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..

Crowd Shots - The joy of the Crowd, how to sell stock footage on Pond 5- The best crowd shots on Pond 5

Crowd shots sell theres no doubting this.
But what is it that sells the most?
1. The Crowd are anonymous/unfocussed -This is one of the best ways to shoot people! Not because people are ugly necessarily but because then you can use this for any subject matter and no one will complain because no ones face is visible. In pond 5 it says if you can see people in a crowd then it can only be used for editorial or documentary purposes, but if you cant see the faces it could be used in music videos, films- the opportunities are wider thus you can sell more.
2. It's a beautiful shot, the artistry of a shot is always important, So filming on a bright day, getting a nice depth of field, nice shot of cabs in the background is important, you are competing against every single other Pond5er!
3. Its New York! OK you can't get away with this anymore but this was made in 2009, when anyone wanted a shot of one of the most famous Cities in the world this is it! Now 100s of people have seen this and shot it there are 1577 crowd shots of New York.

65 Sales 3342 view 45 dollars





Anonymous city or not anonymous city that is the question.

Look at this beauty.

1. It could be anywhere(it's New York) as before people are obscured, so an American TV company company could use it about anywhere in America, without people getting too picky, but also a News company in poland could use it talking about a generic place in America or over population
2. It has thousands of people all shuffling about endlessly it looks packed congested thats what people want when they buy a crowd shot! - Crowds. Not a few people milling around we want 100s of the buggers and the more unpleasant and claustrophobic the better!






Look at this, this is London!
Maybe now there are too many crowd shots of New York go abroad and if you live abroad (well its not abroad for you,)go to your famous city, theres only 610 crowd shots of London compared to 1577 of New York and only 153 of Paris.

1. So be specific have a big Red bus in the background for London.





Make them different, say your going to film in India and you know there are lots of crowd shots of people crossing the street get some mayhem from something weird or unusual to the country, look at one of my new shots, in England we wouldn't be allowed cables all over the place too much blooming health and safety for our own good so this shows people something different from the norm.






So there are a few hints on making crowd shots, one of the best things about them is you don't have to do anything, they are all there for you, just turn up and set your camera up! Here are a few below to get you all excited.
and if you want to please just click on any of below and buy one you know I will give an extra big smile if you do!
Have a good Christmas and if you don't celebrate it enjoy watching a lot of stressed people buying presents for people that don't want another book on film making!!

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

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...

How to sell stock footage.

Guess what guys I've sold that bit of ice melting again! Unbelievable isn't it, why can't I sell more of other stuff? i wonder if I could get 100 more clips like this, I would make 10,000 dollars a year, but so far i have 101 clips up and only 4 clips have sold one each, and the ice has sold 5 times in a year.

Now with Pond 5 you get half of how much you charge. So for the ice it costs 40 dollars so i get 20, all makes sense, the only problem the money goes only goes into your paypal account if you get more than 25 dollars, so I have to wait until the ice sells again. So do I charge 50 for it, being that I'm English that would probably be about 20 pounds which every now and again would be nice not ground breaking but nice, or do I keep it at the price it is knowing that it sells? These are obviously big scale problems in my life..



I made a video for clipper lemon green tea a couple of months ago and sent it off to them I thought I would see if I could get something positive - money / free tea, well they have emailed me back with the latter, saying they will send me some free tea, I will tell you about the exciting news when the tea arrives....