Earn by shutterstock

Shutterstock is a pretty new micro stock site that started up about a year ago. As I'm revising my article now, they have a total collection of almost one million photographs and illustrations available for download! Popular Photography even ran an article about them.

Today, Shutterstock has expanded into stock footage as well and in my knowledge one of the first among the microstock sites to do so. My Shutterstock experience has been great and here where my portfolio is performing best. I highly recommend that you read on and check out Shutterstock if you are serious about microstock photography.

Shutterstock's subscription model


Shutterstock subscription modelDesigners who subscribes to ShutterStock pays a flat rate fee to be able to download 25 images a day for a number of months based on the package they choose (see diagram on the left). If you are wondering why, the 25 images per day limit was implemented to prevent leechers that used bots to download ALL the images at Shutterstock to resell them as pirated goods.

But anyways, as I was saying, effectively, it's almost unlimited downloads of images for the designers. Therefore all the submitted photographs (by us of course) have a decent chance of getting downloaded if they are good enough to catch the attention of the customers! And the default sorting of images at Shutterstock shows the newer photos and illustrations first.

In terms of numbers, let's see why a whole lot of designers are looking into microstock and perhaps Shutterstock in particular.

25 images per day in a month = 25 x 30 = 750 images for US$159. That's just 21 cents per download if they somehow manage to maximise their download limits. Even if they don't reach their limit and download only 50% of when they are allowed to. Each download only costs them 40 cents! Now tell me why designers aren't excited!

How do submitting photographers/illustrators earn then?

As I'm writing this, the payout rate for each download is 25 cents. Yes, 25 cents may be low compared to other microstock sites like Dreamstime which offers at least 50 cents payout per download. Then again, remember that the cost per download for Shutterstock customers is much lower compared to the other microstock sites as well. This don't just double but even quadruple the download rates at Shutterstock. And more downloads equals more earnings for us! You even earn an extra 5 cents if a customer backup your photo that they have already bought into a CD. This will effectively increase that particular sale to 30 cents. Talk about passive income!

In addition to the subscription based earning, your Shutterstock portfolio is also marketed through affliliates like PhotoSights where the stock photos are sold per photo basis. Here the royalties payable to you is 20% of the purchase price or licensing fee paid. But for video footages, the royalties payable to you is 30% of the purchase price paid to Shutterstock. Personally, I've not experimented on submitting stock footages yet becuase I don't own a digital camcorder myself.
Oh and just to add, Shutterstock pays you either by sending checks, PayPal or Moneybookers! Moneybookers, FYI, is great for us who live in countries where PayPal does not service.

Referral program

ShutterStock also runs a referral program to help expand their photographer base. Thus, on top of the 25 cents earning per download from your portfolio, you would also earn another 3 cents per download from you referred photographer! If you can earn some extra cash, why not? And yes, the links here will refer your registration under my account. That's all that I can ask for creating this site in the hope of sharing the goodness of the microstock industry. So why not register and find out how you can earn the same too!

Registration and submission process

To register as a new photographer, you now need to submit a batch of 10 photographs for approval. So, remember to submit only your best stock-oriented photographs. If you're not sure what I mean by stock-oriented photographs, then read this article here now! Although this process could seem annoying, it is actually a very important process to maintain the standards set by Shutterstock themselves. It may take a while before they process new applications. This is because submitting photographers are always on a higher priority queue. But do be patient, it's really worth the wait and effort. And once you're approved, then what are you waiting for anymore, upload and get your portfolio up and running!

But remember, try to refrain from uploading just about anything but only the best images and photographs that you have. And always remember: stock-oriented photos. This way, you will maximise the quality of your online portfolio and encourage more downloads. Also to note, they accept both raster (JPEGs) and vector(EPS) images. Yes. So if you're not so much into photography but a good illustrator instead, Shutterstock is still the place to be. And I must add, a good place to be too. Vector illustrations are very high in demand.

