Author Topic: Is selling After Effects templates on Pond5 worth it? (Read 19972 times)

Osuchi · « **on:** May 25, 2019, 03:37 »

Hi!

I recently decided to start selling After Effects templates, the first website that came to mind was VideoHive, but if forcing you to sell your templates at a very low price, reject 80% of your items, and take more than a half of your money wasen't enough, they made an update that makes it impossible to find new items, they only advertise best sellers now.

So while searching for an alternative, I found Pond5, I would like to know your opinion about it ? Is it possible to start making a living there? Even for a (really motivated) new member? How much sales do you make on average? How long are the review times?

And if it isn't worth it, anyone knows any other alternative?

Thank you very much.

SuperPhoto · « **Reply #1 on:** May 25, 2019, 07:29 »

You may as well upload and try. If you make a sale, of course it is worth it, if not, then it's not.

Envato is quite bad for rejections - and it seems completely arbitrary. My understanding is that a number of "verifiers" are also "authors" - so basically - if they see something that competes with their product, they reject you. Not because it is 'bad' - just because they don't want you getting sales.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #2 on:** May 25, 2019, 08:44 »

Quote from: SuperPhoto on May 25, 2019, 07:29

so basically - if they see something that competes with their product, they reject you. Not because it is 'bad' - just because they don't want you getting sales.

There's no evidence to support that, you're just making assumptions. And as there's plenty of files on the marketplace that are similar to the files of the reviewers, it's highly unlikely to be true.

To the OP... you an choose whatever price you want to set your items at, they most definitely don't force you to sell your templates at a low price.

As for taking more than half your money... that's true for non-exclusive authors with average priced items. If you're exclusive then they take half... sell loads of stuff and they'll take 30% or less. And while I'd never recommend being exclusive to one agency when selling footage or images, I'd make an exception for VideoHive if you're just selling AE templates on your account. No other agency comes anywhere close to the sales numbers.

On the rejections... they can afford to be picky, not much that can be done about that.

And for the sorting of items in the search results... yes, they did make a change recently to display best sellers first rather than new items. It's not the first time they've altered the search criteria and they've not confirmed whether the change is permanent yet. And as Pond 5 show best match rather than newest... there's no guarantee you'll show up top there either.

Bottom line... if you're selling AE templates then there's really not much point in selling your templates anywhere other than VideoHive.

Osuchi · « **Reply #3 on:** May 25, 2019, 09:40 »

Quote

they've not confirmed whether the change is permanent yet.

They said the conversion rate increased for about 5% in Videohive and 50% in themeforest, and they're very happy with that.
In the thread related to the announcement, 99% of the elite and non-elite authors are unhappy about the sales drop, and they're threatening to leave the site.. but again.. Envato have shown time and time again that they don't care about the authors, so as long as they don't lose money, I don't think they're going to change anything.

Quote

And as Pond 5 show best match rather than newest... there's no guarantee you'll show up top there either.

In best match there's a mix between new items and best sellers, so if you put the right tags/description etc.. you might get some visibility, unlike VH.

Quote

No other agency comes anywhere close to the sales numbers.

Well that's not the case anymore, unless you have a bunch of best sellers items, all newest items are invisible.
Take a look at the Top new authors of the month, they used to have between 20 and 200 sales, now it's hardly 10 sales for each one, that's just sad.

I guess I'll start uploading in Pond5 and see what's going, at worst I'll just take my templates and put them somewhere else.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #4 on:** May 25, 2019, 11:10 »

Now YOU might do better at Pond5, who knows...

BUT, Pond5 is a small ant in comparison to the VideoHive elephant.

There are 1,716 AE templates with 400+ sales at VideoHive.

Over at Pond5? 3. Yup, three. And they are priced minimally.

---

What you are experiencing is what is happening everywhere, at every agency everywhere. More authors. More competition. The number of authors is growing faster than what customers can keep up with. It's really that simple.

They can't promote every new project when there are so many. It's more likely that customers want to buy a proven seller. If they want a new project they sort by new. Heavily promote new items, and the authors who have worked hard for years and helped build the site get upset. Promote bestsellers, and newbies get upset... They can't win.

Pond5 is probably the absolute worst website of them all for new items by the way.

