Why Shutterstock Should Not Go Exclusive

Many independent contributors have been dying to join Shutterstock exclusivity if it offers one. But up until today, Shutterstock does not plan to do it simply because it will do more harms than goods. Hey, isnt this is an opportunity of a life time for Shutterstock to kill all its competitors once and for all? No.

First, we have to understand from the contributors point of view. There are basically two groups of contributors. Those that make thousands of dollars every month, and those who make pennies.

The Successful earn 50% from Shutterstock and 50% across all other agencies.
The Failure earn 95% from Shutterstock and 5% across all other agencies.

The above is however, a hard fact. If Shutterstock offers exclusivity, the Failure will immediately join the offer without doubt. The Successful, on the other side, will dangle between the fence because it is such a risk for them to change what is already successful.

In the end, Shutterstock will build up a lot of EXCLUSIVE, BUT LOW QUALITY images/vectors. This will not only harm Shutterstock, but the big contributors as well. The only winner here is the Failure which fail to produce quantity and quality.

To comprehend more, exclusivity means higher pricing, ranking, and royalty percentage for contributors. So, if the majority of the exclusive contributors are the Failures, you can imagine how poor Shutterstock will become. We cannot compare Shutterstock and IStockPhoto here because IStockPhoto has the first-mover-advantage in the industry. IStockPhoto captured and forged the Successful one when they have yet to become successful.

Unless Shutterstock can offer a very delicious and lucrative exclusive offer, then it might have a chance to totally win the heart of the Successful contributors, and at the same time, eliminates all its competitors once and for all.

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Why New Images at Shutterstock No Longer Selling Great

Shutterstock new images have always been performing well, but not in the past 6 months. Contributors are claiming that Shutterstock must had tweaked the search algorithm making new images getting less exposure. Or, perhaps bugs have been creeping through the site. But, I dont think those are the cases here.

Feeding the beast worked in the past because there were simply not enough of good images, then. When buyers could not get what they wanted in Popular, they will try to search through New. However, after years and years of uploading, Shutterstock has got enough of good images today. Buyers no longer need to search through the "irrelevance" New. We all know that searching through New is nightmarish due to keywords spam by contributors.

Here is a good example of why buyers no longer need to search New. Try to search for the keyword "seal" in Shutterstock...

http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=seal&search_group=&lang=en&search_source=search_form

... and under Popular, you can see all the seal vectors presented are good enough to satisfy the buyers. Buyers have no reason to search through New when Popular has enough of good choices already.

The beast is no longer liking the same old food. The beast wants to taste something new. Feed the beast with unexplored topics and I am sure they sell better than the seal.

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How Much Money I can Make from Shutterstock IStockPhoto Fotolia and Dreamstime

That is a question that everyone will ask. There is no straight answer on this, but I can give some ideas on how much you can make from the below vectors:

A Combination Padlock
Shutterstock = $1.50/month
IStockPhoto = $4.00/month
Fotolia = $0.10/month
Dreamstime = $0.10/month
GraphicRiver = $0.50/month

Green Environment Icons Set

Shutterstock = $8.00/month

IStockPhoto = $5.00/month

Fotolia = $0.50/month

Dreamstime = $0.20/month

GraphicRiver = $5.00/month

Looking at the two example above, you can see that a good vector can make about 10x times more than an average one.

Shutterstock, IStockPhoto, and GraphicRiver can make some worthy earnings, whereas Fotolia and Dreamstime are almost hopeless. However, this does not mean you should forget about Fotolia and Dreamstime because the above are only two small examples. Sometimes, Fotolia and Dreamstime can make even more profit from a single item, but the chances are low.

As for photos (not vector), I could not give you a good example as I do not upload photos. But earnings from photos are normally 10x times lower than a vector, unless you have a very good photo which can sometimes make $5/day.

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Shutterstock Vector Sales Not Doing Well

Vector graphics earning in Shutterstock had been on increasing trend for a very long time. Contributors were working very hard to produce more and more high quality vectors. The competition was stiff as ever, but we survived. Not this time, though.

Reading posts from everywhere around the Internet, I can see that weve probably hit the peak somewhere in 2013. 2014 is a decline for Shutterstock and it is still declining. Yes, probably only Shutterstock is declining because other agencies have been neutral. Sad, but true.

