I'm just about to reveal how uploading
stock footage can still be a profitable
side hustle even in 2022 so let's get
started the first website I want you to
head over to is called shutterstock.com
and this is a place where you can find
millions of pictures on any topic you
search for as you see I was looking for
some sort of spring landscape right
let's keep it simple well if I hit enter
I'm gonna find over 7 million different
photos that match my search as you can
see some of them look really cool but
here's the thing about it if you want to
download these pictures on your device
it is not free you do have a free trial
so you can download a few of them
without paying but after that you will
have to pay a monthly subscription to
continue using their services you guys
don't worry about it we are not going to
pay this subscription that's not what
the video is all about but stick with me
for a second because it's gonna be worth
it you see if you're a regular user
who's looking to download pictures from
Shutterstock or a similar website you
would have to pay about 30 Euro per
month you can also get videos music and
editorial content but let's not get
sidetracked now some of you might be
wondering why would people pay for
downloading pictures are they stupid can
they just search for them on Google and
that is a legitimate question but we
need to dive a little bit deeper to
understand the answer let me repeat that
search on Google this time and as you
can see we can find a bunch of high
quality pictures some of them are even
better than the ones we got on
Shutterstock the only difference is that
when it comes to these pictures on
Google this may actually be subject to
copyright and that is the major drawback
you see copyright is a type of
intellectual property that gives its
owner the exclusive right to copy
distribute adapt display and perform a
creative work in other words you are not
allowed to reuse the content unless you
have the permission from the original
content creator and that's why all of
these platforms such as istockphoto.com
where Shutterstock will come in handy
and let me show you guys a clear use for
this kind of videos and pictures let's
just say that I wanted to make my videos
a little bit more engaging by adding a
little bit of stock footage every now
and again well in order to make sure
that I'm on the safe side and my channel
will not get demonetized or it will not
get get some sort of copyright strike
and get deleted I need to make sure that
all the content I'm using is copyright
free I need to have the license to reuse
it and if you just download a random
picture from the internet you don't have
the license so it basically puts you in
a very dangerous spot especially if you
really care about the YouTube channel
and that is also true for any other kind
of advertising materials and so on and
so forth now truth be told there are
websites where you can find stock
footage for free without paying for it
such as pixabay.com or pixels I could go
ahead and perform a similar search and
I'm sure I will find a bunch of relevant
pictures and videos but there is a job
when it comes to these free Alternatives
if you go too specific with your search
you will not find any results let me
show you an example let's say that I
wanted to search for a kangaroo boxer
now that's a pretty random search isn't
it and as you might expect we cannot
really get any relevant results this is
the only one that shows up in comparison
If I complete that same exact search on
istock photo or Shutterstock well here's
what happens take a look at this 295
relevant search results and this is
precisely what I search for isn't it and
the same thing is true on Shutterstock
over 300 relevant pictures now guys the
reason I'm telling you this is because I
want you to understand that people are
actually paying for the Shutterstock or
istock photo subscriptions because they
need to there are a lot of content
creators who are advertising agencies
marketing agencies that need to make use
of royalty-free pictures or copyright
free videos but here's where the earning
opportunity lies once again these
platforms are making a lot of money from
monthly subscriptions and this is
Dependable recurring Revenue that they
receive month after month but instead of
just skipping the whole cash for
themselves they're actually rewarding
their contributors in order for these
websites to have thousands upon
thousands of pictures for every search
topic that you can come up with they
need to have a bunch of contributors and
these are regular people like you and me
who upload their pictures onto istock
photo and Shutterstock and the thing
about it is that anyone can apply and
become a contributor on these websites
you don't necessarily have to be a
professional photographer you don't need
to spend thousands of dollars in
expensive equipment you don't need a
professional camera or you don't even
have to be a talented illustrator
because there are all sorts of pictures
and videos you can upload and to be
honest even if you take a picture with
your mobile phone you can still sell it
here I mean you can tell this one wasn't
taken with a professional camera it's
not the best quality so let me break it
down for you what you want to do is
celebrate to Shutterstock and sign up as
