In this part 3 post, we go over examples of our top selling stock videos for both myself and my wife. If you’d like to learn more about our best selling stock photos, take a look at two other blog posts we wrote.
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Our Top 10 Best-Selling Stock Videos
Here are the thumbnails for our best selling stock footage clips.
Notice how nature scenes and animals dominate our top 10 list. Also, a few urban stock videos are notable best sellers too.
Why Stock Videos are the Future of Stock Photography?
Before delving into each one of them, let me tell you why stock videos are the future in stock photography. You probably heard about the AI craze. Everyone is telling you how robots will overtake stock photography.
How to Evolve Your Stock Photography?
In this part 2 post, we go over Kristina’s top 10 best-selling stock photos.
For now, this hyped-up scare concerns stock photos for the most part. Moreover, AI models struggle with creating realistic stock photos, especially of people. Even if AI succeeds, imagine how long it will take them to replicate their success with stock videos.
Also, stock videos take longer to create and require more skill compared to stock photos. Thus, there is less competition in stock videos, at least for now. Due to this, stock videos pay better rates compared to stock photos in our experience.
The stock images segment is an oversaturated market with a dead end for a casual shooter. Recently, we became very selective with our stock photos. Instead, we have been focusing on creating more stock videos for the past several years.
If you are not shooting stock videos, we recommend doing so. Here is a tutorial that will help you get started with stock videos.
How to Shoot Many Stock Photos and Videos Quickly?
If you are trying to figure out a way to quickly shoot many stock videos and photos in a big city, open deck bus tours are the best. For example, we recorded many of our best-selling stock photos and videos while on a tour bus in London, UK. Moreover, Big Bus and many other tour operators sell tickets that let you hop on and hop off a tour bus for a day or two.
While riding the tour bus in London, we were taking photos and videos non-stop for several hours. It was crazy, lots of work and we were very tired by the end of it. If you want your romantic relationship to not suffer, spend some time flirting instead of taking stock videos all day! But, the efforts have paid off in spades with many of our top selling stock videos and photos.
Bus tours are available in many big cities, such as Rome, London and New York. Moreover, there could be other local tour bus operators available in smaller cities.
If you decide to repeat our feat, we recommend having at least a monopod. Or, it would be even better to have a stabilizing gimbal. Otherwise, you will get lots of shaky unattractive stock footage.
Analysis of Best-Selling Stock Videos
Now, let’s take a look at each best-selling stock videos and try to understand why they become our best sellers. Most of the time, it is very difficult to tell how buyers are using our stock videos. This is because Google lets you do reverse search on photos only for now.
Best-Selling Stock Video #1: Belgravia, London UK
This video is our best seller, hands down. We recorded it while ago on a big bus tour at the Belgravia district in London, UK. Actually, there are many more stock videos and stock photos that we shot on that day. Many of them sell very well.
We tried to reverse search it and we learned that this stock video is popular among investment companies. The video was shot with a monopod since we did not have a gimbal at that time. If there is one thing we would do differently, it would be to have a gimbal. Even a monopod was no good and we had to discard many shaky, but otherwise decent videos.
Best-Selling Stock Video #2: Timelapse of Herald Square, NYC
The second best selling stock video is this timelapse. It depicts a crowd of people walking on Herald square in New York City. We recorded it from a nearby hotel room through the window. Later, I applied a tilt-and-shift effect in post-processing. Customers can buy this video as editorial only. And yet, the timelapse sells very well.
Best-Selling Stock Footage #3: Japanese Garden in London, UK
This stock video shows a beautiful Japanese garden at Holland Park in London, UK. As you can see, it is a bit overexposed with unrecoverable highlights here and there. And yet, it still sells well. In fact, there are two stock photos showing exactly the same scene. They are one of our top five best-selling stock photos too.
I also made a cinemagraph out of this video that also sells well. If you do not know what a cinemagraph is or how to create it, take a look at our YouTube tutorial.
Top Selling Stock Clip #4: Autumn at Maroon Bells, Colorado
Next is the other best-selling stock recorded on a gimbal in Colorado. This scene is near the famous Maroon Bells park. There is the beautiful sun shining through aspen trees with autumn foliage at sunrise. We will never forget the crisp, fresh air on that day.
There are many more stock videos from that day, including various vehicle shots we recorded with a gimbal. They are also among our best sellers.
Top Stock Footage Clip #5: Arashiyama Bamboo Forest
This top seller shows the famous bamboo forest at Arashiyama in Kyoto, Japan. Again, it was recorded handheld on a gimbal with a wide angle lens. I aimed from a low angle with a slightly tilted view, looking up to avoid people in the shot. You will not believe how busy that area gets with tourists.
Best-Selling Stock Video #6: Bison on Antelope Island
The next video was recorded at Antelope Island state park. There was this menacing bison running alongside our car. It was no joke seeing this massive animal that can charge at you at any second. The video is in HD format because we wanted to create a slow motion video and yet, it proved to be our best seller.
Best-Selling Stock Clips #7: Timelapse in Rome, Italy
The next stock video is this timelapse we captured at an Airbnb in Rome, Italy. The clip has not sold very often. But, when it did, it earned hundreds of dollars at a time. I would say that this is generally true with stock videos.
Top Selling Stock Clip #8: David by Michelangelo
The next best-selling video is a slow motion of the statue of David by Michelangelo. We were visiting Florence, Italy when we captured this clip. Buyers love this stock video, even though it is editorial.
Top Seller Stock Video Clip #9: Monument Valley
The next best-selling stock video is this vehicle shot clip. We captured it using a gimbal at the Monument Valley tribal park in Arizona. It is like a scene from a wild west movie. We camped in the park and recorded many other stock videos there. But, buyers love this particular clip for some reason.
Top Selling Stock Footage #10: Santa Rosa Beach, Florida
The last best-selling stock video is this slow motion clip. We recorded this idyllic scene at sunset at Santa Rosa Beach in the Florida Panhandle. Maybe, its popularity has to do with the fact that it shows Florida. The topic of moving to Florida has been very popular lately.
Conclusions for Best-Selling Stock Videos
After seeing our top 10 best-selling stock videos, what kind of conclusion can we draw?
1. Gimbal Makes a Huge Difference
First, as you probably noticed, there is a trend here. We recorded many of our best-selling stock videos with a gimbal. We cannot tell you enough how a gimbal helped us expand our stock video portfolio. Many shots would have been impossible without it.
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- How a Gimbal Can Earn You MORE from Stock Videos
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2. Timelapses are in Demand
Second, timelapses are very popular too. Because it takes some skill, time and patience to create timelapses, there are not that many of them. Some stock videographers specialize in timelapses only and make a living off them.
3. Unique Nature Scenery
Next, captivating nature scenes showing unique places under unique angles remain popular too. I cannot tell you how many times we would be surprised at a lack of coverage of famous places. If you feel discouraged shooting landmarks, do a search on Shutterstock. You will be surprised at a lack of competition in many cases.
4. Shoot Editorial
Finally, do not be afraid to shoot editorial stock footage. A few of our best-selling stock videos are editorial. Aim to capture something newsworthy or an interesting situation. These could be protests or crowd of people.
For example, I shot a video of Pope Francis at the Vatican as he rode waving to the crowd of people and this video sells very well. Such editorial footage can become your best sellers.