When I went to VH, I was unemployed. No, sometimes were private commissions - design in printing, photographing weddings, but very rarely. Therefore, the main income come from VH, since March 2010. 
Interesting thread....it demonstrates that it all depends on where you live. And digging a little bit deeper, it's about the globalisation of the media industry.I have lived and worked in London and Berlin (mainly London). You couldnât survive on $500 a month in either of those cities. In London, you need minimum $750 a month just to cover your rent and only at around $30,000 a year can you start talking about a comfortable income. (probably equivalent to 500 sales per month on VH). Berlin is quite a lot cheaper, but still you wouldnât get far on $500 a month.
On the downside, what you lose out on with a career producing stock is access to big budget or high-end jobs, contact with clients, working with and learning from a team of people with different skills / more experience than you, a reel and experience that might ultimately lead to art director / creative director position. Most employers and freelance clients will be looking closely at what youâve worked on (and stock doesnât really count).
On the plus-side, working on your own, from home, being your own boss, following your own creative path, your own timetable and not being so answerable to the vagaries of clients is a very desirable thing. Thereâs a great community here and the speculative nature of Videohive is a great buzz too if youâre in to that kind of thing.
I would also consider one more thing before diving in as a full time Videohiver. That is that in 1 year, the number of project files has leapt from around 200 to around 1500. I donât perceive that the client base has moved as quickly. It is becoming noticeably harder to make a mark here. My point is that the landscape is changing extremely rapidly⌠and not just for VH, but for stock and the media world in general. We see things today that would have been unthinkable just a few short years ago⌠and more unthinkable is just round the corner.
-f.
Felt good conclusion, the fact is that everything changes rapidly, the question is how the authors are able and willing to follow up that tempo? On the other hand as far as I noticed at the VideoHive forum for these 3 months there is a very small number of authors that are written, in general, it not all about money, it is necessary to find a balance between the âdownsideâ and the âplus sideâ. There is one thing, we generally do not know who are our customers? For example, if someone came to VH to buy a project to learn how After Effects is logical that it will take a simpler project to try to understand the basics of how something is done. If someone came up to take a project for television means that person already know basics and it will buy advanced project. I personaly see myself on videohive as long as I can to follow the needs of market.
Anyway Videohive for me is a very serious market in which you need to invest a lot of time but are worth at least for a country where I live.
felt_tips, in your opinion, what do you think is the future of VideoHive. I am talking from the authors perspective. With so many projects being uploaded at such a fast rate, do you think it will become easier or more harder to make money here?
The future of Videohive is bound up with the future of stock on the net. And that in turn is bound up with the televisualisation of the net. Youtube has only been around for a couple of years, Vimeo even less; only for a couple of years has the expectation existed that you can turn on a computer and look at the world news, the world cup, download a movie or a TV seriesâŚor whatever. This is to do in large part with the mass adoption of fast broadband, the huge improvements to processor speeds and video codecs and the ever continuing cheapness of prosumer / consumer video equipment. Camera in your cellphone? Whodâve thunk it a couple of years back?
As such, I expect the interest in having video âcontentâ on your website will grow exponentially. (just witness the recent explosion of video tutorials). Stock sites stand to do well out of all that. I would expect the requirement for logos, lower thirds and stuff that looks like channel branding might do best. I reserve judgement on the put-your-photos-in-a-cool-presentation type of project. They are a perennial best-seller on VH, but Iâm not entirely sure who buys them and what forâŚIâm guessing corporate clients for largely below-the-line use.
And that brings up the other big issue - whether VH will continue to serve a âsmall userâ demographic or whether it can in some way square up to a more pro market. It will never compete with bespoke in my opinion, but I could easily see professional motion graphic designers and studios popping over to pick up a project fragment or two⌠a tasty particle preset, a lighting set-up, perhaps a lower third. I think VH might do well to befriend the pro-market in this way.
The number of buyers to the number of authors will always find its balance. If it gets too difficult to make money here, authors will stay away. If it gets easier, they will come in their droves.
Just my bit of analysis⌠Iâm afraid I donât have a crystal ball.
-f.
I wonder how many years it will cost to have a built in After Effects kind of tool inside a smart phone, that will be even easier to use.
Going a bit off topic though, as you mentioned Ben, the technology moving at an exponential rate. Is this something anyone could see possible? Iâm afraid i can.
interesting topicâŚi know there are a lot of authors living from VHâŚ
Hi, is it still possible to make a living here on videohive? I started videohive last year, my files have increased considerably, but the earnings are quite similar and nothing exceptional⌠certainly not enough to make a living from⌠Any thoughts or ideas? Anyone doing this?
Thanks
NeuronFX saidAny thoughts or ideas? Anyone doing this?
VideoHiveâs just not the place, unless like someone said before, youâre in the right country. ThemeForest is where the moneyâs at.
GrizzleFX saidThemeForest is where the moneyâs at.
