I hit the $10,000 mark last week, so I got a little bump in my earnings at Shutterstock. I can’t say it is going to be a huge increase in my earnings, but every little bit helps. It was also nice to see that Shutterstock includes all your earnings (referrals, on demand, etc.) to calculate the total. The only downside is that I no longer have some higher earnings level to attain. I guess I’ll just have to wait for Shutterstock to increase royalties or prices for my next raise. Fingers crossed.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2009 Cory Thoman.

The much anticipated Shutterstock raise was announced today with mixed fanfare. Here is the breakdown:

“If you have earned $500 in lifetime earnings from Shutterstock, we will increase your payment per Standard License download to 33¢ per download. This is a raise of 3¢ (10%) per download over the current applicable rate of 30¢.

If you have earned $3,000 in lifetime earnings, we will increase your payment per Standard License download to 36¢ per download. This is a raise of 6¢ (20%) per download over the current applicable rate of 30¢.

If you have earned $10,000 in lifetime earnings, we will increase your payment per Standard License download to 38¢ per download. This is a raise of 8¢ (27%) per download over the current applicable rate of 30¢.

If you have not yet reached these earnings levels, the current payout of 25¢ per download will remain in force. At midnight on the day your earnings hit these levels, you will automatically be upgraded in our system to the higher payout rate, and that rate will apply going forward.

The royalty for Enhanced License downloads will increase to $28 per download for all submitters. This is a raise of $8 (40%) per download over the current rate of $20.

All Referral, Footage, and CD-a-Month payout rates remain unchanged.”

Overall, I was pleased. I have about $5000 lifetime earnings, so my raise was 20%. It would have been nice to get a huge raise, but realistically I was just hoping for something that would keep Shutterstock competitive with iStockphoto. I think this raise accomplished that, although that might change when iStockphoto releases their subscription service later this month. Regardless, it’s nice to see the two companies go tit for tat with raises.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.

I wanted to review some of the different services I use. This review is for Shutterstock, a microstock agency.

A microstock agency is basically a stock art site that lets artists post their artwork on the site and sell royalty free licenses. Artists retain all the rights to their work and collect a percentage of the royalties when their artwork sells on the site. There aren’t any membership fees for artists to join.

Shutterstock works a little differently from other microstock sites. It is only subscription based which means that subscribers pay a monthly fee and can download a set amount in the month. This is different from other sites that let the buyers purchase files as they need them. The royalties are lower in a subscription service, but the downloads are a lot higher. This model seems to work because Shutterstock is often my monthly top earner.

My favorite thing about Shutterstock is the upload process. They offer FTP upload for vector files. It is quick and easy to upload and keyword your files. I usually upload all my files there first. iStockphoto may be the stock king, but Shutterstock definitely has the best upload process.

So if you’re not morally opposed to selling stock, then I would recommend checking out Shutterstock.

This post was written on IllustrationInfo.com. Content copyright 2008 Cory Thoman.