hey guys welcome to the video my name is
Oliver King and this channel is all
about how to make money from your art
and for me this includes things like
photography videography and a little bit
of graphic design as well I was really
excited to make this video because it
marks one year to the day that I started
on a stock photography and specifically
on shutterstock so I was really excited
to make this video and just talk about
the last year and all the experiences
that I have and also the earnings that I
was able to make in the last 365 days so
I want to talk about Shutterstock mostly
because that's predominantly where I
made my money but I'm also going to
mention a few the other stock sites that
I used including Adobe stock pond5 big
stock and black box so the first thing
that I really want to break down is just
how many photos I had on shutterstock
and all the other stock photography
sites that I'm talking about just to
give you kind of a basic idea of what
you can have in your portfolio so
they'll start making similar sales and
quite honestly you might do a lot better
than me if you're a good gifted
photographer because this last year I
also just started photography and so
I've been using stock photography and
stock footage as a way to kind of
supplement my learning and to kind of
just generally get better at it and to
refine my marketable skills as a
photographer so if you're already a good
photographer chances are you're gonna
make more money than me because your
composition your lighting and all your
techniques are gonna be superior to my
own but since I'm a beginner it's kind
of an interesting perspective because if
you're thinking about getting into
something like this it's a good
benchmark for where you can start to to
where you can end up so on shutterstock
I have about 450 images uploaded right
now and that includes
about 20 vectors and about 430 images so
far I also have about 30 videos uploaded
so in total I have about 500 or so total
assets that can be licensed by other
people so that they can purchase these
so that's how many ballets I have in the
draw right now so during this past year
I made a grand total of one hundred and
twenty dollars u.s. or about one hundred
and sixty dollars Canadian which is more
relevant for me but I'm gonna go in u.s.
dollars just because it's an easy
conversion rate for everybody when
you're talking about it so I made about
one hundred twenty dollars in total
across all of the platforms that I've
used and so that averages about ten
dollars a month now my best month so far
in the last year was fifty dollars in
which case I sold a video and a lot of
images at the same time and that was
last month in May and that makes a lot
of sense because you know if if if we're
going by getting better every month and
you're doing something that's cumulative
naturally the most recent month is going
to be the
then I make the most sales in which is
good looking forward it means that as I
slowly increase and slowly add to my
portfolios I can expect a greater return
on my time investment into this on
shutterstock I made about 70% of my
revenue and it's 70 percent of 120
dollars so it's around the 85 to 86
dollar mark so this is the grand total
that I made on Shutterstock during the
last year and doing this I sold about 92
images and I sold about three videos and
so in total I made just under a hundred
sales on it and my monthly average was
somewhere between I think it was about 8
to 17 was my average sales per month
they're all worth different amounts of
money so I'm not going to get into too
much of the specifics about what each
image is worth but generally they go
from a few cents all the way up to a
couple dollars and videos can sell for
anything from I don't know maybe about
twenty dollars all the way up to in the
hundreds depending on how quality or
footages and that sort of a thing but if
you're on charter stock you probably
already know this information so so
Shutterstock was predominantly the place
I made the most amount of money I made a
dollar fifty on big stock but I'm also
just recently on that one and I've only
been uploading infrequently on it so I
have about 50 images up there so far on
Adobe stock I've only made 24 cents
because I've only made one sale and also
because I only have 30 images up there
so far on pond5 I haven't made any sales
so far so I'm still uncertain about that
platform I think they're more of a video
kind of graphic design type website so I
have to play around with that a little
bit more probably in order to actually
get a sale on it and I'm thinking I'm
going to spend a little bit more time
cultivating really strong footage I work
in kind of an industrial park and I work
out with a lot of different machinery so
I really want to get some more of that
that footage and stuff so I'm kind of
working on getting a camera out where I
work so I can film some of the things
that I'm doing work and hopefully
hopefully that will work into more sales
the last one that I want to talk about
is black box and this one was really
good for me because I made just one sale
on it I have very few assets uploaded on
there something like 25 videos and they
only accept videos because what they do
is you basically send your videos into
black box and they put it on a whole
bunch of different stock footage sites
and you're exclusive to black box once
you upload with them so whatever piece
of footage you have you
them you can't just then go ahead and
upload it to Shutterstock but I actually
really like their platform I think
