Congrats for reaching this far. This is part 3 of my short series on trying to decode the stock photography and footage world.
I have previously mentioned some of the more well known agencies and a way of uploading to multiple of them, using an app called Xpiks. Although a much quicker process, keyboarding a single image can be daunting.
That’s where Wirestock may come in handy. It’s a new company (not agency) offering keyboarding and uploading on multiple agencies for a percentage when a sale occurs. At the time of writing they are uploading on Deposit Photos, Adobe Stock, Alamy, Shutterstock, Pond5, Dreamstime and they will only keyword your commercial images, not the editorial ones.
So why would want to use them?
Wirestock’s key selling point is the fact that they are offering a no upfront cost keywording service while uploading to ,multiple agencies as well.
Stock agencies have a minimum payment threshold. This means that can withdraw your earnings only once you have reached a certain amount. For example Shutterstock has a minimum of $35 before you can withdraw them. Wirestock has a minimum of $30 but with them uploading on multiple agencies this means that you can potentially reach this earlier.
A third positive point may be a bit more confusing to complete noobs in the stock world. The stock photography world has changed considerably over the past 15 years. People once could make a full time living out of stock but prices have constantly being driven down by the agencies. Even me with a short 4 years into this I’ve seen major price changes. I’ve earned as low as 0.09$ for a single image which was unheard of some time ago.
Out of that Wirestock will eat more into your profits as they charge 15% for their services. That may sound like a negative however being part of a collective effort on a single profile on Shutterstock may make you more money due to the recent changes on the platform.
Shutterstock works with a level tier system where contributors earn a bigger percentage per sale after they hit targets such as selling ore than 250 images, 1000, etc. This will now reset each year meaning you will be better of with Wirestock’s account since they have over 60.000 images in their growing collection.
I hold accounts on every major agency so my approach was a littler bit different. I personally decided to dump images the I thought had less of a commercial value and since I did not have to do any actual work other that dragging and dropping it’s a win win situation to see sales coming towards my way.
Here’s their website: https://wirestock.io/
Any questions do not hesitate to get in touch in the comments!