Selling stock media on Shutterstock offers a great opportunity for creative professionals, including photographers, videographers, and illustrators, to generate passive income.
As one of the world's leading stock photography platforms with millions of images and videos, Shutterstock provides a vast marketplace. However, the fierce competition can make earning money a bit challenging.
Despite the competitive nature of stock photography, success is achievable with the right strategies and techniques.
Having been a Shutterstock contributor for several years, I’ve gained valuable insights and tips on how to effectively earn on the platform.
Tips For How To Sell On Shutterstock
Selling content on Shutterstock may be challenging, but it is not impossible. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work, but it’s possible to make good passive income off Shutterstock if you stick with it.
Below are some tips I have found to be successful when selling stock images and videos on Shutterstock
Create Quality Content
Making money on Shutterstock is possible with quality content. To produce content that meets Buyers’ standards, you’ll need to take your time creating high-resolution images, videos, and illustrations that are well-composed and well-lit.
Shutterstock buyers expect top-quality content that stands out from the crowd, so make sure to take extra care in producing content that meets Shutterstock’s high standards.
Build Up a High-Quality Portfolio Consistently
Building up a large portfolio of images and videos on Shutterstock is essential to making consistent income. By consistently adding new material to your Shutterstock portfolio, you can increase the likelihood that someone will purchase them.
The more content you have, the better. Aim to build up a quality library of thousands of images that showcase your creative abilities!
Uploading high-quality images with interesting subjects such as people doing things, city time-lapses, business, and technology will help you generate more sales.
Research Popular Trends
Shutterstock is a great platform to make money by selling stock photos. To maximize your earnings, it’s important to research popular trends and stay one step ahead of the competition. This will help ensure that you create content that is in demand and, consequently, will be sold more frequently.
Keep an eye out for industry trends, seasonal changes in buying habits, and popular topics to ensure that you are producing content that Shutterstock buyers are looking for.
With a little bit of research and effort, you’ll be better able to capitalize on popular trends and make more money from Shutterstock.
Use Relevant SEO-Friendly Keywords
When selling stock photos on Shutterstock, it is important to use relevant SEO-friendly keywords and add the most relevant ones also in the descriptions of your images. This will help potential customers find them more easily when searching for relevant photos on Shutterstock.
It is also important not to overload the descriptions with too many keywords or use irrelevant keywords, as this will not improve the visibility of your photos but could potentially damage your search rankings.
Shutterstock’s algorithm is designed to reward content that is relevant and of high quality. Therefore, focus on creating unique, interesting content that contains the right keywords in order to maximize your chance of appearing in Shutterstock search results.
Get Involved with Contributor Communities
Joining stock media contributor communities can help you learn more about the market, get tips from experienced contributors, and stay up-to-date on industry news.
These groups, forums, and newsletters are full of valuable information that can help you get started on Shutterstock, create better content, and learn how to make money selling stock photos in general.
They can also help give you ideas for creating new content that will stand out from the crowd! While Shutterstock provides a great platform to start selling your work, partaking in these conversations can give you an edge over the competition.
Here are a couple of forums you may want to check:
Upload More than Just Photos
Shutterstock is a great way to make money selling stock photos as well as illustrations, vectors, and videos. Shutterstock offers a platform to monetize your creative work, and you can potentially earn more money with popular items. So don’t limit yourself to just photos; upload illustrations, vectors, and videos too!
Find Niches With Less Competition
If you’re looking to make money on Shutterstock, it’s important to find niches with less competition. This way, you can become an expert in that market and make more money selling stock photos.
Explore what Shutterstock’s library has to offer; see which types of images already fill the collection and discover any gaps. You may be able to find a niche that’s relatively untapped or low in quality and fill it with your content and make more money.
Does Shutterstock Accept AI-Generated Images?
With the recent boom of AI-generated content, many are looking for a place to sell AI images. So the question arises Does Shutterstock accept AI-Generated images?
No, Shutterstock does not accept AI-generated images. All images must be created by hand and submitted by the original photographer/artist in order to meet Shutterstock’s quality standards and be accepted into their library. If you are looking to create AI-generated content, there are other image libraries that may fit your needs.
With hard work and dedication, contributors can expect earnings ranging from €0.10 – €35.92 per image and €0.90 -€42.32 per video download, which have the potential to become hundreds of dollars a month or more depending on the quality of work and amount of downloads an individual receives.
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