Stock agencies (istockphoto, shutterstock and the like) seems to make a very profitable business these days. A web-based marketplace where demand for and supply of images get together. Sounds like to solid business model, so earlier this week I decided to give it a try. I subscribed to one of these agencies, Shutterstock.com in my case. It’s free, but your application takes a few days before it’s approved. You’re not there yet. Understandably there are all sorts of guidelines your images have to adhere to. So there’s a second round of approvals before you’re 100% allowed to go ahead. In this second round you need to upload 10 pictures of which at least 7 have to pass their final test. To cut a very long story short: all 10 of my images were rejected! Because I do portraits most of the time, 9 out of 10 were pictures of my wife or my kids. It turned out you have to supply a model release form with each picture. In this form the model states that he/she voluntarily posed and that he/she agrees that the pictures are being made available as a stockphoto. Of course, being new to all of this, I didn’t include these forms. Now I understand how it works. The forms even require a witness to sign as well. A third party is required to testify that the model didn’t sign the form while she was drugged of forced….
The only other picture I uploaded that wasn’t a portrait (actually a picture of Schiphol Airport) had brandnames in it and was for this reason also rejected.
Now I’m suspended for 30 days before I can upload another batch of 10 images. Because of all the hassle and the strict guidelines, I’m not so sure if I’m going to pursue, though. The money you’re going to make is probably not worth it. Will keep you posted on future developments (if any).
Before I go, I would to recommend you this website to compare mortgage rates in case you need it, I used it before and it work perfectly for me.