Shutterstock requires that the photos to be at 4MP. It used to be just 2.5MP when I started off. So, it looks like Shutterstock is bumping up it's standards to keep up with the industry. You can upload your JPEGs, TIFFs and EPS files either via their web interface or via FTP.

Personal Experiences

As of the writing of this article, there has been as much as 1900 downloads and with more coming! Today, I'm averaging at about 5-10 downloads per day. And seriously, this number is low. Really. The reason for this is that I've been busy with my new role at IBM and it's taking all my time off photography. Therefore, I'm sure you can do a lot better than me! I have recieved 4 payouts from them so far and they are 100% reliable as far as I'm concerned. In fact, my brother is also doing very well at ShutterStock submitting mainly vector designs. So if you aren't too good of a photographer but has wonderful skills in designing vector graphics, trust me, this is well worth your effort too.

Earn from your mobile phone

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mGinger is a service providing targeted advertisements on mobile phones. The advertisements are targeted on a consumer base who have opted-in to this service. The consumer base is built through a registration process in which the consumers specify their commercial interests, maximum number of ads they would like to receive in a day, convenient time-slots and their demographic information. Apart from getting information related to their particular interests, the consumers also receive monetary incentives for every ad they themselves receive and for each ad received in their network upto two levels of referrals.

Advertisers leverage the service to search for and select consumers based on their commercial interests, location, demographics and other criteria and send specific advertisements to their target audience. And all this without the fear of incurring even a single consumer's wrath. The mGinger platform solves critical problems like content composition, cost of campaign and return on investment measurability for advertisers.

Earn money by internet

If you are wondering about the keys required to create online money, you might find them here. If you would employ the keys presented here, it may be possible that next time you don't need to search for these type of keys again. The keys are very similar to the keys to build wealth offline.
So let's get......

Key 1: Make yourself Visible to Others. On your website, provide all information necessary for potential customers to get in touch with you. This info should include an e-mail address, your picture, and your phone number – at least your business number. A personal address is nice, at least the city and state.

Key 2: Take Care of Customer choise. Tap in to your website with the eyes of a stranger – like your customers will be.Experience your site and then edit it. Continue to edit out the bad and enhance the good elements of your website. Listen to the input of your visitors, and accordingly change your presets. Key 3: Be Unique & Creative Always. Everyone has their own set of special knowledge, use yours. If you are not an expert be what you are,you have information that only you know, and Express yourself. Be honest and believe in your own approach to presenting your business.

Key 4: Use online advertising techniques like Blogs, Free Classifides and Article directories. Write whatever you know and submit to the article directories and you will see traffic is coming on your site.

Key 5: Use of Automatic techniques. The use of auto-responders will catapult you to unseen levels of success. Know that statistics show that the average customer doesn’t make a purchase from a website until they have been exposed to it between seven and nine times. Making people see you and your product again and again create a sale.

Key 6: Learn from Others. Always try to learn and understand what others are doing and how they look and use things in their favor.Do not copy others, but some global rules are always same and one should follow them. Keep learning new techniques and new updates in the industry you are in. Accept new ideas and tricks and evolve your's also.Online Bussiness is still Bussiness and need a lot of study and hardwork.

Earn with your website/Blog

A friend once asked me: "Is there a way to earn money online without spending your own money first?" My reply was "Absolutely. Can you write intelligently about any topic?"

Of course, I was referring to blogging. There is no wonder why blogging has gotten so popular these days. It allows people to write about what they like to talk about and at the same time, make money from it. And you don't have to spend any money to get started. Yes, that’s right. Not a single penny. Let me explain.

First, you don't have to an expert in any particular field. You just have to write interestingly enough to make people want to read your blog. It could be about your experience with anything, your hobbies or your personal opinions about a particular topic.

