Getting approved at Shutterstock, or not
Well I finally got my email Welcome Back to Shutterstock, meaning it was time for attempt number four to get approved to what is widely considered the most profitable microstock web site. The selection of the first five photos was relatively easy, I was just going to use ones that had been approved previously. Counting my most recent fourth attempt the images have been approved 3/3, 3/4, 3/3, 3/4 and 4/4 time. Three of them have been approved every time and the other two have done well.
Three of the last five have been accepted at other microstock sites, here’s my favorite, it even has a favorable review on IStockPhoto. Unfortunately none of them were approved by Shutterstock.com so it will be another month before I can attempt again. Hopefully that will give me a chance to get some more photos that may get accepted.
My biggest problem appears to be ‘Poor Lighting’, which on some I can understand and control, but some of the outdoors one I think might be a little difficult to control. Over the next month I’d like to concentrate on getting some more marketable microstock photos which should hopefully assist in me getting approved at ShutterStock, to say nothing of getting more downloads at other sites.
Here’s a nice FAQ about ShutterStock which gives quite a bit of useful information.
Allen
Hey Allen, good luck with your next attempt.
One tip for you: use the results from the other agencies - which photos get approved and sell well - as the guide for your application at Shutterstock.
Though all agencies have slightly different tastes, what is ‘good stock’ at one agency is likely to be the same at another.
I hope that helps.
-Lee
That’s a good tip and what I’ve tried to do. Unfortunately at this point most of my photos that have any downloads on other sites have already been rejected by Shutterstock. Gives me a goal for the next month, get some more approved images and hopefully some downloads.
Allen