You can increase your earnings potential by directing new customers or contributors to Shutterstock. Simply share the appropriate custom referral link listed on the My referrals page of your contributor account. Referral links for contributors and customers are different, so be sure to share the correct one.
When a referral link is clicked on by the person you are referring, a 30-day cookie (which includes your referral ID) will be stored by the Internet browser. If your referral creates an account on the Shutterstock site within 30 days — even for a free customer browse account — your referral ID will be associated with their account. If a new contributor clicks two referral links from two different contributors, the system will record the first one that was clicked, not the most recent one.
If you make earnings by referring new contributors or customers to our platform, these will show up as referral earnings on the Earnings summary page. Your total number of referrals and earnings they generated will also display at the top and can be set based on any selected date range.
On the My referrals page, you can see additional information, like each contributor you referred and each customer purchase made. Please contact us if you do not see a record of a referral you believe should be reflected in your earnings.
Referral earnings
Image -- For the first two years after a contributor you referred creates an account, you earn $0.04 each time one of their images is downloaded.
Video -- For the first year after a contributor you referred is registered, you earn 10% of the sale price actually received by Shutterstock each time one of their clips is downloaded.
Customer -- When you refer a customer to Shutterstock, you’ll earn 20% of their first payment, up to $200.
Referral earnings are paid out along with the earnings you accrue from the downloads made from your portfolio. For security reasons, there is a 90-day delay on payments for customer referral earnings–although they will display in your Earnings summary at the time of purchase, you will not receive them until the payment cycle that occurs 90 days after. Learn more about the Shutterstock contributor payment cycle here.