Wirestock.io For Contributors The Good, Bad & Ugly

In this article and the video version below, we will talk about Wirestock.io and go over what I am calling the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly aspects of using Wirestock’s platform to help you sell your stock photography, videos and vectors. 

My hope is that this article and the video will give you a bit more insight that can help you determine if being a wirestock contributor is right for you.

This is part of my series on wirestock.io which is both a stock photo and video submission tool and also a platform to sell your stock assets and even prints. 

If you have not heard of wirestock.io or have no idea what I am talking about when I say wirestock.io then I recommend checking out my other Wirestock overview article, where I explain it all before continuing with this article. 

Alright, so to start off I signed up to be a wirestock contributor in April of 2021 but didn’t really start uploading to much until that summer. Since then wirestock has made quite a few improvements with the platform and submission process. They have even added portfolios for contributors and now the ability to sell prints from your portfolio. 

Full Disclosure: I don’t work for wirestock.io but like I said I do use them and if you end up finding this article helpful and decide to use wirestock then use my referral link and I will get a small commission of sales that comes out of their fee. 

The “Good” Aspects of Wirestock.io

So first off lets go over what I consider the “Good” aspects of wirestock.io.

• Free and easy to sign up! 
  • They do take a 15% commission on sales distributed to partner agencies and 30% on any direct sales from their platform, which is pretty reasonable.

• No need to set up accounts with all of the agencies wirestock submits to.
  • This is especially great for those new contributors to stock photography or who are looking to streamline their workflow.

• Uploads directly to 7 of the top stock sites: 
  • Shutterstock, Adobe, Alamy, iStock/Getty, Dreamstime, Pond5, Depositphotos
  • And indirectly to 123RF and more through its wirestock programs: instant pay and extra channels.

• One stop shop for multiple asset types. 
  • Submit Images, Video and Vector files

• Easy submissions!
  • Provide a bit of information and wirestock will handle all of the keywording and descriptions for you!

• Wirestock reads and automatically populates any meta data included in your file when you upload, like descriptions and keywords. 
  • I have found that in most cases they will use most or all of this and usually add to it. 

• Basically wirestock is similar to how Blackbox Global is for video, just without the ability for revenue share for models and keywords. 
  • But with wirestock you also get images and vectors as well.
  • Plus wirestock takes care of titles, descriptions and keywording for no additional commission. Whereas it is all on you or someone you share commission with on Black box global. 

• Portfolio page for all of your content that can be linked to directly.
  • Which makes wirestock like a 8th stock site where you can sell all of your assets directly on the platform
  • Potential for print sales as well from your wirestock portfolio.

• Wirestock.io makes it very easy to add model releases to images and videos right as you submit them.
  • Any release you create is stored for you ready to added to images or videos
  • The releases are good for all of the agencies you submit to through wirestock.
  • You can also request a signature to a model or property owner with just their email address directly through wirestock.
  • This is a big timesaver!

• It is really easy for stock contributors to upload files:
  • You can upload content from your web browser. Drag and drop or by selecting files on your computer.
  • You can also upload via Google Drive and Dropbox
  • Or you can use FTP if you are familiar with that. 
  • And you you can upload via the app

• There is a mobile app available for iOS and Android
  • In the app you can upload photos and videos, sign and manage releases, as well as see a limited dashboard.

• You earn higher royalties on tiered commission sites like Shutterstock, Deposit Photos, Alamy, 123RF. 
  • This is because of the large portfolios wirestock has on each agency and the greater number of downloads those portfolios get. Allows them to move quickly into those higher commission tiers.
  • Best for contributors with lower downloads and sales on these sites allowing you to get into a higher tier much quicker and thus a higher commission. This higher commission can quickly offset the 15% fee wirestock.io takes. 
  • According to wirestock.io the commissions they received in 2021 averaged between 25% and 50% depending on the stock agency. 

• You will earn more money sooner too! 
  • Instead of taking 6 months to a year to hit level 5 (2,501 downloads and 35% commission) on shutterstock you could already be at level 5 or even Level 6 within the first month of the year through wirestock.io.
  • Earning you an extra 15% or more on every sale from the start of the year!

• You can easily choose which agencies or programs you want to submit to for each of your assets. 
  • You can even choose to opt in those assets at a later date

• Get paid out much sooner.
  • The payout threshold is only $30 U.S.
  • Especially good for sites that most stock contributors have lowers sales on like Depositphotos or 123RF. 
  • Also great for sites like Dreamstime that have a very high earnings threshold of $100 before you can deposit your earnings into your bank account. 

The “Bad” aspects of Wirestock.io

I use the term “Bad” but I am talking about the less optimal aspects of wirestock.io:

• No notification system to indicate when images are accepted or rejected after you submit them to wirestock.
  • Also the same goes for the status of files submitted to individual stock sites.

• No way to sort accepted or rejected images by stock agency.
  • Have to manually click each image to see its status

• All of your content is uploaded under wirestocks account on each stock agency.
  • This means your images will not have your personal branding on those partner sites. Honestly this is probably not a big concern for most contributors, as it is not a huge concern for me.

• What is a concern is that with all assets under wirestocks branding means you will NOT receive photo credit on any images that are licensed on those agencies. Instead since it is under wirestocks account with those agencies It will display just Wirestock on the credit line, not even shared credit!
  • This could be a big concern for perhaps editorial photographers who rely much more on their personal branding or name recognition to get additional work.

