By Tata Rossi 4 days ago, Photography Tips
If you are a professional photographer, you can benefit from selling photos on Shutterstock as it will allow you to get extra income or even earn a living. You can upload your content and get a base rate of $0.25 per download. This rate allows users to earn up to $120 per picture if it’s in high demand among other users. Your earnings will depend on the price of your photo and the size of your portfolio.
Professionals who want to make money with photography on Shutterstock, need to create an account and start to uploading their photos to the platform. You don’t need to pay anything to sign up.
The platform requires its users to be of legal age, so if you are at least 18 years old, you can upload your pictures to Shutterstock. You should confirm that you took your photos by yourself and hold copyright to them.
Shutterstock allows users to upload photos, illustrations, and videos. If you want to make money on Shutterstock, you can upload photos taken with cameras or high-end smartphones provided they meet the criteria established by the platform.
In addition, you can upload vector graphics or scanned illustrations. Many photographers use this site to sell their video footage as well.
Before you upload your content, check whether it matches the description of the category.
It’s important to ensure that your pictures meet the platform’s requirements:
You can also add the following information if you think that it will increase the chances of your images getting accepted:
When you are fully satisfied with the result, click Submit to send your pictures for review. Your submitted photos will be available in the Pending section of the Contributor Dashboard.
When moderators review your content, you will see the results in the Reviewed tab on the Submit content page. They will be available for 21 days. You might need to wait up to 72 hours for your photos to become visible on the platform.
Not all types of photography can be equally sold on Shutterstock. For example, if you decide to upload selfies taken with your smartphone, they will be hardly of interest to anyone.
Before adding a photo to your portfolio on this stock photography site, you should consider whether a specific picture will be in demand. Think about the companies that are likely to use your pictures. It will allow you to upload images with many use cases.
If you want to upload photos of people, make sure to use a model release form. Unless you have the filled form, you won’t be allowed to publish your pictures on Shutterstock. This is why photographers who travel a lot and want to take street Shutterstock sell photos should take some model release forms with them and ask people to sign them.
You should do the same steps when taking real estate photos. If you need to capture architectural landmarks of a country or shoot private houses, you need to get a property release form. Rules for taking pictures of property depend on the location and intended use.
Take a look at Shutterstock’s list of Known Image Restrictions before taking pictures of properties, landmarks, and buildings. It will save you a lot of time and ensure that you will upload photos that meet the criteria.
Besides, you should avoid taking photos of logos. If you notice the name of a company or the logo of a clothing brand, remove these elements using photo editing software before uploading your photos to the platform.
Once you have uploaded your pictures, it’s time to learn how to sell photos on Shutterstock. When people download your photos, they pay for a photography license that allows them to use these pictures. As a content creator, you can earn a percentage of the fee they pay for a license. Your earnings depend on the type of plan selected by clients, the type of license, and the number of downloads.
The site allows you to earn between 15% and 40% commission on each image or video downloaded at Shutterstock. Due to this, you can earn from $0.10 to $5.80 for images, $10.20 to $39.80 for pics with extended licenses, and $1.25 to $47.92 for video footage. This is why, the more files on a relevant topic you upload, the more you will earn on Shutterstock.
After earning at least $25 from licensing your content on this stock photo finder, you can get your first payment. To receive it, you should complete a tax form and select a provider for receiving your payment. You can choose between PayPal, Skrill, or Payoneer.
Keep in mind that you need to select a payment provider available in your country, as some countries established limitations regarding payment methods. The platform issues payments monthly.
No recipe guarantees that you will create a great portfolio and quickly learn how to sell images on Shutterstock, you can follow some handy tips to start making money with stock photos and videos using this service.
Shutterstock Blog includes a wealth of information for those who are getting started. Here, you will find many articles on stock photography. The blog gets regularly updated with articles that allow photographers to improve their skill sets and learn more about selling photos online.
Besides, you can also read some behind-the-scenes articles about famous contributors who upload popular photos and videos on Shutterstock. It will allow you to learn which approach to use and which photos won’t be in demand. Reading these materials can help you improve your photos.
Instead of taking countless courses and classes, the best thing you can do to develop your skills is to practice a lot. If you have a portable camera, take it with you wherever you go and take as many pictures as you can. You can also enhance your photos by yourself to develop a unique editing style and get some recognition.
After uploading your pictures to Shutterstock, use in-built analytics tools to see which pictures sell better. It will allow you to adjust your shooting schedule to take more photos that are in high demand. After learning how to make money on Shutterstock, you will quickly understand what content you need.
A photographer should upload photos regularly to create a worthy portfolio on Shutterstock. There is no need to upload thousands of photos on the same topic, but it’s a good idea to upload pics regularly to improve the visibility of your content in search results.
As a professional photographer, you might have already found your signature style. However, you can also explore popular topics and upload pictures that can be used for a variety of purposes. To achieve this, it’s better to use generic photos.
It’s better to avoid uploading creative photos with a strong artistic feel to stock platforms, as you won’t find many buyers there. Experienced photographers advise uploading photos that can be used in ads or on social media.
If you need to find some examples and use them as sources of inspiration, you can follow Shutterstock on social media to see what kinds of photos are popular nowadays. On the company’s Instagram account, you will find pictures that were shared on Shutterstock, Offset, and Shutterstock Custom. You can also use the #MyCustomView tag if you want to promote your photos on their social media pages.
On the Shutterstock site, you will also find a monthly digest of popular concepts and themes. You just need to take a look at the Shot List that includes topics requested by clients. In the contributor blog, you can also find a lot of useful information.
To become successful on Shutterstock and sell a lot of images, you need to work on diversifying your content. If you take portrait photos, it’s important to take pictures of people of different races to ensure that they will be relevant in different parts of the world.
You can also take photos of models of different ages, who have different genders and ethnicity. Representing marginalized minorities is also a good choice for bringing some variety to your portfolio.
Organize your portfolio by grouping your photos by trends and topics. It will make it easier for users to discover them more quickly.
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