Earn Money Online by Selling Photos – Earn Money through Shutterstock

Shutterstock is a stock agency based in the USA; provide huge stock of HD paid photos / videos to download.  On the other hand this agency provide opportunity to contributors to earn by uploading photos / videos on every subject.

Registering with Shutterstock.

You will have to submit  forms of identity before you can upload as Shutterstock needs details for payment to you. Payments are made to Payoneer or Paypal and are not paid until you reach the minimum payout of $35.

Reasons your photo do not make the cut.

• Only submit photographs that are of the best quality. Blurry, out of focus, filtered and over exposed photo will be rejected.
• Photo less than 4MB will be rejected. If transferring from a phone, use the biggest upload size available.
• Poor Lighting, trademarks and poor composition means rejection. By composition I mean are there distracting elements in the photo. e.g.Branches of tree, trash cans, illuminated road signs.
• Shutterstock will not accept photographs from some privately owned tourist attractions due to licensing rights and disclosures. 

A Model Release? If you have crowds of people in your photo you cannot obtain model releases for everyone and these pictures can only be editorial photo’s which means less money. However, if you have a selection of fresh fruit in your garden, this can be used commercially, and pays more.

What are Keywords? These are the words that you will use to describe your picture and this can make all the difference. 

Okay this photo was rejected by shutter stock so we will use it as an example. It was out of focus. Keywords are needed to describe the photo to the buyer, which makes it easier for search purposes.

Ready to upload?

Shutterstock wants to see you are not a one photo wonder and sometime they will reject your photos with some observations, remove them if possible and re-upload or upload other. 

Don’t be put off when you see amazing photo’s and think I am not that good.  A buyer may have used shutter stock for 10 years and used all the amazing photo every year. They need fresh material all the time and YOU may have something new to offer.

How to Upload to Shutterstock 

Once you have done your basic editing, press Upload on Shutterstock. Then it will say, click drag and drop or select multiple files. I find select multiple files easy. Just locate the files and start the upload.

Shutterstock has become increasingly popular and I find uploads are not approved for about 48 hrs. However, sometime it takes few minutes to approve. Click the little box beside the photo and start describing it in the field.

Example. Interior of Museum of Scotland, popular tourist attraction. Chamber Street, Edinburgh, Scotland UK. OR if you can’t remember the street name , type, Edinburgh City Centre, Scotland UK.

DO NOT SPAM:  Spamming is using keywords/hashtags inappropriately.

How much will I be paid as a contributor to Shutterstock?

As a Shutterstock contributor you will earn royalties each time one of your approved images or videos is downloaded by a Shutterstock customer. How much you earn per each download depends on one or a combination of the following: the license and subscription that was used for each download, and your earnings tier.   Footage All footage clip downloads will earn you 30% of the purchase price received by Shutterstock. These earnings are a fixed percentage, regardless of earning tiers. Customers can purchase footage in packs of clips with a choice of resolution. Footage is sold under one license only.