Of course, there is less competition at Pond5 (along with a fraction of the customers). The best strategy for someone without bestsellers might be to seek out the smaller sites where you have a chance of more visibility. They might grow to a big giant some day.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #5 on:** May 25, 2019, 11:26 »

Want some more statistics? Of course you do.

In the last 10 days, 111 new AE templates were added to Pond5.

Their total number of sales? 0. Zero.

---

In the last week, 144 new items were added to VH.

Their total number of sales? 85.

---

I'll let you interpret those numbers.

---

...OK, I'll give it a try.

Some possible conclusions that can be true or false:

• You are too late to the party.

• New items at VH sell MUCH, MUCH better than at Pond5.

• You need to improve your skills.

• You need to make something there isn't already an abundance of.

---

When the smell of money reaches a large number of people, and the barrier to entry is relatively small (not easy to make GOOD AE templates, but anyone is allowed a try), one thing is sure to happen: Dilution of earnings.

Looking at the top sellers lists does not give a realistic image of the chances for a newcomer. Neither does looking at statistics from a year ago, or two years ago.

Osuchi · « **Reply #6 on:** May 25, 2019, 11:34 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 25, 2019, 11:26

I'll let you interpret those numbers.

Ok you convinced me

Can I ask you where do you get access to those stats?

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #7 on:** May 25, 2019, 11:43 »

Quote from: Osuchi on May 25, 2019, 11:34

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 25, 2019, 11:26
I'll let you interpret those numbers.

Ok you convinced me

Can I ask you where do you get access to those stats?

Yes, you can. And I will tell you.

At VideoHive it's easy as you probably know, just a bit of clicking.

At Pond5, there are some great search tools you can use.

itemgt:"any number" shows you items newer than an item with that number. I know that items above 108000000 were uploaded the last 10 days (based on my own uploads).

salegt:"any number" shows you items with sales ABOVE that number. salegt:0 shows items with 1 sale or above.

---

So, in the search bar with After Effects selected, you type

itemgt:108000000 salegt:0

to get the AE templates uploaded in the last 10 days with at least one sale. Remove the salegt:0 and you see all the templates that were approved.

---

edit: I just need to make a small correction. I originally wrote "items approved", but the item number is for "items uploaded", but generally, approvals at Pond5 are very fast, so the 10 days there should be comparable to the 7 days at VH.

Osuchi · « **Reply #8 on:** May 25, 2019, 11:55 »

Thank you very much!

Quote

• You need to improve your skills.

• You need to make something there isn't already an abundance of.

I'm going to focus on these two.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #9 on:** May 25, 2019, 12:18 »

...and just because I was curious, I also compared projects uploaded since May 2018, so we get a bigger picture.

VH: 8,091 items.

Out of those, the number of items with 39 sales or more (High and Top Sellers): 1,080. 13.3%.

P5: 3,634 items.

Out of those, 39 sales or more: 1 (one). Percentage not visible on radar.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #10 on:** May 25, 2019, 12:57 »

Quote from: Osuchi on May 25, 2019, 09:40

Quote
99% of the elite and non-elite authors are unhappy about the sales drop, and they're threatening to leave the site

Every week a bunch of people complain about some sales drop, and every week a bunch of people threaten to leave the site... for the ten years or so they've had the forums. Some do, some don't... but all the while Envato has got bigger and bigger, bringing in more and more revenue.

Like increasinglydifficult says... increased competition means that although there's an increase in buyers (so the agency is growing) the increase in money that these new buyers bring in isn't enough to offset the increase in new authors/files... so the money is spread thinner among the ever increasing contributors. And the longer you've been there the harder it is to keep up.

It the reason why most people see the same kind of chart when they look at their annual earnings... large increases in the first couple of years, steady increases in the next few, slight increases in the few after that... and then it levels out or drops after that... unless they're consistently uploading more this year than they did the year before.

Based on the above, and coming back to the authors who are complaining about dropping sales... it amazes me that some of these people aren't uploading more content than they did last year... they're uploading less, and in some cases, nothing at all. And they're wondering why sales are dropping... crazy cats!

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #11 on:** May 25, 2019, 13:30 »

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on May 25, 2019, 12:57

Every week a bunch of people complain about some sales drop, and every week a bunch of people threaten to leave the site... for the ten years or so they've had the forums. Some do, some don't... but all the while Envato has got bigger and bigger, bringing in more and more revenue.