Starting a blog is easy and requires no fee. That's right. You don't have to buy a domain name or pay to host your website. You can create a free blog from many websites on the internet. The most popular ones are blogger.com, wordpress.com and livejournal.com. Just register with any of these services to create your blog. It’s free. Start making posts that are worthwhile reading. There is a huge audience out there and any topic that you could write about could be of interest to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people. After making a few posts, you would need to promote your blog to attract your reading audience. There are many ways to promote your blog without spending a single penny. Get your blog listed in web directories like dmoz.org, WebSorter.com etc... Submit your blog entries to news sharing sites like Digg.com, Reddit.com and NowPubic.com. Publicize your blog in your myspace page and other social networking websites. Submit your blog feeds to aggregator sites like FeedBurner, Squidoo, Feedboy, Jordomedia, FeedBomb, ect...

There are many ways to make money from your blog. One of the ways is to add pay-per-click ads from services like Google Adsense, Yahoo Publisher Network, AdBrite and many others. Typically, these pay-per-click ads are targeted to the topic of your blog. If you are blogging about student loans, the ads that will show on your blogs will most likely be about student loans. Every time a visitor on your blog clicks one of those ads, you will earn some money. How much you will earn per click will depend on the kind of ads that are displayed on your blog and how competitive and lucrative that those ads are to advertisers. Other ways to monetize your blog would be to sell ad space directly to advertisers if your blog receives a significant viewership. To get advertisers, you can list your ad space for sale on AdBrite, AdEngage, AdSpace-Auctions Ad Marketplace etc.. If your blog has a decent Google PageRank (PageRank is an estimation from 0 to 10 of how important Google thinks your webpage is), you can also get paid by webmasters to have their links on your blog. Webmasters typically try to get as many links as possible to their websites in order to increase their website popularity in the eyes of the search engines. The higher your blog's Google PageRank is, the more valuable a link to your blog becomes, and the higher webmasters will be willing to pay for a link. To get webmasters to buy links from your blog, join webmaster forums such as Digitalpoint, Sitepoint or WebmasterGround and post in their marketplace section about your offers.

These are just a few ways to earn money from your blog. Remember, it costs nothing to start a blog. Write about something that you can make interesting enough for people to read. Promote your blog. Add ads to your blog. And you are on your way to earn money. How much money you can earn from your blog only depends on how much effort you want to put in it. The sky's the limit.

5 best money making ideas to earn online

Essentially there are 5 tremendously powerful methods to make money online. These methods were not always available but have only become available due to the large amount of internet commerce being conducted each and every day online. While it is possible to make money, and lots of it, using other methods, these are in my opinion the best for 3 reasons. First, they are some of the cheapest methods around. Imagine running a business for an entire year where your total cost was less than $1 a day. Secondly, these methods are fast to implement. Some of the methods can have you up and running in hours, if not only a day or two. Lastly, these ideas are simple. When it comes to working online, simpler is better and complex is dead.

ONE. Making Money the Google Cash Way.

Google Cash is a term coined by Chris Carpenter. In his amazing ebook, he teaches you how to start a profitable advertising business by using Google Adwords to promote products to people using the Google search engine. The strategy is simple. You create ads to attract interested people. When they click on your ad you are charged for that click. The visitor is directed to your site where you can sell them your product or someone else's. The advantage is you get to leverage the Google traffic. You can purchase clicks for as low as 5 cents. Lastly, done properly, you can test dozens of different ads and campaigns allowing you to perfect your selling system.


TWO. Making tons of money selling someone else's stuff.

Affiliate marketing is the manner in which you market a product for someone else, known as the merchant. In return for providing a qualified buyer, the merchant agrees to pay you a commission. The beauty of this type of business is that you can take advantage of hot products, you can easily create a large cash flow by setting up dozens of small income streams promoting hundreds of products. In other words, the business is scalable. Once you learn to make money selling a product for one merchant, you can reproduce that for another. For this to work, the critical step that you need to master is getting traffic. An absolute master, who I consider the king of the affiliate business is James Martell. He is the author of The Affiliate Marketing Handbook (newly revised for 2005). James has hundreds of income streams and can teach anyone how to promote and sell products for merchants online.