Makes me wish I knew how to create Wordpress templates! In all honesty though, the earning potential on TF would actually be worth learning how.
Looks like depends from were you live.
For sure for me paying 1200 euros in Rome just for the rent looks impossible to make it out, with video hive.
But on the other side an extra income is always welcome⌠especially when you have a family.
To move to another country doesnât sound like a bad idea BTW
I agree, it depends mostly from where you live.
I was living in Thailand since last week and just got back to Italy, the cost of living here is ridicolously high and it would take at least 250 sales per month (AE) for a decent amount of money.
Iâd say it also depends from what you sell here, if you sell AE project then you can make good bucks, motion graphics are cheaper but frequent sales, stock footage standard 5$ and lowest demand in the market.
As GrizzleFX stated before, the fastest lane to become a millionaire here is Themeforest!
Mamma mia over there paws have crowns!
MotionRevolver saidMakes me wish I knew how to create Wordpress templates! In all honesty though, the earning potential on TF would actually be worth learning how.
I donât know how that marketplace works but, in an author interview, they said that they spend like 6-7 hours a day in support for their top-seller items. That is a huge amount of time spent in NON-creative things. It sounds soooo boring! In Videohive itâs a little more easy I guess. I donât know if Inlife or any other big author has an incredible big amount of support tickets, but I think that the Videohive authors have a little easier life 
Why iâm working with videohive ?
- Freedom as ben said
- Working anywhere through laptop
- I create what i realy like
- i learn from awesome people
- i know if i put my effort the results will comes
But if someone say to me why not you working somewhere you will get what you want
Nope i have no freedom just becoming ans machine all day long, i canât able to do work in the park, balcony, restaurants, bar, etc, people always will telling me do this and do that,
And if you need more money why not you just put your effort and learn from big guys and using this formula Action+learning+mistakes=results and if the results comes bad or good itâs all good. because you are on the learning curve you now create a small pathways in your brain and soon it will become more big.
Why do you choose videohive ?
because see the top authors what they do, they are getting lot of sales !
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I leave in a quite expensive country, but I donât have to pay any rent, I own a house.
I work 5-6 hours a day on motion graphic and videohive, in the weekends I work for a company as forklift driver.
This way I have more money then an unskilled full-time worker.
davidossahdez saidMotionRevolver saidMakes me wish I knew how to create Wordpress templates! In all honesty though, the earning potential on TF would actually be worth learning how.
I donât know how that marketplace works but, in an author interview, they said that they spend like 6-7 hours a day in support for their top-seller items. That is a huge amount of time spent in NON-creative things. It sounds soooo boring! In Videohive itâs a little more easy I guess. I donât know if Inlife or any other big author has an incredible big amount of support tickets, but I think that the Videohive authors have a little easier life
Only in TF youâd find items that sell 10000 times in 6 monthsâŚTop authors with more than 50,000 sales, and awards for earning more than 1,000,000 $ RESPECT.
vaynah saidDonât leave your job just yet
So my advice is get yourself to a position where you are making at least 200 sales a month, and then maybe look into leaving your job
True!
davidossahdez saidI donât know how that marketplace works but, in an author interview, they said that they spend like 6-7 hours a day in support for their top-seller items. That is a huge amount of time spent in NON-creative things. It sounds soooo boring! In Videohive itâs a little more easy I guess. I donât know if Inlife or any other big author has an incredible big amount of support tickets, but I think that the Videohive authors have a little easier life
True, they deal with an extreme amount of customer support inquiries. But top authors on TF are making enough monthly income to hire full time staff to help with the support. Most templates Iâve bought from TF seem to have at least 2 or 3 employees dealing with support issues or questions regarding their templates.
As a high school student I hope that at some point in my life Iâll learn how to make wordpress themes worthy of ThemeForest, and make some good money from it. Videohive is like a hobby to me, I have always been interested in video and VideoHive has been a great learning experience for me, but I would never consider VideoHive to be my job. Itâs nice to get money, but at the moment learning is much more valuable to me than the extra cash.
I live in Malta, and here life is not that cheap⌠Itâs very similar to the UK. I really wish to turn videohive into a living, but it doesnât seem possible. Though the think is, there are authors who have been here for a year or less⌠and made a good amount of money, that maybe is enough for a living⌠but I think this really depends on luck, creativity, market, and knowledge of the author himself. Also one needs to consider promotion. I personally never promoted my items, I donât know if it helpsâŚ
placdarms saidI have 120sales a month on average and thatâs enough to live quite wealthy life here.
The money i get for 120 sales is about what i need to spend on food per month.So, no wealthy life here with that amount of money.
didgi saidplacdarms saidI have 120sales a month on average and thatâs enough to live quite wealthy life here.
The money i get for 120 sales is about what i need to spend on food per month.So, no wealthy life here with that amount of money.
In our country more than 100 sales is enough to live a wealthy life