Today we will talk about one of the most well-known pages of all regarding Microstock. Here we talk about how to make money from our homes more than anything else but as I always comment nothing is so simple when it comes to making money on the Internet.
Starting to explain a little bit how you can earn money with this page. Shutterstock is a Microstock page, which means that they have a "Stock" of images, as it were, which can be downloaded in the highest quality and used depending on the license that youbuy. Now surely you wonder and where does this generate income for us?. Well simple in each download there is the magic since for each download an amount of money will be credited to our account. It depends a lot on the use and license they use when selling our image.
The most basic way of earning on this platform are subscription revenues which are 15% of the cost of the image. But that depends on our income range since Shutterstock as we generate more downloads it will position us in better earnings. As seen in the following table extracted from the Shutterstock website, reaching up to 40% of the cost of the image.
In addition to photos and illustrations they also accept videos but in this guide I will focus on the photos and illustrations. This page has a fairly simple entrance exam where we must upload our first image and be approved by them, for this we must meet certain requirements.
Minimum Requirements for Photos and Illustrations.
Shutterstock Photo
For the photos themselves there are not many requirements when uploading to ShutterStock but the minimums must be met and that is that the minimum quality must be 4 Megapixels. Which in itself is just a resolution meaning the photo should measure at least 2240 x 1680 pixel's. The image in that quality is a minimum resolution but it shouldn't look grainy or blurry. Those are the most common causes of image rejection.
Photos with models
The images have a legal background in all of them, since if we have a model in it we must also attach an authorization, where he allows us to use his image. Even if we are the ones posing we must make a legal document as if we were a model. This is more than anything for Shutterstock to protect its customers from any legal issues that may arise from using their image without consent.
Photos with buildings
There are also authorizations when we want to include buildings where brands of companies or private property buildings are included in which we must have said authorization. For this there is a property authorization where they give us permission to take such photographs.
Cases where we cannot obtain authorization.
It can be the case for example that we cannot have the authorization of 15 people. Who passed by the street at the time we took a photo and equally want to include it. There are the photos that are "Only for editorial use", these are the ones that do not have an authorization from the company or the people who appear in them.
So they are used only for articles thatNOare for commercial use since there is no authority.
Official source of shutterstock
Equally to make it easier ShutterStock has a dedicated authorizations section which we can access at the following link
https://submit.shutterstock.com/legal
There we will find authorization models in different languages.
Shutterstock without watermark
It is not possible to download Shutterstock images without a watermark in the best quality. So our content is protected by their watermarking systems. We must keep this in mind it is not 100% foolproof since there are cases where users manage to remove the watermark and leave our images without a watermark. But when these cases occur, the final image does not have full quality because it is only a light version of the image that they managed to get on the web when trying to download from Shutterstock but without wanting to pay.
Illustrations and Vectors
If you wonder why I am now grouping vectors here, it is because they are very similar and practically the same rules apply to both cases. The only difference being that vectors carry an additional file which is the vector file.
To upload files of this type it is quite simple, once we have either an Illustration or a Vector we just need to upload it in JPEG format. Which virtually all graphic design programs can use, that said we must remember the dimensions and that is they must always exceed 2240 x 1680 pixel's.
So far they are always rejected if I send something smaller and that is because they refer to the size of a 4 Megapixel image. Now when we upload a Vector in addition to the JPEG file we must attach the vector file in EPS format. This must be compatible with Adobe Illustrator 8 or 10 to be accepted and as an important piece of information if we upload a vector both the JPEG image and the EPS must have the same name or they will not be recognized directly by ShutterStock.
Uploading an image
Once we upload an image we come across this Menu, where we must select
- Image type,whether photo or illustration
- Type of usecommercial or editorial
- Description in english,as an important note this is also more than a description it is a title. Which they will see users when passing the cursor over our image or on our image page as a description. So it is very important for the positioning of our image that it is an attractive description.
- Categorieswhere we can choose from all those of ShutterStock.
- In more optionswe can select if the image is +18 category
- Authorizationswhere we must upload the ones I explained earlier.
- Keywords in english, this is extremely important since they are like tag's or labels where we can place characteristics that describe our image. Shutterstock by default suggests keywords but if even with these we are not sure. Shutterstock gives us a tool to help us.
https://submit.shutterstock.com/portfolio/suggestions.mhtml?language=es
How many images do I need to generate income with ShutterStock?
Really you only need one image that is approved to generate income. But this comes with a fairly important detail and that is,the images must have content that the public seeks. Since we must keep in mind that to be able to generate profits we must have buyers for our images or photographs.
This is really simple if we help ourselves with tools like those provided by Shutterstock. Which based on their predictions we can try togenerate content that is relevantor they consider relevant for the next month. They generate this without giving many explanations but they are suggestions that they make to their collaborators. So we can take them as good references when producing our content.
List of ShutterStock Captures (Suggestions for ShutterStock contributors)
¿ShutterStock pays in Venezuela?
The answer isYes. Not only does it pay in Venezuela but also has multiple methods to collect that work both in Venezuela and in other countries. LikePaypal,Payoneerand Skrillof which Payoneer stands out sinceallows you to obtain a prepaid credit cardto make purchases on the Internet. This is an incredible benefit for many people who want to use the money they earn from an online service or some purchase. But in addition it allows us to have aphysical cardto make purchases wherever we want.
If on the other hand you already haveVerified Paypalor use Skrill you can well use their other payment methods since having three options they have a way for everyone who needs to withdraw one way or another. That said,the minimum amount to collect is 35$after this amount we will be paid automatically oncethe current month's cutoff date arrives. Date that is normally the beginning of the month.
¿What are you waiting for to join as a contributor to ShutterStock?
If you have come this far it is because you are really interested in the topic. Since we already have the image uploaded all that remains is to wait for it to be reviewed by the Shutterstock team and once approved we will have our first image in the stock. Some people have thousands and thousands but don't rush it’s better to slowly mount many images of low quality and relevance.
With this we can have a really interesting passive income in which even some people live from this. I (writer) do not live on it but it is a passive income that always comes well if we want to do something on the Internet apart from our work.
