Quick Tip - Search for your clips!

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

Shooting stock footage is a great way to have some supplemental income, but shooting the stock footage is only half the battle. A huge part of your stock footage business has to be dedicated to selling your footage. If you work to improve the visibility of your footage to potential buyers your stock footage income will increase dramatically. There are some very simple things you can do to improve your stock footage visibility.

Searching for your clips is a great way to make sure you have effective keywords, and to make sure that potential buyers will be able to find your clip.

Lets say for example you have and account with iStockphoto.com, you have uploaded a looping shot of 3 candles burning in a black void. Finally the clip has been accepted so you try searching the term candles to find your clip. Obviously if a buyer types in candles, the chances are they won't find your clip because there are a million shots of candles on iStockphoto.com. Try typing in something more specific and see if you can find the clip.

If I try typing in "Dark Looping Candles" then I am able to find my clip on the second page. Ideally you want to create keywords and search terms that will find your clip near the top of the first page. Which is sometimes easier said than done, nevertheless, searching for your clip is a great way to ensure that you are using effective keywords, and may help you come up with some keywords you hadn't thought of before. Most importantly, it ensures that a potential buyer will be able to find your clip. If you are able to type in a potential search term and find your clip then it is just a matter of time before the money finds you.

Happy Shooting!
HDCineman

DON'T WASTE FREE ADVERTISING SPACE!

For more information on shooting/selling stock footage check out my other posts:
GETTING STARTED
KEYWORDING
WHAT SELLS?

The best way to advertise your footage to potential buyers is to put some kind of link to your other clips in the description of every single one of your clips. Many stock footage sites allow you to use UBB Code (or some variation of it) to insert links and images into the description of your stock footage clips. Use that creatively to advertise your other clips. You will notice that many seasoned stock footage producers have several banner/links to similar clips, concepts, shots using the same model, etc.

A buyer that is ready to purchase a stock footage clip will often be looking for additional related clips, or even un-related clips. Bottom line is, they have money to spend on stock footage, and you have stock footage. If they can click on a banner that catches their eye, you can send them to a collection of your clips and you have the chance to make another sale. That is good.

As a default, I usually try to have a banner that links to a collection of some of my best clips. A banner that looks something like this:

For iStockphoto.com I attach this link:
Check out other high quality footage from HDCineman

Which leads to a collection of my favorite clips. (Feel free to go there and comment/rate some of my clips! I like getting feedback.)

For www.pond5.com they allow you to put links to a bin, and display a custom number of random thumbnails from the bin.

These are simple things you can do to increase your sales dramatically without even shooting any additional footage, take advantage of the free advertising space on each of your stock footage clips.

Happy Shooting!
HDCineman