they're they've got a really good thing
going and obviously since I made a sale
I can validate that it actually works so
this year going forward I am gonna put a
little bit more time and effort into
kind of uploading on to black box and
working more with that platform because
I think it's quite strong it's very user
friendly and very very very basic to use
and that's kind of nice when you're just
getting started with this sort of thing
if it's nice and simple to use the
simpler it is just the better so all in
all I've made over a hundred sales
across all the platforms and ivory sold
a lot of images I've had a few that sold
upwards of seven times and then I've had
a couple videos that sold as well and
obviously those ones are a little bit
more financially rewarding because it's
a bigger item so so yeah it's been good
to sell a few videos and to kind of get
the ball rolling on that now the thing I
really wanted to discuss with this video
is looking back on the last year
considering whether or not stock
photography stock footage is actually
worth it right now and for me personally
I would have to say a hundred percent it
is yes I'd love doing this it was a lot
of fun and going forward I have a lot of
really good ideas for how to actually
make this a financially viable option to
kind of look into my goals going forward
or probably to try and get an average of
between 50 to 150 dollars a month off my
sales and I think that's really a good
way of looking at it you want to try and
make targets and try and achieve them so
for the last year I was trying to hit
about a $50 month at some point I didn't
care when when it was or how I did it
and that was last month so I was really
happy to hit that goal so I think if
you're actually really serious about
this medium I think if you're serious
about actually putting in the time in
the effort into creating the the
material you can actually do really well
with it and it depends on what you mean
by well because I'm doing a couple other
different passive income sources and by
passive income I of course just mean
that you put a lot of time and effort in
upfront and then over time it kind of
pays you back passively even when you're
not actively working on something so I
have a lot of different passive income
sources that I'm kind of working on I
have a regular full-time job and then I
also do freelance work now more with the
cameras that I have to work with so
alongside the stock photography thing
and the stock footage thing have been
cultivating building clients and
building skills to kind of do
videography and photography with actual
so it's been a really good tool that
I've used in order to kind of build
those skills build a portfolio and
actually get validated response to
whether or not the products that I'm
creating are actually worth anything
because a lot of the time you're just
taking pictures and if you're a beginner
there's no real indicator of whether or
not your your photos are any good so I
find that if somebody is willing to pay
for them that's a good indicator that
you've actually created something that's
worthwhile or that's something that's
useful so I think using it as an
indicator or a piece of litmus paper or
something like that
I think stock photography is really
valid for that sort of a thing and all
in all it's a long game so I'm not
expecting to make $1000 a month right
off the get-go it's a portfolio that you
have to build across time and that's
what I'm doing I'm focusing on doing it
every single day putting a little bit
more effort into it putting a little bit
more time into it and then as my skills
get better as well and as my equipment
also gets better people are willing to
pay more and more for the things that
I'm creating so my thoughts on the last
year is it's totally worth it I had a
lot of fun doing it going forward I'm
definitely gonna continue doing it it's
been fun making these videos as well and
just showing off what I'm doing and in
general people seem to have a positive
response to it so I think a lot of other
people are out there enjoying this hobby
and enjoying making little pieces of
money here and there from it alright so
now let's just jump into the portfolio
and I just want to show you the three
best selling vectors that I have the
three best selling photos that I have
and also the three best selling videos
that I've got so hopefully these can be
of use to you when you see what I've
sold that sold multiple times and that's
kind of made the most money for me and
so potentially you can take these ideas
and concepts and apply them to your own
portfolio and hopefully you get
something out of that as well so let's
jump into the photos first and the first
one that I have here that sold the most
by far and this is on different
platforms as well I've sold it on Adobe
stock big stock and shutterstock is just
a long exposure of patio lights and
you've probably seen this in one of my
other videos if you've watched it but
this one continues to sell regularly so
if you have access to a nice backyard or
a nice patio area take some long
exposures of it because they come out
looking very nice if you have a couple
chairs and apparently they're very
useful to a lot of people and then the
next one that I sold quite a few times
also was just a few Easter eggs on some
construction paper and this was just a
basic little flat lay that I did and so
these were just Easter eggs on spoons
primary
colors very simple layout there's room
for text should somebody want to put
that in there and so this one's sold
