Is STEEMIT a GOOD alternative to Shutterstock (and other stock photo sites?) [from an amateur photographers perspective with 500 images on SS] ｷﾀ━(ﾟ∀ﾟ)━!
Shutterstock started out in 2003 with 30 000 images, all from the creator, Jon Oringer.
After a few years, in 2006, the site had over half a million pictures for sale and was the biggest stock photo site around. In 2007 that number grew to 1,8 million. By 2010 that number had increased to 11 million. Today there are around 144 million royalty free images with around a million added weekly!For consumers this is great. Chances are high you'll find the images you are looking for. For the photographers however this is a growing nightmere! In 2003 there was 1 contributor, now there are over 500 000 active contributors.
What happens when supply is bigger than demand?
The prices go down and competition rises.
In order to make any decent money on Shutterstock
you'll need a kickass portfolio which stands out... and that portfolio has to be big.You'll also need to stay ahead of the curve, create holiday pictures well ahead of time, find the newest trends, always analyze what sells, what doesn't. This a lot of work and it might not pay off. It's extremely difficult for newcomers to step in.
My portfolio is relatively small with 540 active images. With half a year I've managed to sell 78 times, with the most popular images gathering 20 sales. In total I've made 26,80$. On Steemit I can make that money in a day as of now.
This is interesting.
In Shutterstock my images will keep earning money indefinitely while on Steemit I'll get paid in a week and that's that. These are two different models.
On Shutterstock it's important to keep building your overall portfolio which will increase your monthly income. Steemit on the other hand is an attention economy. You portfolio size won't matter. In both cases you need to keep adding new content regularly. Steemit will give bigger rewards per content, but in the long run Shutterstock should start paying a decent sum as well although thanks to the ever increasing competition that payout will become harder and harder to get to.
In Conclusion
I think stockphotography is moving fast from being someone's main source of income to simply a side-income due to the increasing amount of contributors. Steemit could provide a healthy alternative to amateurs that don't receive anything worth mentioning from stock sites, though it will never replace shutterstock in the long run. As time goes by Photographers have to get more and more creative in finding ways to sell their services/images.Let me know what you think!
Interested in photography?
Some of my previous posts!
You can find me on:
Feel free to use my images :)
Questions about photography are welcome!
Upvote, comment, resteem and follow if you like!
Have a great day!
But you can make that $26 on one post. Plus you can use a picture on Steemit in various different posts.
I haven't uploaded an image to Shutterstock or iStock in YEARS.
I might make it with one post. But it took me a lot of time getting here too. For almost two months I made literally zero :D
I think if you are asking the question, "What should hobby photographers do with their spare time?" The answer might be Steemit instead of Shutterstock. However, if the questions is, "What should hobby photographers do to develop professionally?" I don't think Steemit is the answer. There will continue to be a market for stock and art photography and there will be a marketplace for quality contributors. Steemit won't be that place.
I wasn't asking neither...
Steemit is simply a good alternative source of income for struggling amateur photographers.
interesting article, upvoted
good idea
i have never use shutterstock, i didn't even know it is paid for someone to use the image. but as you said, with more competitor, it is harder for an amateur to get in and getting payment.
Nothing is free. Good photography is hard to do and should be paid a lot, but yeah... competition is crazy right now. I make barely any money there. ~5$/month with 500 pictures.
There are free stock photo sites though, but you'll notice quickly they have a limited catalogue.
agree with you, considering the tools and the technique use in doing good photography it is should paid well.
it is a booming with digital photography here at the moment, and the price war bettwen photographer is fierce also.
I have never use shutterstock :(
Didn't know that site, but I'm an amateur. I'll have to pay a look on that, got curious! It would be awsome if in a close feature profissional photographs could put their photos for selling here or steem based at least. I'm sure some of them would like that!
I don't think selling here will work. The platform is not built for that. But steemit will offer a better income for amateurs than shutterstock. also blogging about your photography will get you popularity, I hope :D
For amateurs like me Steemit is fabulous. For selling photographs I'm thinking something new, detached from Steemit like SteemSports. There are already lots of photographers here.
Great post! Nice pictures. Thanks for sharing.
That's interesting :)
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