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Posts
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Hi
Ok I have been working on the video site and managed to get it to play the video directly from the website server rather than as an embed code. This now means that there is no need to upload to pond 5 or other video sites.
http://www.symbiostockvideo.com/image/boy-relaxing/
Any feed back appreiciated
Kind regards
MarkIt is looking good Mark, I like the way there is no visible boundary to the video
http://kerioakimaging.com - trying to reopen
http://nail-art-at.kerioak.com - Art and Nail ArtI would like it if I could control the video playing back – a pause/play button. At some point the playback got very very slow – almost like slow motion – but once I’ve seen it play through once, I don’t need it to repeat. I’d prefer not to have two things to look at – still and video – but I’m assuming that’s just there because you’re testing things.
If speed is going to be an issue, your video preview seems quite a bit larger than other sites’ previews. Can you make it smaller easily?
I also assume that you’ll provide specifics of format on the finished pages
You realize you’ll become the video guru for Symbiostock if you get this all working beautifully 🙂
This would be a great addition to have videos – just another way of offering more content to prospective buyers on Symbio, and greater retention of customers to this new way of buying stock images and videos
I’ve finally gotten a little time to play with video on our site and here’s what I’ve come up with so far using Marks’ basic idea:
http://crackerclips.com/?s=footage&post_type=image
-I’ve got the video preview embedded from vimeo which provides all the playback controls but avoids my site having bandwidth issues.
-I decided to offer a still frame of the video for sale in addition to the footage clip itself. Nice quality for web use and small prints.
-I had previously purchased a video sitemap from yoast (for another purpose that didn’t work out) and realized I could use it here (which is good because it was expensive). In addition to the video sitemap, it automatically displays a video thumbnail along with the snippet in google search results. http://yoast.com/wordpress/video-seo/Before I get too far down the path, I’d love to hear any feedback anyone has that may improve things or make anything more clear for the buyers.
Cheers, Bryan
I had a look at your video examples and the pages seem to load pretty quickly and I had no problems playing the video. I tried on my desktop and also on my iPhone.
Couple of comments. One is that the Mount Rushmore video is missing the still image prices. Another is that the preview shows different prices from what you see on the image page (I think someone else had mentioned this so I don’t think it’s just your site).
Another thought is that the title says video, but the still image is up top. Possibly reverse the order and put the video above the still?
If I look at video on iStock, I get a choice of formats and sizes – so video for a blog is cheaper and lower res than video for HD. You only offer one choice – do you think that discourages bloggers or other web users (who you mention as possible customers for the stills). I don’t buy or use video, so these are uninformed musings just based on what other sites offer.
Interesting points. Thank you jsnover for taking a look!
Yes, on the Mount Rushmore clip I’m not offering a still for that one because I have a similar still at an exclusive agency. As for the prices on the preview they are not completely correct. There is no large available. I’ve listed the large size as “unavailable” in the back end but it is still showing a price for it. This looks like a programming issue that affects all previews where there is a size marked as unavailable but there is still a price listed. I’ll try removing the price for the large size and see if that fixes things.
As for footage sizes, the clips are only being offered in full HD size. I’ve found over the years that probably 85-90% of my video sales are for the full HD size. While a low res still image works well for the web a low res or standard definition footage clip doesn’t work as well for two reasons. Generally the clips aren’t used as a one off like a picture may be. It’s integrated with other clips to complete the whole project, so it almost always makes sense for the buyer to create the advertisement or movie at the highest resolution possible because if they decide later that they need their finished product bigger it’s a real hassle. Secondly, with today’s high def monitors and retina displays, HD actually looks better even if downsized to use smaller. For years I though Pond5 was missing out by not resizing clips but now I don’t think it’s necessary to be successful and they have always been my number one or two distributor.
I like your idea of having the video on top of the still (as it’s the primary item I’m selling) but I don’t know of a way to do that. The video embed code goes into the content section while the still image preview always appears on top of whatever is in the content section. As far as I know that would have to be a change in the symbiostock programming.
I’m glad everything loaded quickly for you. Another benefit of embedding the preview from elsewhere is that the video will play on phones and tablets.
Thanks again for taking a look.
Not a big change in programming to move the image preview, but to do it for only certain types of pages would be the tricky part.
