this stock provider has more than 7000 shots up there, at that point you can really start playing with price, but when you start out you need to start with 50 and go up from there, raise it 5 if it still keeps selling raise it again. I started with all of my videos at 40 but quickly increased them to 50 as I noticed the average price is 50- 60.

There is more to discuss here, but what is interesting is that with confidence and more videos you can keep on increasing the price with exclusivity you can increase it more and if you have something peculiar which will only sell once why not raise it more ? Please leave comments on your thoughts..

Stock footage, Video sales, and cacti

All has been busy at Ellerbeck Towers, firstly I have a new camera to specifically film stock footage it is a Canon 550D this is size of a semi professional camera but takes video, here is a video to explain the pros and cons which saves me explaining them to you now, I would just say it is perfect to produce stock, previously I have been using a massive camera and that just don't cut the mustard, as now I carry it around in the off chance I see something that may sell. To prove the point Pond 5 even commented "Good work" they never say anything to me normally, I must be in the big league almost up to 200 clips only need another 800 more before I start breaking even..

Some info also about my latest sales on Pond5 in this..




I shall be out gathering more stock with my camera and have edited my rough guide to India film for all to see. India, I really miss those Chais they drink out there. Hope fully the images I sell from them can pay for another trip out there, take a look








Please feel to buy these here!




Here is episode 1 of cactus in a canoe
This is my bonkers series of videos interviewing Reading people on a canoe, it's too cold now till but in March I shall get back in the canoe and get people on the boat.



We did our most sucesful Corkeyburgers Ramshackle there must have been about 50 people there, which considering its capacity of 50 was very good. Here is the promo vidoe for it, and you can watch the entire series in parts on youtube...



best

Martin

Selling stock footage to the masses - well 3 people.

Firstly I shall give you a quick summery of my sales of videos to the website Pond5-
I sold three video clips this month, nothing much has sold over the last month, I think it has something to do with dates, apparently August is a quiet month say the pond5ers in the forum, so I have really uploaded loads at the moment I am aiming to get 200 videos up soon, although really the aim is to get 60 sales this year, so along way to go till January (maybe 48 or something, bah!)

But anyway I filmed my holiday to St Ives where I got loads of stock footage see if you can spot the shots which are going into Pond5 (most of them)

I hope to get a free holiday out of this from them, this is if I get enough people looking at the video and the holiday camp like it, who knows they might give us a free Weekend or week.
The video I made for the Sevlor Moorea canoe(see the post below) has had 300 or so hits I have emailed them but I shall hassle them a bit more, I hope to get a free Kayak out of the video,there must have been a lot of people deciding to buy that from my vid I hope.

Now here is something I am very pleased with,

This film has everything I love in it, well two things cactus and a canoe( really a Kayak) there is also Clipper Lemon Tea involved in the finished film just to add to the joy, so really 3 things I love, basically the concept of the show is that I interview local people to Reading while giving them Tea with a cactus it's high concept stuff man.

Tell me what you think and I shall give you the first episode when its up and in case you were wondering about my catch phrase--- "Get off my Boat!"

Speak soon
and keep well

Martin

latest adventures..

Well this summer I have actually been working making short films, so I haven't actually had a chance to make stock footage, it's obviously something one does when you are less employed, however I have still been reaping the goods, when I say reaping I mean getting 30 quid a month, it still fills me with joy when I see I have a sale, I seem to be getting two every month, the point is people seem to keep buying even if you are doing nothing pond5ish, this leads me to a question, what does pond5 mean?

I haven't got a clue but as they are the only people I sell my stock footage through I wouldn't mind knowing.
I have posted the question on their forum like a good geek. A while back I made a video for Clipper green lemon tea I then got in exchange 4 boxes of the tea--- grrrreaat, now the video has had 600 views, pretty good eh? Well now if you google Clipper green lemon tea my video comes up on the first page, I'm Mr Clipper Green lemon tea himself. So to see if I can get anything more free I have advertised the Sevylor Moorea Kayak, its already had a 100 views in a couple of days so I reason when its got 200 I shall ask them for another free boat, or something free, you never know?






I recently filmed this little beauty which I hope gets the odd sale in the future, if theres one thing Pond5 loves is crowds so I hope this one sells.



Other than my ice melting shot which sells every blooming month I have sold this clip as well, which I rather like



Its pretty good so it should have sold, it took a good 5 months but I always thought it was good.

