Shutterstock

Shutterstock (Shuterstock) was created in 2003 by Jon Oringer. In fact, the first contributor to the stock was Oringer himself. He uploaded 30,000 of his own stock photos for sale by subscription on his site, which he named Shutterstock. His collection became the basis for the development of Shutter. By the summer of 2012, the stock already had more than 20,000,000 stock images. The photo stock is one of the leaders in earnings for stockers, and is also very popular among image buyers due to interesting subscription plans. In 2009, the microstock Bigstockphoto was acquired, which is characterized by the absence of subscription plans, but has a wide selection for single purchases of images.

Shutterstock offers buyers photos, vectors, video footages, animations for purchase. Working with the photo stock consists of the following: the buyer registers, pays for one of the subscription plans, and then can download the works they need within their subscription plan. There are 2 types of subscriptions: subscription by the number of images and subscription by period. The cheapest subscription plan by the number costs $49, within which the buyer can download 5 large images or 12 small (medium) ones. The most popular subscription plan on Shutter by period is “25 per day”. Under this plan, the buyer pays $249, which allows them to download 25 images daily for one month.

For authors, as I mentioned, this stock is one of the most profitable. Images start selling literally the day they are uploaded or the next day. After registration, you will need to upload scans of your documents and pass the photo stock exam. As part of the exam, Shutterstock inspectors check 10 of your images. If at least 7 out of 10 works are approved, then you can start working. By the way, be careful, because if you fail the exam, you can retake it no earlier than a month later. Shutter inspectors are quite demanding on the quality of images. The amount of royalties on Shutter depends on the author’s total earnings. There are certain income levels, upon reaching which the author’s royalties increase. The maximum royalties are received by authors whose earnings have exceeded $10,000 for all time. There are no exclusives here. The minimum payout amount is $75. Perhaps, for beginners, it will not be possible to pass the exam the first time, but you need to strive, as this will be one of the key photo stocks in the work.

Read more about other features of working with Shutterstock in the articles of this section. In the meantime, I recommend registering so as not to waste time later.