I’ve made a number of changes to content-image.php which is where that page is built for my site, but all the changes are universal. Is there any way – category? – to identify which items have video previews?
right, the current video options are use the sym image format, so it’s not simple to change the format and keep it as part of the theme.
I agree that offering only HD makes sense – otherwise there ‘s additional hassles in providing different sizes as delivery would not be done on the fly as it is for images and again, we’re using the zip file as a container. I usually have distinct stills when I take videos – either from a second camera when I can set up in one position for awhile & shoot images while the video is recording, or just covering the same area
http://cascoly-images.com/pix/image/video-african-meercat-standing-sentinel
Would it be possible to have a simple check box on the image detail page when uploading that if checked would move the content section up above the still preview on a case by case basis? Simple for me to write here but maybe much harder to actually implement. I’d also like to see something on the thumbnails when searching that indicates a thumb represents a video. Something like the “exclusive” tag we have now.
cascoly – Cool…nice to see some more video on board! Many times I do have identical shots taken with a proper stills camera but other times not. Also, video’s just a different beast and in general I compose a video shot differently than I would a still so I end up with a different product.
I removed the price from the unavailable large size. In the preview the large size is still showing but now without a price so I think it will require a programming fix to correct.
both good suggestions – the thumbnails would probably be fairly easy (always easy to add to leo’s task list), don’t know what would be involved with the other. for now, i’m busy trying to get more of my pond5 video portfolio over to my sym site
separate question for all — in author settings, under focus, we currently have photography, vectors, 3d design and digital paintings choices — if we were to add another, should we call it ‘video’ or ‘footage’? I’ve created a video category but use both words in my promoted keywords
@crackerclips wrote:
Would it be possible to have a simple check box on the image detail page when uploading that if checked would move the content section up above the still preview on a case by case basis? Simple for me to write here but maybe much harder to actually implement. I’d also like to see something on the thumbnails when searching that indicates a thumb represents a video. Something like the “exclusive” tag we have now.
cascoly – Cool…nice to see some more video on board! Many times I do have identical shots taken with a proper stills camera but other times not. Also, video’s just a different beast and in general I compose a video shot differently than I would a still so I end up with a different product.
I removed the price from the unavailable large size. In the preview the large size is still showing but now without a price so I think it will require a programming fix to correct.
For the stills, I normally use a frame out of the video. After effects allows you to save a particular frame as a PSD. I ten convert this to JPG. No need to set up a second camera.
Thanks for the info on the yoast plugin, i had no idea that was available.
@cascoly wrote:
both good suggestions – the thumbnails would probably be fairly easy (always easy to add to leo’s task list), don’t know what would be involved with the other. for now, i’m busy trying to get more of my pond5 video portfolio over to my sym site
separate question for all — in author settings, under focus, we currently have photography, vectors, 3d design and digital paintings choices — if we were to add another, should we call it ‘video’ or ‘footage’? I’ve created a video category but use both words in my promoted keywords
I’ve given this one quite a bit of thought over the years as I’ve tried to rank the footage related websites I’ve had. When you do a search for “video” on google you get a huge array of all sorts of stuff returned in the search results that don’t apply to stock footage. For instance, if you search google with the term “stock video” you get a bunch of videos about the financial stock market returned. Using the term “footage” is much more clear as to what we’re talking about. Many agencies also use the keyword “Motion”. I’ve never used that one so I’m not sure if anyone searches for “motion” or not.
I’ve also used the words “video” and “footage” in my promoted keywords. Since there isn’t a built in way to search for just video in our portfolios, I’ve added both of these as keywords to each clip itself. I intend to explain somewhere on my site that if a buyer is just searching for footage they should add either the keyword “video” or “footage” to their search term such as “nature footage” or “city skyline video”.
I also use the word video at the start of all captions, so at least when people see the links such as those from http://symbiostock-search.com they’ll know, but it doesn’t help in the internal sym searches
@markscatesphotography wrote:
For the stills, I normally use a frame out of the video. After effects allows you to save a particular frame as a PSD. I ten convert this to JPG. No need to set up a second camera.
Thanks for the info on the yoast plugin, i had no idea that was available.
right, that works for the still needed for the zip companion, but he was referring to offering the still alone as a product, and that usually isn’t as large as a distinct image
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