How to upload clips to sales platforms
Another very important aspect of learning how to make stock footage is uploading clips onto platforms.
Although it may seem a minor detail or a trivial task, it is actually a rather delicate step, and it is important to look at certain considerations.
Archiving and uploading: the differences between clips and photos
There is a difficulty with both uploading and archiving clips, which is not the case with images. Clips are considerably heavier than photos and require much more storage space.
Likewise, when uploaded to platforms, they can take a long time and a sufficiently stable and powerful Internet connection to transfer.
Properly archiving your video files is essential so that you don’t lose all the work you have done. Remember that you need a “secure” space in which to store your backups. In addition, it is generally advisable to keep the different versions: both the original and post-produced clips, which will most likely be heavier. In our video course, we will tell you a little secret about why those who have state-of-the-art equipment should absolutely not trash their raw footage.
How much space you need to store your clips
In order to archive your clips, therefore, it is necessary to dedicate a good part of the hard disk to file storage.
Good archiving requires a lot of space also because, in addition to the file size, you have to organize the material into topics, categories, etc., depending on what is produced, so that it is easier to find what you’re looking for.
Of course, the space required also depends on the number of clips you produce. But if your ambition is to publish and sell your work on sales platforms, it is highly likely that you will produce a lot of clips. This means that the available space should be at least one terabyte.
How to upload your videos to stock footage platforms
Uploading clips to sales platforms is not the same as uploading photos, especially because the file sizes are much larger, so you need a fast, stable Internet connection.
The platforms onto which you upload the clips may require different tools. Most platforms use FTP (file transfer protocol) which is a method of data transfer based on a client-server system.
If you don’t already have one for something else, you will need to download one onto your computer, such as Filezilla.
Other platforms, like iStock, use other systems like Deepmeta, or clouds like Dropbox.
Setting up uploads
Depending on the type of system you use to upload your clips, there will be different specifications and different operations to perform.
In principle, it is always advisable to avoid uploading too many files at once and, above all, if you use FTP, which allows you to upload to different platforms, not to do so at the same time.
The risk is that not all the clips upload and you may not notice the problem: some clips may not be uploaded to the very platforms that could make more from the point of view of sales, leading to a financial loss.
To avoid this problem, FTP can be used to set upload priorities. In our video course, we explain how to set these parameters and how Deepmeta works for those who want to upload their clips to iStock.
Internet connection: uploading clips quickly
Unlike with photos, uploading video clips is slower: a good quality photograph can weigh 20MB, whereas clips are much larger, about 500MB/1GB.
If you have a lot of clips to upload onto different platforms, having a fast connection becomes a determining factor. Another reason for this is that it is quite important to keep all platforms updated and aligned: if the connection is slow, it can take several days to upload all clips onto the different platforms. You must then consider that some of them may not be accepted and that, therefore, it may be necessary to upload them several times, which will take considerably longer, with a consequent economic loss.
Learning how to upload clips to platforms
Having a clear understanding of how to upload clips to platforms, so that you can organize your work properly, is strategic to maximize sales and avoid wasting time.
In our video course, you will find an overview of which tools you can use to upload your videos to the various platforms and their features.
In addition, we will explain how to set up uploads and how to store your files, to prevent anything from being lost and part of your work from going to waste.
I will also tell you why raw files are so important and why they could earn you money in the future.
