If you are enthusiastic about photography, have you ever thought of making money by selling photos online?
There are so many stock photo sites, and “Dreamstime” is one of the best I could find on the internet.
In 2019, I think everyone could be a photographer when you have a nice and decent smartphone on our hands. So, this opportunity belongs to everyone in this planet once you have a smartphone.
I am not an affiliate with Dreamstime since I always take blurred photos and cannot hold my phones still. So, you could rely on me. Let’s start our journey for Dreamstime today, shall we?
Disclaimer: As the owner of Smileaffiliatesuccess.com, I have tracked down special deals for products, tools, and services mentioned herein. When you click my affiliate links on this page to make a purchase, I may get a small commission, and you will definitely get a great bargain. This is a win-win advantage for both of us.
What Is Dreamstime?
-Summary of Dreamstime-
Product Name: Dreamstime
Founders: Serban Enache in 2004
Product Type: Photo and Content Contribution and Reselling
Price: FREE to join
Best For: Photography enthusiasts, illustrators, and graphic designers.
Rating: 80 / 100
Recommend: Yes!
Dreamstime is a website that houses stock photos(free & paid), illustrations, videos, and audio.
It pays ordinary people money for uploading their quality photos to Dreamstime, and they sell them to the customers on the internet.
It was built and found back in 2004, and it survives longer than 15 years! (What a great accomplishment!) Remember 80% of start-ups will not last longer than 5 years!
Dreamstime opens its door to anyone on this planet who likes to make extra money online by selling high-quality photos, and the best part is you could join with no cost at all.
No wonder it attracts many photography enthusiasts, illustrators, and graphic designers.
What’s inside Dreamstime?
When you first land in Dreamstime, you could find stock photos, editorial, illustrations, videos, audio, free photos, the blog on the top.
So, you could try to click each one to know what’s inside and get a basic understanding of Dreamstime. But, this is the information for customers/buyers. We’ll talk about the contributor part later!
Meet The Founder
The founder’s information is a great indicator to decide a platform is a scam or not, and I got a post about how to avoid online scams. You are more than welcome to check it out!
This is what I found on Linkedin, Serban Enache’s personal profile! At least, we know what he looks like and his educational background and career experience.
For his interview with details, you could check here.
How Does It Work?
If you like to sell your photos on Dreamstime, you need to sign up as a contributor. Then you could start to upload your quality photos, videos, graphic illustrations to Dreamstime and make money.
Every content you upload to Dreamstime will be reviewed by Dreamstime QC(quality control) team. Once your photos got approved, you earn credits every time Dreamstime’s customers download your content.
How Do I Sell Images at Dreamstime?
There is a limit to the number of images you can submit per week, and it will be reset every Sunday.
If you want to maximize your earnings, you should try to get your approval rate over 80%. Once your approval rate is over 80%, you are allowed to upload 50 images per week. (the highest)
There is also a requirement for your image size that all of them should be with a minimum size of 3 MPs(megapixels) and a maximum of 70 MP.
All files could be uploaded in JPG format, RGB and sRGB, free of noise or any other artifacts.
My Tips: the intent on Dreamstime is to make extra money, so I would try to make my photos or images close to well-defined commercial concepts, marketable compositions that show creative insight.
For more contributor side of concerns, you are welcome to check here.
How Much You Can Make on Dreamstime?
There is a contributor called “Eti” who just made her first $100,000 on Dreamstime, and she joined to be a contributor in 2009.
She keeps creating and contributing content to Dreamstime, and her hard works take her to this result.
Let’s do a simple math here. $100,000 / 10 years(2009-2019) = $10,000 per year.
You could take this as your goal every year, and I think it’s good to get an extra $10,000 every year by uploading your works to Dreamstime, right?
How Do I Get Paid From Dreamstime?
