Selling your images is not the only way that you can make money with microstock, most agencies offer referral commissions as well. The referral type differs from agency to agency, some offer incentives for buyer referrals, some contributor referrals and some for both.

How do they work?

A microstock agency offering affiliate programs would usually provide you with various methods of recruiting buyers or contributors. The most common is via a referral link which is basically a url that leads a person directly to the microstock agency website. This url is specifically linked to your account and you will be named as the referrer if the person visiting the microstock website used your link.  A typical referral link would look like this.

http://submit.shutterstock.com/?ref=239779

Contributors can send this url to friends or family or anyone they think would be interested in buying images or selling their images online. If the person decides to sign up and buy/sell images, the referrer associated with the url will receive a commission.

The next method of referral is by advertising banner. This is for the more advanced web user. Most agencies develop their own animated banners and provide members with specific codes that they can copy and paste into blogs, websites or anywhere that supports html code. This is a more visually stimulating way of attracting referees. Some examples of these are shown below.

The last option is the API programs. API is basically a way to link your website directly to a microstock agency. Some of the more established microstock agencies have developed a way that users can search for images via an application on the your website or blog. The microstock agency will provide you with some unique code yet again and all you need to do is copy and paste it into your website code and it appears as a search box on your website. This is aimed at attracting buyers and any images purchased as a result of using the search box on your site will earn you commission. Here is an example.

Shutterstock Stock Photo Keyword Search:

Search Terms:
Match All Match Any

Which is the best?

All microstock agency affiliate programs differ. The more established agencies don’t offer commissions for referring contributors, they rather concentrate on attracting buyers for their images. Some programs operate with a time limit, e.g. Agency x – “when you refer a new contributor you will receive $0.10 per image sale for the first 6 months”.  Some programs are better than others, but this may also be related to the agency status. New agencies will offer great incentives, but you may not receive a lot of income because they are so new that their sales numbers are low. I would say that any extra income is better than no income, so give them all a try and see which ones work for you. 

Below is a table showing the different affiliate programs offered by different agencies. Please note that Microstockhelper is still fairly new and I will update my tables and other data as I make even more agency reviews.

Agency	AF PR	Contributors	Buyers	Period
iStockphoto	Yes	n/a	$10 each	once off
Shutterstock	Yes	$0.03 per sale	20% max $50	mixed
Dreamstime	Yes	10%	10%	3 years
Fotolia	Yes	n/a	15%	unlimited
Veer Marketplace	No	n/a	n/a	n/a
Depositphotos	Yes	$0.03 per sale	4% – 15%	mixed
123RF	Yes	$0.30	15%	up to 1 year
Crestock	Yes	10%	50%	6 months
Snapixel	No	n/a	n/a	n/a
Canstockphoto	Yes	$5 per 50 sales	10% max $50	6 months
Vivozoom	Yes	n/a	15%	1 year
Bigstock	Yes	$5 per 75 approved	35% up to $105	once off

I hope you have found this informative and helpful.