Video content is highly sought after these days and simply by uploading your video footage online, you can begin making passive income. You can shoot video content on your phone or on a professional DSLR camera that can be sold. The important factors of considering whether your video content can be sold is to examine the visual quality (whether there is grain or choppiness) and the subject value. Any interesting and relatable clip can be sold. Video clips of ceremonies, family meals, pets, open-air markets, and with people and children are great. Remember, if you are shooting videos of people, you need to fill out and submit a model release form for each person in the image.
Who buys these clips?
Influencers, marketing agencies, and businesses are always looking for authentic video content to use in different campaigns. You might have seen these video montages during the superbowl and on other nationally televised programs. The needs and desires of these businesses are infinite, so don’t get stuck wondering if your clip can be sold, just shoot your surroundings and get to uploading.
Everyone can engage
Really, anyone. If you have a smartphone, and a tripod to stabilize your camera you can start shooting and earning passive income today.
Where do I upload my video clips?
There are various websites you can submit your video clips to. Here are the top 5 places we recommend:
Pond5
Pond5 was the first stock video marketplace, and has one of the highest royalty rates out of all, ranging from 40-60% depending whether you decide to sell your content exclusively or not. They actually allow you to set your prices when you upload your content with a minimum payout of $25.00. Contributors tend to be satisfied with Pond5’s flexible and straightforward royalty structure. Their interface is intuitive and definitely worth checking out as well. Pond5 is a recommended option if you have few, but high-quality footage to submit as, you can expect to earn more for each one.
Miguel Angel Junquera
Wirestock
Wirestock is another viable option - a platform that does all the keywording/captions for you and distributes your content to major brands, marketing agencies and stock content marketplaces such as Pond5, Adobe, Depositphotos and Shutterstock. You can easily track your sales from various channels from your single dashboard. Wirestock acts as an intermediary, selling images on your behalf, and you keep 100% of your copyrights.
Shutterstock
Shutterstock is one of the largest content marketplaces in the world. Because of this, their interface is extremely easy-to-use. Their royalty varies from 15-40% for each clip sold. Shutterstock’s payment structure changed recently and has been controversial amongst its Users. Payment is now based on levels depending on the amount of content you have previously sold. Shutterstock is connected to the highest number of buyers due to its subscription service, so it is a better option if you have a lot of video footage to submit.
Vimeo & Youtube
You can also monetize your content on Vimeo and Youtube. Video monetization on video streaming platforms works through a paid advertisements and subscription basis. This is a decent option as well, if you are making a series of engaging longer videos, rather than short clips.
Miguel Angel Junquera
Selling all kinds of content requires consistency and patience. Sometimes it takes a while to see money flowing into your account. But, you can rest assured that if you are disciplined, and continue uploading, you will receive a new source of passive income.
