Make Money Draw Money if You Don't Have It: How to Generate Passive Picture Income & Tasks

[Marengo]

Hello everyone, I want to talk about earnings on Shutterstock. I will tell you what it is and how to create a source of stable and legal income based on it. Don’t worry, I will publish a post about filling out a tax return later. The basis of this article is a paid course of a person who successfully earns on photos’ sales around the world. I want to complete this course with you. Here you will see a step-by-step guide from registering on the platform to passing the exams, and also learn how to create pictures for sale.

How It Work And What Are Stocks?

Stocks are special internet shops, on the virtual shelves of which are millions of images, videos, and photos. The basic earning idea is that even very simple pictures can be sold here. The cost of earnings from one sale is $0.2-3, but there can be a lot of such sales, which will allow you to earn more than a thousand dollars on one successful picture.

By the way, Shutterstock is an American platform and to register here you will need a boarding pass if you are not a citizen of the United States. I will try to create detailed instructions. Write below or PM if you are interested in this topic and if you want to try it with me. Let's self-develop together and compete in the results achieved.

 

[dasdramdition]

What are my supposed task to sign up with Shutterstock or supposed to be hiring artist to draw on high-quality bills nots or supposed to be advertising photos : more description

 

[Marengo]

Photostocks’ Short Review
Let’s see at the popular photostocks — the better way to make a profit at the early stage is publishing photos on many sources.

Top-8 Photostocks, Which Moneymakers May Seeing

• Stock Images, Photos, Vectors, Video, and Music | Shutterstock — one of the most profitable sites, as moneymakers say. They receive more than 50% of their profit here. We will show a main part of work with Photostocks on the example of this platform.
• Royalty-Free Stock Photos, Vector Art & Video - Fotolia — a platform, which recently bought by Adobe. This great selling platform added to Photoshop: buyers can find and purchase your photos directly from the program.
• Royalty-Free Stock Images And Stock Photography By Dreamstime — popular platform in the past, now fall behind to competitors in traffic.
• Stock Images, Royalty-Free Illustrations, Vectors, & Stock Video Clips | iStock — service, which belongs to the most huge photobank.
• Stock Photos, Images, Vectors - Stock Videos, Footage | Bigstock — Shutterstock's satellite. You can find all of Shutterstock's photos here.
• Stock Photos, Royalty Free Images, Vectors, Footage | Depositphotos — young platform with aggressive policy to lure photographers from other stocks. After registering for any of the above stocks you can receive an attractive offer in personal messages. The project team may sort all of your photos into the necessary categories, and you will only have to upload them.
• Stock Photos and Royalty-Free Images - PIXTA — Japanese photostock with bad demand for photos with European concepts. You need to understand the mentality of the rising sun country for success on this platform.
• Stockfoto, Rechtenvrije Foto's en Stockbeelden - 123RF (123 Royalty Free) — perspective photostock with good reviews.

All these platforms have a similar design and give the opportunity to earn even a novice photographer. Many other similar platforms are less popular. You can work with them after 1-2 months of starting work with the list provided.
I will start with Shutterstock to build a portfolio. After that, we can use special programs for batch work with images. I also recommend you start with this most promising photostock.

Homework:

• Visit the listed sites;
• Set one query in the search and look at their search results. For example — apple, chamomile, white cat.

 

[Marengo]

Buyer Interface

The main rule of successful sales is an understand your customers. You need to know how they can find, choose and buy your photos.

Search Field

A first thing that the buyer sees on the main page of a site is a search field. Here you can search for a specific request, as well as in a specific category. We will work with the categories of Photographs and Illustrations.

Built-in Editor

The buyer can edit each purchased image directly on the site — flip, cut, change sides or sizes.

Collections

The menu of collections is constantly updated, often with seasonal or trendy collections of pictures.

Free Pictures

Free images are available for registered users. The platform buys them from the authors. So, authors get nothing for downloads, but their nickname and portfolio are displayed on the main page. The dream of each author is to see his works in this section.

Test: First Request

Enter any request, for example, Winter. 11430800 images available now. The user sees top-100 photos by popular request, so our task will be to get here. A lot of factors affect the place of the photo, one of the most significant is the number of sales and saving to a lightbox piggy bank.
If the buyer doesn’t find the desired image on 1-2 pages, he will most likely clarify his request. For example, Winter Events for this request contains 627200 photos.
At the same time, somewhere on the 100 thousandth page, you will see pictures in the key queries of which the word Winter is found, but they don’t correspond to either mass taste or request. Mass taste is bright pictures, with one main object in the image, answer a specific question.
The buyer can also set other criteria: freshness, relevance, horizontal position.

Tariffs

The user cannot buy only 1 photo. The minimum package consists of 5 pieces. In this case, the price for the image will be about 10 dollars. With a yearly subscription, he can reduce the price to 27 cents.

