Elliott Cowand Jr

Lifetime earnings / divided by lifetime downloads = .51 cent average sale for me.

SS emailed me this AM that I hit level 4 - and just now I had a $51.00 single sale.

Just think - if you sell 170 photos on Shutterstock this USED coffee cup can be YOURS! Perhaps being an Ebay seller is a better use of your time.

Many of my photos rank high on the first page of catagories with lots of competition even though my sales are modest. I think good keywording is an important factor regarding ranking. However, I found that your photo's ranking shifts depending on how you have your search filters set up. As an example, a rather typical shot I took of the famous Hollywood sign was the fourth photo on page one. It sold twice more in a few days so I rechecked it. Strangely it sunk down to page nine. I swapped some of the search filters and "presto" it appeared on page one again. Consider filters: Most Rel

Sometimes photos resubmitted are accepted the second go round even though they haven't been re-edited. I've a hunch Shutterstock is deliberately tossing out X number of submissions when we upload multiples in an effort to prevent their servers from becoming clogged. Other ways to pass inspection are to include the phrase "Selective focus on (the subject)" in the title description. You can also reduce the dimentions of the photo to something just above their accepted minimum like 2800 long edge.

If this works for Adobe maybe their next step would be to buy out whole portfolios (not that I'd recommend it.) Sorry for the Seinfeld TV show analogy: (J. Peterman to Kramer): "How much would you take for the whole lot? Name your price, man!"

As you and Wilm Ihlenfeld suggest, no one wants to see their image made available as wallpaper forever - but Shutterstock buyers who pay .10 cents for your image also have the use of your photo forever. With this Adobe offer, you can only make your low sellers available. You don't have to provide them with all the images they selected.

"only photos with 4 downloads or less in the last year would be accepted." Apparently, they know not to attempt to offer you just $5 for your big money makers.

No, their quote indicates you get $5 per selected photo. "You’ll receive an upfront payment of US$5 for each photo that we accept and include in the free collection non-exclusively for 12 months."

I noticed they are only offering this opportunity for photos that have had a few sales in the past.

Think other agencies will follow this approach?

Your photos often include clouds, trees, grass or water- any of which can confuse the AI review. As has been described on previous threads consider adding "Selective focus of XXX" to your description to direct review toward the subject.

Hard to tell, but if this is graffiti SS always rejects that.... This is FUN. Almost like "Where's Waldo."

And here's one more.

Thanks. I saw lots of comments using 3000 pixels and deleted my question.