I Tried Wirestock AI Premium Subscription to Sell AI Stock Images
My 30-day experience, thoughts, and financial outcome of being a paid member of a stock photography platform.
I have seen numerous articles and videos praising AI generated art to make a lucrative side income. One of these ways is to generate AI images and post them on a stock photography platform. One day I came across a platform called Wirestock.io that claimed to do all the hard work for you when it comes to stock photography.
This is where my curiosity peaked. I sought out to see how much money I could make by using Wirestock. The catch was you need to be a premium member to leverage the tool for its advantages. Since I could not find a good article on video on how beneficial the premium subscription was, I decided to try it out myself.
Before we dig into my strategy and experience lets go do a quick overview of what Wirestock.io is and how it differs from the other stock photography websites.
What is Wirestock.io?
As a brief overview, Wirestock.io serves as a marketplace for creators to monetize their photos, AI art, and videos, a concept similar to established platforms like Adobe Stock, Getty Images, and Shutterstock. What sets Wirestock.io apart are its unique tools:
- Automated Tagging and Keywording: Say goodbye to manual tagging; Wirestock.io handles it for you.
- Built-in AI Image Generator: Explore creative possibilities with the platform’s integrated AI image generator.
- Image Upscaler: Enhance the quality of your images effortlessly using Wirestock’s built-in upscaling feature.
- One-Click Marketplace Distribution: Seamlessly distribute your art across other various stock photography platforms with a single click. Note: This process undergoes manual review by the Wirestock team.
It is because of all this I was extremely interested in this platform. Also, any art you upload or generate is yours! So, you don't have to worry about any licensing issues.
Pricing
While Wirestock is technically free, it is very limited. It is more of a “free to try” platform. At the time of writing this is what the free plan gives you:
- 5 Ai image generations and upscales.
- 5 marketplace submissions (this is how you post to the other platforms with one click)
- Unlimited uploads to Wirestock without marketplace. If your AI images aren't upscaled to their standards you won't be able to upload.
An important note though, as a free member it can take months to get your images reviewed for keywording and marketplace submission. This is where the main advantage of the premium plans comes in.
Let's take a look at the Premium plans below:
As you see there are many perks to becoming a paid member. For me the main draw to these was the less than 48-hour review of images and the ability to use their AI Image generator. I decided to purchase a month of the Premium AI subscription plan.
My Strategy for the 30 days
I have some experience using AI Image generators, specifically Leonardo AI. Therefore, I have some knowledge on how AI Image generators work and some prompting techniques on how to get good image results. I am hoping this will make it easier for me to get really good images from Wirestock’s AI Image generator. If I end up running out of AI Image generations, I plan to use Leonardo AI as a backup for image generations.
One downside for me is I don’t have any previous experience with photography or stock photography. This is the first time ever working with a stock photography platform so my results may by worse than someone who does have this experience.
Here was my plan to maximize my sales for the duration of my subscription:
- By day 3 have 150 images generated and submitted. This is to make sure I have space for challenges and by day 5 all available marketplace submissions should be complete to give 25 days to sell.
- Will use aspect ratio 3:2 and 1:1 depending on if the image is aimed to be used for social media or not.
- I will be selling my prompts with the images.
Breakdown of My 30-Day Experience
If you are uninterested in my day-to-day breakdown you can skip to my Overall Thoughts in the next section.
Day 1: AI Image generation and submission took much longer than I thought it would take due to challenges with load times for generating and upscaling. I was also having issues with getting quality images especially with people. Used 45 AI image generations and submitted 29 images.
Day 3: All images from day 1 were still under review. I encountered challenges with the Wirestock image generator producing quality images that I felt were worthy of submission. This was also another day with long load times. Ultimately, I had to stop working because the image upscaler kept erroring out. Used 55 AI generations and submitted 29 images.
Day 4: Images that were submitted from before when I was a free member have been reviewed. Only 1 out of the 4 were approved for external marketplaces. I was still having issues with image generations and upscaling taking long. I ended up using a lot more AI generations than I wanted, so I used Leonardo AI for some image generations to compensate. Used 98 AI generations and submitted 72 images.
Day 6: I submitted a support request to see why my day 1 and day 3 image submissions have not been reviewed yet. I was able to generate images with no issues but had some issues with the upscaler not working again. This impeded my ability to submit images because if the upscaler doesn’t work, you can’t submit images. Used 17 AI generations and submitted 13 images.
Day 7: Support replied about technical issues with submissions for my account. By the time I read the support response images from Day 1 had been reviewed. 26/29 images were approved for marketplace. Some had a “Wirestock bonus” on them. I discovered that Wirestock provides a 25-cent bonus to your first 20 images after you subscribe. This comes out to be 5 dollars. One cool trick I discovered was that I could use the Wirestock reimage capability to take Leonardo AI generated images and make them better. See screenshots below to see the stunning difference.
