Some people are interested in the level of earnings possible through Shutterstock (and microstock in general). Rightly so. I can only speak to my own experience and say that it would not be easy to make a living at it. In fact you won't even make much side money at it immediately, because you will need to build up your portfolio. The key is that once your portfolio is online, it can sit there generating income for a long time into the future.

Personally I've made almost $2000 in a little less than 2.5 years at Shutterstock alone. Obviously not enough to live on, but given the little time I've been able to invest in it, I am impressed and plan to build my portfolio further (especially experimenting further with vectors). Click the articles below for more information on what I've learned about microstock. 

More info:

• My experience with microstock
• The 'long tail' of microstock