Shutter Stock , Adobe Stock

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Adalbert
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Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Shutter Stock , Adobe Stock

Post by Adalbert »

Hello everybody,
Has anybody known by experience how to deal with the ShutterStock and AdobeStock in the best way?
BR, ADi

dhmiller
Posts: 256
Joined: Mon Nov 11, 2019 7:42 am
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Re: Shutter Stock , Adobe Stock

Post by dhmiller »

I've sold many images at Adobe Stock, some for as little as .7 cents, and all well under $1.. Nearly impossible to make any money, and I pretty much stopped adding works given the ridiculously low royalty rate. Shutterstock is minimally better..
Got my highest royalty ($25) from a single image from 500px..

There's really only one "way" to work with them - let them do what they want with your work and be happy with pennies...
Adalbert wrote:Hello everybody,
Has anybody known by experience how to deal with the ShutterStock and AdobeStock in the best way?
BR, ADi

Adalbert
Posts: 2402
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Post by Adalbert »

OK, may the same picture be sold by many different providers at the same time?
BR, ADi

dhmiller
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Post by dhmiller »

Yes. None require an exclusive.

Adalbert
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Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Post by Adalbert »

OK, you can upload the same picture to many stock photo agencies as
ShutterStock, AdobeStock, iStock, Getty, 500px, etc. at the same time.
So, in this way you could increase (multiply) your profit.
Is there a catch here?
BR, ADi

dhmiller
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Post by dhmiller »

The catch is that you will make maybe 17 cents per picture, so at that rate, it will take many decades (centuries?) to get rich! ;-)
Adalbert wrote:OK, you can upload the same picture to many stock photo agencies as
ShutterStock, AdobeStock, iStock, Getty, 500px, etc. at the same time.
So, in this way you could increase (multiply) your profit.
Is there a catch here?
BR, ADi

Adalbert
Posts: 2402
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Post by Adalbert »

OK :-) which key words would you recommend?
BR, ADi

dhmiller
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Post by dhmiller »

That's completely up to you. Shutterstock allows maybe 50 key words.. You have to decide what fits best. Look at some of the images up there and see what other people are doing.
Adalbert wrote:OK :-) which key words would you recommend?
BR, ADi

MarkSturtevant
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Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

This is interesting. A while ago I tried selling pictures on Etsy. Sold two (woo-hoo!). For it to work I think you have to really market yourself through other media outlets and I was not into that. I grew tired of "hearing the crickets" on my page and eventually shut it down.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

dhmiller
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Post by dhmiller »

Adobe Stock is completely different, since like Shutterstock, people can't actually search for your work. They just come looking for images based on keywords, which are automatically generated by Adobe Stock (they canechanged). Some guy told me he had 11k images up there and got a nice check every month. That's about what it would take, though still not sure it is worth the effort/time.
MarkSturtevant wrote:This is interesting. A while ago I tried selling pictures on Etsy. Sold two (woo-hoo!). For it to work I think you have to really market yourself through other media outlets and I was not into that. I grew tired of "hearing the crickets" on my page and eventually shut it down.

MarkSturtevant
Posts: 1942
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 pm
Location: Michigan, U.S.A.
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Post by MarkSturtevant »

I don't think I would put in in all the possible search terms for a huge # of pictures. I suspect that would be the most onerous part of the whole effort, while the 10 or so most obvious search terms would be the most 'probable'.
Mark Sturtevant
Dept. of Still Waters

dhmiller
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Post by dhmiller »

This is true, but you can copy and paste search words if you have a bunch you need to reuse and the app also gives you auto-terms that it thinks are appropriate, many of which actually are...
MarkSturtevant wrote:I don't think I would put in in all the possible search terms for a huge # of pictures. I suspect that would be the most onerous part of the whole effort, while the 10 or so most obvious search terms would be the most 'probable'.

Adalbert
Posts: 2402
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 1:09 pm

Post by Adalbert »

Hello everybody,
Every picture is checked before it is published. But there are some differences.
AdobeStock checks more the content and ShutterStock more the technical quality.
But they both reject images with people and famous sightseeing’s.
BR, ADi

dragonblade
Posts: 200
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:16 pm

Re: Shutter Stock , Adobe Stock

Post by dragonblade »

dhmiller wrote:
Mon Feb 17, 2020 8:14 pm
I've sold many images at Adobe Stock, some for as little as .7 cents
I'm finding that very surprising to hear. I contribute to Adobe Stock as well and I have never received low commissions like that. Never heard of anyone else getting those either. Usually, I get around .99c from Adobe Stock and on one occasion, I got $3.07.

By the way, I urge anyone to keep away from Shutterstock. I used to be a contributor there but no longer. Recently, they've made some massive changes to their earning system. Commissions for contributors have been massively slashed with people losing lots of income. The majority of people are getting an average of .10c per photo there after the change. And if that's not bad enough, they also introduced video subscriptions. When you sold videos through SS, you used to get commissions like $17, $23 etc. Those figures are less common these days. Many contributors are reporting that they're getting a few dollars (and sometimes even less than a dollar) for video sales which is an insult.

dragonblade
Posts: 200
Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 11:16 pm

Re:

Post by dragonblade »

Adalbert wrote:
Wed Feb 26, 2020 3:04 am

AdobeStock checks more the content and ShutterStock more the technical quality.
But they both reject images with people and famous sightseeing’s.
Not necessarily. Shutterstock and Adobe Stock accept photos of people with model release forms. Additionally, Shutterstock also accepts photos of famous tourist icons, businesses and people without releases if they are submitted as editorial. Adobe Stock usually don't accept editorial images except in some rare circumstances where contributors are invited to do so. Though like I mentioned above, it's best to keep away from Shutterstock because of the super low commissions they're offering now. If you want to submit editorial photos, you could send those to Alamy and Dreamstime.

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