How To Make Money with Your Holiday Videos

What if you could make money with your holiday videos?

I'll tell you how you can do that but before let me tell you a personal story.

I like to shoot and edit action sports videos. Not only that but I like to publish everything I work on. Be it bad or good, I just put it out there for people to watch and critique.

I did that a few years in a row with our cliff jumping videos. Each of them got tens of thousands of views which kinda brought me some internet micro-fame. I also had a few contraptions of my own while shooting those videos: a DIY steadicam and a DIY slider (see pics below) and the tutorials I made for these also brought me some notoriety.

DIY Steadicam Stabilizer with GoPro
My DIY Steadicam
DIY Camera Slider with GoPro
My DIY Slider

Anyway, at some point I get an email from a dude in Bulgaria, asking me if I could sell him some of my footage. Sell? Not give away for free?! Why of cooourse I can sell you my footage. :)

So he drops 500 Euro for a few of my cliff jumping clips. Later he used that as stock footage to create a documentary about Bulgaria. Pretty neat, huh?

Your turn

It is very likely that you'll travel to exotic places and do interesting stuff, right? So why not shoot some scenery or action footage while you're there?

Since you already have a camera with you, just take some cool shots with the awesome places you're visiting. Skylines work great, timelapses, aerial footage (if you happen to carry a drone), iconic landmarks (statues, monuments, natural features).

You can edit the material into a vacation video for you and your friends but some clips you can actually sell on stock footage websites.

Next level

If you want your partner to love you less... you can take it to the next level.

What do I mean? Let me explain.

If you truly want to get great shots, you have to work for it. And if you're there for a relaxing time, well, you'll have to compromise.

When I shot those cliff jumping video I was having fun, yes, but I was constantly running to and fro to get shots. My wife was chillin' and I was spinning.

Also having tools with you helps: motorized slider, tripod, steadicam, etc.

So this is a warning: you might make your spouse angry for not taking the time to relax together. But you WILL get awesome shots if you're deliberate about it.

Upload

Once you have the shots, upload them onto a few stock footage sites, write a detailed description and use a combination of descriptive tags so your clips get found easily for your desired keywords.

Also pitch your work to media companies, reach out to them and show them your portfolio. This can work really well if you target your buyers properly.

For instance if you know the producers of certain shows that normally use footage similar to yours then it would be wise to contact them and give them more of what they're already using. That's easy selling.

Uploading some clips to YouTube with a watermark might help as well. Coz YouTube is the second largest search engine. People look for stick footage there too. So you have to be there if you want to be found. Add a link to your stock video site in the description of the video so people will know where to go to buy your footage.

Rinse and repeat

You won't see the big buck coming right away. That's why you have to stick to it for a while.

But of you find joy in it - I know I do - then you'll create a beautiful portfolio that will make you money indefinitely.

So jump right in, create an account with a stock footage website and make some extra cash from your passion of shooting and editing videos.


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