An interesting dilema when pricing your content

High demand and downloads doesn't always translate or mean higher prices when selling your video or photos online. This isn't like the stock market where the hot IPO creates major demand and then price soars on the first day of trading. So what happened to the basic laws of supply and demand that we all slept through during Economics 101 and how it is used to determine price? Obviously a bidding war over the latest Britney Spear's outrageous photo or a video of the 9/11 attacks can increase the value based on the exclusivity or the sheer uniqueness of a shot. But does a high number of downloads or purchased licenses mean a higher value? Not always but it can change from case to case from what we have researched here at Cutcaster.

We found that, when looking at how to price your media, the value can decrease the more times people license or buy your content for use in advertising, filmmaking, publishing or graphic design. That makes sense. For example, an advertiser can't have the same images or photos that a competitor has used to promote a similar product. Exclusivity. Imagine if you saw a similar images in an advertisement for Crest toothpaste which was the same as one you saw for Colgate. For this industry and market, once used content has become somewhat worthless to others based on exclusivity. However, a documentary film maker can re-use images or footage that the advertiser used and the content shouldn't lose its value from one work to another. The first example with the advertiser is an interesting occurrence and one that goes against basic laws of supply and demand. So how do you determine and keep the value of your content, whether its footage, photos or any other digital content or maximize the life and value of the content?

Some helpful tricks:

1. Update your work- You can always go back and tweak your content. Re-work an old project.

2. Find new clients and offer it in new markets. The Internet has made it easier than ever to find new clients and new markets where your content is fresh and still has a high value. Try locating advertisers in Japan, China or India if you have relevant content

3. Find new uses in different fields. If your content has been used in an advertisement, maybe it can be used in a film or a corporate project for example.

4. Cut up or increase the amount of content you offer. For example, if you have a clip that is 2 minutes try breaking it up and selling off pieces of it to interested parties or vice a versa.

5. Use Cutcaster's dynamic algorithm (subliminal marketing ;-) )

6. Shoot different variations of the similar selling content. If shots of cars winding around cliffs by the ocean are selling, use different types of cars, different types of lighting, different seasons, different angles etc.

7. Bundle the content in volumes that you have prepared or in "lightboxes" you can sell. Lightboxes are designed to help you get organized and are used to batch images or footage that you like or are similar together.

There are a few other tricks that we have analyzed for our Cutcaster algorithm that will help with pricing and take out a lot of the guessing game and work for those who would rather shoot then worry about how to offer their content.

What are some other good factors to look which can adversely affect the price of a piece of content or increase it?