I connected to Wirestock’s Discord and discovered there is a known issue with the upscaler and they are fixing it. I was unable to submit any images on this day. Used 4 AI generations.
Day 8: The upscaler issue was resolved allowing me to submit images generated from previous days. Day 3 images have been reviewed. 23/29 images were accepted for marketplace. Used 8 AI generations and submitted 16 images. I now have 165 images in my portfolio.
Day 11: I sent a message to support asking why previously submitted images have not been reviewed. Used 16 AI generations and submitted 17 images. I have used all 200 AI image generations for the month. I was able to generate some images from Leonardo AI and submitted 6 additional images.
Day 12: Support responded and all previous images that were submitted have been reviewed. In total, 119/188 images were approved for marketplace.
Day 13: I generated some images from Leonardo AI. Submitted 2 images.
Day 17: I submitted 2 images that were generated from Leonardo AI. Day 13 images are still under review.
Day 18: Images from day 13 were review and rejected from marketplace.
Day 20: Images from day 17 were reviewed and rejected from marketplace. This was the last day for any notable activity. The final results were 121/191 images that were approved for marketplace submission.
You can see all the images I generated in my portfolio at Circuit Masterworks Portfolio on Wirestock.
Overall Thoughts
Submissions
It is extremely easy to submit images. Once you have an image, it takes seconds to upload it to the platform. You can also add an optional caption, which can be useful for the reviewer and provide some additional information for the image for SEO optimization, but the automated keywording seemed good enough to me.
Reviews
Even though they advertise a 48-hour turnaround time for reviewing images this is not true based on my experience. When using Wirestock, it is safe to expect a week turnaround time for reviews without contacting support. For the actual review results, I agreed with the reasoning for my images that were not accepted to the marketplace. They were very transparent and clear. See images below for some examples of why my images weren't accepted.
AI Image Generator and Image Upscaler
I did have some technical issues during my time using these tools. However, once I overcame those problems, I ended up loving them. Even though the image generator may not have the customization of some others on the market, it is so incredibly easy to use and can still produce great professional results. The upscaler is also one of the best I have ever used.
Support
This is probably my best experience from working with Wirestock. They had an extremely fast turnaround for all my support requests. Most were answered within 12 hours and resolved within 24 hours after that. Then there is also the Discord which they have a very active community. They are always making announcements for new and upcoming features, events, and trainings. This also provides another way to contact Wirestock Team members as they are very responsive in the channels. They are also constantly making updates to their tools. Even since my membership they have added several new features to the AI Generator, and they have expanded the AI generation limit to 1000 per month which is more than enough for 200 submissions per month. Their commitment to the platform is really what makes me believe this platform will only get better over time.
My Results From 30 Days
Now for the big reveal! Let's see how much money I made in 30 days!
Ta da!! I made $5…which came from the Wirestock Bonus. So, after you factor in the monthly cost, I am -$14.99. From the screenshot you can see I did not make any sales on Wirestock or any other marketplace. However, I don’t think this is an issue with the platform. I think this is primarily my fault. If I were to go back and do this, I would have spent much more time improving my image prompting techniques, learned more about stock photography and invested into some kind of advertising. I also think stock photography is a longer-term game. It is not something any of us should expect to get quick results with.
1/11/2025 Earnings Update
Since I am still getting views on this article, I thought I should share my up-to-date earnings. I have not added anything new since 1/9/2024. Here are my current earnings.
Wirestock has added many new features since I wrote this article. As you can see it is possible to make money on the platform, but it will take a good amount of effort. If you enjoy creating AI images though it is a great platform where you can generate images and potentially make money on them. I may be trying this out again to check out the new features!
Conclusion
Wirestock can be a fantastic tool for someone looking to get into AI Stock Photography. The built in AI image generator, fantastic image upscaler, and automated keywording makes this platform very easy to use and learn. They are also always constantly updating and improving their tools to make it easier to get the exact images you want.
If you are someone who is into AI stock photography or just want to have another revenue source for your AI images, then I highly recommend becoming a Wirestock premium subscriber.
If you’ve found this article helpful and are interested in giving Wirestock a try, I encourage you to use my referral link, https://wirestock.io?ref=circuit.masterworks. By using this link, you’ll not only be supporting the platform but also providing me with a small commission at no additional cost to you.
I know I did not talk about it much but if you are interested in Leonardo AI, you can learn more at this link, Leonardo.Ai. If you would be interested in me writing a review on this tool, please let me know in the comments!
Thank you for reading and I hope you found this review of the Wirestock Premium AI Subscription helpful!!
