What is Wirestock and How Does It Work?

Wirestock.io is an online stock site that allows its contributors to upload assets in the form of images, videos and vector files to their platform for distribution across multiple stock agencies. 

Who can Join Wirestock?

Anyone who creates assets like photos, videos or illustrations can join wirestock. Ideally all stock agencies and marketplaces want high quality assets that can be licenced for commercial or editorial use to offer to their clients. 

So if you are already a photographer, illustrator, videographer then wirestock could be a good fit to save you precious time. If you are a hobbyist, student or just learning then it can also be a great way to start learning and even earning money.

Why would you want to use Wirestock? 

Wirestock claims it will save you time and earn you more money. They claim their process will make it 100 times faster. Save you time by handling the keywording and description as well as uploading multiple files to each agency. If you’re new to stock photography then it can also save you the hassle of setting up accounts with each individual stock agency as well.

Easy Submission Tool

Wirestock has a unique “Easy Submission” tool that saves you time by filling out descriptions, titles and keywording for you. It uses a combination of wirestock personnel and artificial intelligence (AI) to do the time consuming tasks for you. You just provide some really basic information or even a few keywords when you submit your file to wirestock and they do the rest.

The “Easy Submission” tool works for Commercial assets and now even with Editorial Assets. Note that due to the nature of editorial stock you will still need to fill in some basic information like the country, city, date and some information describing the content of the editorial image. The editorial “Easy Submission” tool was implemented earlier in 2021. 

Submit to multiple stock agencies at once

Another way wirestock saves you time and helps make you more money is by submitting to multiple stock agencies and marketplaces through its own Wirestock Program. Wirestock is currently partnered with Shutterstock, Adobe, Alamy, Dreamstime, Pond5, and Depositphotos. 

This can save you a lot of time from submitting to each individual agency on your own. 

If you are not already approved as a contributor to any of Wirestocks partner agencies then this is an easy way to get your images on those additional agencies. And if your assets are approved it can potentially make you more money.

Earn extra income

Wirestock can help you earn more money by getting your assets on multiple agencies and marketplaces. The more marketplaces your assets are in, the more opportunity for sales. This includes wirestocks non agency partners. 

You can also take advantage of Wirestock’s size to earn you a larger royalty. This can actually lead to higher returns for you than you may be able to achieve with your own contributor account. This is due to the tiered systems that a lot of agencies like shutterstock use. Essentially reducing your commission rate until you achieve a certain number of downloads. 

Unless you are already getting a massive amount of downloads on your personal account with one of the agencies that has tiered commissions, this means you will likely earn a larger royalty with Wirestock. Wirestock’s partner agencies with tiered royalties are Shutterstock, Deposit Photo and Alamy. 

Essentially you benefit from Wirestocks leverage. Due to the higher volume of downloads Wirestock is able to achieve on these stock agencies. This leverage means each download earns at a higher royalty rate due to assets selling at a higher level or tier (on tiered agencies). 

What does it cost to use Wirestock?

Wirestock is free to join and use. Once you sign up there is no overall limit as to how many images, videos and vectors you can upload for submission. Once you successfully have 30 assets approved your weekly submissions increase each week based on your approved vs. rejection rate.

How does Wirestock Make Money then?

Wirestock takes a 15% commision of the royalties you earn from assets submitted through its three channels. With the case of any Wirestock “direct sales” made on its own platform, Wirestock will take a 30% commission. 

Example: Wirestock takes 15% of the royalty your assets earn from an agency like AdobeStock or Dreamstime. So if your image sells for $3.00 on Adobe Stock you would earn a $.99 royalty based on adobestocks 33% commission level. Wirestock would then take 15% of the $.99 royalty earned passing on to you $.84. 

“Direct Sales” are stock assets licensed from Wirestock directly and Print sales sold from your portfolio on Wirestock. In the case of a Direct Sale of an image from your portfolio you would keep 70% of the base price and wirestock would take a 30% commission.

Example: If an image is licensed directly from your wirestock portfolio for $5 then you would earn $3.50 or 70%. Wirestock would take a 30% commission or $1.50. 

Understanding Wirestocks Three Channels to Earning Money

Wirestock has three primary channels for contributors to get their assets (Images, Videos, Vectors) out to the world to earn you money. Those channels are: Stock Agencies, Wirestock Program and Exclusive Agencies. Although technically there is one more channel we will go over later..

Stock Agencies

Wirestock currently works with Shutterstock, Adobe, Alamy, Dreamstime, Pond5, Depositphotos, 123RF. In the past they had been partnered with istock/Gettyand they are always looking for new agencies that could be a good fit.

Additionally Wirestock has recently started working on its own platform. This will allow direct sales of your assets on Wirestock’s own site just like the other stock agencies. 

Wirestock Program

The “Wirestock Program” consists of two sub channels or programs that offer its contributors earning opportunities. Instant Pay Program and what Wirestock calls Extra Channels. 

Instant Pay Program

The first of these channels is the Instant Pay program. The Instant Pay program (IP) is where Wirestock partners with several other platforms and essentially licenses your content to those other platforms for a one time fee. 

Wirestock mentions “stock photo marketplaces, designer tools, business promotion tools and other platforms that offer commercial content to their customers” in their FAQ. 

The Instant Pay program partners with several platforms who pay for content in advance on a one time basis, as opposed to paying per download.

