Spotlight on Shutterstock

Shutterstock is a subscription-based stock photo agency and one of the largest online purveyors of stock photos. Founded in 2003, the company has grown to include more than 5 million royalty-free photos in its library. The services are available by subscription, a departure from other online stock photo agencies which often charge per image. Contributing photographers are required to apply and submit ten images for review before they become a regular submitter to the library.

We recently spoke with Jon Oringer, founder of Shutterstock.

What kind of features does your service offer as compared to other stock photo sites?

Perhaps the largest and most fundamental difference between Shutterstock and other stock photo sites is that Shutterstock is a subscription-based service, which means that our subscribers pay monthly or annual fees instead of paying per image. Many of our customers use stock images on a frequent basis and enjoy the flexibility of having a subscription because they know they always have enough images for their needs.

A pioneer in the stock image world, we were the first online stock company to implement the popular “25-A-Day” subscription plan. These subscription plans provide the greatest savings per image with 25 downloads every day, totaling 750 each month.

Shutterstock also offers On Demand subscription plans, which are lower-commitment plans that allow subscribers to download images anytime over a one-year period. The On Demand subscription plans are ideal for businesses and individuals who do not need the volume of images offered in our traditional 25-A-Day subscription plans but still want the savings a subscription provides over a one-time image purchase.

Shutterstock has a number of unique programs such as the Red Carpet Program, which gives press passes to Shutterstock photographers for a wide variety of celebrity and special events. Another popular service is Shutterstock Footage, an online collection of stock video that operates in a similar fashion to our stock image site.

What's been the key to your company's success?

The key to Shutterstock's success has been our commitment to both sides of our business: servicing both the submitters and the subscribers. We have made uploading to the site as intuitive and financially rewarding as possible, which in turn has helped us become the largest online stock photo agency in the world.

Our commitment to a user-friendly experience is also evident on the subscriber side. We pride ourselves on providing flexible and affordable pricing plans and an easy-to-navigate extensive library of high quality images.

What do you think draws the creative community to Shutterstock?

Shutterstock's appeal is simple: we provide the greatest selection of quality, royalty-free images and footage at the most affordable price points. With the largest library in the industry -- over 5 million images -- as well as appealing pricing plans, we have the best combination of quality and affordability in the online stock photo industry.

How does your payment plan differentiate your website from your competitors?

The nature of Shutterstock’s payment plan is intrinsically linked to our success as an online stock photo agency. While other companies have a "pay as you go approach" or a complicated system of credits, Shutterstock employs a straightforward, subscription-based price plan, which we pioneered.

What different types of payment plans do you offer?

Most users subscribe to one of Shutterstock’s 25-A-Day plans; you can subscribe for one month, three months, six months or one year, with the full year subscription providing the lowest cost per image. We also have On Demand plans, where you can purchase a fixed number of downloads for use any time you want over the course of a year.

How can Shutterstock submitters make money?

By submitting a lot of quality images. Shutterstock’s service is designed to reward frequent submitters of marketable images - the more accepted downloads you have, the greater your payout is likely to be.

How many stock contributors do you have to the site?

Shutterstock currently has over 120,000 submitters.

How much money does the average submitter make? How much do your top earners make?

Submitters earn 25 cents for each image downloaded, which goes up to 33 cents when they reach $500 in total earnings, with extra raises implemented when they reach the $3,000 and $10,000 total earnings milestones. Submitters’ images can be downloaded hundreds or even thousands of times. As a result, submitters have the potential to make a sizable income, and many do.

What are the guidelines for submissions?

Our reviewers judge potential images by two basic categories. First, the image needs to be technically sound. Second, it needs to be marketable. Ensuring a technically sound image consists of having appropriate framing, focus, lighting, and lack of noise. Taking a marketable image can be more difficult; it is important for first-time submitters to keep in mind that what makes a good stock image is not necessarily the same as what makes a good photograph. We encourage first-time submitters to spend some time browsing through other successful images before they submit to get a sense of what a stock photo should look like.

What kind of photographs are you looking for?

Shutterstock looks for technically well-executed images that have a strong central idea or concept.

What are the other ways to make money on the site?

Submitting is, of course, the main way. However, we also offer a bonus of 20 percent (up to $50) of a subscription price if you refer a stock image buyer. Also, if you refer another submitter, you can earn 3 cents each time one of their images is downloaded.

How do you feel about Getty Images and Flickr working together? What sort of effect do you think partnerships like these have on Shutterstock?

The Getty/Flickr partnership is an interesting concept, but it is not likely going to have an effect on our core business. Flickr users are not uploading their pictures with stock photography in mind. Further, whether Getty Images will be able to thoughtfully cull viable stock images out of a library of more than 2 billion photos is yet to be proven. This said, since online stock agencies are beginning to affect Getty’s business model, it makes sense for the company to implement partnerships and strategies to increase its online stock presence.

Where do you see the stock footage business going in the next few years?

The online stock image marketplace has grown dramatically in recent years, and we expect the same for stock footage.
Businesses are increasingly using online video content to design more aesthetic and interactive websites, and the economic downturn has caused broadcasters, production houses, and advertising firms to look for affordable alternatives to shooting original footage or buying footage from traditional providers. As a result, more and more companies and individuals are turning to Shutterstock to fulfill their footage needs without compromising quality. Also, since Shutterstock provides a new revenue stream for filmmakers and videographers, our footage library grows by almost 1,000 clips per week and we recently exceeded the 80,000 mark.