• Adobe Stock Images sales dont count towards Adobe’s Bonus Program
  • Since your images are under wirestocks account on adobe stock any downloads of your images or videos do not count towards adobe’s bonus program where you can earn free subscriptions to adobe creative suite apps like photoshop, illustrator or premiere.

• The Pricing wirestock sets for our video assets on Pond5 seems far too low for at least for the 4k Videos.
  •  When I searched the wirestock portfolio on Pond5, I found videos ranging from $25 – $60 for HD and $28 – $56 for 4k! That is really low for 4k videos!

• Instant Pay Program. This is not one of my favorites* Currently it partners with Adobe stock, Shutterstock and Freepix
  • There is now way of knowing which sites your images will be offered to or the length of the term through the Instant Pay program.
  • Risk having your images “licensed” to freepix thus disincitiving the potential for sales on other non exclusive sites. If you don’t know what freepix is, it is a site where you can download images and videos for free, forever. That is not a good idea for lasting income generation.

• There is not an option to choose which Instant pay Program partners you wish to submit to. 
  • I am personally fine with a partner like Adobe that has a term limit but absolutely not fine with a site like Freepix.

• No analytics for visitors to your wirestock portfolio or individual assets

• All aggregation sites are at risk of having their accounts disabled due to bad actors. 
  • This happened to another aggregator Black box Global at the end of 2020. 
  • The entire Blackboxguild account was temporarily taken down for 15 – 30 days on Shutterstock, 900k files, due to a DMCA takedown request due some members reuploading stolen files. 

The “Ugly” Aspects of Wirestock.io

When we talk about the “Ugly” what I’m really talking here are areas that need improvements:

• It would be great to see more stock agency partners like iStock/Getty, Bigstock, 500px, CanStock, storyblocks and vimeostock.

• Review time is very inconsistent. Sometimes it is within a week and other times upto a month or longer.
  • Wirestock did recently add a Premium Plan that offers 48 hour review at a monthly or yearly cost.

• To add to that once assets are approved on wirestock and then submitted to the agencies, the time in which the agencies publish your files can be quite inconsistent from nearly instant to weeks.
  • There is still no guarantee your wirestock.io approved files will be accepted by the individual agencies.

• The Automated descriptions and keywords that wirestock.io creates for you can be a bit off
  • I highly recommend adding info to your meta data prior to upload and especially providing as much info as you can for editorial submissions.

• No direct way to edit descriptions or keywording after submitted for review or even after having been accepted.
  • It is possible, but you can contact customer service to have these updated, but it is cumbersome.

• No sorting of assets into sets or catalogs from your dashboard.
  • This can make it more difficult to organize your files prior to submission

• Wirestock still has not implemented the ability to set your own prices on your Wirestock Portfolio page!
  • You can however set prices for sets you create on your portfolio page
  • Although wirestock told me that this should be implemented by summer Fall of 2022

• The Dashboard is slow to update with your sales stats it takes a few days or weeks for sales to show up which is not a deal breaker but just annoying.

• Overall the Dashboard is buggy on the desktop version
  • The total earnings section seems to be a month off on the on All Time, but shows last 30 days. 
  • Weekly, last 7 days etc. do not always populate.
  • Badges For achievements like First sale are broken for me. They have not updated which is not a big deal but kinda pointless if they don’t actually work.

• On iOS and Android apps there is no ability to view  or upload Vector files.
  • There is also no referral earnings data at all either.
  • Earnings are displayed without the ability to sort by time. Like month, week, last 7 days etc.
  • When looking at accepted images or video there is no sorting buy page, just an unlimited scroll in the order they were accepted. Which can be a huge pain if you have lots of files.

• Print sales on wirestock are limited to Giclee prints only with only two framing options.
  • Currency no photo paper options like glossy, metallic or luster and no canvas printing which are a staple of photographers who are selling fine art

• No list of wirestocks printing partners available by region or at all.

Final Thoughts on Wirestock.io

Overall I know wirestock is continually updating and adding features which is really appreciated. Some of my issues mostly likely don’t have a solution due to the reporting nature of assets strewn across multiple stock agencies. I feel that is just a part of the drawbacks to an aggregator site like wirestock.io. My guess is that they are limited to the data they can get from each of their partner agencies. 

I hope wirestock can get some more of the kinks worked out. I would love to see quicker and more accurate titles, improved keywording and a faster review process. 

Should you be a Wirestock contributor?

As you can see I do feel there are quite a few positives for the majority of the wirestock contributors and for those new to stock photography or who are leveling up. I am using wirestock.io and plan on continuing to add more assets to the site. 

I feel it is becoming a better and better platform as they grow. In fact they just received another round of investment funding. In my option it is a platform with a lot of potential. Especially newer stock photography or video contributors or those contributors who are just looking for an easy way to earn some beer or vacation money from their personal images.

I hope this has helped to give you more insight into wirestock.io. I would love to hear your experiences, tips or any other questions you might have. Let me know if you are a wirestock contributor in the comments.

Again you can find more articles and videos about wirestock and my stock photography journey on my youtube channel and here on the website. 

If you are ready to try out wirestock please use can use my referral link to sign up. 

Cheers!