Our curators have weighed in once again with the latest from the media trenches, to deliver the freshest and most useful information about what’s trending with buyers, what they’d love to see more of, and what’s already reached peaked saturation. Read on for tips on what to create (and what to avoid) for each of our media types, but first, start off with a rule of thumb that applies to all Pond5 media, from Illustrations to After Effects, and beyond.
Good Titles Are Crucial
Good titles are an incredibly effective means of gaining traffic to your content — and thus, a great way of increasing your sales. Giving your content engaging, unique, descriptive titles greatly improves the likelihood of it being seen, both within Pond5 and via search engines. For example, check out this clip:
6K R3D – African Oystercatcher Feeding In Estuary, Eats Worm. Bird Rare 4K by bobhof
The title identifies the precise species of animal, the activity that it’s engaged in, where in the world the footage was shot, the environment where the scene takes place, and the quality of the footage. This is much more enticing, interesting, and unique than a video simply titled “Bird in the Water,” which would get far less traffic.
Video: Be Creative with Clouds
Making time-lapses is fun and the results can be stunning. While they’re very popular, we have an enormous quantity of cloud timelapses in our collection already. At this point, it might be extremely difficult to have your own submissions purchased or even noticed, with such a huge number of similar video clips. We want your content to stand out so that you can make sales!
Cumulus Clouds Time Lapse by ajalbert
We encourage our artists to make their video clips as unique as possible, so that they stand out and are more likely to be purchased. Cloud timelapses with unique, identifiable weather conditions are great, for example. Even more useful are videos of cloud timelapses over specific parts of the world, such as identifiable cities, countries, and landscapes. Capturing video in a variety of different contexts and environments will not only appeal to potential buyers seeking clouds, but also those looking for those exotic and exciting locales around the world.
Beautiful Sunrise Over Clouds, Time Lapse by Peshkov_Danil
Music: From the Office to Africa
Corporate inspirational music is one of our most frequently submitted audio types. We currently have over 72,000 songs that come up in a search for “corporate,” some of which have never sold. Like with the real corporate world, ours is full of competition and it’s a dog-eat-dog world out there.
On the other hand, we’d love to have more West African music. The sounds of Ghana, Mali, Senegal and Nigeria are filled with polyrhythms, buzzing notes, bells, and call-and-response anthems. With summer coming up in the Northern Hemisphere, it would be great to have more of these upbeat sounds.
After Effects: Avoid Flares
The creative use of lens flares in Hollywood started a major trend a few years back, with everyone adding flares to their titles, logos, and shots. And with careful placement, lens flares can give your videos an edgy look. However, only a few artists use them anymore, and they’re now slowly shifting toward being outdated. For the time being, it’s best to refrain from using them unless you have no other choice.
Promotion on Flares and Lights by fenixlab
Meanwhile, we’re now seeing a lot of glitch effects being submitted, combined with simple shapes and masks. This seems to be the most current trend, so it would be great to see some AE templates that use only use simple shapes, masking, and some glitch effects, while staying dynamic and engaging.
Fast Opener by natanaelginting
Photos: Keep Up with Technology
Our life is determined by technology. It’s pretty popular to shoot women looking at their laptops or businessmen checking their cell phones. And as our buyers tend to go through just a few pages of results, it’s also very likely that they won’t see your photos very often in such saturated topics.
Woman Surfing the Internet by WavebreakMedia_Micro
With new advancements every month, we’re addicted to checking social sites, heart rates, or weather forecasts on our phones, tablets, and wearables. Our buyers are searching for real-life photos of people who are just like us, and if you’re creative and go beyond that, they’ll appreciate it.
Children Using Virtual Reality Goggles by blendimages
Illustrations: Look Beyond the Traditional
We have nothing but respect for amazing professions like medicine and education, and we’re happy to see they’re high on your lists of creative priorities, too. However, if you decide to stick with these subjects, you’ll have to be prepared to deal with huge competition in the form of thousands and thousands of similarly themed items.
Doctor, Therapist, Medicine, and Health by studiostoks
To avoid this risk, try giving love to some more non-traditional jobs, like web developers, bloggers, and social-media managers — or get inspired by your own line of work and add some spark to your portfolio with artwork of designers, photographers, and filmmakers!
Video Blogger Flat Illustration by Macrovector
We’ll be back with more tips on what to create next month. In the meantime, keep checking back for more inspiration and trends!