Just a quick update on something I noticed last night. But first some background.

If you've ever bought stock photos from Photodisc, Corbis, Getty, etc. you probably know that professional stock images can be quite expensive. You may also know that these and other stock houses are now sweating bullets and looking over their shoulder at a new kid on the block: istockphoto.com.

Guess what? With the advent of cheap, high-quality, high-res digital cameras, there are LOTS and LOTS of people who are now in the "shooting stock photos" business, and iStockPhoto aggregates their work and sells it for pennnies on the dollar over the prices charged by the "traditional" stock photo houses.

The reason for my post is that iStockPhoto has just opened a new spinoff: istockvideo.com. It's basically the same deal. You can submit stock videos, and if someone needs your footage for a project, they buy the rights to use it and download it directly from the website. iStockVideo takes their cut and sends you a check. Bling!

So if you can crank out some animations that are likely to have broad-based appeal, you can submit them to iStockVideo and see if they'll host them. (They do screen for quality, so getting your work listed is not a given.) If so, you could start getting checks and possibly seeing your work turn up in all sorts of places!

• Hollywood movies! (Nah.)
• Local news shows! (Maybe.)
• 7-11 training videos! (Woo hoo - the big time!)

Now where did I put that mop and pail prop? ;-)

Thanks for that info.  Actually, I use iStockPhoto exclusively for royalty-free photos/photo-references because they don't charge $300 for a picture of a walnut (you get my drift - I'd pay $300 for a photo of their lawyers being crucified)! ;)

For royalty-free audio, I use SmartSound. Not cheap, but beats hiring a band etc.

Very interesting.  Thanks for the tip!  I might try some educational stuff.....

jimdoria, I notice they have a referral program. If we sign up should we mention your name so you get credit?