Get creative with these 5 top tips on making money at home as a videographer. Whether you shoot weddings, stock, or commercial – there are still ways to make money at home.
With creatives at a global level losing work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nobody would criticize you for feeling anxious about what the future holds. Making money at home as a videographer, producer, or editor is still possible. It just takes some creative consideration.
Filmmaking by nature is collaborative, and being locked down, either by yourself or with family, is the exact opposite of traditional collaborative work. As a videographer stuck at home, I’m sharing a few tips on how you can make money at home with your video skills. Let’s take a look at a few clever ways to keep that creativity flowing, while still earning a paycheck in your creative field.
Make Money at Home: Stock Video
If you’re a self-shooter or at least have filmmaking equipment at home, you’re already one step closer to earning income until the storm passes, and that is with stock video. If your reply to that is: “But I’m at home, what do I film here?” you just answered the question.
Popular content shifts throughout the year and often reflects the happenings of the time. For example, a family opening presents around the tree is going to sell better in the lead up to the festive season. As such, brands and companies are going to seek content that reflects the current timeframe. And for a lot of us, that’s staying at home, working from home, homeschooling, and self-isolating.
If there was ever a creative brief that a solo filmmaker could efficiently work from, it’s that. Check out the Shot List for the latest ideas to shoot.
Uploading archive footage to stock
However, while that touches upon creating content that reflects the current situation, you can still get creative and sift through your hard drives to find additional footage to submit.
I’m always guilty of veering outside of the structured shoot to obtain some B-roll of pastel-colored skies or animals grazing in the evening light. Often, I know this material is never going anywhere outside of Instagram, and I’m only shooting the content because it looks beautiful. However, in hindsight, I’ve also just captured perfect footage to submit for stock.
So, brew some coffee, dust off the old hard drives, and see if you have any clips that can make you money.
Here are a few resources to help you get started submitting video to stock:
- The Tools You Need to Start Shooting Stock Footage
- Filmmaking Roundup: The Best Free Video Editing Programs
- 9 Beginner Tips For Editing Footage in Final Cut Pro X
- Budget Videography Tips for Creating Stock Footage
Ready? Click here to sign up and submit video to Shutterstock
Make Money at Home: Freelance Platforms
While the laboring world has seemingly ground to a halt, many digital platforms continue to operate as normal. And, unlike filmmakers before the digital era, I’d argue that many of us also know how to edit quite sufficiently.
With more online content being produced, more editing jobs are required. There are numerous online platforms such as Upwork that are a haven for global freelance opportunities.
I often feel like making a showreel is the digital equivalent to finally taking the trash out. It’s always an “I’ll do it tomorrow” job. However, now is the time to finish your showreel. Perhaps you can also look for stock worthy clips while searching for the money shot for your reel.
What’s more, it’s worth noting that with platforms like UpWork and Mandy.com don’t just host filmmaking-specific jobs, but also a wide range of creative gigs. And, one that’s grown dramatically over the last few weeks is online tutoring.
Make Money at Home: Online Tutoring
A number of creatives, and even individuals outside of the creative industry, have stated on social media that they’ll be spending the downtime developing new skills and learning about new areas of their craft — perhaps even something completely different.
It’s entirely understandable to acknowledge that the internet is filled with free tutorials. It seems that nobody is going to pay to learn something. While that might be partly true, folks are always willing to pay for quality. And yes, while YouTube is completely inundated with tutorials, that can sometimes cause a paradox of choice by leaving the viewer with too much to watch.
If you can find a unique niche in your video content, there will always be an audience willing to learn from it.
Alternatively, if you’re having trouble landing a tutoring job through a freelance platform, you can bring the class to you via a platform like Skillshare. This platform is a pay-to-watch teaching service in which the teacher publishes courses via video, along with class coursework and student feedback.
Make Money at Home: YouTube — The Long Game
Content viewership is set to rise over the coming weeks, so much that YouTube is changing the default playback resolution at 480p (hello 2006). As such, new and fresh online content is needed now more than ever.
If you ever wanted to start that tutorial channel—or perhaps you already had a video content channel but things slipped away—now is the perfect time to get that train rolling again.
However, it’s essential to note that the train is a slow one. While every video content creator yearns for the viral hit, they rarely come. However, with persistent effort, quality content, and a consistent upload schedule, you’ll more than likely build a viewership. The Shutterstock Tutorials team gained 100K subscribers in just over a year of producing regular content.
Of course, in this predicament, many are not looking to earn money that slowly builds up over a year. But, if you have a somewhat stable base and would like to leave the storm with a possible stream of passive income, the earlier you start the better.
P.S: If you have an idea for a video that would be great for either our Shutterstock Tutorials or Shutterstock Presents YouTube channel email us here. Who knows, you could be our next creative collaborator.
Earning money on YouTube
To qualify for YouTube’s monetary partnership through AdSense, you need to reach the following criteria:
- Have more than 4,000 public watch hours in the last twelve months.
- Need more than 1,000 subscribers.
- Have a linked AdSense account.
- Make sure your content adheres to the monetization policies.
For tips on how to build a paperback drop studio in a small space, check out this tutorial:
While YouTube monetization is a slow gain, you can also look at affiliation programs from online retailers. If you’re a camera aficionado and plan on demonstrating tips and tricks, make sure you link all cameras and lenses you mention within the video in the YouTube description. I may even be inclined to say I’ve yielded a greater return from affiliate links than YouTube’s monetization program.
For filmmakers and videographers, the last thing you want to hear is that you can’t create content outside. However, thanks to the digital world we live in, you’re not out of the game just yet.
Cover image via Sutipond Somnam.
Looking for more work from home inspiration? Check out these resources:
- Zoom Virtual Backgrounds During Social Distancing
- Working from Home: Creative Office Setups We Love
- 8 Best Practices for Creatives Working from Home
- 13 Creative Instagrams to Follow for Inspiration in 2020
- Premiere Pro Playbook: 10 Video Editing Workflow Tips