May 28, 2024by Taras Kushnir

Editorial vs Commercial content on microstocks: which earns more

Editorial images were always a backbone of microstocks, even before the development of generative AI. In the end, it’s much cheaper for news outlets to source content from local photographers than to send somebody to shoot. Also, it was a “secret” ...

February 29, 2024by Taras Kushnir

Choosing payout provider for microstocks: Skrill vs PayPal vs Payoneer

When you’re working on microstocks and it’s time to receive your earnings, usually you have 3 options: Skill, PayPal and Payoneer. Sometimes the choice could be simple, as when only 1 option works in your country. However, the choice might be as ...

November 1, 2023by Luisa Fumi

Journey of selling stock images on your own website

My experience with the microstock agencies Just a dream? Symbiostock Picfair Shopify Wordpress + Woocommerce Self-hosting My websites What’s next My experience with the microstock agencies I’ve been dealing with the microstock world since 2008, when ...

August 10, 2023by Taras Kushnir

Best-selling microstock categories: let the numbers talk

If you’ve ever wondered where to focus your creative energies, you’re in the right place. In this blogpost we are going to take a second deep dive into Steve Heap’s earnings. This time to see how much income was generated per category since 2007 and ...

February 28, 2023by Taras Kushnir

How passive is income from microstock photography

If you have a passion for photography (or illustration/videography), you might have considered turning it into a source of passive income. However, it takes more than just a collection of photos to create a successful stream of passive income. You ...

May 22, 2022by Alexandre Rotenberg

What is a realistic income from stock photography (updated)

Contributors report earning $0.08-$2.28 per month, while some of the best-sellers yield $87.7 per month (aggregated in 2022). With a literally over 1000 times difference between average and best-seller content it’s easy to see that full earnings ...

July 29, 2020by Taras Kushnir

How I earned 6,314 USD from a single photo on Shutterstock

Do you want to upload your photo to microstock once and earn royalties forever? Don’t rush until you read this. It was October 2013 and it was almost a year since I registered on Shutterstock. Sad thing is that I haven’t earned a cent during that ...

May 29, 2020by Taras Kushnir

New Shutterstock earnings breakdown

Even though many people’s earnings already decreased during the pandemic, Shutterstock just announced an update to contributor earnings levels effective June 1 2020. Obviously a company would not restructure earnings levels that it would earn less ...