Earn extra income by selling your photos online

In this short lecture I discuss the types of images that sell as stock, which, as you will learn, is pretty much anything, as long as the quality is good enough!

I type in some random keywords on the Shutterstock home page as an example...

Just how much you'll earn as a part-time stock photographer depends on a number of different things:

1. Suitability of your images as stock.
2. How in demand your images are.
3. The quality of your images.
4. How well you keyworded your images.
5. The size of your online portfolio.
6. How regularly you upload photos.

We look at the Shutterstock Earnings Breakdown (see Supplementary Resources for external link) and discuss what you can expect to earn per image download on Shutterstock. In microstock sales it's less about how high the amount per download is and more about the number of times your images get downloaded over time.

I show you my earnings for a specific month so that you can start familiarizing yourself with the Shutterstock contributor interface.

Remember two important things:

1. This is PASSIVE INCOME! and
2. You can upload to MULTIPLE other stock sites as well...

Shutterstock has replaced their old Earnings Breakdown with specific values for photos with a new Earnings Schedule that works on a percentage basis. Check it out in the Supplemental Resources.

An average photograph might be accepted as stock, but that doesn't necessarily mean it will earn you a lot of money, because good stock photographs have very specific characteristics, namely:

1. They are simple and have few distractions.
2. They have uncluttered backgrounds.
3. They are colorful.
4. They are well lit.
5. They are well composed.
6. They are in focus.
7. They are not too grainy.

Photos with some or all of these characteristics have impact and stand out in the crowd when a potential buyer does a keyword search on Shutterstock.

We look at some of Shutterstock's most important submission guidelines, namely:

• You have to be older than 18 years.
• All the photos have to be your own.
• You have to own copyright of all submitted images.
• Your photos may contain no artwork, logos or trademarks.
• Photos that contain recognizable people must be accompanied by a signed model release form when uploaded (see Supplementary Resources for a PDF version of a Shutterstock Model Release Form).
• Photos must be in Jpeg format.
• Photos must be in sRGB color space.
• Photo dimensions must amount to at least 4 mega pixels.

Use Shutterstock's "Help is a click away" page is you have any questions! The link appears in the Supplementary Resources.

I guide you step-by-step to submit your photos for review on Shutterstock.

Step 1: Upload content.

Step 2: Add metadata - Caption, Category and Keywords.

Step 3: Submit for review.

I also show you two example photos, which you then have to caption and keyword while pausing the lecture, before playing again to see what my metadata was for the same photos.

This is the part where most people lose momentum - signing up! I know it can be tedious, but push through and give yourself a chance to start earning a passive income with your photos...

In this lecture I help you to sign up as a Shutterstock contributor.

Step 1: Follow the Shutterstock new contributor link (see Supplementary Resources).

Step 2: Click on "Sign up now" and then enter your name and e-mail address.

Step 3: Add your address.

Step 4: Confirm your identity.

Step 5: Upload ten of your best stock photos for review.

In this lecture I introduce you to the Shutterstock contributor interface, where we look at:

• Your monthly unpaid earnings.
• Your all time total earnings.
• The different earning types.
• Your latest downloads.
• Your monthly earnings graph.

...and the Catalogue Manager, that allows you to monitor the earnings (and therefore success) of a specific set of photos that you select.

This lecture briefly looks at the different ways you can be paid on Shutterstock, namely:

• By bank check...

or online via:

• Paypal
• Payoneer or
• Skrill.

I also discuss Shutterstock's tax forms very briefly and added a link to "How do I get paid for my work?" in the Supplementary Resources.

Also find links for Paypal, Payoneer and Skrill in the Supplementary Resources.

In this lecture I discuss the value of a good filing system of your stock photos on your computer and I give you an example of what it might look like if you upload images in batches:

For example:

Stock Photography

          > Batch 1 "Descriptive name"

                    > 1. Ready for submission

                    > 2. Pending approval

                    > 3. Accepted

                    > 4. Rejected

The more organized you keep your stock photos, the easier it will keep track of their status and the easier it is to upload them to multiple sites.

Shutterstock is not the only microstock website you can upload to, but it by far the most user-friendly and your earnings will definitely be higher than on any other sites. 

You can, however, also upload the same images (non-exclusively) to:

1. Dreamstime
2. CanStockPhoto
3. Fotolia, and
4. iStockPhoto

Links to each website can be found in the Supplementary Resources.

And if you don't want to add captions and keywords every time you upload photos to a new stock site, use Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, a subscription based program for sorting and editing photographs, to add metadata only once before upload. I can highly recommend it for any photographer!!

The link can also be found in the Supplementary Resources.

This lecture contains five simple, but very effective, tips that will help you to become a more successful stock photographer, namely:

1. Read the Shutterstock Blog.
2. Get ideas for stock photos by searching on Shutterstock.
3. Print out model release forms and keep them in your camera bag.
4. Get ideas for keywords by searching on Shutterstock.
5.  Set monthly upload targets.

Thank you for working your way all the end of this course! I hope you become a very successful stock photographer that earns a lot of additional money passively from now on... 

If you haven't signed up and registered for Shutterstock yet, do so right now by following the link in the Supplementary Resources.

Good bye!