Once you have $100 in your account, you could request for payment. Dreamstime provides the below methods:
- Bank checks (that you can cash at a local bank)
- Payoneer (Dreamstime Prepaid MasterCard)
- Skrill (MoneyBookers)
- PayPal (My preferred method)
What I Liked About Dreamstime
TOP#1 Dreamstime Pays You Well
For each transaction, the contributor receives between 25-50% earnings, which is calculated on the net amount for the transaction.
There are 5 levels in Dreamstime, the higher level means the more commissions. Depending on your level and the type of your content, you could at least earn $1.02 to $12.24 per image sold.
Let’s do math again here. If you could get averagely 10 downloads per day, you get $10 per day. What if you could sell 100 per day, that brings us $100 every day. Meaning you can earn $3,000 per month.
TOP#2 Everyone Could Join
Unlike some stock photo websites, everyone who likes photography and takes photos could join Dreamstime for free. So, there is no geographical limitation on Dreamstime. Everyone could join, I love this idea.
TOP#3 A+ BBB Rating
BBB stands for Better Business Bureau, and it gives you a basic understanding that a company could be trusted or not. Dreamstime got A-PLUS on BBB which means it’s safe to do business with them.
Most complaints of Dreamstime on BBB are about payment issues from the customer side. As for the contributor side, I see the biggest concern is the $100 payout threshold. Please read all the rules since Dreamstime states this clearly when you sign up to be a contributor.
Ugly Truth About DreamsTime
TOP#1 High Payout Threshold
You need to have $100 balance in your account then request for payment. $100 is too much. Yes, this is the biggest issue contributors face when they want to cash out their earnings.
It’s harder for beginners in the first 6 months after they join Dreamstime. You might wait for a few months until you get the first sale.
TOP#2 Rising Up The Ranks Takes Too Long
I mentioned there are 5 levels in Dreamstime. When you first applied to become a contributor, you are level 1. Once you get more downloads, the image/video moves to a higher level and sells for a higher price.
But, it takes so long to move up to level 5. You need to be extraordinary ACTIVE and try to get a higher approval rate to level 5.
The ranking system also relies on the quantity of image/video/audio you could sell on Dreamstime which makes it harder and harder.
Who Is Dreamstime For?
For customers, Dreamstime is a very nice platform you could find any content you want, including free & paid photos, illustrations, videos, and audio. I love Dreamstime too, sometimes I surf it for more inspirations for my own art piece.
For contributors, Dreamstime is the best for photography enthusiasts, illustrators, and graphic designers who like to make money by selling their works.
Especially for photography enthusiastic, Dreamstime is like destiny for you. You must have a nice and decent camera with you.
You love taking photos for any kind of theme, such as scenic, portrait, group photos, wildlife, etc. I cannot come out of an alternative better than stock photo websites.
Is Dreamstime A Scam?
No, Dreamstime is not a scam at all. Instead, it’s a very nice and decent platform that you could make money by selling your quality photos, illustrations, or videos.
If it’s a 100% scam, I won’t think Dreamstime could last longer than 15 years till today. If you need proof, read this article that one of the contributors made $100,000 income from Dreamstime. Isn’t this quite motivating and inspiring?
But, in my opinion, it’s not very friendly for beginners. When you first start, it takes time to see your first sale even it’s just a $0.25. It might take longer than 6 months for your first sale.
My Alternative Way to Make Money Online
If I have to pick one from all the possibilities of making extra money online, I would go for Affiliate Marketing. To join Dreamstime, you need to take photos, draw an illustration, or make a video to sell.
But, in the industry of affiliate marketing, you don’t even need to actually own a product!
What you need to do is to find something you like and write an article about it. People nowadays also make YouTube videos to maximize their affiliate marketing business. If someone has the same interest and purchases the products through your links, you will get a commission.
The platform I use today is Wealthy Affiliate, and It guides me to the digital nomad lifestyle meaning I could work anytime & anywhere with a laptop on my lap!
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I hope you enjoy this review and you are more than welcome to share ideas or leave your comments below. I will reply as soon as I can, thanks.
