Does anyone make money on shutterstock

In a few months, it became the second most profitable agency for me after Pond5: read why Pond5 is the best microstock for stock footage contributors. Over the course of a decade, that is not much.

But, to understand whether I have been a good producer or whether I have worked for the hourly pay of an Uber employee, you need to evaluate the time I have spent on production.

My time in the microstock business has gone through different periods. For one, I was fired, and for almost an entire year I didn't work. In that moment, microstock was a full-time job for me. In the screenshot above, it was the month in which I published this guide for the first time, February Since then, it has remained unchanged.

The first one tells you the number of your files which have been purchased by buyers. In my case, at that time, it was:. The second was the total earnings that I had collected , which were thousands of dollars less than they are now:. The other two important pieces of data tell you if those who bought your stock images and stock footage did so as single purchases:. Figures that most contributors can't dream of, but it's hard for me to explain in a single post how I did it.

That's why I created a course learn more about my course. Let's say that the two most important things to do to make more money with microstock are:. Those things are far more important than looking for the technical perfection of photos and videos. You will also find different figures in the Clip Pack column, since the packages sold to those who buy subscriptions have different prices according to the quantity of content included in the subscription they buy.

By clicking on a specific day in the first column of the Earning Summary table, you can access the sales details for that day. Tax at source are a complicated topic. For example, another agency, Pond5 holds no earnings from us producers , even though Pond5 is an American company. The globalized world can sometimes be very strange. The success of my website was built on the idea of giving a solution to all those microstock producers who try to sell their photos online but end up taking home small change.

This problem is due to a faulty attitude. Of those who create images, as a good artist focuses on the technical quality of the content they produce, whereas a good entrepreneur focuses on what it takes to sell their content production procedures, keywording, finding good subjects, etc.

As the secret to success in any business is to beat the competition , focusing on those aspects is the easiest way to make money. Most of those who try to sell photos and videos on microstocks think that their sales will increase:. No one is born as a microstock producer, and even professional photographers waste their time trying to create:. The problem is that offline photography is a completely different business to microstock , and if you are one of those who makes made money with the former, adapting to make money with the latter is difficult.

So, you'd better hire someone to explain what to do. I teach this on each of the pages of my book, as I spent more than 10 years maximizing my earnings. Exploiting what others do not want to study to create a production process suited to what buyers are looking for makes the difference between:.

As the document I analyze below proves, there are now hundreds of thousands of the latter, and they grow like mushrooms after a downpour. Photographers who are used to working with old methods do not sell on microstocks. To make money with stock images and stock footage, you don't have to know the right people as happens in the entertainment world, which is based on public relations.

You just have to learn tools to help you understand what content should to be produced. An year old man who attended a lesson photography course, from a technical point of view, has everything he needs to create microstock.

I hate this, too, but it is the reality, and starting a revolution to change it is useless. On January 31, , Shutterstock announced that it had sold its billionth piece of content, at a time when it had online:. There are two important facts to be taken from this information. Our customers are always looking for fresh content of high quality. Customer Need Ultimately it is only the customer who can determine whether to download your content or not.

We invest heavily in technology to provide the best and most relevant search results to our customers. We also invest in marketing and advertising of our collection to attract new customers, as well as working with partner sites and affiliates all over the world.

Good metadata When it comes to keywords and titles, quality will result in more downloads than quantity. It is better to have fewer effective and accurate keywords, than a multitude of keywords with little relevance to the image. We also offer a variety of tools to help you succeed as a Shutterstock contributor: Sets Sets are collections of images that enable you to organize, edit, and showcase your portfolio on the customer site, as well as track your earnings from these collections within your account.

During this time I played with other ways to make money while I waited. I was honestly a little shocked. However, I kept my mouth shut and moved on. So I hop into their platform and start familiarizing myself with their dashboard. I spent time filling out the rest of the information and verifying who I am for tax purposes. Remember every photo you upload, even as a contributor, has to be reviewed by their team first, even after you applied with those same photos.

Then add around 50 description keywords. However, the other 6 photos were approved! I just like them. Someone liked my photo and bought it! Maybe it was my mother, she still has my crayon drawings from 1st grade.

They must have searched for some of the additional keywords as well. I can see how other people may use this as a stock image though.

The only thing missing is some kids running off the end, into the water. This is entirely controlled by the website. Louis Arch. He uploaded it once and has continued to receive checks from it over the last year. In the future, I would invest in a nicer camera. This would allow me to sell stock photography, stock video and start vlogging for additional money.

It has everything I need for all three, all packaged together! The only addition to my dream setup would be to add some nice, but cheap lighting stands or ring light to make everything pop and look more professional. Plus I can add more as a Shutterstock Contributor now. Now that I know what type of photography sells best, I can shoot some new photos to sell online as another way to make money! Maybe grab a suit and take photos in conference rooms for the highly popular business attire photos.

Every photo I take is just another stream of passive income with stock photography! Hince all the excitement in screenshots.

Thanks for stopping by! If you like the post, please feel free to share it! Usually, everyone takes photos, this is a great way to start making some side income for beginners with a little work up front and continuing results.

Thanks for stopping by, feel free to share the article if you like it! Thanks for the detailed write-up. It seems like Shutterstock is taking way to much profit. Have you looked at the rev share associated with the competition?

Hi really good article,I had no idea how to do earn money this way. Plus this is explained in a way which makes it very easy for all to understand. Many people I know, including Adam, have been more successful on iStockPhoto more so than Shutterstock.

Anything that would capture larger that 20MP would probably be best. Also how is the seelling going now? Can you sell from shutterstock and Istock? Can you email me at stoudbaker mail. Your Japan photos could be good. You just have to think like a company and consider how they would be used. We continue to make a little money each month from the photos, check out our Monthly Income Reports to see how much. I always think about it as if your photos are just going collect digital dust, you might as well try selling them as stock photography.

Once you set it up, it practically runs itself. Yup, you can totally sell from both. Try them both and see which one sells your photos better. I believe Adam used both but has had better luck on iStock. I have uploaded around approved photos on Shutterstock by now,and had exactly 3 sells. Where am I going wrong? I also have a lot of photos on ShutterStock and iStockPhoto. Really, there is only one photo that makes me money. The rest will have a transaction here and there. The reason the one does so well is that it is in a fairly high demand market and it is taken from a unique perspective.

It is tough to tell why yours are not selling without knowing what your subject your photos are targeting and what they look like. The scenarios I mentioned above are most likely your issue. Remember, stock photography is very time-consuming up front but is a true passive income after it is set up.

Whether you make a little or a lot of money depends on the above. I am writing an article will be released on Monday that goes more into detail about what makes a good stock photo. This article might be beneficial to you when it is released. Great article! As soon as I read this, I went ahead and signed up at Shutterstock to be a contributor, and got approved in a couple of days! Anyway, do you sell same photo on Shutterstock and iStockPhoto?

Yup, I sell the same photo on both Shutterstock and iStockPhoto. I would add your photos to each and see which one works better for your photography. I know Adam started off and both and ended up later solely working with iStock because his photos did better there. I believe iStockPhoto pays a slightly higher commission if your photos are sold nowhere else except their site. It seems that now each photo sold only earns you. It depends on the license that the customer buys as well as the size of the image.

Yes, most are. Thanks for your article. I started uploading photos to Shutterstock a couple of months ago and have so far had about approved.