I made another photo sale on Shutterstock and collected a grand total of 10 cents. Picture attached. I am guessing that the buyer paid 22 cents by my limited research. I have a total of over 200 photos online now with various platforms and sold only 2 while collecting a total revenue of 20 cents.

But that is not the real reason for the post today. From my recent submissions to Shutterstock, I am sure that more than half of the photos were rejected for some technical issue. The exact reason is difficult to know as the rejection notification is basically a form letter via email. There is some follow-up procedure to obtain more information but I have never bothered to pursue it. This is mostly based on the philosophy, “You can’t fight City Hall”.

Now the funny thing to me is the fact that the picture that just sold has an obvious fake sky. In my early days of photography, I was a big fan of heavy-handed editing including adding a new sky via Skylum Luminar. I still use it occasionally but only as a last resort. Two possible conclusions might be drawn here. One; Shutterstock has tightened the standards on photo submissions. Or two; There is a wide discrepancy in standards among the various reviewers.

It seems the wide range of standards applies to video submissions also. Last month I had at least 6 videos rejected for various reasons. Consequently, I uploaded the exact same video to Blackbox. Global. Within a few days of being accepted by BlackBox, I found that same (previously rejected) video available on Shutterstock.

I posted a question on the Shutterstock forum describing the situation and the consensus seemed to be that there are multiple reviewers and basically luck of the draw who sees yours. However, it just seems like it happens all too often to be coincidental?

Also confirmed via the forums, there seems to be a continued downward spiral on commissions. One contributor said he received just 25 cents for a video he posted. Another person said he saw his work available as a free download inside some larger Shutterstock package or promotion.

I never really planned to make a living with this hobby. And, I certainly never believed the stories about making $1000 a month. As a modest goal starting out, I thought that making $100 a month would be nice. This would be enough to stay up to date on new gear every year.

Needless to say, even my modest goal fell short and my total revenue over 2 years is only about $600 over 2 years. This comes from photo and video sales combined. Also, the number is a little bit skewed as I collected $300 from just one video sale, and very doubtful that will happen again?

To be continued . . .