MicrostockGroup

In case you didn't see the blog post the other day, I posted the results from the 2009 Microstock survey here
http://blog.microstockgroup.com/microstock-survey-2009-results/

I'll be posting more results and hopefully more in-depth and interesting results on the blog in the future.

Thanks for the blog

Thanks __ very interesting.

it's too bad the sample was so heavily weighted by non-exclusives (iStock)...but I suspect that the sample is representative of the community on MS, so that makes sense. it just makes the data less helpful for me.

I just posted a few more results from the 2009 survey ..... looking forward to starting the 2010 poll

http://blog.microstockgroup.com/2009-microstock-survey-full-time-microstock-earnings-analyzed/

Thanks for this very informative survey. It is very helpful in planing future actions. Thanks also for taking the time from your busy schedule to complete it.
Smiling Jack

Interesting read. I wasn't down this year, but it was definitely slow or no growth at some agencies. I had so much growth in 2009 though that it makes me wonder what happened in 2010.

Yeah, some interesting thoughts.

It would be fun to look at the stats for everyone with over 1000 images for example.  Like you said, the few people with over 100,000 in income are brining the average way up, but at the same time the few people with income under $1000 are also brining the average way down.

I am also interested to see if iStock's recent actions will have any effect on the exclusive %

Interesting result. I think averages are very misleading (100k plus, for example, could be anything up to a million, and maybe it is for someone, but it is being counted as being exactly 100k), another way to look at it would be to see where the point is that there are the same number of people above the figure as below it. That figure is 20,000 and I think that is probably a reasonable reflection of what a fairly effective full-timer can expect, without being hugely productive and commercial.
Some of the 100k+ returns may represent the work of several people in a factory, which should not be compared with individual contributors if you want a clear idea of what is reasonably achievable. Maybe an "individual or factory" question could be in the next survey.
I think most iStock exclusives who post opinions do so in the iS forums, not here. Several quite well-known people on iSTock have asked where they can find independent discussion groups, so it seems awareness of MSG is far from universal. Do the returns from the iStock  exclusives produce significantly different means and averages than those of the independents? That's very important, because it might give us an idea for the first time which is most lucrative - independence or exclusivity. It's a pity the iS sample isn't bigger.
On the other hand, I don't think the sample is large enough for anyone to draw any conclusions from whether the 19% of exclusives increases or decreases in the next survey. The 30% of full-timers is even less meaningful, as it translates into about 23 people, If three or four of them just don't bother to take part next time the shift in percentages would look impressive (maybe down to 24%) but would not actually mean anything.

Help please, the graph shows 6 for the over 100,000 category? Did you just write it's one not six?

I see that I asked a question and the answer was there in June. But I haven't found this one. Since you know best where you have things calculated can you help please.

2009 Median Income: $2,560
What was 2008?

As far as a group sample, and someone saying the size may be a problem, actually the number of people you have sampled should give representative, good results... for the group surveyed. The only problem I see is the group answering is biased towards the high side because only active people who read the forums and are willing to share, are going to respond. People who may make less, or are not active, will not be answering. So my impression is, this is the best case scenario for active people, working at microstock, not the broader field. No complaints, just that it does represent a very small select group, to start with. So as far as that goes, it's probably correct and accurate.

The opinion of the outlook for microstock in the future is a nice indicator of the population of people who responded. Very positive and coming from people who depend on it and are committed to whaat they do. The ones who quit or find it a hobby probably didn't bother to answer, because their answer is already known, by their actions.