Every week, Shutterstock gives away free content from their library – real content, free of charge. Shutterstock is a microstock agency that was started by John Oringer, a photographer himself. Since then, he’s grown Shutterstock into one of the largest, unique microstock agencies on the net. They try to prove this by posting real-time stats on their home page. This week, they’ve exceeded 70,647,399 stock images with 616,942 images added this week alone. Check it out in their website – the stats are on the home page when you scroll down.
Every week, they give you two free files so you can grow your collection. And unlike many different things that you may find for free, these truly are free in every sense of the word.
What This Means for You
I can hear what you’re thinking – “That’s great. But what does that mean for me?” I’m glad you asked. That means that after you create your free account, even if you don’t intend on purchasing one of their packages, you can come back, week after week, and grow your collection completely free of charge.
Just sign in, grab your free images and download them. They’ll be forever tied to your account just as if you had purchased them.
Royalty-Free License
Each one of these images comes with a royalty-free license – just as if you had purchased them (sound familiar?). The royalty-free license means that you can use the images for commercial purposes without paying a royalty fee every time you use it. Royalty-free does not mean free of charge. Usually, people pay for the royalty-free license. Because these images come with a royalty-free license, you can use them for the exact same purposes and the exact same ways as if you had paid for the image – there’s no difference.
The Types of Files Shutterstock Offers
Shutterstock is a huge company. They’ve only recently exceeded the 70-million image milestone. Plus, they offer far more than just stock images. They provide stock images, editorial images, stock music clips, stock video footage, digital illustrations, vector art and icons. Icons are one of the few things that make Shutterstock unique – you won’t find that just anywhere.
The Types of Free Files
This is where it gets good. Every week, you can see which free files are up for grabs. They offer one free photo and one free illustration. When you’re done looking at what you can get for free, check out their plans and pricing. Pay attention to how much they charge for two photos. Although the price is subject to change, Shutterstock currently charges $29 for two images. That means you’re getting about $30 for free every single week. That may not seem like much, but if someone gave you $30 check every single week, would you take it? It’s nothing to scoff about. Multiply that by four weeks. Shutterstock is giving you $120 worth of free images every month.
Why Shutterstock Does This
When something sounds too good to be true, the discerning and critical-thinking mind has to ask, “Why does Shutterstock do this?” That’s a good question. It has two good answers. The first answer is for the artist – the photographer who took the photo. Shutterstock does this to showcase and highlight the photographers that contribute to Shutterstock (you can visit this link for Shutterstock coupon code). If your photo gets picked as the free one a week, it’s actually quite the honor.
The second reason is to give you a taste of what’s in the library. You see, Shutterstock doesn’t offer you the lowest resolution possible just because it’s free. No – instead, Shutterstock is going to give you the highest quality resolution along with a royalty-free license to show you, as the customer, what you can expect if you were to purchase one of their credit packs or subscriptions. It may be a marketing ploy, but it’s a good one. Even if you don’t ever make a purchase, Shutterstock will still give you the free images.
How to Take Advantage of This Offer
The easiest way to take them into this offer is to go to their home page – found in their website – and sign up for a free account. As you scroll down, you’ll notice a small form there that asks you for a username, email address and the password you would like to use for your new account. After you tick the little check mark box that says you agree to their terms of service, click on the big red button that says, “Create Account.”
Grow Your Collection, Free of Charge
Once you’ve created your account, simply come back, week after week and grab your free images. Even though they’re tied to your account, you’re free to download them on your computer so that you can have all your images in one place. Make sure you save some room on your hard drive – your collection will grow faster than you’ll believe. Before long, you won’t have to browse a microstock library looking for an image for your marketing campaign – you’ll be browsing your own personal library – courtesy of Shutterstock.