Shutterstock Share your work and start: Earning planning a photoshoot for stock is a surefire way to earn money.
How to make $3200 per month by selling stock images
The starving artist life isn’t all that glamorous in reality. Explore this essential guide to earning money in stock photography and find paying customers for your creative work.
Earning money in stock photography starts with knowing the basic ins-and-outs of the stock photography industry. At Shutterstock, our contributors come from all corners of the world, with a wide variety of photography experience. From professional photographers to stock photography agencies, amateur enthusiasts to smartphone-slinging hobbyists, artists on Shutterstock sell photos and do it all.
But the question is, how do you get started on Shutterstock once you sign up? And most importantly,
how do you start earning money in stock photography?
Whether you’re interested in earning an income off your creativity or simply want a way to earn money from wherever you are in the world, contributing to stock is a great place to start. In the following article, we’re sharing a list of professional tips on how you can be successful at contributing to stock and start earning money by contributing images and illustrations to our network.
As beginners starting your journey into stock photography, this is a great article to reference before you start uploading images to Shutterstock
Make Money selling photos month by selling stock images
How to Sell Photos on Shutterstock
On Shutterstock, we accept photographs, illustrations, and footage clips. Photographs are images taken with either a professional DSLR camera or a high-quality smartphone that matches our required image specs. Vectors are digitized artwork that features graphic design, type, or scanned illustrations. Footage clips are motion clips that tell a moving story.
When you upload, ensure that the image or clip you submit matches the correct description of the type of content that you are uploading.
All Images Must Meet Shutterstock Standards
Let’s get straight to the point- we are not looking for the selfies on your phone. We’re looking for content that customers around the world want to download and use for a wide variety of purposes. Before you upload an image, ask yourself “Can I see this being used by a company?” and “Where would this image be most likely to be used?” Every image that you submit should have a clear purpose and obvious use-case.
How do I sell my work on Shutterstock?
Shutterstock is a growing creative platform where professional artists and hobbyists alike can contribute their work to be licensed by our vast global network of customers. If you are looking to sell your content on Shutterstock, all you need to do to get started is sign up for a free contributor account and within minutes you can begin submitting your work!
Here are a few basic guidelines you need to know before you start:
- You must be at least 18 years old to submit your work to Shutterstock.
- Your work must be original and you must be the copyright owner of the work you submit.
- Submit.shutterstock.com is the site for our contributing artists and shutterstock.com is for customers who license your work.
- Work that features models or private property and is intended for commercial licensing must be accompanied by a release.
- There are a number of restrictions as to what Shutterstock can accept, especially for commercial licensing–you can learn about them here.
Submit your work
Shutterstock accepts a variety of content that can be downloaded under several licenses and used for commercial or editorial purposes. Technical and submission requirements vary slightly between various content types, so click on each below to get the details:
- Photos
- Illustrations
- Vectors
- Video
- Music
The content you submit will be reviewed by our expert team of reviewers, who ensure it meets all legal and compliance requirements, as well as Shutterstock’s technical and metadata standards. Our team works promptly to assess your submissions, as it is in our mutual interests to bring your content to our marketplace as quickly as possible. You can read more about the review process here.
Make Money selling photos month by selling stock images
If your work was not approved, you can learn more about the reason behind the rejection by reading one of our review support articles–there you’ll also find helpful tips to avoid future rejections. If you are able to fix the underlying issue, you can resubmit your work for another review.
Earn money from downloads
Each time a customer downloads your work, they are purchasing a license. As a contributing artist, you will earn a percentage of the price they pay for that license. How much you earn per download depends on a couple of factors; the type of plan used for the purchase, the kind of license included with that plan and your earnings level as a contributor at the time of the download. You can read about this in more detail here.
Get paid
Once you have accrued at least $25 from licensing your work on Shutterstock, you are ready to collect your earnings! In order to receive payment, you must have a completed tax form on file and select an electronic payment provider–chose from PayPal, Skrill or Payoneer. Be sure to check with your payment provider if there are any limitations or special requirements for receiving payments, as those may vary across different countries and regions. Payments are issued on a monthly basis and are calculated on the first of each month. Learn more about payments here.
A few tips for success
- Upload regularly. Rome was not built in a day–it takes regular submissions to build a sizeable portfolio on Shutterstock.
- You don’t need to have hundreds of thousands of images or videos, but the more you submit on a regular basis, the more visible your content will be in search results.
- Mind the metadata. Titles and keywords play a crucial role in the discoverability of your content. Check out this article for tips and best practices.
- Curate your portfolio. Make it easier for customers to discover your work by grouping your content into sets by subject, concept or creative trend.
- Know what’s in demand. Follow current creative trends and explore the Shot List – a monthly digest of concepts and themes requested by our customers.
- The contributor blog is also a great resource for information and inspiration.
Make Money selling photos month by selling stock images
How to Sell Photos: A Guide to Earning Money in Stock Photography
How much money can you make selling photos to Shutterstock?Contributors earn a base rate of $0.25 per download and can earn up to $120 per image
Can I sell phone photos on Shutterstock?Get the contributor app – Upload and submit images straight from your mobile device and track your activity and earnings, all while on the go.
How much does 1 Shutterstock image cost?The cost of one image at Shutterstock depends on the method you use to buy it. With a subscription, prices range from $0.22 to $4.90 per picture.
What is better than Shutterstock?Adobe Stock and Vecteezy are your two good options.
Is it free to sell images on Shutterstock?All content is royalty-free, so you retain the copyright to your work. Contributing images to Shutterstock is free and you earn money each time your content is licensed