Jon Oringer fouded Shutterstock in 2003 to sell 30.000 of his own stock photos. Little did he know that his site would become the market leader in subscription (microstock) downloads. In 2005 Adam Riggs joined as President and CFO of Shutterstock. At the end of 2009 they announced the purchase of (rival) Bigstock which made them a player in the credit based microstock agencies as well.
 
Recently Shutterstock has surpassed the 10 million royalty-free images mark, contributed by more then 210.000 microstock photographers. This agency has been and continues to be a good seller for me in my early days of stock photography. I would highly recommend uploading your portfolio to this agency.

Shutterstock application process
This is one of the harder agencies to register at. Shutterstock requires a photo id (passport recommended) when you apply to be a contributor. Once your photo id is approved, they will ask you to upload 10 of your best microstock photos. 7 out of those 10 will have to be approved before you can start uploading. If your photos get rejected you cannot re-apply for another month.

My performance
See how I perform on Shutterstock by viewing my monthly microstock earnings reports!

Shutterstock details / statistics