Another Successful Photographer Rule

Users need to get into the habit of:

• Browsing tops for different requests,
• Look for uncomplicated photos,
• Save them in a separate folder and
• Rephotograph.

Pay attention to the world around you and its reflection in Shutterstock.

Why Not Be Afraid

You have to forget about the fear that photos may get lost on the platform. There is a huge demand here, a lot of pictures are sold.

Homework

Imagine yourself as a shopper and explore the Shutterstock pages from this point of view.
Check out image tops for popular searches. Find the common features of photos.
Find short news about investing on any site and pick up your pictures to them (you can also look in the general search). If you some time, post such news + photos on HYIP.com.

 

[Marengo]

Registration on The Shutterstock

We offer to register via our referral link so that we receive a profit from each photo you sell within 2 years from the date of registration. If you want to remain this money for owners of Shutterstock, you can register via the usual link.

Step 1: Tap Get Started.

Step 2: Enter your real full name, choose your username (can be changed in the future), e-mail, password and accept service rules.

Step 3: Check email and click at the link in new letter to verify account.

Step 4: Tap Next

Step 5: Fill a profile with a real info and accept that mailing and residential addresses are similar.

Step 6: Fill out a tax return. Tap Continue. Check the correctness of the filled fields, indicate your full name in the bottom line as a digital signature.

Let's fast look at the cabinet interface. At the top right is the name of the author. An additional menu appears, when the user moves the cursor over the name.

The third line contains Support Center. Here is all the information about working on Shutterstock.

On the menu Account Settings user can change Email, Password, Display name, Phone number. Here, in Payout information section user can see withdrawal methods: Payoneer, PayPal, Skrill. Minimal payout is $35 and maximum is $2000. Payouts are automatically calculated at the end of the month and paid up to 15th. I choose PayPal and enter my PayPal email in the field below. User need to choose payout method and tap Save Settings below.

He will not receive money until he collects the minimum amount. There is another limitation — the user cannot withdraw money from this service within 3 months from the date of registration.

In the Public Information menu, user can upload his photos, change the Display Name, get a link to portfolio, add a link to own website, information about himself, links to social networks, author type (Photorgapher), style of work that he publish, equipment. This section doesn’t affect sales. It is needed for directly work with buyers. Fill out the information here isn’t necessary.

User can upload images and videos through the Upload menu. A new user immediately receives a warning from the system.

No need to upload pictures yet. Registration is completed, now we will continue to learn interface and the nuances of working with this service.

 

[Marengo]

Shutterstock Contributor

I propose to learn in more detail the workplace of the author. The Shutterstock contributor logo leads to the main page of the account. In the Latest downloads section, the author sees from which region and which photos people buy his photos (the last 4-10 sales). If the region of the buyer is not defined, the picture is displayed in the center. Unpaid Earnings displays the number of sales for the month.

Earnings

You can view statistics on income and payments for any month in the Earnings menu. All info can be downloaded as a table.

Portfolio

In the Portfolio menu, you can upload your photos. After downloading, pictures are not automatically sent for review but are sent to the server. The user can send them for verification through the Submit Content menu.
In this menu, Approval Photos, you can also view the status of images sent for verification. Here an important section is Rejected Photos. And he posted photos and the reasons for which they did not pass the test. If the user corrects the errors, he will be able to re-send the pictures for verification.
In the section Catalog Manager, the author is more time. This is a tool for working with a portfolio, its organizer. Here it is convenient to create sets of works, as well as see how much money the highlighted images have brought. The number of sets is not limited. The author sees the effectiveness of photographs of a particular subject. This section is useful to the user when his portfolio gets more than 200-300 works.
The Manage releases menu contains photos of models with their data: age, nation, gender.
Keyword Suggestions is a keyword selection tool. They are needed for the compilation of tags, titles, descriptions of photos.

Promotion

In this section, the user can get acquainted with the current rules of the referral program, get a referral link, banners.

Insights

In this section, which is actually a copy of the Catalog Manager tool, the author also sees by what keywords the buyer has found the photo.
Below the menu links to the forum and blog service, its news. I advise reading these sections regularly.

Upload

This is where the entire load takes place. Authors can also upload via FTP, I will describe this method below.

Now you got a complete picture of the office of the author. I will not analyze the work of the Shutterstock mobile app for authors — it will not be needed at an early stage.

 

[Marengo]

The most interesting and useful part — equipment and software.

Camera

Photographers often argue about what is best for Canon or Nikon. I personally prefer Sony cameras. It is Sony that produces optical sights for sniper rifles. Every photographer who makes photos is a little sniper)
In fact, a beginner can use the camera of an ordinary smartphone or a simple camera to work on Shutterstock. Photostocks have technical requirements for the resolution and quality of photos. We will review them later. The main thing is that the file meets the requirements (for administrators) and embodies an interesting idea (for buyers). It doesn’t matter how the photographer photographed it. Even exist photostocks that are designed to download photos from your smartphone.
Use what you have or buy a camera you can afford and let’s get started soon.