Well I shall keep you more updated as I go along keep well,

best

Martin

On a canoe and Pond 5

I have just been canoeing again, it was incredibly beautiful journey with thames canoes last year I got a free holiday with them for making this video


But this time we paid, less zen like but you can't really continuously make videos for companies when they only need one. I have however filmed another not sure how I can use it but will edit anyway. This was last year's trip, interestingly enough An Argentinean saw this, said he was coming to England and wanted to find out where I hired the canoes from, I thought that was pretty cool.





I'm going to start doing Telesales for my company - very unzen its going to involve calling people up and trying to sell to them, how hard is that? I wonder - very very hard, I tried it once and made four calls untill my soul was dead, I thought about doing it by the river surely that would get me working harder, what you think? then I could film it that would make it a project and more fun.


I made a bit of cash on pond 5 its 40 dollars every month now which is cool but lets get motivated again shall we, lets make a shed load of sales!!! So I can go on holiday before July.


This is starting with doing stock footage of people at work for the documentaries, its stuff that people cant be bothered to film, but I shall go forth and do it yes yes yes.



I did Corkeyburger's Ramshackle last month it went pretty well, its a night of comedy and entertainment, it felt pretty good, You should come next time...

Feeling Zen on Pond 5

I have uploaded 11 more clips for Pond 5 so that I can make loads of money, surely doing all this is very zen, as I have no master, no one to order me about, on the other hand Masters are good, they tell you what to do when you don't know.





When I do get an email that tells me I have a sale of a pond 5 clip, I feel a sense of joy although its only 16 pounds it alwasy feels good, as if it's free money. My most successful month when I got 3 sales I put the money towards the alphasmart Neo which I bought an Ebay. (In the youtube video below all will be explained in quite a passionate way why its so good.)

The clip that has sold the most has always been the one I took from my parants front garden, maybe you dont need to go that far, maybe its under the nose. I have thought about going to Canada what with there being lots of snow, as my clip of ice melting is the big one, the one that sells the most. But there are loads of clips of Snow that don't sell, really you should go for things that aren't necesarily obvious they are under your nose.

If you put ice melting in the search on Pond 5, my clip comes up first, thats what you want really. One sale brings another, like so many things in life, so basically the more popular( if it's the highest seller) your video, the more chance it has of selling even more.





I have also been sent 4 boxes of tea for my other Zen like deal of making videos in exchange for a video, this time I made it first, a bit of a risk but it was just an hour of filming and an hour or so of fiddling with videos, and there it was all done once 200 or so people had looked at it on youtube they sent me the drinks..

As I mention in the video, the next one will be a hotel, to try and get a hotel for two, I wonder if this deal can make the pleasent things in life, the Pond 5 clips could pay for flights and the zen deals could pay for the hotels.


I am making a documentary on Wokingham, it will feature 20 people getting on with their life and career and just follow them like a humphrey Jennings film, I'm going to "fund" this by using clips from the project, for Pond 5. I'm off filming a photographer on Monday I thought this would be a good start, I could use clips of him taking photos for Pond 5 but also use it in a creative way for making a documentaries, which is what I believe I am good at. I could then go to shops, warehouses and so on,odd places where so far no one has really filmed because they can't be bothered to ask for permission.



I have been planning a sketch which involves using a shop but I've been lazy about doing the whole- trying to get permission from a shop -thing. I asked them, sent them a press release and then stopped bothering, as they weren't jumping for joy, Funny how you can just get all apathetic if someone else is really dispassionate.

Of the things I achieved last year I did the corkeyburgers Ramshackle comedy night, a fencing video, a job at Reading Uni and a bit of Pond 5 stuff but this year will echo with the sound of Martin in Wokingham making great moves just you wait and seee...

So things I want to achieve is
(1) Making the Mp3 player sketch.
(2) Finishing a book I've been writing for about 10 years. (I think I 'm on the final draft now)
(3) Make actual money from Pond 5 stock footage (from making the documentaries)
(4) Go canoeing again- maybe free from doing a film for the company(zen deals as I call them now)
(5) Make a fencing documentary and get funding.
(6) Make enough cash to go travelling and filming stock footage, so I can travel around like the zen dealer sleeper in hotels in exchange for videos and making cash from Pond 5 clips and uploading them.