Stock Footage – What I earned and what I learned.
On this article, I’ll bring you a full report of my earnings from 2013 to 2017 and the participation of each agency on the total income as well. I’m definitely far from being a big contributor, but I’m sure this data can help a lot of people choose the right direction.
Full 2013–2017 earnings Report
I sell my footage online since December 2012, when I only had a Canon T3i. Most of my files were refused, so I started with a very small portfolio (30 video files) on Shutterstock and Pond5. The info I had at that time showed me these two would be a good way to start my stock earnings.
Since that time I used to work on my stock portfolio once a year, I slowly started uploading my files to other microstock websites: Storyblocks (former VideoBlocks), DepositPhotos and iStock/Getty were the next ones. This is how my portfolio grew on the last years:
I reached 240 video files in February of 2017, so I believe it’s fair to say that was the official portfolio size for 2017.
Total Earnings for 2017
So by the end of the year, the sum of all my stock footage earnings was: U$1.690,80.
Alright, no complaints about that. Definitely, a good revenue based on a small portfolio. But I have to admit I was expecting a little more earnings when compared to 2016. I thought the increase of files in my portfolio would directly impact my sales. Take a look at my year over year growth.
My big mistake
I did a mistake by betting all my chips on Shutterstock. If you go back to the first graph I showed you’ll notice Shutterstock was the only stock agency on which I really uploaded new footage/photos. Since I had never analyzed these earnings as close as I’m doing now, I thought Shutterstock was the main and only source of this “creative income” (I was also very lazy)— but I couldn’t be more wrong.
Take a look at my 2016 income share, when Pond5 and Deposit had my total portfolio, StoryBlocks had 75% and Getty/iStock had 20%.
On that year, Pond5 was even better than Shutterstock! Videoblocks and Deposit also had better impacts. So that’s a big lesson I learned — I will diversify my portfolio to other websites.
There’s still a lot of lessons I learned when analyzing my best sellers, but this will be a subject for the next time.
If you would like me to keep writing/recording this reports/insights, please let me know! This is something I love doing, but knowing there’s someone reading and interested is the gasoline I need to keep making it public!
9 Comments
Hi, I came across your YouTube videos. Really appreciate your valuable insights and honesty in sharing/revealing your tips and tricks as well as your earnings. My questions:
1. Can I submit the same footage to few agencies e.g. Shutterstock and Pond5?
2. I’m using iPhone X and hoping to create some 4K footage, would it work?
Hi! this is amazing!! please keep doing it. I would be of much help to have like a basic knowledge about what kind of images are best for each website.
Hey – been dipping into your blog post about stock footage. The info and your figures is very useful Anne insightful for people like me looking to start out!
Thanks for putting this together! I’m exploring the viability of running this as a side business.
Your English is very good. I use the following sites: Adobe Stock, Canstockphoto, Depositphoto, Pond5 and Shutterstock. I was doing Storyblocks but then got an email saying they were not taking any more footage from anyone anymore. That was last summer that happened. Anyway, enjoy your words and stories and content. I only shoot insects and birds, nothing else, so I don’t get a lot of sales. I make between $300-$600 dollars a year, which I use to buy a new lens or something. I saw your Blackbox video and that is tempting as I really hate uploading and tagging all my clips to those 5 sites. I get the most sales from Shutterstock, then Adobe Stock, followed by Pond5. I’ve only sold one or two clips using Canstockphoto and Depositphoto but I’ll keep uploading to them for another year and see what happens. I have now over 600 bird and insect clips up to all these sites, but as mentioned, birds and insects are not big sellers but I don’t care as that is what I like shooting.
Hi dude, you share great content. I would like to know if you are still uploading footage to storyblocks. And which stock footage site are you using in 2020? I would like to see an updated income report for videos.
[…] out my 2017 earnings report and notice how those were my most profitable […]
[…] There’s also the belief that submitting files as a community while using the writing skills of experienced curators and collaborating to a unique profile at 4 major stock agencies (Shutterstock, Pond5, Adobe Stock, Storyblocks) will make sales increase and exceed the revenue the traditional way brings, […]
[…] You can find more in-depth data in my 2017 Earnings Report. […]