Shutterstock is offering a special discount subscription rate to Black Turtle Media members. Please use CODE: BTM10 when signing up at www.shutterstock.com.

Apps For Democracy Winners

Apps for Democracy has ended. Contestants were asked to create applications that would be useful to the government and people of Washington DC.

Results include:

47 applications that were built in 30 days

OCTO has estimated the value of these submissions at $2,000,000+ including external contracting costs and internal procurement time

The cost to OCTO was $50,000 including prizes, marketing, management etc. representing an estimated 4,000% return on investment

OCTO has estimated that it would have taken them 1-2 years to complete the procurement process and receive delivery of applications like these under their legacy procurement method
iPhone apps, Facebook apps, web apps, mobile apps, maps mash-ups and a wiki were entered

Visit http://www.istrategylabs.com/apps-for-democracy-yeilds-4000-roi-in-30-days-for-dcgov/ for more information

A Day in the Life of a Creative Director: Interview with Kenneth Waldron

Kenneth Waldron has been in the advertising industry for 20 years. He works with the company Paul Werth Associates. You can find his website at http://www.paulwerth.com

Please Explain Your Job

I manage the advertising practice area of a Strategic Communications firm. I provide creative direction for all clients’ marketing needs.

How do you explain your job to your mother?

It’s difficult to explain it to her. I tell her that I come up with the ideas and then create television spots.

How did you get started?

I got started drawing smiley faces at age 4.

What's your educational background?

I attended Bowling Green State University.

How did you get experience?

I’ve held a lot of different jobs in the industry. I started as a paste up artist spacing type before computers in 1989. I then taught myself to use computers by working the third shift at a Kinkos; I Xeroxed computer manuals at night and studied them during the day. I worked at a T-shirt shop in college, designing and printing Fraternity and Sorority t-shirts

What was your first job in the industry?

I got my first real break at an in-house agency with a homebuilder. Through AdFed I got my first job at an advertising agency and learned all I could about video production. I was then rehired by my former homebuilder as a Creative Director in charge of a $12M budget. (Never burn a bridge - it'll always come back around). I got out of the real estate business before the market tanked and I now head up the advertising practice of a strategic communications firm.

What was the last project you worked on?

It was a television public service announcement for National Adoption Day.

Describe a typical day (or week) in your life when you're working?

Think, work, interruptions, phone calls, e-mails, think, work, interruptions, time sheets. Repeat.


How do you sharpen your skills and/or stay motivated?

I attend industry events like AdFed meetings and American Marketing Association meetings.

What advice do you give to those who want to join your profession?

Learn the computer programs and have passion about your ideas.

If you could go back in time and meet your pre-professional self, what would you tell him?

Move to California and become an editor in Hollywood.

A Series of Questions:

What’s the best thing about your job?

The People

What major job annoyance would you eliminate forever?

Politics

Where do you find inspiration?

YouTube

Where do you hope to be (career-wise) in another year?

Same company, VP

What’s your personal motto/slogan?

He who stops advertising to save money may as well stop their watch to save time.

Cool Tools: Inkscape

Open-Source software has reached a new level of excellence in the past few years. No longer do consumers have to pay for over-priced software, instead they’ve got a number of free alternative which carry nearly all the same features. Inscape is some incredibly useful open-source software for creatives.

Inscape is a vector graphics editor, with capabilities similar to Illustrator, or CorelDraw. Instead of bitmap images, Inkscape stores its graphics in a vector format. Don’t let that scare you though, Inkscape can also import and display bitmap images. The software supports many advanced and the interface is nicely streamlined. It’s a nice little vector graphics package for the non-professional user.

A great benefit of the software being open-sourced is that there's a thriving user and developer community. If you’re having trouble with something, chances are someone has already had that same problem and developed a solution.

There are some areas in which Inkscape fails: there are a limited number of tools, there are limited exporting options, and text options are limited, even for an amateur. If you’re not an expert of graphic programs and you’re looking for a simple solution that won’t cost you a lot of dough, Inkscape is the solution you’ve been looking for.

News and Links for Creatives

Here’s a roundup of the latest news and links for advertisers, designers, filmmakers, and other wonderfully creative people.

• Dos Equis and their "most interesting man in the world campaign" are taking their act to a city near you.

• What effect will the current economic climate have on the advertising industry?

• Mobile digital advertising will change the way advertising gets done.

• An aggregator for freelance graphic design jobs.

• The credit crisis is creating a funding crisis for filmmakers.
  

Cool Tools: Digital Photography School

So you just got the latest, greatest digital camera and you’re ready to become the next Anzel Adams? Fantastic. There’s only one problem: you’re no Anzel Adams. You don’t know the difference between a lens and a flash and you’re completely incapable of framing picture without the top of someone’s head being cut off. Don’t worry; Digital Photography School is here to school you on everything from shutter speeds to aperture.

Digital Photography School is a blog that lets you learn the ins and the out of photography. Darren Rowse is the guy behind Digital Photography Blog. Advances photographers might find this site a little basic but it is a great resource for the beginning or intermediate photographer to hone their skills and learn what digital photography is all about.
Check it, soak up the tips, and keep on snapping!