Exactly. These forums (including this one) don't reflect anything even close to reality. Negative results create anger and frustration, which results in forum posts. Positive results just create a lack of forum posts. People are incredibly more likely to whine about bad sales than write about normal or above average sales.

Furthermore, it seems most posters don't have even the slightest analytical ability and logical reasoning (you are a nice exception SSF, and although I disagree on some points, I agree on many). Even the basics like averages and actually looking at numbers seems to be too much. Including this forum.

Then we have the "back in my day" folks who think that everything new is bad. They sold some $5k licenses in the 80s and in their mind, we are still there... Better find a DeLorean and jump back.

And then of course the people without any self-awareness whatsoever, who constantly complain, every single day... One look at their portfolio and it's obvious why. Unfortunately not to them...

And like you say, not many see the big picture. It's generally not enough to just grow your portfolio to increase sales. You have to grow it in relation to everyone else. Which is why everyone will reach a plateau sooner or later.

csm · « **Reply #12 on:** May 25, 2019, 14:57 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 25, 2019, 13:30

Quote from: SpaceStockFootage on May 25, 2019, 12:57
Every week a bunch of people complain about some sales drop, and every week a bunch of people threaten to leave the site... for the ten years or so they've had the forums. Some do, some don't... but all the while Envato has got bigger and bigger, bringing in more and more revenue.

Exactly. These forums (including this one) don't reflect anything even close to reality. Negative results create anger and frustration, which results in forum posts. Positive results just create a lack of forum posts. People are incredibly more likely to whine about bad sales than write about normal or above average sales.

Furthermore, it seems most posters don't have even the slightest analytical ability and logical reasoning (you are a nice exception SSF, and although I disagree on some points, I agree on many). Even the basics like averages and actually looking at numbers seems to be too much. Including this forum.

Then we have the "back in my day" folks who think that everything new is bad. They sold some $5k licenses in the 80s and in their mind, we are still there... Better find a DeLorean and jump back.

And then of course the people without any self-awareness whatsoever, who constantly complain, every single day... One look at their portfolio and it's obvious why. Unfortunately not to them...

And like you say, not many see the big picture. It's generally not enough to just grow your portfolio to increase sales. You have to grow it in relation to everyone else. Which is why everyone will reach a plateau sooner or later.

Too true.

I always think how come, not here, its the same names complaining about a lack of sales, and yet they hardly produce any new work and probably never compare their work to the competition. Their style has probably not changed and yet there is greater competition.

I always think how come the top shooters are never on the forums talking about their sales?...

I know the reason why.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #13 on:** May 25, 2019, 15:02 »

georgep7 · « **Reply #14 on:** May 25, 2019, 22:47 »

I don't produce AE templates and I have no opinion, but wish I have read SpaceStockFootage and IncreasingDifficulty comments way back in time
(give me that DeLorean

)
Peeping from time to time Envato forums there was always someone and then another one etc. declaring dead Envato and sales. And that was discouraging.
No that don't mean that now that I read them I will be succesful, but it is a different perspective rare to read everywhere.

:/

wds · « **Reply #15 on:** May 26, 2019, 17:11 »

I question the search results on P5 using those parameters, unless perhaps I am using them incorrectly. I combined a few keywords with a parameter as follows:

keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 salegt: 100

I got a number of clips that came up. I repeated the search as follows: keyword1 keyword2 keyword3 salegt: 50

The clips returned by the first query did not appear at all in the second query.

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #16 on:** May 27, 2019, 00:46 »

Quote from: wds on May 26, 2019, 17:11

I question the search results on P5 using those parameters, unless perhaps I am using them incorrectly.

You indeed are. There can't be any spaces between salegt: and the number. It's all one word, very important. Otherwise 100 and 50 are just seen as keywords, which is why you are getting the results you are getting.

To the search engine, a space means "OK, done looking at that thing, let's look at the next", so in your search, the "salegt:" has no effect at all.

SpaceStockFootage · « **Reply #17 on:** May 27, 2019, 04:17 »

Looks like the best selling AE item at Pond5 has had 530 sales, and if it's been $9.99 since the beginning, it's made them around $2647.Heck, even I've got three AE templates on that have made more than $2647 each on VH... and I'm not all that good with After Effects, so that should tell you something!