HREE. Turn Treasure into Dollars with eBay. eBay Blog

In case this is your first week using the internet, I will briefly explain eBay. They are the world's largest online auction system. People from all over the world, lots of people, using it each and ever day to sell everything from toasters to Hummers. In order to make money on eBay, you research what is selling at the moment, source that product for at great price and then start creating auctions. Of course, that all sounds easy, but the truth is there is a lot of work involved, especially if you have to ship all those products from your house. If you are organized, can research or can use the software to do that research for you, and can negotiate with suppliers than you can really make money with eBay

FOUR. Drop Ship It. Dropshipping blog

The thought of storing boxes and boxes of products at your house may have you running away from eBay. Thank goodness there is something called Drop Shipping. A drop shipper is a wholesaler who will sell you their products at near wholesale prices and ship them directly to your customer. World Wide Brands maintains a directory of wholesaler and drop shipping companies giving you access to over 2 million products to sell on eBay. The good news is that once you have access to your own products, you can now use the first three methods to market them. Do you see the power now? Maybe you used the first two methods to market someone else's product. Now you can get a better profit margin by drop shipping your own products using these same methods.

FIVE. Write yourself rich.

The first 4 methods involved selling someone else's products for a commission or profit margin. If you want to make the most money, you have to produce and sell your own products. An exceptional item to sell online is information. In particular, ebooks, software, audio and video products have incredible profit margins. But, you think, you have no writing skills. What are you to do? Easy, hire people to do the work for you. This is an amazing way to leverage the skills of someone else. Pretend you have an idea for a new software program. There is a site online called Rent a Coder where you can hire people to work for you. Depending on your product idea, you can get the software coded for $100, $200, maybe even $300. Then the product is yours to resell. You can keep 100% of the profits. You can do the same thing writing a book. Steve Manning offers a free course that will teach you how to write a book in as little as 14 days. I know that sounds to good to be true but it can be done. Most of Steve's students take longer than that on the first book but many admit that they can do it faster by preparing better at the beginning.


There you have it. The 5 best ways of making money online. It is now up to you to master one or more of these ideas. If you need more help getting started, you can download my 25 page ebook named "The Best Money Making Ideas" for no charge. Inside, I elaborate on each of the 5 methods identified above.

Idea of increase traffic to your site

There are many different tactics that can be used to drive quality traffic to your sites. There’s posting quality articles to hundreds of directories and other viral methods. There’s PPC. There’s SEO. JV marketing, RSS…the list goes on and on. All of these methods do drive traffic to your website, and I wholeheartedly recommend that you employ them on an ongoing basis, but they also require a certain level of investment – either in your TIME or in your MONEY.

However, there’s one tactic that clever marketers have been using for some time in order to drive thousands, tens of thousands and more worth of targeted traffic to their websites – immediately, and without excessive effort while paying no more than $10 or so for the privilege. If this excites you (and it really ought to) then read on… this eBook is an introduction to the world of buying Expired Domain Names that come with traffic inbuilt from various sources. We’ll look at why buying expired domains can be so lucrative, what the various issues are and how you can get started right now.

The Concept Of Buying Expired Domains – One Of The Internets “Underground Stealth Tactics” For Immediate & Low Cost Traffic, Subscribers & Profits

Buying expired domain names is – a big traffic loophole. It works because over time a domain has been built up - A mixture of time, money and know-how have been ploughed into it – and it draws in a good amount of traffic. But now, for whatever reason, that domain has expired. Where once there may have been a thriving website pulling income in from various sources, it no longer exists. And it’s up for grabs to the first person who recognized what a potential goldmine it is. We’ll look at why domains expire a little later (it’s not always because some dopey marketer forgot to renew it) but for now let’s look at the underlying concept behind obtaining free targeted traffic simply by scooping them up.

Before we go on, I know some people may have moral objections behind purchasing expired domains, and that’s fine. After all, you’re taking advantage of a domain which has traffic coming into it because someone had invested a lot of time and/or money into it. From my perspective, I want you to understand that it’s my job to show my customers and newsletter subscribers genuine ways to make money online.