I am seeing a sharp drop in my sales at Shutterstock just like everyone else. Many have come up with theories such as:
- search algorithm changes by Shutterstock
- server uptime issue
- summer holiday
- tight competition among contributors
- Getty giving away free images
- ... and many more...

Everything above could be true, but I personally dont think of that. I think Shutterstock is losing clients.

Fotolia introduced DPC (I have opt out because I dont like the idea).
IStock introduced subscription model.
DepositPhotos and 123rf are advertising heavily.

All these are hurting Shutterstock sales and we dont see our overall earnings spread evenly because the income of our vector images are getting less and less everyday in other agencies when they "silently" played around with their royalties, ranking system, and buyer packages.

The trend of "race to the bottom" is also worrying one. Agencies are fighting a price war. Contributors and agencies are suffering because of this. Jon Oringer knows this (who would have know better, if not Jon?). If I am Jon, I will probably start diversifying my investment into other new revolutionary ideas.

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Shutterstock Search Rotation Myth is a Truth

Contributors have always been mentioning about Shutterstocks search rotation. What is a Shutterstocks search rotation? It is when Shutterstock modified the search engine to test out how well it will affect the overall downloads in the site. I have always believe that this is either a bug or a myth - but recently, Shutterstock has come out to claim that this is indeed a truth.

Here is a quote from http://submit.shutterstock.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=130239&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=135

Hello all,  

At Shutterstock, we perform regular tests of small modifications to search. Those tests are typically released to limited segments of the overall customer population. If a test wins over time – which typically means that the changes have demonstrably increased the total number of customer downloads – then the resulting improvements are accepted and deployed.  

Search testing and analysis is a continuous process of small improvements that generally won’t result in dramatic swings in search. Changes are carefully tested and evaluated to make sure that the overall effect on customer downloads and/or purchases is a positive one.  

Customer demand, content differentiation, keyword quantity and quality, global holidays, seasonality and other factors can affect an individual contributors day-to-day earnings. We recommend allowing a little time before evaluating the effect on your personal portfolio.  

Sincerely, Anthony Correia Director, Contributor Success Shutterstock|Bigstock

So yes, many of us have been experiencing a swing of downloads from time to time. Shutterstock is doing testing on what can contribute to the best result. I wouldnt say this is a bad thing because afterall, the most important thing is, customers need to be able to find the images they want in the shortest possible time. That would then be able to retain a customer for a longer period of time.

So, what should we do now? There are two things that we can do in order to minimize our risks from this.

1. Title and keywords. Shutterstock may change the weight given to the number of keywords we put in, and the length of title as well. So, as a contributor, mix your uploads with different quantity of keywords (in the title as well).
2. Time of upload. You should upload frequently, and not upload hundreds of file in one shot. This is because the freshness of your files may also contribute to the factor.

I totally support Shutterstock hard work on this because this is an important factor that contribute to our success. 

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How to Upload Vector to Shutterstock

Uploading vector to Shutterstock may be confusing to newcomers because Shutterstock does not coupled the vector and JPEG together to sell. You need to upload both of them separately so that both your vector and JPEG version are available for sale.

First, prepare the below 3 files.

• JPEG in 2800pixels x 2800pixels. This is for the JPEG version. You are advised not to save this JPEG in a much bigger resolution because your illustration will look jagged and distorted when you view it in 100%, thus the reviewer will most likely reject it. So saving it in 2800pixels x 2800pixels is sufficient.
• Vector file saved in EPS8 or EPS10.
• JPEG in 4000pixels x 4000pixels. This will be used to generate the preview for the vector file above. It is OK to save this file in a much smaller dimension, however, some agency like Fotolia will need this JPEG to be this big.

Go to Upload Content > Upload Images > via HTTP. Upload your 3 files accordingly. Please take not that the vector file and JPEG for preview MUST BE IN THE SAME NAME. Press submit files when you are ready.

Fill up the this page like the below. A few things that you should take notes are:

• The title is best to be short and precise. Do not spam this section or you may get warning.
• It is best to have as many keywords as possible, but make sure they are all relevant.
• Choose two categories.
• Illust/Clip-Art must be checked as Yes for both the Vector and JPEG version.
• Although Shutterstock will not ask you for the photo (or sketches) you used to trace or refer when you create the illustration, but make sure you keep the original photo for this in case there is a dispute in future. REMEMBER, the photo that you used to trace or refer must be owned by you 100% or your account will be shut down.

Submit for review and you are done. Wait about 1 week for them to get approve :)

Good luck.

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