This is how they say it:

"What are the benefits of donating? Expect a huge increase in your portfolio exposure! Increase your sales, (oh yea), as much as 40% to 2800%!! Sell higher resolution images!"


The donation is time limited so I thought I�d give it a try, with five.    Nothing�s happening after a week. about 0% increase in sales:)

What about you?

So they lie you right in the face?

I know this is a 123 thread, but personally, I wouldn't give a freebie anywhere but IS or SS where you get front page placement on a site with a lot of traffic.

I had the free photo spot last week at Shutterstock.  I had a couple very good days, but the rest of the week was maybe 10-20%% better than usual.  The good thing is that older photos that sold *may* get a slightly better ranking from the deal.  They picked a rather unremarkable photo - it was new in Feb and had sold 11 times before the freebie week, 4 times during freebie week, and not once since the photo was swapped out on Wednesday.  They don't let us know how many freebies went out.  It was a nature shot, I wish they had picked something more "stocky" that might have benefited in the long term from an artificial boost in downloads (if that's how it works?).

Anyhow, I was quite thankful/flattered to get a free photo spot at SS.  I thought it was a very good opportunity for my little port.

NO, freebies don't work at all. I tried myself several times. Actually I had better sales when I was NOT giving away photos, but that could be a coincidence.
However, I was donating some 4-5 crappy old images and one good photo. So I'm not sure how it'll be if one donates several GOOD images. But I'll simply assume it's the same - no improvements in sales.