Yes, it’s a lot of work, but it is worth it because you’ve built the company and you are able to share valuable work with thousands of people. This is the kind of “brand” that will create lots of revenue. This “brand of content” is the thing that creates value for you.
There are thousands of things that are free to post on Shutterstock but most people rarely think about what to do with the images they take. They use it on Facebook, tweet about it on Twitter, or use it even in their blog post.
One of the most common mistakes people make is that they send out a big photo, “attached” to it is a link back to your website or blog.
“Income sharing” is something that is not in the spirit of Shutterstock as it is a service to the owner of the photos. The company makes a profit from the sale of photos, but it is not in the sense of how many people they have sold their photos to.
If you are going to sell your photos at all, you need to think about something like how it will be distributed and what the profit is going to be.
Here are some questions you should ask yourselves before you go in to sell Shutterstock photos:
How large is the audience you are trying to reach and how quickly will that audience be growing?
How long will it take to get your content to the readers who want to see it?
How easy is it to get the photos added to your blog post and how long do you plan to keep that image up here for?
How well do you want the pictures to be viewed by the people on your team in order for their job to be made easier?
Which kind of “brand” are you trying to build and how will it affect your business model?
How much will it cost you to maintain your content and how many users will have access to it?
How secure are the images you take? Do you need any kind of encryption?
What kind of “branding” material should you produce? What do you want it to say about yourself?
How valuable do you think your images will be to your readers?
Is the image in a way that you want other people to find and use it in their blog posts?
If you decide that you want to sell your photos for profit, these questions will help you develop a plan for how to do it.