I am selling (hand drawn) vector illustrations on various Microstock websites, and I have taken a break for a little more than a year now (for personal reasons). Now it's time to get back to work. And I see that Stocksy climbed the ladder in the earnings poll results. So I wonder, is it worth it to apply as an illustrator? I know it wouldn't be vectors, just JPGs. That's fine.

Let's say I apply and get accepted - I don't want to create content specifically for Stocksy, which then doesn't sell. And then I can't upload it anywhere else because of the exclusivity agreement.

Any successful Stocksy illustrators here?

Anybody else seeing discrepancies in their earnings summary? Since last night, my "Unpaid Earnings" are $108 higher than my "Jun 2019 totals", and I have no idea where the extra $108 are coming from. I mean, I'm not complaining about a little more $$$, it's just very strange.

At Adobe click on the upload button and check the requirements for vectors on the right.

Also, larger jpg should be more appealing to buyers who want to buy the raster version. So I thought that almost everybody work with 15MP artboards.

I checked, and you're right. But the 15 MP artboard only applies when you upload EPS only. I always upload EPS and JPG as a zip-file, and my JPGs are very large. All other agencies want JPGs, iStock, Dreamstime, 123rf... I assume most of us create large JPG previews anyway - there's no need for Shutterstock do change their rules.

Someone started an online petition:

https://www.change.org/p/shutterstock-cancel-the-limitation-of-eps-files-to-4-megapixels-on-shutterstock

No idea if such a petition will really do anything, but it won't hurt to sign.

Starting on April 8, 2019, Shutterstock will require the dimensions of EPS files to be at least 4 megapixels.

I work entirely in Inkscape, and so far have kept the dimensions smaller than 500 pixels on the largest side, to avoid rejection (�Design is either too large or too small on the artboard�)

The new requirement is therefore highly worrying - does that mean in the future all files created in Inkscape will be rejected, because in order to make them fit the artboard, they have to be smaller than 4 megapixels?

Someone else having the same worries? 

I assume Pixabay checks the images by doing a reverse image search on the web, and they found your images on Shutterstock. So they want to make sure they're really yours, after all your images are also on a professional stock website. I don't know if you use the same name on Shutterstock and on Pixabay, but just let them know that these are definitely your images and that you had also uploaded them to Shutterstock... should be fine

Check out this website: http://m-rank.net
It tells you which vector illustrations sell well on Shutterstock. I remember a guy doing Arabic calligraphy and he used to be somewhere among the top 100 contributors, but I can't find him right now. I've also seen people selling simple motivational quotes ("be strong" "don't give up") written in beautiful handwriting, and they often rank quite high. If you're good, I believe it will sell, since quotes and calligraphy can be used for multiple purposes.

I myself have no experience with calligraphy, and I cannot tell you how they sell compared to logos - but I think you should give it a go

I have a few patterns on patterndesign. Their review time is incredibly long and they'll find the tiniest mismatch in your pattern, tiny mistakes that I've never noticed myself even though I check each pattern thoroughly. Therefore I am very lazy about uploading there. But for me it's a tiny side income, like an extra 100 Euro at the end of the year for Christmas. Which means that sales are incredibly low compared to other websites, but still enough for me to keep my account. I currently have 38 patterns on patterndesign.

They partner with other websites, such as prinfab.com and uneekee.com (print on demand websites), so you will find your designs on their partner sites too, and if they sell a product with your pattern, you'll make some money.

On the positive side: they're very responsive to email requests. So if you have questions regarding their terms and where they sell your designs, just email them.

Hope that helped

I just looked at your vectors, I really like your autumn pattern. In my opinion you use too many gradients in your other vectors, or maybe the gradients are too harsh. But the autumn pattern is great, do more like this! Not for autumn, that's over, but patterns in general. Seamless patterns are always useful.

Yes, vectors might take more time, but I believe you'll have less competition. And you will develop your own illustration style, which distinguishes you from other illustrators (I think it's harder with photography to have a very distinct style, but I might be wrong...).

I have around 500 illustrations in my Shutterstock portfolio, and earn nearly 500 USD per month. So yes, vectors take more time to produce, but the return per image will be higher as well. And if you have a couple of vectors, you can re-use old elements to create new images

signed

hahaha, thank you for your replies. so I'll just keep submitting the illustration until someone accepts it 

It worked! 
I received the standard apology ("high traffic uploads"), and 2 days later 91 of my 96 files got reviewed and approved. 5 are still pending. I don't get why they didn't manage to review those 5 illustrations as well...