Best selling item on VideoHive? 27,050 sales at $53, making them just under $1m! They guy makes nearly $50k a month just on Vidohive!

wds · « **Reply #18 on:** May 27, 2019, 07:56 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 27, 2019, 00:46

Quote from: wds on May 26, 2019, 17:11
I question the search results on P5 using those parameters, unless perhaps I am using them incorrectly.

You indeed are. There can't be any spaces between salegt: and the number. It's all one word, very important. Otherwise 100 and 50 are just seen as keywords, which is why you are getting the results you are getting.

To the search engine, a space means "OK, done looking at that thing, let's look at the next", so in your search, the "salegt:" has no effect at all.

Still not working for me. I performed the following two searches

manhattan salesgt:1

manhattan salesgt:10000

Both searches returned the same 84262 results...what am I doing wrong?

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #19 on:** May 27, 2019, 08:02 »

Quote from: wds on May 27, 2019, 07:56

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 27, 2019, 00:46
Quote from: wds on May 26, 2019, 17:11
I question the search results on P5 using those parameters, unless perhaps I am using them incorrectly.

You indeed are. There can't be any spaces between salegt: and the number. It's all one word, very important. Otherwise 100 and 50 are just seen as keywords, which is why you are getting the results you are getting.

To the search engine, a space means "OK, done looking at that thing, let's look at the next", so in your search, the "salegt:" has no effect at all.

Still not working for me. I performed the following two searches

manhattan salesgt:1

manhattan salesgt:10000

Both searches returned the same 84262 results...what am I doing wrong?

Don't know if you're trolling but I'll be nice.

It's

salegt:1

NOT salesgt:1, NOT salegt: 1, NOT salesgt: 10000

---

manhattan salegt:1

manhattan salegt:10000

---

Exactly like that. Nothing else will work.

By the way, there are no video clips with sales higher than 420, so you can stop there.

georgep7 · « **Reply #20 on:** May 27, 2019, 08:13 »

Quote

It's

salegt:1

NOT salesgt:1, NOT salegt: 1, NOT salesgt: 10000

Truth is that, similar, it took me some time to get it, in my mind "sales" was correct. Aso, that spaces defined a command (gt) or value (1)

As a common example, I misspell words, so in time, trained my mind to automatically order hands to type chappel, harbour, etc...

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #21 on:** May 27, 2019, 08:19 »

Quote from: georgep7 on May 27, 2019, 08:13

chappel, harbour, etc...

It's "chapel".

I see that "chappel" can sometimes be accepted as an alternate spelling, but in general, it's "chapel".

wds · « **Reply #22 on:** May 27, 2019, 08:24 »

Quote from: increasingdifficulty on May 27, 2019, 08:02

Don't know if you're trolling but I'll be nice.

It's

salegt:1

NOT salesgt:1, NOT salegt: 1, NOT salesgt: 10000

---

manhattan salegt:1

manhattan salegt:10000

---

Exactly like that. Nothing else will work.

By the way, there are no video clips with sales higher than 420, so you can stop there.

Not trolling....just a silly oversight on my part...thanks!

increasingdifficulty · « **Reply #23 on:** May 27, 2019, 08:27 »

Quote from: wds on May 27, 2019, 08:24

Not trolling....just a silly oversight on my part...thanks!

No worries, happy searching! And feel free to share interesting findings.

Sean Locke Photography · « **Reply #24 on:** May 27, 2019, 09:27 »

I've got some AE templates on AS, which I like, because they're "compiled" into .mogrt format. On the other sites, you actually sell an AE file, right? What's to stop anyone from stealing some of the underlying expression code or anything else?

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Author Topic: Is selling After Effects templates on Pond5 worth it? (Read 19972 times)

Osuchi

SuperPhoto

SpaceStockFootage

Osuchi

increasingdifficulty

increasingdifficulty

Osuchi

increasingdifficulty

Osuchi

increasingdifficulty

SpaceStockFootage

increasingdifficulty

csm

Sean Locke Photography

georgep7

wds

increasingdifficulty

SpaceStockFootage

wds

increasingdifficulty

georgep7

increasingdifficulty

wds

increasingdifficulty

Sean Locke Photography

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