STOCK PHOTO Side Hustle Run Down:
Love photography and taking photos, but find you don’t know what to do with them once they’re off your camera? Or looking to get started with some photography? (See what you might need here). Did you know that you can submit your photos to stock image websites like shutterstock. , iStock and Adobe Stock, and get paid a commission/royalty on downloads? Shutterstock have paid out over 1 billion dollars in commissions so it is definitely something you can make money from! There’s no fee or harm in uploading images and hoping for the best, so long as you’re happy for your images to be downloaded and used by others around the globe! Do note they need to be high quality images and meet the strict standards of each of the platforms.
Disclosure: Some of the links provided in this blog are affiliate links. I may be paid a commission or get a little bonus if you use this link to make a purchase. Your support is appreciated!
PROS AND CONS OF A STOCK PHOTO SIDE HUSTLE
PROS
- If you already love photos and have a great database of high quality images, it’s easy to begin!
- Once your images are uploaded, you just wait for someone to purchase a license to your image and earn a small commission!
- The more images you have, the greater earning potential (not limited)
- Free to set up and join through shutterstock and other stock photography sites
- These sites tell you about images that are in high demand, so you know which types of images may help you earn more money!
CONS
- Keep in mind that you will need model release’s for any images including people or location release for identifiable locations which can be tricky to get
- There are already millions of photos on these websites, you will need to try and differentiate or pick a niche to get your images ranking where they can be seen!
- The quality expectation is quite high, so you need to make sure your photos meet the quality guidelines before uploading.
Effort Required To Start a Stock photo side hustle
To get started: Low
Signing up with shutterstock and AdobeStock’s contributor platform was easy and only took a couple of minutes. Then it’s just uploading your work (easy if you already have your photos stored on your device!) and waiting for approval! You do need to spend a little bit of time naming and tagging your images so it can be appropriately filtered if approved. Similarly with iStock / Getty Images’ contributor platform, you have to download their specific contributor app, apply with sample images and be approved before you can begin.
Ongoing: Low – Moderate
Once you have your account set up and images uploaded, tagged and approved, you don’t have to do anything else to begin earning money! However, to encourage downloads you may wish to promote your contributor account and photography to encourage people to choose your images. You may also wish to look at what searches are trending and what images are in demand and work on a photo shoot targeting these areas.
STOCK PHOTO Business / Side Hustle Earning Potential
Earning potential is low, there are already millions and millions of photos out there, and commission on each download is low ($0.40 USD) so you really need to have a volume of downloads to make an impactful income. However, there is no harm in uploading your images and waiting to see what will come of them! Income potential is definitely increased if you are able to take photos that are in demand, include people with model release forms or are submitting videos.
Plus, you can also make a small commission by sharing your link when people sign up as a contributor or regular user of the stock site. For example, anyone that registers for Shutterstock through this link and has purchases on their stock images, I may make a (tiny!) $0.04c commission on images and 10% on videos for that purchase. While this doesn’t impact your ability to earn your full commission rate, if you would like to register and not use my link – you can register through the website organically here.
Cost Required To Start A Stock Photo SIDE HUSTLE
It’s absolutely free to get started! These websites / stock library companies need large databases of images and video to be able to best meet their customers needs. They encourage people that are willing to provide their images to them for free to upload them as this saves them from hiring photographers and paying higher fees. Plus, there are so many great photographers with wonderful photos out there not being seen by the world – this is a great way to get some of your work seen!
How Do I Start My Own Stock Photo Side Hustle?
– Head to Shutterstock’s contributor platform here via my link or their generic website here. Register for GettyImages/ iStock photos here and Adobe stock here.
– Upload some of your best photos to get approved and get started with the platforms!
GET STARTED TODAY
Canon EOS1500D Is a perfect starter camera
TRIPODS ARE ESSENTIAL FOR STEADY SHOTS
Camera Bag To Keep Your Camera Equipment Safe
Backdrops for photography
Ideas To Boost Your Stock Photo Side Hustle
- Take a look at what the stock images websites are saying they are in demand for. ShutterStock upload this information via ‘The Shot’ list. Getty images offer this information via ‘briefs’ once you are accepted. Adobe Stock shows you what other well performing accounts are getting downloads for, so you can see if you have anything that may also perform well!
- It could be a great idea to take images targeting a specific geographic location- like Australia for example. In the past I have struggled to find images with words spelt with the UK/Australian language (labour/labor) and also things like right-hand drive vehicles. Looking further into which search terms have low results may help you find and dominate in a niche.