Computer or Laptop

You will need a computer for comfortable photo processing and uploading to the site. The more powerful the processor, the more RAM, the better. The video card doesn’t affect the work of photo processing programs. Just check the modern requirements of Photoshop and your computer.
Monitor. The main things for the monitor when processing photos are a resolution, IPS matrix.
Multiple cards up to 32 GB for the temporary storage of photos created.

Technique: A Look at The Future

• Storage for originals created photos. If you choose a budget laptop, pay attention to models with an empty slot in place of the drive and the ability to later install an additional hard drive or SSD here. Also, a great option is an external hard drive.
• SSD to speed up the system when working with the software.

Shutterstock Software

Photoshop is a program for professional photo processing. It’s better to start learning it right away than to start with a simple Lightroom, and then relearn it to Photoshop.

This is the minimum required to get started, so download Photoshop if you don’t already have it and read the following article.

 

[Marengo]

Checklist: Requirements for Photos

Downloaded photos are checked by inspectors. They have a long list of requirements, and if the picture doesn’t match at least one of them, inspectors will not publish it. In the future, the photographer will be able to correct errors and re-send for verification. Now we will look at how to get a photo approved. You can create a checklist in notepad.

Color Settings

Edit – Color Settings

— Working Spaces — sRGB IEC61966-2.1 — OK

Classical Proportion 2:3, 1:1

If your photo has other proportions, you need to change them with the Crop tool (C).

Right mouse button — Crop

Size Photos: 4–12 MP

The minimum size of the picture is 4 MP. It is advisable to use a size of 6 MP, in the future to place your photos on photostocks with higher requirements. More than 12 MP doesn’t need to be loaded since the sharpness of the image is usually lost and the duration of its processing increases.
You should not stretch or enlarge the Photo. You can only compress it for sharpening.

Noise

Noise should not be present in the photo. To keep it to a minimum, in the camera settings, set the ISO parameter to the size of 100. You cannot set this parameter automatic.
Unfortunately, the ISO parameter has disadvantages when shooting:

• Impossible to photograph without lighting — in a room or in cloudy weather;

• There is a need for a tripod as the photo becomes blurred.

White Balance

It is necessary to monitor the color temperature of the image. If you intentionally break it, in tags specify Instagram, toning.

 

[Marengo]

Attention! Content Requirements

If you don’t follow these simple rules, your account will be blocked forever, you will not receive a reward and you will not be able to publish photos under the same name here:

• Any copyright infringement (direct use of someone else’s photos). But you can use other people's ideas;
• Spam in the description — the repeat of one word more than once;
• Lack of releases for commercial photos. For commercial use, photographers remove all company logos or obtain permissions from models and companies. Non-commercial photos can also be sold, but the demand for them is lower.

 

[Marengo]

Restrictions and Recommendations for the Content

A photographer can do anything with commercial photos — color correction, cropping, creating the new reality on the picture, for example, any photo collage, any Photoshop editing, and transformation. He can make any changes, as long as it meets the needs of the market.

Plagiarism

The photographer can use only own photos. He should be ready at any time to show the Shutterstock administration the origin files, so it is important to store all the work files on a flash drive or a separate hard drive. The photographer must add releases to any inscriptions by hand, drawings.

Always Store Original Files!

The Shutterstock often causes discussions between the authors about who first uploaded the photo. In this case, it is enough to submit the original to the inspectors to prove the right to authorship.

Attitude to Logos

The platform prohibits the use of objects protected by copyright. Photoshop is a tool for getting rid of unnecessary inscriptions, logos, brand images. Any inscriptions in a specific language make photography not universal and limit the audience purchase. The photographer makes sure that the clothes of the models are as monotonous as possible because a small recognizable pattern can cause a failure to publish a photo. Otherwise, all this will need to be removed using the Photoshop tool Stamp Tool.
The user can also remove from the image all the excess that doesn’t correspond to the main idea of the image, distracts from her attention.

Stop Words for a Photo’s Description

Terrorist, extremism, brand names, child abuse, pornography, prohibited propaganda topics.

Photo Ideas

The photo bank doesn’t prohibit to borrow the ideas, so the photographer can take photographs on popular subjects, add their own ideas to the content. But experienced photographers recommend finding your own way.

United Photographing

If two or more photographers participate in the photographing process, the model must sign a release with each of them. Everyone can sell their photos, the main thing is that they don’t copy one another.

Additional Accounts

Sometimes the platform creates a lot of rules that often change, that it is impossible to follow everything. If the author is banned, he cannot register a new account at the same name. To get around this restriction, he can register an account for a friend and continue working, receiving money in his name. In this case, he doesn’t need to upload old photos — the photobank stores information about all the loaded earlier pictures.

If Successful Photography Doesn’t Meet the Rules

Each photographer has a folder with such photos. The rules are constantly changing, so after a while, Shutterstock can accept it.