Shutterstock is one of the agencies I highly recommend to anyone starting out in microstock. They were founded in 2003, 3 years after iStockphoto. Between 2005 and 2010, Shutterstock’s portfolio grew from 300 000 images to 10 000 000. That shows how popular they have become with contributors. They are primarily a subscription based microstock agency that offers packages to download a high number of images at low prices. Their business plan is aimed at the professional designer or company and not at the average person who may need 2 or 3 images a month. This does not make them any less successful; they are actually the largest microstock agency in terms of image numbers and individual sales.

The sheer number of sales made by Shutterstock ensures a good level of income for contributors. This, however, does not mean that they will be your best earning agency. Although they sell images at low prices and pay small commissions, they are still widely regarded as one of the top four agencies to join in the microstock industry.

I find the upload and review process with Shutterstock to be very easy, very fast and hassle free. That’s great, however their lower quality standards as compared to iStockphoto means that you get a lot of average images mixed in with the good ones. Not only do they accept more images than other agencies, but they are not very particular about the keywords you offer, thus affecting search results as we can see in the example below.

I searched for “business man” and while most of the images reflect my search, there are a few that don’t. The doctors, shoe being polished, hand gesture, people behind sandwich counter, paper cutout and the man in Christmas costume. Out of 18 images, 6 were not relevant to my search. “Business man” is also a very safe search to try, if you put some other more specific ones in, you may find different results

Give it a try

Shutterstock sales largely depend on constant uploads. Their search engine heavily favors new images, therefore you will see a spike in sales when you upload new content and then it will level off again. Your popular images will always do well, but the ones that receive little attention will quickly fade into the depths of the 10 000 000 others available.

Personally, Shutterstock brings in more than 50% of my microstock earnings and I report these monthly in my blog. Even with the little flaws I pointed out, I still rate this agency as the best place for anyone to start selling their images.

Sign up with Shutterstock here