a contributor instead in order to do
that you want to scroll down to the very
bottom of their page and click on sell
your content they will send you straight
over to the signup form that you can
fill out and it will also give you a
breakdown of how the process works so
let's take a look at this first off you
get to create high quality images and
videos for their customers to download
then you get to upload your content with
your easy to use platform and here's the
thing ultimately you get to make money
whenever your content is downloaded and
of course you can refer even more of
your friends bring them over to the
website and get some commissions but
that is just an additional income stream
for now let's focus on becoming a
contributor because that's the main
source of income you can set up and by
the way guys just in case you thought
this was some sort of very small gig
that only a handful of people are doing
well that's not true the website has
actually paid out over one billion
dollars to their users so far over the
last 15 years so not only have they been
in a business for over 15 years which is
a long time but they have paid out over
1 billion dollars which is insane if you
think about it and there is more to it
than that again you can do the very same
thing on istockphoto.com it's a very
similar website so it's also got a
contributor feature that allows you to
submit photos and get paid for that but
what's even more impressive is that you
don't necessarily have to sell pictures
that you take with your mobile phone you
can also sell illustrations let me show
you an example let's say that I was
searching for some student illustration
right well guys there you have it
1052 different results all of these are
regular illustrations uploaded by
artists or regular people that match our
search term and it goes even beyond that
I can even search for some sort of
invitation let's say I wanted to get a
party invitation I can sign that in hit
enter and believe it or not I will find
a bunch of relevant search results over
1 000 of them and that just goes to show
that you don't necessarily need to be a
photographer to make this work to become
a contributor on istock photo or
Shutterstock you can still make money
with stock footage uploading stock
footage on these websites even if you're
not passionate about photography
whatsoever and that is by creating
digital templates and that's what I want
you to focus on what you can do and this
is literally a shortcut is that you can
connect to canva.com and search for the
same thing let's say you wanted to sell
party invitations right I can copy that
search term paste it into the canvas
search box and hit enter what's gonna
happen is that canva will provide us
with thousands of editable templates
over 6 000 of them so you can just click
on one of them then make a bunch of
changes and eventually upload it onto
shutterstock.com and I'm 110 sure that
is how a lot of these sellers have
created their invitation templates they
have probably used some Freedom
templates such as the one is provided by
canva and they just made a bunch of
changes so you can genuinely model that
and Implement a very similar process
this is the easy path now truthfully
speaking this may not be the most
profitable one at the end of the day
here's what I think is going to bring
you the most Revenue what you want to do
is focus on very specific keywords you
want to capture very special moments
that not a lot of other people have
captured for instance you can just
capture meaningful moments of people's
lives such as unboxing a birthday
present or their graduation which I'm
sure people will search for and if you
can capture such moments if your
pictures can express as much emotion as
this one I'm sure you're gonna do a
great job as a contributor on
Shutterstock or any other stock footage
website but guys if you're still
watching this video even at this point
here's a bonus for you one thing you
gotta keep in mind is that not all of
these websites will pay you equally some
of them will pay way more than others
and here's a complete breakdown as you
can see Shutterstock is not necessarily
the most generous one and neither is
istock photo these are some of the more
popular options but they are not the
most profitable ones instead what you
may want to do is connect to photo case
alamy or stocksy this one seems to be
the most profitable options when it
comes to stocks in particular what you
want to do is connect to their website
and then click on contribute that's what
you want to do you want to contribute
with stock footage right and this is
where you can get Fair pay as part of
the creative Community changing the face
of visual media now that is quite a
mouthful all in all you're doing the
same thing you're uploading high quality
pictures that you can take even with
your mobile phone and getting paid
whenever they get downloaded and as you
can see the difference here is
significant you're earning significantly
more than on Shutterstock or eye stock
photos so I'm gonna let you guys explore
these options on your own we've got
everything it takes to make it work so
hopefully at this point you do
understand how stock footage works and
how you can make money by uploading it
on different websites that's it for now
and thanks for watching