MicrostockGroup

Very general question, but if you were consistently pulling in over $150 to $250 a day (weekday) from microstock and revenues actually were going up from month to month as u put more time in it, would you do this fulltime? Im just curious on the ones that jumped on the fulltime boat if this was roughly the amount of income they started with...

that question will vary based on everyones current income level. somebody working at McDonalds or going to school and only working part-time will say hell yeah !!!! others would look at $200 a day as an insult .. some just wouldn't care either way. a lot of lifestyle comes into play too .. how high-maintenance are you? $200 a day might not cut it.

That is significantly less that I currently make at my day job.... but if I had to, I could live on it (as long as my wife keeps on working). 

I guess you have a point... sort of. Since im more of an illustrator, vectors generate more than 80% of the sales for me as an istock exclusive. ive been a member there for a long time slowly growing my portfolio every year. These days, with the increase in prices, money is pretty good and tempting (not 200 minimum a day but not far off).  I'm just trying to see at which point did contributors with jobs quit their jobs to go at this fulltime. I tend to think that vectors doesn't have as much competition in micro as photos. But i also see very talented vector artists joining recently at istock and i know in microstock getting in early is better than being late. I still dont think it is too late for vectors... photos maybe.

Too general by far. I would (but I'm nowhere near that amount!), but only because I'm almost at the age I can apply for early retirement and that would make up the difference. My pension is in place, but will be reduced if I go 'early'. Certainly not if I had to live on that with no other income. A lot would depend on where you lived - in some countries, that would be a phenomenally good salary.

which is only fair enough I would say.

The question should be, how much more can I make full time?

Yes I know, how longs a piece of string and all that, but you should have an idea how much you can increase your output with the extra hours.

I cut my hours down in my proper job bit by bit so I could grow my own library of pics and see how much I would make. Eventually, I gave up the security, and went full time on my own.

Ten years later it's coming full circle  children are older, life is more expensive. I could do with some regular hours to supplement my photography income.

It's something that need a lot of thinking about.

Oldhand

I think starting fresh today would just turn into such an uphill struggle that youd get fed up with it, changes of search engines, etc, I think it would be very difficult.
We probably started just in time.

Heck no.  After taxes, that would be $100 a day, plus all the expenses of insurance, equipment, etc.  That's not nearly enough cushion in case of unexpected drops or anything else.  You need to figure out what you need to live on, add in all the costs associated, and then double it.  (and that still wasn't enough for me to quit my job yet)

Unless you're single and living in your mom's basement or something where you have absolutely no risk at all.

Sean - Bit off topic but are you telling me in the US you can't offset your business running costs against tax?

@ the OP, it's circumstantial and can't be answered correctly without knowing your individual case in detail, for example if you can earn $150-$250 a day on microstock only spending eight hours a week doing it whilst working in full time employment then it stands to reason you'd make a lot more if you committed to it full time, whether the amount you forecast to make is enough for you to live on is something only you can judge.

What I can tell you is that the desire to make money and work hard enough in order to do so is a fundamental necessity once you're self employed, you also need to consider there will be a lead in period before your income changes from the amount you're getting part time to the amount you've predicted you'll make full time, it doesn't suddenly rise overnight. One thing's for sure, with the state the microstock industry is in at the moment I wouldn't want to be considering the leap.

Oh, you can.  You can write off health insurance, equipment, etc.  But basically, it just comes off your income before the income is taxed, so it's like you're getting it for %30 off.  But some things like life insurance and disability that I pay are after tax - ie., I pay them after I "pay myself".  That way, the benefits that might come from them aren't taxed on payment, since they were paid for with after tax money.  That's how I understand it.  If my business paid for those benefits, and I deducted them, I would have to pay taxes on the payments if I ever needed them.

Anyways, I plan, in the end, on only having about 60% of what I make in my pocket.

I couldn't do it for that amount but it would be a good starting point for many I am sure as long as you had a solid plan in place to utilize your time as a legitimate full time job creating new and sellable images as well as uploading and keywording consistently. 

I would assume that if you are competent (and you should be at a couple hundred bucks a day part time) that with the increase in productivity your work will also improve and your income should rise pretty steadily.  I would be very wary and determined to ensure that I did put the work in however.  Seems like it would be pretty easy to become complacent and relax with steady income flowing in on the work you have already completed. 

Mat

I think most of you people need a reality check: 75% of working people in the USA earn less than $50k, and 88% earn less than $75k (USA Census Bureau, 2008). Referring to $50k as "residual income" or mentioning it in the same breath as a McDonald's or student wage is way, way, way, out of touch with reality, as is regarding it as an insufficient salary to provide a good quality of life. From his grammar, I'm guessing that the OP doesn't live in the USA, which may make $50k USD even more significant. As whitechild said, if he was making that much he'd "be awfully rich".

To answer the question, I started doing this full time in Jan 2007 - with zero images and zero microstock income - and haven't ever looked back or regretted it. I'm fortunate to live in Canada, where healthcare is taken care of. For what it's worth, I agree with Microbius: