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How Much Money I Make From Selling Stock Photography on Shutterstock.

Armchair Detective
2 min readNov 26, 2020

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Photo by ATC Comm Photo from Pexels

I joined Shutterstock back in January of 2015. In the last 6 years, I have uploaded 1031 images and my images have been downloaded 468 times. Whilst this is not a lot in comparison with a lot of other photographers. Shutterstock is the site where I have made the most money from my stock photography.

The most money that I have made from one image is $100. That image has only been downloaded twice. In comparison, the image that has been downloaded the most times, 36 times, has generated $22.72.

The most popular set of images is of signs. Conceptual images, editorial images and graphics are great sellers on Shutterstock.

If you sign-up as a Shutterstock contributor, you are paid a percentage of the image and video sale price. Recently, Shutterstock changed its earnings process. Earnings range from 15% up to 40% and depend on how many downloads you accumulate. Their new learning levels are as follows:

Level 1 — Up to 100 downloads — Commission 15%

Level 2 — 101 to 250 downloads — Commission 20%

Level 3 — 251 to 500 downloads — Commission 25%

Level 4 — 501 to 2,500 downloads — Commission 30%

Level 5 — 2,501 to 25,000 downloads — Commission 35%

Level 6 — Over 25,000 downloads — Commission 40%

Contributors are paid monthly, 12:00 AM EST, on the 1st day of every month, when their earnings reach the minimum threshold for payment.

If you are looking to make a little money from Shutterstock, you can sign-up as a contributor here.

If you want to buy images, you can do so here.

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Armchair Detective
Armchair Detective

Written by Armchair Detective

Amateur writer and photographer. I mostly write about passive income, history and crime.

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