As if I have all the free-time in the world (NOT!)… now I’ve started a new side hustle.
I just became a contributing photographer for a stock photography website called Shutterstock (not to be confused with Shutterfly – which is something completely different).
I take hundreds of photos every week – sometimes more than a thousand photos in a week – so I figured, why not give this a try? Right?!?!
In a nutshell… I take an awesome photo, and upload it to my Shutterstock account. After Shutterstock reviews my photo and approves it as indeed awesome, they publish it on their website. Someone, somewhere in the world sees my photo and wants to use it for their project; they purchase single-use rights to the photo, and I’m paid a royalty (from $0.25 up to 30% of the purchase price – depending on the subscriber and how they purchase the photo rights). The more people that purchase rights to my photo, the bigger my royalty payment is. And… I maintain the copyright to my photos. The time it takes me to do this is minimal – my photos are already on my computer, so uploading them in batches is a breeze. I add a few keywords to help people find the photos on Shutterstock, and voilà!, I’m done. That’s all there is to it. Easy peasy!
Here’s a link to my portfolio on Shutterstock (or you can click the image below). You might recognize a few of the photos there. 😉 I’m still uploading photos, so while there are only a handful in my portfolio so far, more are on their way!
Shutterstock has been around since 2003. It’s one of the leading stock photography websites, offering images through subscription plans, as well as through individual photo purchases. Shutterstock serves businesses, marketing agencies, and media organizations around the world.
I certainly don’t expect to get rich doing this, but it will be exciting to see if any of my photos sell. And if they do, that extra income will be nice to tuck away for a worthy cause.
What a great idea! And such a perfect match with your excellent photography skills. Best of luck!!
Thank you for your kind words, Mrs. A! 🙂