quite a few times just around the Easter
time so more holiday oriented things
tend to work out a little bit better if
you have good quality images to use so
the next one is just a picture I took
over at a friend's house during a
barbecue and it was just a dog poking
its head through their deck again you
might have seen this one in my other
video but it continues to sell quite
frequently they get sold approximately
six times so far as well and it's just
been for the lowest licensing rate so it
hasn't made as much money but it's sold
quite frequently so I'm really happy
with that picture because I just shot it
on a smartphone it was a very basic shot
and it turned out fairly well so moving
on now to the three best vectors that
I've sold so far and I've only uploaded
about 25 vectors because I'm new to
creating these but I just wanted to
share these with you in case you wanted
some ideas all the ones I've sold so far
kind of in the same cut from the same
cloth and so they've all been around CBD
oil so yeah I can have video oil I just
had been practicing trying to make some
sort of vectors and this was popular in
the news at the time so I noticed that
some other photos of marijuana stores
around Canada during legalization period
and notice that these were selling quite
frequently so I was like maybe if I
create some vectors around the same
concept they'll actually do well and I
was right some of them sold right off
the bat and so I sold a couple little
background type images of cannabidiol
oil or CBD oil and a couple little logo
type items and then the other one that I
sold was just a couple vectors that were
a stove and a old-fashioned water pump
and I was creating these vectors anyways
for a plumber that I know so that they
can use them on their business cards so
the whole concept was just heating and
heating and plumbing so I just wanted to
create something for them so they could
use it on their business card and it
turned out fairly well so I decided to
just post it on Shutterstock as well so
that other people could use it and it
went ahead and sold so I've only been
doing this for about two months with the
vectors so I haven't had that many sales
with it but my skills are getting a
little bit better and so hopefully in
the future I can have more to look
forward to there now for the videos I
sold a few this year and so the three
best selling ones so far this year were
just me walking in a field close to a
wind turbine the next one was just me
taking a shot out the window
going through the Rocky Mountains this
was the one that I sold on black box and
the last one I sold was just me poking
my head into the attic where I used to
live and just doing kind of a fake home
inspection wearing a hard hat so this
one was a little bit silly but it ended
up selling so I guess it was a I was a
great joke because I made some money off
of it so it was really good to see what
is selling what isn't and I think
typically what sells is shots with
people in it so if you have the
opportunity to do that it would just
stick a person in there any way you can
even if it's just you go ahead and do
that because that seems to be a little
bit a little bit better of an having you
to explore so I really have been having
a lot of fun doing this stock
photography thing I think it's a great
Avenue for a lot of amateur
photographers to look into to increase
their skills to make a little bit of
money and to just have some fun
increasing their skills I think I kind
of treat it like a game I'm a very
competitive person so I treat the the
money I make like points and that sort
of a thing so I go out and get some
really cool shots I have a lot of fun
doing that and then at the end of the
day maybe I make a little bit of that
money back over time but in essence I'm
really trying to build my skills I'm
really trying to get a bit more
professional with the photos that I'm
producing so hopefully as time goes on
my quality will increase as well and
then I can apply this skill not just to
stock stock photography and stock
footage and that sort of thing but also
to actual clients and going out and
taking pictures and earning money from
different sources so that I can at the
end of the day have a better paycheck
and have a more fun experience overall
and this way I'll be able to continue
working at any given time even if I
don't have a client so I can always
create stock footage and stock photos if
I don't have a client and then if I do
have a client then potentially I'll be
making more money with them so you know
it works out both ways I can always fill
the time with this particular hobby in
this particular outlet so I've had a lot
of fun doing this this year and I plan
to do it full bore for the next year and
I think I have a strategy that's going
to be a little bit better financially
because this year was I wouldn't say was
disappointing but it was probably lower
than most people would want if they were
going out to sink this much time into
something so my plan going forward is a
little bit more strategic and I'll be
hopefully sharing a lot of those tips
with you and and what I'm planning to do
so I hope you're having fun doing the
stock photography thing as well I had a
lot of fun
doing it I'll catch you in the next
video and I'll hopefully keep updating
you on how I'm doing with things and
hopefully you can peel from those
strategies and use them yourself so
thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed
the video and I'll see you in the next
one
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