I was endlessly scrolling on Instagram Stories and among the countless dog videos, one post caught my attention. This video claimed that you could make some absurd amount of money from a singular photo (and not on Onlyfans). Enter Clickasnap. Clickasnap is supposedly the next evolution of the stock image platform. It's a website that aims be like Flickr but with the monetisation of Facebook. Put simply, photographers would upload to the Clickasnap platform and any ad revenue generated by your photos would be shared with you. The more your photos garnered views and interactions, the more ad revenue is generated. I signed up right away.
Right off the bat, I encountered problems. Clickasnap failed to mention that there is a tiered subscription system. Each tier costing more but offering different benefits. The catch is that the free account can't be monetised. You have to upgrade the account to see any money from your photos. I don't like the lack of transparency in their adverts, but I get it. The system makes sense, just be upfront about it!
I've been uploading my best photos. I've been optimising them with proper tags and albums. I've even been taking into account the upload time. This is where I encountered the next issue. My photos started getting views and comments. However, Clickasnap somehow separates 'Views' and 'Authentic Views'. From what I can gather, an Authentic view has to reach a certain length, so someone absently scrolling through an album won't count as a view. So, after using the platform for a number of months I have failed to rack up almost any 'Authentic Views' and subsequently haven't earned much at all.
I really like the idea of Clickasnap and I hope the fix up some things here and there. I love the idea of sharing my work...and getting paid for it. Free Money? Yes Please.
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