thickglass
New member
Hi guys, have you ever had experience with shutterstock-like sites, what is the best one in your opinion to make money on?
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Shutterstock alternative
- Thread starter thickglass
- Start date
Jorgen Udvang
Subscriber Member
In my experience, nothing comes even close to Shutterstock. I'm on around 10 different agencies, but Shutterstock contributes 60% of my sales (dollars, not volume). The others that should be considered are:
iStock - Declining, and it's a hassle. Exclusivity used to help a lot, but it isn't nearly as good as it used to be.
Dreamstime - Stable and boring
Fotolia/Adobe - Improving
123RF - Stable, easy to deal with
Depositphotos - Promising
Alamy - Really macrostock, for those photos that you don't know what to do with. Slow, but will sell strange stuff.
iStock - Declining, and it's a hassle. Exclusivity used to help a lot, but it isn't nearly as good as it used to be.
Dreamstime - Stable and boring
Fotolia/Adobe - Improving
123RF - Stable, easy to deal with
Depositphotos - Promising
Alamy - Really macrostock, for those photos that you don't know what to do with. Slow, but will sell strange stuff.
TRSmith
Subscriber Member
My perspective is from the other side of the transaction. I've been buying stock photos for nearly 25 years. I agree with Jordan that Shutterstock is by far the easiest stock site to deal with. I used to use iStock but became frustrated with their purchase setup since I had to buy "credits" in order to buy images. I haven't been back to Getty or Corbis for a few years since they are a lot more expensive. I've used them when a client wants something a notch above the norm and doesn't mind paying for it.
There IS a difference in the images Getty/Corbis offer though. I often see the same series of photos on both Getty/Corbis and other sites. It seems like the Getty/Corbis site will have the clear "winners" of the series and the other, less-expensive sites will offer the rest of the shoot.
The stock photo arena has changed dramatically. I have no idea how people manage to make money from it. I pay a yearly fee ($1,600 to $2,000?? can't remember) and have access to 350 images a month. Very inexpensive.
I can remember pre-digital time when photos were selected from printed catalogs and transparencies were fed-x'd to printers to be scanned and stripped into a layout. It wasn't uncommon to pay $450 to $650 per image!
Good luck with your stock endeavors!
There IS a difference in the images Getty/Corbis offer though. I often see the same series of photos on both Getty/Corbis and other sites. It seems like the Getty/Corbis site will have the clear "winners" of the series and the other, less-expensive sites will offer the rest of the shoot.
The stock photo arena has changed dramatically. I have no idea how people manage to make money from it. I pay a yearly fee ($1,600 to $2,000?? can't remember) and have access to 350 images a month. Very inexpensive.
I can remember pre-digital time when photos were selected from printed catalogs and transparencies were fed-x'd to printers to be scanned and stripped into a layout. It wasn't uncommon to pay $450 to $650 per image!
Good luck with your stock endeavors!
SEOdeveloper
New member
Getallstock is all in one and better for designer