Wirestock FAQ

I searched Wirestocks FAQ’s and Blog posts to find out more about the Instant Pay Program. I wanted to know who is wirestock partnering with? What are the term lengths for accepted content? 

The only info I could find about who these Instant pay Partners were was a mention of Freepik. So I reached out to Wirestock to see if I could get a little more info. They confirmed that “as of now our main instant pay partners have been Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, and Freepik.”

As for the term length for accepted Instant Pay (IP) content they replied “The term lengths for the IP [Instant Pay] program have been set for up to two years in some cases, also unlimited lengths such as the case with Freepik.”

You can read my whole interview with wirestock here. There is also a great article on selling-stock.com that goes into in more detail about how the Instant Pay program was rolled out November of 2020.

Extra Channels

With Extra Channels dWirestock partners with brands, stock photo agencies and print on demand platforms to get your images licensed further. From what I understand the Extra Channels partners license images for use directly on their own platforms or projects. But unlike the Instant Pay Program Extra Channels partners can not redistribute any licensed assets.

“But in case of Extra Channels, the other party cannot distribute the content. They can only be used for their project.”

Wirestock Interview Response

Exclusive Agencies

Wirestock offers a third way to earn you money through its’ Exclusive Agency channel. 

Currently wirestock is partnered with Adobe Stock to offer the Adobe Exclusive program. When you select to submit to the Abode Exclusive program you agree to not submit those assets to any other agency partnered with Wirestock or outside of wirestock. This includes any personal account you may have with another agency or platform. 

If you select this in wirestocks Submit tab it will automatically uncheck any other partner selection you have made. 

The benefit here is a higher commission rate on any royalties earned from Adobe Stock Exclusive. After a deep search I found that Adobe Stock Exclusive has limited content requests. The Adobe Stock Exclusive seems to only accept certain content from certain rotating categories at a 40% commission rate vs. 33% for non-exclusive.

Wirestock Marketplace Direct Sales

The 4th “unofficial channel” wirestock offers is Wirestock Marketplace Direct Sales.

Wirestock has launched its own marketplace where assets can be licensed directly from their website. Just like when you go to Adobestock.com or any other stock agencies website. When you submit your assets to your selected partner agencies your assets are automatically added to your Wirestock portfolio. 

Your Wirestock Portfolio

Wirestock creates a portfolio page for each of its contributors. It is a convenient place to find all of your images, videos and  illustrations you have submitted. Your portfolio page is your username /portfolio like https://wirestock.io/joel.hartz/portfolio. All of your assets are available for license or in the case of an image, sold as a print directly from your Portfolio. 

Image of my portfolio

You can easily share your portfolio page on your social media as a link. GIving you a way to showcase your work and generate sales. Your assets can be sorted by image, video or vector and whether they are model released or not.

Wirestock Marketplace Royalty Free Image Sales

All of your approved images, videos or illustrations are available to license from your Portfolio page on wirestock. Wirestock handles the sales transaction and merchant credit card fees as part of it’s commission. 

Buyers are able to license Royalty Free Commercial and “Single Use” Editorial assets directly. The licensing terms are similar to most other stock agencies. You can read the wirestock.io license terms here. Additionally if your asset has been accepted on another stock agency wirestock places a direct link to it. 

Print Sales

Wirestock has recently just added an option for its contributors to make Print sales directly from your Wirestock portfolio page. Your images can be purchased in a wide range of sizes and even offer framing options. 

Each image available as a Giclee print on Fine Art Paper with a smooth texture with a matte finish. Wirestock handles the whole transaction including payment. Wirestock has print partners worldwide and even handles all of the shipping for you. 

The costs associated with printing and handling are built into the base print prices. Just like with Fine Art America and other Print on Demand (POD) platforms.

Direct Sales Commissions

All sales on Wirestocks own platform are considered Wirestock “Direct Sales”. You earn a 70% commission on these sales and wirestock takes a 30% commission. Wirestock’s commission on your other royalties from partner agencies is still 15%. 

Example: You sell a 16” x 20” print priced at $22 you would earn $3.50 of the base mark up price of $5. Wirestock would take a 30% commission or $1.50 of the sale. 

Direct Sales Pricing

Direct Sales of your assets on Wirestocks platform as of January 2022 are priced as follows:

• Images Licenses currently (as of January 2022) sell for $5 on your portfolio page but $125 to $399 on wirestocks business page based on size
• 1080 and 4k videos sell for $50 (as of january 2022)
• Prints have a base markup price of $5, which is your royalty. The print price you see includes printing and handling costs. Shipping costs are calculated separately

Wirestock has told me that they will be implementing the ability to set your own prices soon. In the near future you will be able to adjust prices on licensable assets and base print markups on your portfolio.

Wrap up

Wirestock offers a lot of options for people looking to save time, streamline their workflow and even make more money. I think it is especially suited to beginners to stock photography or those hobbyists with little time.

You will need to weight out the options for your circumstances to determine if any of wirestocks solutions fits your needs. You can look for more articles in my series about Wirestock in the coming months including a deep dive into the Wirestock Programs and the good, bad, and ugly so to speak of wirestock for intermediate stock photography contributors.

I will also be writing about my experiences with the platform both in this series and in my Stock Photography Earnings Series.

If you learned something from this article and are interested in being a contributor to Wirestock then say thank you by using my referral code. 

I’ll get a referral commission that comes out of wirestocks 15% cut so it won’t affect your earnings.